Seize the Opportunity! I often find myself coming across great photo opportunities that I pass up because I’m in a rush, or I think to myself I will come back and get that photo some other time. But I rarely do, and if I do return, conditions have often changed, the lighting has changed, there are a crowd of people present, etc.
So now, I seize the opportunity and take the photo right then and there. Last week I was driving to work and saw a piano on the side of the road. I was just barely going to be on time for work, but I also realized that the piano might not be there when I returned back home. So I flipped a u-turn, pulled out the camera and took photos for 10 mins. When I finally did get to work, I WAS late and there were a couple of people waiting for me. But occasionally it’s worthwhile being late. On my way home that night, the piano was still there but had been moved off the road into the bushes, the next day it was gone completely. So if I had not stopped, I would have never gotten the photos.
This principle can also be used for photographic subjects that will always be there like the Golden Gate Bridge. I was driving north through San Francisco a couple of weeks ago with my daughter and explained to her than after we crossed the bridge we were going to have to stop for me to take photos because, “it’s a rule that as a photographer you have to take a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge whenever you cross it”. She called me a nut, but there is some truth to the rule. I have taken photos of the Golden Gate Bridge dozens of times and everytime it looks different. Some are from different perspectives, some have different lighting, some have fog, some don’t, but everyone is different.
So sieze the opportunity and take that photo now!
