April 6 2016

Lesson on Waiting for the Moment

If you’re like me, you hate waiting. As I’ve been getting older, I’ve developed a deeper aversion for standing in line. When it comes to photography, I’d rather snap away tons of shots rather than wait for the perfect moment. In this new book I’m reading, called The Visual Toolbox: 60 Lessons for Stronger Photographs, there’s a good paragraph about this subject.

“Not unlike the wisdom that says if you find beautiful light, go find something in which to photograph it, if you find a great background, it’s worth finding, or waiting for, a great foreground. Life doesn’t stand still. Some places have more movement than others, for sure, and in them it’s worth the waiting, or the going back for. In the others, when no great specific moment is likely to appear, then tap into what it is you love about the empty stage in front of you and make that the star. Get in closer, do studies in color, line, or texture. Do an abstract. Or find a way…to make the photograph about the absence or emptiness. But my dollar’s betting on something happening if you wait long enough-either the missing element will appear, or you’ll see what you didn’t before. It was probably there all along, and you just needed time to perceive it.”

Sometimes, we just have to step back and let the moment appear or, on the flip side, find something beautiful about the scene in front of us.

Photo via EliteTrader

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