City Competition 1 - San Francisco : Entry Number 185

This photo gained our favor because of a number of factors: first, the subject matter is quintessential of the San Francisco experience. The man hopping off the Cable Car is something that we see daily, whether as a tourist or a resident. Secondly, while the editing makes the scene appear to be so clean and crisp that it could be staged, we enjoy the idea (and probability) that this was, in fact, one of the moments captured that we see on a regular basis here in San Francisco. This is a fantastic image with great visual appeal.

Hi I'm Doug Berndt and I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I had been in SF for a few days and wanted to shoot a cable car with the Bay Bridge in the background – using Google maps and street view I found that Nob Hill would allow this. When the cable car stopped I stepped on to the road and this passenger decided to get off. It was a long way down so he had to jump. I snapped 3 shots and for me this shot was "The decisive moment". The light was very difficult with strong back and side-light and so I dodged and burned a bit in Photoshop and cloned some bright highlights on the passenger's trouser legs. This image was one of my images from my successful LRPS panel submitted to the Royal Photographic Society in November 2012. You can see my panel on my website. There is also a colour version of this shot. Canon 5DMkII + EF70-200 f/2.8L, 1/1000 @ f5.6 ISO 500 (21 November 2011) Many thanks to the judges for their kind comments.