Accident

One of the shots that I took at the British Museum when the helicopter landed, was a grab shot through the railings. Pictured here, you can see that the railing was in shot creating the deep shadow on the left of the frame. I was too slow to capture the running medics in the right of the frame so they are running out of the picture, not leading in. All the action is on the left half of the image and the right half is pretty much devoid of interest. The whole thing might be considered a compositional disaster and yet the image speaks to me. My head tells me to reject it, but my heart tells me its a keeper.

So how can my heart explain it to my head? The black stripe is reminiscent of a film that hasn't been wound on properly. To me it harks back to my youth when I was rubbish at loading film, it has some emotional significance for me. The medics running out of the shot while breaking the compositional rule of leading the eye out of the shot creates a sense of urgency that might not have been as strong had they been in the right of the frame. Finally the right hand portion of the frame draws the eye back because it is brighter than the left of the frame.

Had I taken the shot I had intended to take I don't think this image would have been as good. What do you think? Bullshit or not?