Unplanned Shots

Every photographer has stories about what happened just as he/she was clicking. Unplanned shots are especially frequent in street or candid photography since we try to capture the moment as it happens not as we plan to frame it like in landscape or architectural photography.  Everything is moving in our subjects and we have only that critical instant to freeze it into a picture. Most unplanned shots are “non-keepers”- the story we were hoping to capture is not there anymore, or aesthetically it is no more appealing.  Everyday examples include people walking into the frame, the subject seeing you and looking at you, a dog, a car, a bird or even uninvited shading suddenly hiding all or part of the subject.

Over 40 years of photography I have learned to celebrate rather than lament about the outcomes of many an unplanned shot. Indeed, sometimes the outcome (both as a story and as aesthetics) is better than what I had aimed for! So, as a curious student of experience, I have seen three types of unplanned shots worth celebrating:

1.       Your story, as you wanted to tell, disappears but a new one takes shape that is even better;

2.       A technical “mishap” tells the story better;

3.       You capture your story but find out a pleasant surprise about it after the shot.

Please note that I use mechanical film cameras only, so I have to adjust speed, aperture, focus, shading from light, and minimize camera vibration at slow speed, and manually rewind the film between shots. Some of those “cave man photography” issues may not be as prominent with today’s digital-all miracle light boxes!

I have chosen three pictures to illustrate my points.

I took the first photo at the Night Market in Taipei. I saw the lady with attractive legs and in the background focal plane of two mannequins. Immediately I thought of “Three Mannequins” and clicked. Then I entered the store to tell her that I took a picture and that I appreciate it. When I came close, the lady turned and smiled: HE had a goatee!!! When I developed the film and printed the frame, there was enough evidence of male anatomy to support my story when my friends were incredulous about the details… This is an example of the category #1 above.

The second picture is an oldie: we were visiting a bat cave in Pennsylvania and my son and daughter were as excited as any 7 years old twins can be at the sight of bats flying all around at the mouth of the cave. My son was imitating bats by flapping his arms and there was just enough light for a fast lens, at full aperture, to take a picture.  When I developed the film, I realized that the very slow speed I had used on my Nikon F had also captured the movement in the shape of true wings! The technical “mishap”—the very slow speed, while aesthetically resulted in a blurry and bad contrast picture making it difficult to scan without distorted pixels , made it a new story.

The third picture is a typical street shot, taken in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I saw this man in a park with a cat perched atop his dog. They were “at peace” and I thought his message was one of co-existence and harmony. I immediately took a shot and was quite proud of capturing the very second I wanted. However, when I took my eye off the viewfinder, I saw a mouse atop the cat! It had turned around the cat’s neck just as I was clicking, and the folding of the camera mirror had obscured my view for a split of a second. By now the dog had moved a bit, the cat was looking at me, and the story had disappeared. I was disappointed for not being able to take a picture with the mouse in the frame which was the true message of co-existence the man was displaying in public. To my surprise, when I developed the film, the mouse was there and it was looking at me!

I suppose one has to remain accommodating for all the unplanned events which may be worth celebrating.

December 4, 2013

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013