"What's Your Best Quality as a Photographer?"

I heard this question on a radio interview with another photographer.  Her answer was that she knew how to bring out people's pretty side, usually a genuine laugh and that she's good at connecting with her clients so that they trust her implicitly.  So when she directs them to do something, that is something that they willingly do.  As I was listening to her, I was thinking that is the same thing for me....really.  To take what she said one step farther, which I know she does, too, is having the ability to capture what you've asked of your subject, at the best possible moment, the decisive moment.  To quote the 17th century Cardinal de Retz, "there is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment."  You have to know it, and capture it, when you see it.  It is that fleeting moment when the subjects inner feelings and personality are shown.

As Cartier-Bresson said, "To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression."  For me, it would be the significance of an expression.  Of course, it includes much more than that - proper lighting, pose, composition, focus, etc.  If you can't get everything just right, then that decisive moment may not be so decisive.

Have you heard the word "synchronicity?"  It is the experience of two or more events as meaningfully related, where are they are unlikely to be causally related.  This has been happening with what I've been discussing about the decisive moment to press that shutter release - a talk by Tamara Lackey at Google (which you can see here:  http://tamaralackeyblog.com/just-released-my-photographers-talks-at-google-program/) goes into detail on how she catches that moment, mostly with children.  What is really enlightening in her talk are the before and after photos - capturing the subject at the wrong moment vs the right moment - that really illustrates what I'm talking about today.  I saw her video shortly after I started writing this - another illustration of perfect timing.

Tamara talked about self consciousness and why the photographer and the subject must overcome that in order to capture the perfect expression, the personality and spirit of the person that is being photographed.

Below are three photos - in the first one the subject wasn't quite sure if everything was right (and I was a fraction of a second off in my timing - although still not a bad photo), and if you compare that to the other two, you can see the difference in expression and feeling of the photo.  They may be subtle, but ....

Hope you enjoy and have a great weekend as always.