CAPTURING Moments

90% of creative photography is about timing - being at the right place at the right time. It's not about what you do in camera or about what you do in post. What makes a photo genuinely unique is simply capturing a magical, once in a lifetime moment.

When capturing action, the odds of capturing a truly amazing photo are very poor. This photo is one of about 200 taken in the same hour with the exact same setup and same repeated action. The other 199 weren't taken at precisely the right moment.

A pre-requisite of deliberate photography is a creative vision. Sometimes a magical image presents itself to your camera and sometimes it presents itself to your mind. Either way, it is up to the photographer to reproduce it and share the experience with others.

Sometimes, all you have is a simple prop in an ordinary, non-spectacular environment. In those cases, it might be up to an artist to create meaning through perspective alone. In these cases, the viewer can focus even more on what the image is saying.

Excessive empty space in a photograph can be used to make the subject look smaller. Because the empty space lacks anything interesting, the size of the subject is the focus of the image. The result is a rabbit that looks tiny, lost, and out of place.

What makes a scene interesting? Drama. What creates drama? Contrast. Contrast between good vs evil, cruelty vs empathy, and light vs darkness. Even though there is no motion in a photograph, we can still create contrast that speaks meaning.