Ray has spent his professional life as a photojournalist, working as a “street” photographer then retiring after 23 years as an editor at The Washington Post. After photographing everything from high school sports to the White House, then editing other photographers’ work at The Post, Ray now has settled in to photographing subjects he loves and finds interesting. Ray splits his time between Nantucket and the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, both photo rich areas. Always looking for that special moment, a moment that captures life. Never inventing or creating those moments.
I am a believer and admirer in the concept of the “decisive moment”, a term used by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. This served me well during my career as a photojournalist. But it also serves me well as I have transitioned from photojournalism to scenic and wildlife photography.
The literal interpretation of the decisive moment is exemplified in Cartier-Bresson’s photograph of a man leaping across a puddle of water. To me, a decisive moment can be a crewmember stretching backward over the gunwale of a sailboat as it rounds a mark. The perfectly outstretched wings of an osprey landing on a nest with a fish. That moment when the setting sun peeks from a cloud creating the perfect light for a scene.
