The other day I went out in the field with my camera in hand, ready to shoot whatever seemed of interest. I strolled the streets and went through a local park that I live near. I have shot here numerous times, but you never know what new things you could still find.
I came across a section I hadn’t really explored before. It was a sort of archway structure that led down to a walkway through another section of the park. It seemed like a nice little spot where I could work and find something. As I was looking through the viewfinder to compose and set up a shot, a young woman that was walking her dog came through. And just like an instinct, I took a shot of her coming down the stairs of this archway.
Of course, I was still “pretending” to compose the shot with the viewfinder still smacked across my eye of “something else.”
And as I put my camera down for a second and smiled to let her pass through, she said, “Sorry…” Guilty that she had perhaps ruined the shot that I was composing. Then she asked me something that I found rather funny.
“Was I in your photo?”
I kindly said no with a smile, and she passed by.
Funny, because just as you fellow street photographers know, we want her to be in the shot. That’s what we do. We try to examine the situation and look for these opportunities to strike. Taking photos of these random “actors” as I like to call them. At that very particular moment, I didn’t care about the landscape around me.
I cared about my actors going through my scene.
Of course, everything happened so fast and she literally came out of nowhere that I couldn’t quite get a good shot. The one I took didn’t work out the way I wanted it to, but I tried, and that’s what’s important.
Never be afraid.
Always be on the lookout.
Opportunities come at you in the blink of an eye.
Just grab your camera, go out there, and be ready.
— ST
Sarven Tar Photo 