Fleeting Moments
So much of photography is simply being present in the moment. It’s watching, waiting, and exploring. It’s seeing how the clouds shift and feeling the breeze as it blows and taking the time to wonder about how it might all come together in some magical way. Most importantly of all, it’s seeing those things collide and then having the nerve to say, “Yes, this could be something if I simply gave it a chance.” I guess life is a lot like that, too.
Too often, I get all of those elements right but the last one.
“Son. Go lean against that tree.”
While on our walk, we passed by a wall that I’ve looked at longingly so many times before. At certain times of the year, when there are no clouds in the sky and the atmosphere is just right, the sun cuts across the parking lot and lights it up in fantastic ways. I look at it and think, Oh, what a background for a shot! If only I had all my gear and a model and the time. But I never have any of those things and what’s a wall without a subject?
Still, there was so much potential, and try as I might, I couldn’t stop looking at that wall. With each passing step, my head turned further and further to the right as it grew closer.
I looked down at my little micro four thirds camera with an $80 zoom lens attached to it and thought, Why bother?
And so, I almost passed it by, the sun beating down on my neck, head twisted fully to the right as the wall met with the zenith of opportunity and started to slip into that dark realm of “Oh Well,” where so many good ideas go to die. After all, what was I going to do? Bother others for the thought of some silly shadows on a wall?
“Humor me.”
No, they did not spring into action. Yes, there was groaning. But they did humor me.
For me, the most difficult part of photography isn’t the seeing, the calculations or the choice of focal lengths, it’s the thought of inconveniencing others. Even with my own family, I balk at the idea of imposing my ideas on their time. Not just that, but how often has someone been asked to be in a photo when they didn’t feel “ready”?
With beads of sweat glistening on all our brows and some two miles of walking, biking, and scootering behind us, I can tell you, there was no on in our little band that was “shoot” ready.
But I wouldn’t be taking pictures of people, would I?
“You’re not even going to be in the picture. It’s just your shadow,” I said.
And it worked.
“Your father should do something with all of us in the shot.”
Like so many things in my life, this photo was only made possible because of my wife’s insistence that I chase an idea a little further down the path than I might otherwise. The light was failing, I had no idea how to pose them, everyone was saying, “Well, I don’t know what to do, why don’t you pose us.”
Have you ever tried to pose a teenager and a preteen? Now try posing their shadows. I felt like Peter Pan chasing my own tail across Wendy’s room. But with a dash of luck and the ring of a bell we got something.
Is it everything it could have been? No.
Is it so much more than what it would have been had I passed on by and simply let the idea slip into the ether of “Oh Well”?
For me, the answer is, “yes.”
For those wondering, no, the light didn’t change color while we were there. That’s merely a decision I made in post.
Shot with an Olympus OM1 mkii, with a used Olympus 40-150 f4-5.6