One of the best things I've ever experienced occurred this past Sunday while I was shooting Descano Gardens in the lovely city of La Canada, CA. I had already spent a good couple of hours walking around the gardens and exploring when I happened upon this small, cute bridge. First thing that came to mind was "gotta get a photo of it" so I walked on over and when I got closer to the bridge, there was this family of four that was about to walk across it so I figure I'd wait for them to cross before taking the photo. I initially wanted a photo of the bridge by itself.
So, imagine if you will, this family of four. Dad was leading the pack and he was with his daughter. Mother was trailing behind and she was with the son. Now, father notices that I was in position, waiting to take the shot and wanted everyone else to hurry up so I could take the photo. Kids being kids, they don't really follow parents' every wish and are in their own little world doing their own kid things like exploring and having fun or what not so these kids were basically holding up the parents back. Father decides to take the initiative and walk across the bridge first, hoping that the littles would follow suit, even calling for them to hurry up. Little daughter follows behind and finally gets across the bridge. Little son on the other hand, decides to take it sloooow. I notice this and at this point, I think "hey, might as well get a shot of little dude with mom and hope to capture a moment". So I took the shot when mom and son were halfway across the bridge and when little daughter hears the sound of my shutter, she stops dead in her tracks at the end of the bridge and looks at me and then looks at her mom and brother. Mom and son are just about to finish crossing the bridge and I'm about to ready my camera when they do, hands firmly on the camera and I raise it up a bit closer to my eye. That's when little daughter said, with such excitement, "I want to be in one of them". This TOTALLY throws me off! I'm thinking "does she...want me to take a photo of her?" This NEVER happens to me and I'll explain later, but I start to get excited because I now have the opportunity to possibly capture something nice and I'm gonna take it. So I said out loud "Do you want to be in a photo?", smiling as I said it, and I briefly look at mom to see if she gives me an "ok" sign and she does and while this is going on, little daughter doesn't really care what's going on and proceeds to head back towards the middle of the bridge, all the while holding on to little brother and she poses once and I take the shot. She then hugs brother and brother doesn't seem at all into or knowing what's going on and I take the second shot. You can see from the photo that she's smiling and having a great time and brother is like "get your arms off of me, I want to get off this bridge" but they're both looking into the lens and I feel like I've captured something just beautiful!
Like I said, this never happens to me. I've been trying to get more people photos but everytime I attempt to take a shot, whatever it is that person was doing that inspired me to take the photo, they stop and look away. Its like a gut reaction for alot of people and I can't really figure out why. That's why alot of the times, I try to be sneaky and ninja about it and sometimes I get the shot and other times I don't. I don't own a good telephoto lens for extra ninja status but if I did, I'd be more successful at these shots but that's neither here nor there. What I absolutely loved about this situation and any situation that I'll face in the future that'll be like this is that, I didn't have to be sneaky about it. This little girl wanted to have a photo taken of her by a complete stranger. Outright. No ifs, ands, ors about it...I want it and you're going to take it. It kind of felt like she was strong arming me subtly but it was oh so lovely!
Even though she just wanted her photo taken, I took it a bit differently. I'd like to think that what happened was a gift to me. Indirectly by her or the serendipity fairy. Whatever it was, it totally made my day. Well, it was one of the moments that made a beautiful day even more beautiful because believe it or not, there was also another moment during the day, involving kids again, that allowed me to capture another great moment. But I'll save that story for the next entry.
Anyway, one of the best moments I've experienced in my life and I'm glad and thankful I was the one to capture the photo and also to have lived in the moment.