Did you ever wish you had come up with an idea or a title for something but someone else did before you? It’s happened to me at least three or four times in the past two months! The most recent one is a book to be published by Lark Books, by Bob Krist, the Power of Moment. Yep, you read that right. So scratch that one off my list of working book titles…I wish Bob the best with the book when it comes out!
I decided I’d still go through with my blog idea on the power of moment, though. Enough can’t be said about how much impact the right moment, gesture, etc. can have. Sometimes, the picture is about the moment itself, in fact. As a travel and nature photographer, I seek to celebrate those moments.
My last tour to Bhutan, in October 2009, we had stopped to visit a school as we left the hotel – we got about 600 feet in the bus before we wanted to get out and photograph! That’s sometimes the way it is on my trips. While the group photographed the kids outside the gates, arriving to school and playing, I asked permission to get us into the morning prayer assembly. Every morning, the entire school, staff, too, gather together on the assembly grounds, and they recite prayers, sing the national anthem, and then a ‘senior’ student in the school gets up and makes a speech about the importance of being a good person, of studying hard, being good to your parents, etc. and not “making sins”. Well, as in any group event like this, things can go on a bit long, and children are the same all over the world – short attention spans! This picture showed the typical ants-in-your-pants behavior of kids doing all sorts of fidgety things, but it needed something more. That’s when the little girl yawned, and I got the moment I was looking for, finally.
In Alaska, our group came upon a grizzly bear that was resting, draped over a log. But her expression to me was that of boredom, the ‘dum-de-dum’ feeling we have when nothing is going on. The gesture was so anthropomorphic, and who can resist such a moment? I can feel her sigh, when I look at this picture. Animals, like people, are unpredictable, but if you learn the skill of observation, you’ll be ready for either one!
You’re sweet, kalani. 🙂
that sucks. id buy yours over his anyday!!
Actually, I have an almost identical image, from a standpoint of composition, with Bill Neill, on a set of three tree trunks in Yosemite. I had never seen anyone’s photo of these trees, I thought I had discovered them in the Happy Isles Nature area. In any case, they resonated with me strongly, and I made my picture. But ironically about four months later, I saw a gallery brochure of his and there was ‘my’ picture!! I could hardly believe it; though not exactly the same light, it was almost identical in composition. Since he had published his as a fine art print at that point, I gave up doing anything with mine. It was just too close to have it be believable that we saw the same scene independently, and that neither was a ‘copycat’. You don’t want to have to explain away your picture every time that might come up. It’s not the same as if you happened to have the same scene of Yosemite Falls, this was just three trees and a boulder – very specific!
http://www.morethings.com/music/elton_john/elton_john-110.jpg
it raises an interesting question tho whether or not an image is yours if somebody else has already captured it without you knowing. i guess thats for marketing and selling really. otherwise youre just discovering your personal vision i suppose…
Nah, nobody spying far as I know. But what’s really behind it all is what interests me the most. I truly believe that the Universe is constantly doling out ideas, -maybe in the form of titles, even. 🙂 All the time! But if we’re not receptive to it, or don’t have the wherewithall to do anything with it, it gets put back into the ‘ether’ for someone else to grab. I know that sounds new-agey, but think about it: how many times has this happened to all of us, -we’ve had an idea, but don’t/can’t act on it, and voilá – someone else does it! So I think I’m going to act on my idea of ‘windshield wipers’ for eyeglasses after all…lol.
thats a lot for that to happen to you in the past two months. hope theyre not spying on you.
Good one, kiddo!
Nothing worse than being the second person to come up with a title…
Great shots, Brenda. They really depict what you are talking about, the power of the moment. One of the most challenging things about photography is that there are times when you have to react almost instantaneously, making many aesthetic and technical choices without thinking. It really helps to have all the technical expertise down cold because you won’t have time to figure it out in that split second!