I was walking down Main St. in October shooting mug shots of store fronts. Some of the buildings had neat patterns of light and shadow. Others had some nice reflections. Others were just there.
I shot 10 frames of this building or parts of it. None of them were particularly inspiring. Just record shots in case it burned down next week.
What’s that in the window?
It wasn’t until I looked at the photos on a large screen that I saw the cat in the window. Here’s a slightly tighter crop of the same photo. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)
He / She was in the frame taken at 15:50:18 and was gone in the next frame at 15:50:25. I would love to lie and say I saw the feline and managed to capture the decisive moment, but shooting it was pure, dumb luck.
Serendipity made the photo, not the photographer.
Hi Ken
That is a great little story … I love your photography. I so wish I had an eye like you have.
Andrew
Andrew,
Sometimes it’s not the photographer, it’s the editor. I worked with a guy in Ohio who could always make me look better than I thought I was.
There’s the classic old story that I may have told on this blog about a photographer who was sent out to shoot an event with a crowd of thousands.
He laid his take out on the light table and the photo editor looked at the film for a few minutes and said, “That one.”
“What’s so special about THAT photo? It looks like all the rest?”
“Yes, but in this frame you have a person getting his pocket picked.”
That is a great story 🙂
Andrew,
It might even be true. If it isn’t, it should be.
Hmmm…the phantom cat of Broadway strikes again…
Actually, Terry, he / she was on Main Street.
Well that is horse of a different color…er cat of a different coat…
Main street? where next to Bussard’s
I don’t know how many “Serendipity” shots I’ve missed by leaving behind my camera behind. If I only had a dollar for every shot I missed and every time I utter “I wish I’d had my camera”.
One missed shot I remember were three small, black limber, kids on one adult boys bicycle. The smallest kid was peddling and the other two were an absolutely amazing balancing act, one on the front wheel, one on the back wheel. The expressions on their faces and the simple physics of their act would have made a priceless shot!
Probably a good mouser!