Upon finding their mother's old wedding party dresses from the 1980's, my daughter and her friends decided to have some fun with a photo shoot. We took dozens of portraits, solo and group. But this unplanned, un-posed (sneaky) shot was easily my favorite.
At first I considered it serendipitous. But Merriam Webster says of Serendipity - "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for". Not sought for? Well, if I wasn't hoping to get something fun, I never would have pushed the shutter. But I did find "agreeable things", and it wasn't planned. Maybe it was just luck?
I've long believed that luck comes to those who leave room for it to step into their lives. You can't win a raffle if you don't buy a ticket. Golfers can't get a hole-in-one if they are not hitting for the green. And photographers will never stumble on seemingly random photos that both please and move them, if they only shoot the fully posed model.
I began seeing the world differently when I first dove into photography. From small objects with intricate detail to sweeping landscapes that perfectly captured the evening light. I became intensely more aware of moments in time that I desired to capture on film. Eventually, I began to anticipate these moments, and developed a sense of awareness that things of note were coalescing, "a moment" was coming.
That's how it was with the above photo. Watching the girls movements as they talked, laughed and danced I saw as well as sensed a moment of interest was developing. I only took one un-posed photo, and this was it. Lucky? Absolutely. But I made my own luck.
You can too. Feel the moment, and give it a try.
Hey there, I noticed you used the same username/ domain as I use. I was wondering if it was possible to get this domain name from you?
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