The Moment

When DW returned from her recent camping trip, she showed me some of the photos that she had captured over those five days.

In particular, there were some photos of a bird feeding its babies, often with much of its head inside the wide-open mouths of the wee ones.

"What do you think?" she asked me. Though I'm not a professional photographer, DW thinks that my opinion holds value.

"Cool shots," I said. "These would have been fantastic if the mom and baby were in focus."

"But this baby is in focus," she said, pointing to another youngling, its mouth also wide open in anticipation of a meal.

"Yes," I said, "but my attention is drawn to the mother and sibling. That's where the action is happening."

Indeed, both DW and I know how difficult it is to get sharp images of birds, especially when they are moving. I can't count how many times we've looked at each other's bird photos and lamented how we wished the action shot was sharp.

DW seemed disappointed with my feedback, so I explained that at least she captured the action. "While I wouldn't want to print this image or share it on social media," I said, "it's a good capture of the event. It'll be a good reminder of the time you had on your trip."

Indeed, I've always felt that it's better to photograph the action and risk getting it out of focus than to wait until you've focused and miss the opportunity. This was the case with her bird photo.

Last week, when I attended a photo shoot at The Capital Fair, other photographers and I were vying for great opportunities of capturing our models in action while being mindful of what was going on around them, adjusting for the light and the movement.

At one point, we took our models to a petting zoo, where goats and alpacas were in a fenced-in area. People could purchase a cup of feed for the animals and give it to them. We set up our models with cups and let them go to work.

The animals were eager to get in the shots, and we had to move around to keep kids, who were also feeding the animals, out of our frames. And the animals also moved quickly.

As I was crouching low, one of our models, Kim, was also crouched low to feed goats, who were poking their heads through a gap in the fence. Kim's boyfriend and fellow model, Jerry, positioned himself on the other side of the goats.

As I was framing my shot, an alpaca looked out from the top of the fence and lowered his head toward Kim. Kim looked up to the alpaca and pursed her lips in a kiss.

I wasn't quite ready for the shot but I took it anyway. The subjects weren't quite in focus but the pose only lasted an instant. My next shot, which was in focus, came too late.

But to me, the kiss shot was thee shot.

What do you think? Is it better to capture the moment or get a perfectly focused shot?

For me, I'll take the moment every time (though, it's always best if you can get both at the same time).

Happy Friday!