August 19, 2012

Remember When?

I was on an assignment to shoot community guides for a national phone company.  And as it often happens when you are out and about looking for subjects, serendipity played a role.  I stumbled into a kids ballet class at one of the grade schools I was photographing.  This was perfect, a great teacher and the kids enthusiasm and me the loud photographer shooting with  MD-12 motor drives which sounded like a sledge hammer going off in your head.  I know what you're thinking, just take the motor drives off and then do a Henri Cartier-Bresson. Compose the frame allowing all the forms to line up perfectly and click the shutter for that decisive moment.  Very nice and tidy.  Oh no, not this cowboy.  I had in my mind's eye a young prodigy flying in midair and the audience clapping at the way the photographer captured with perfection the youthful ballerina's expression.  Or something like that.  So no, I didn't take the motor drives off and as I look back at that day I still remember the parent's (who were paying good hard earned money for these classes) distasteful looks at me as my motor drive (which felt hot in my hands) distracted not only the kids, but the teacher as well.  For me however, I didn't bat an eye, and it was only later as I was leaving that I realized that the loudest clap was not for the kids, but for me leaving.