Another 52 Weeks — #17
A lucky catch on a special day
In photography, sometimes you just get lucky — right place, right time — and can capture a moment that also captures your heart.
I had that experience on Easter Sunday, when I managed to get the first photo in this edition of “Another 52 Weeks.” My wife and I are members of a Lutheran church about a mile from our home, and I volunteered to photograph the day’s events, which included a sunrise service at a park on the Potomac River, the two regular services and an Easter egg hunt.
Photographing these types of events is bread-and-butter work, a form of “you are there” storytelling that is comfortable and comes naturally to me. As the event unfolds, I capture the “musts” — speakers and participants from various angles as well as scene setters (a person holding an agenda/book/program, or objects/posters/paintings) related in some way to the event.
Simultaneously, I’m also looking for “the shot” that both captures and transcends what is taking place.
I had hopes for the sunrise service, but it was a gray and cloudy morning. For the other services, the church was crowded, so I started searching gaps between the attendees while standing in the back. While that wasn’t optimal, I prefer to be as invisible as possible so the camera (on a silent shutter) and I don’t disrupt what takes place.
Perhaps this is a minority view, but with few exceptions I believe photographers who insert themselves into the story under the auspices of “getting the shot” are doing everyone a disservice. No one wants to be the drunk uncle at the party.
At one point, just before communion, I spotted the little girl in a pew with her family. They were sitting about seven rows back, far away but just inside the range of my 70-200 lens. Forty-five minutes into the second service, she was starting to fidget a little.
The late morning light was coming in through the windows, threatening to “blow out” the image. I wasn’t using a fill flash — a sometimes necessary, but more often a disruptive tool. The shot was likely was outside of the flash’s range and (see above) I didn’t want to insert my camera into the service.
That’s when the luck factor came into play. During a pre-communion prayer, the little girl turned around in her seat as the adults leaned forward in the pews. As she looked away, I snapped off three shots, using the adults’ darker clothing to blunt some of the outside light.
In one instance, she fidgeted and her face could not be seen clearly. In another, one of the attendees leaned and blocked her slightly. The third is the one you see here.
Below are the rest of the images from the 17th edition of “Another 52 Weeks.” It’s hard to believe that next week we’ll be more than a third through the year. Where does the time go?
I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of “Another 52 Weeks”!
Book Party
If you are close to the Greater Washington, D.C. area on May 29, I hope you’ll consider joining me at a party for the formal launch of my photo book, Keep Your Distance: Walking Through the First Year of COVID.
The free event, which will feature a social hour, interview/Q&A session, and book signing, will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Elaine’s in Old Town Alexandria. Tickets are limited to 50 guests who sign up here.
A limited number of hardback copies of Keep Your Distance: Walking Through the First Year of COVID are available for $40 plus $5.95 for shipping and handling. You can order the book by visiting this link.
That's a lovely image Glenn!
Nice, Glenn... it is those little moments that make you come back. Just like golf; 3, or 4 hours of running around and you always have that one shot that keeps you coming back for more punishment! ;0). And I really like the Eiffel Tower. It is very hard to do something original with that. I think you have done so.