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04/25/2006 02:08:32 AM · #1 |
Today my family and I went to a rental store so my two boys could rent them a game. I had my camera with me like most of the time. I sat waiting in the car while my wife and children were inside. A Blue Jay bird caught my eye, he would swoop down from the trees that lined the sidewalk to get a beak full of berries and fly away. I got my camera out in anticipation of getting a good close up the next time he came down.
While waiting a mother and her son ( around 20 years old) exited the store approaching my direction. The evening sun had made for great lighting without any harsh shadows as they came closer to me down the sidewalk lined with trees. Her son was in a wheel chair and appeared to be fully handicap as his arms and hands were drawn in and rendered almost useless by his handicap. His mother was pushing him along the sidewalk, not from behind, but with her left hand on the right handgrip of the wheelchair as to appear she was walking beside him instead of behind him. They seemed so happy, his mothers smiling looking down at her son as he tried to point with his folded arms and drawn hands and the movie he rented.
I lifted my camera up and filled the frame with both mother and son. As I focused I could see her face as she looked up directly into my camera only a few yards away. Her smile seemed to melt to sadness as she bowed her head. My finger wanted to push the shutter but I couldn’t as my eyepiece began to fog. What seemed to be minutes were mere seconds as I lowered my camera down. As the eyepiece of my camera pulled away from my eye I discovered that the condensation was my eyepiece field with tears as it started to roll down my face.
I looked up at the mother and her son who was closer to me now as she shook her head up and down as she looked in my eyes and with an inaudible move of her lips said thank you. Somehow she knew I didn’t take the picture. While using the fingertips of my hand to wipe a way the lonely steam of a tear I replied, your welcome – inaudibly.
I love to take candid photographs but today showed me there is a line that needs not to be crossed. I have often wondered where that line was, well today I found it. You will not find it in a book or a classroom. When that line is about to be crossed you eyes are the window to your soul and you soul will let you know.
-SDW
Message edited by author 2006-04-25 02:12:46.
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04/25/2006 02:27:20 AM · #2 |
| Its always interesting the different stories to how we find that line ... yours was beautiful :) |
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04/25/2006 03:02:51 AM · #3 |
| It's nice to know you didn't take the photo and respected the stranger's silent request. I know there are many photographers who would literally die for the photo they wanted. |
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04/25/2006 05:33:10 AM · #4 |
Portraiture, and especially candid portraiture is about capturnig a glimpse or an insight into the deeper aspect of the subject than merely what they look like. It's about revealing a deeper truth.
A bad photographer would have made an opportunistic and possibly voyeuristic shot, and missed the point of the moment of human connection totally. You captured it perfectly by removing the barrier from your eye.
Personally, I am more moved and heartened by the image formed by your words, than I could have been by the shot that you didn't make.
Well done...well seen, and beautifully captured. |
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04/25/2006 05:43:16 AM · #5 |
well done scott you have proved not only your outstanding principles but also that you are indeed a gentleman.
Thank you for sharing this heart wrenching story, you should be proud :)
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