Spitfire MkIX
captured by D5 / 200-400VR2
Every subject has gesture. What’s gesture? Since I use this term a lot, I’ve been asked to define it, a lot. The problem is gesture in this sense is not some body movement communicating some message. You could say it speaks of an emotion but I don’t think it’s that simple either. Successful gesture in a photograph communicates a whole lot more than a single word, a single emotion or even a single action. There is no camera setting or digital darkroom slider called gesture. Rather, it’s a response invoked in the viewer of a photograph that permits them to connect with that subject. What I have here is an illustration of gesture as I feel it.
Great Lakes Biplane
captured D5 / 200-400VR2
Both of these aircraft are flying, that is obvious. But the feeling of joy breaking the bounds of gravity, the freedom flying a routine brings one, the weightless feeling when there are no G’s, this and much more is communicated in the gesture in these photographs. Now if you go looking for gesture odds are you won’t capture it. If edit for gesture, again it won’t appear. Gesture is a emotional response communicated to us by the subject and if we are in tune, we click the camera at the right moment. If it doesn’t strike you, doesn’t make sense, that’s pretty normal. But if you open up your passion and give yourself time, it will and you’ll feel it in your photographs.