Telling a story - a single snapshot in time.

Little girl trying to feed a duck - at the Kelowna Canada Day celebration.

A photo can be about what something looks like, but it can also be about an event that is unfolding.  It makes me think of Gary Larson's The Far Side, where each panel is about some event that will happen, is happening, or had happened.  The purpose of his work is to elicit humour, while most of us are taking a snapshot of a moment in time that conveys an action or sentiment.

While a video shows exactly what happens and leaves little to the imagination, a single image allows one to project cause or effect.  The challenge is in capturing that moment, and there is no better way to do that than to take a series of photos and use the one that best defines the event.

There are pros and cons to this, as the perfect moment in time may be only a fraction of a second.  Dozens of images may be captured, each being achieved with a press of the shutter button or choosing a release mode that captures images at 3, 5, 10, or even 20 frames per second (fps).  This uses a great deal of memory and results in tens of thousands of images being saved.  Of course, there is the desirable aspect that one or more of those photos could be gold.

Another thing to consider is that you end up living life through the viewfinder and not in person.  People get tired of being photographed; they get annoyed by someone capturing life rather than experiencing it, and they would much rather have your company rather than a picture.  

My own experiences confirm this.  My wife and I enjoy going on walks.  We hold hands, we walk our dog, we explore various urban and rural environments.  But when I have my camera in hand, the story changes.  She hates waiting around while I photograph the world around me.  There is beauty in the captured moment, but there is something to being in the captured moment, rather than behind it.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com