Missing the Decisive Moment
A Retrospective
Today I took the opportunity to wonder around Isla Holbox in order to capture street photography in an environment I don’t get to be in often. In fact, the last time I was here was almost a decade ago. I had my Leica M with me that has had the same form factor and lens mount since 1954. This is a tool used for decades by the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, but film of course.
When I first really started to get into photography, I had a DSLR that would let me ‘take’ photos. I would put it on continuous shooting and then hope I caught something in a sequence when I tried to capture a scene. Not exactly skillful. So I sought out a system that would slow me down, more mindfulness, and bring me into a space where I could ‘create’ photos. That eventually led me to a series of Leica cameras, ultimately ending up at a Leica M11.
Manual Shooting
With a Leica M, the lenses are all manual focus which will slow you down and bring you into the moment. But the reality is, they may also be much faster than an auto-focus lens, if you know what you are doing as they are Range Finders, which means you don’t need to focus at all in the moment. But you do need to have mastery with zone focusing.
This leads to The Decisive Moment I missed today, which made me lose the opportunity for an amazing photo.
Slowing Down versus Being Prepared
I admit, while I am fully aware of the technicalities of zone focusing, I have not put in the effort to do the work towards mastery. I tend to shoot in aperture mode and then take the time to focus in the situation I am in, taking pride in capturing difficult situations on the fly. As I did in this photo with an f0.95 aperture 50mm lens with a very shallow depth of field where I had to move my head back and forth mere millimeters to get the eyes in focus.
As what I was working on is being in the moment, truly getting the framing and moment right, and crafting the outcome as best I could as events unfolded.
This has served me well in the past, but not today. I wasn’t prepared in the way I should have been.
The Missed Decisive Moment
As I finished lunch at a little restaurant on the main street of the island, it was time to go back outside and find things to capture. I slung my camera over my shoulder and walked out into the sun filled street and began to slowly walk along the sandy main avenue.
Within about 30 seconds a scene unfolded that aligned so many coincidental timings to present me with a picture perfect moment. Two small chihuahuas met in the middle of the street, nose to nose, tails up, perpendicular to me with the unique main street framed perfectly behind them. One even had a bow tie.
But, I wasn’t ready. I had not reviewed my settings of my camera before venturing out so I would know exactly what would be in frame at what distance. Instead I fiddled with the focus, as I knew my aperture already, and by the time I was ready, the moment had dissolved. And all I captured was the forlorn look of the bow tied dog watching the other saunter off.
The Retrospective
This is not the first time, of many, that I failed to capture the decisive moment that was gifted to me. I kick myself every time, but today hit me and I realized it was a teaching moment. It is time to focus on mastering zone focusing, as I don’t want to miss something like this again, at least not for my own folly of being unprepared.
What I take away from today is that mastering photography is always elusive, you are always just improving. Now it’s time to focus on not focusing.