LETTER: Decisive moments captured by Steve

May I register my appreciation of the supreme level of craftsmanship that Steve brought to his job over the years for the benefit of County Times readers.

Most of us have cameras these days, and flatter ourselves that we are all photographers.

However Steve’s work was always several notches above the rest with that ability to capture a story in just one picture.

I imagine most of Steve’s career involved film photography in the days when you were sent out with a camera and a roll of film, and you had to think hard before pressing the button! He cultivated that ability to see the perfect picture before taking it, a talent not given to many.

Around 50 years ago, the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson defined a good photograph as the ability to capture that ‘decisive moment’.

For Steve, one such decisive moment surely was several summers ago, when, covering a local cricket match, he captured the exact moment when the cricket ball, having flummoxed the unfortunate batsman, made contact with the wickets, leaving the ball and bails seemingly suspended in mid-air!

Surely the photographer’s version of a golfer’s hole-in-one!

I wonder if the picture still exists in your archives, without any more information, finding it would be a challenge!

May I wish Steve very best wishes in his future endeavours!

GRAHAM HAZARD

Fairfield Court, Cowfold