More Than Anything

Photographing people is always such a perplexing thing for me.  Everyone is curious about what I'm after.  What do I want to photograph?  "Light" seems to leave them all unsatisfied and confused.  That I do all this just because I consider it fun only confuses them more.  After all, who doesn't want more money?  And fame!??

Let me see if I can use a picture to explain.  This is my favorite picture from yesterday (at the skatepark).  I have many, more-dramatic pictures.  I've already posted several on InstaGram.  I have pictures of this young lady that I am sure would generate more clicks.  (She's quite pretty.)  But why this picture?  Why do I like it?  

Mostly, it's the cross.  See how it pops off the page?  The light caught it just right.  And it's right at the intersection of the "tic-tac-toe" composition.

It's a well-lit scene that tells a story but with that little, subtle thing that makes it interesting.  And if I photographed her doing this same maneuver a dozen times, I probably couldn't replicate it.  I think that's what does it for me, more than anything.  That fleeting moment in time you didn't even know you were looking for and probably couldn't catch it if you did know.

It's always there.  You just have to show up and try to catch it.  Even when you don't know why or what it is.   Henri Cartier-Bresson called it "the decisive moment".  It is so ethereal — I lack the way with words that it requires — I just call it magic. 

As the saying goes, your mileage may vary.  But I don't do it for you.  I don't do it for her.  I do it for me.

Nikon D7200 — Nikon 80-200mm F2.8

92mm

F5.6@1/250th

ISO 400

Cropped

RD1_2960.JPG

©Don Brown 2024