Good Photos Never Wait: Reasons to Never Pack Your Camera
For many years, people questioned me on my tendency to always have the camera out and always keep it on. They also questioned me on my insistence of bringing it everywhere I went—as long as it was allowed—and always having it in my hand or hanging from my shoulder. Although it is true that there are some dangerous places where carrying an expensive piece of equipment can make you a potential target/victim of thieves and criminals, I learned that keeping your camera on and available at all times enhances your chances of capturing a magical moment.
Good photos never wait. It is a reality. When a good photo happens, it sometimes takes place in a split second, the time it potentially takes for you to aim the camera, compose, focus and shoot. Once that moment is gone, it cannot be replicated. A photograph freezes time forever, and that moment—that hummingbird with its split wings, that bat hitting the ball, that midair jump of a dancer—will never be back.
People also never will be back, at least not as they were the moment you photographed them, even if that moment was just two seconds ago.
Why I Never Leave the Camera
Ever since I started shooting DSLR cameras, I became one with the machine. There would be no place I would go where I didn’t carry my Canon. It was an extension of my body, and part of my persona. “You never know what you are going to see,” became my mantra. And I followed it to the core.
It was when I started going through my files to create the Unfiltered Cuba presentation that people started appreciating me not listening to them and not putting my camera away. As I looked for documentary photos of Cuba, I also found many memories I had captured of family and friends: people who have changed, people who have moved, people who are no longer with us.
Luck is a very subjective concept. While it is true that you can “be lucky” at a certain moment, it is a fact that the more you try, the more you work, the readier you are, and the less you fear, the “luckier” you can be. Think of it as a lottery ticket: you can get lucky by purchasing one lottery ticket in your entire life, but those who do it more often have more probability to hit the jackpot.
Unlike lottery, photography leaves less things to chance. Knowing the craft, the subject matter, the situation, and when to press the shutter will carry the most weight. Yet, there is very little you can do as a photographer if you only know but never execute. I always like to bring the analogy that sometimes capturing the magic moment involves the same factors as bitting a fastball in Major League Baseball: anticipation, location, timing, hand-eye coordination…
Needless to say, I have been extremely lucky as a photographer—I don’t consider myself a great photographer, but try to emulate many who are. I have been able to capture decent photos only because I have been carrying the camera with me, because I have been shooting, and because I have been ready. Your camera doesn’t belong in shelf collecting dust, nor in your bag, away from the light: it belongs in your hand, as another organ, an extension of your eye.
Shots that Happened Because I Had the Camera
Most photographers have a certain “soft spot” for some of the photos they have made. When I was collecting images for Unfiltered Cuba, I had to rely on my friend and fellow photographer Tamara Alvarez to make the selection for me. I did so because I remembered Steve Fine saying in the Summit Workshop I attended: “Photographers are the worst editors of their own image because they are too attached to them.” However, I do have my list of “lucky shots”, photographs that I was lucky to capture in terms of timing because I was simply carrying my camera with me, and because I was shooting.
Window Hummingbird
I was recovering for surgery, and sitting on my parents’ home couch, I noticed a hummingbird coming to my aunt’s flowers downstairs at the same time every afternoon. I had nothing else to do but stay home and wait to recover, I still had weeks to be able to even walk out of the house again. So, that morning, I charged my batteries, made sure I had enough room in my SD card, and kept the camera on half an hour before the regular time. I shot this one, with a Fujifilm FinePix S1500 bridge camera, and it happened to be my first ever Instagram post.
Lightning Bolt Strikes Again
This is another photo captured before my first DSLR camera. I had just finished my day at the newspaper, and was standing at a portico waiting for the rain to stop, while discussing baseball with a journalism student. As lighting started coming and going I started chasing the possibility of capturing a bolt, but it was not coming. The shutter speed of the Fujifilm FinePix S4200 was not powerful enough. Yet, at 1/52 seconds, an aperture of f/4.5, and ISO of 64, and 9.8mm of focal length, I pressed the shutter, missed the first lightning, but a second bolt appeared right on time. This was one of the luckiest shots I ever took. Honestly, if it wasn’t because a second bolt decided to appear, I would have never captured it. However, it was only possible because I never gave up, and kept on trying.
Pope Francis’s Cool with People
I had the privilege of being able to photograph the mass held by the recently deceased Pope Francis in the Cuban city of Holguin. Even though I was there for the duration of the mass, my best photos happened before and after. In both cases, Pope Francis showed how close he wanted to be to the people. Before the mass, he blessed an ill boy that was put in front of him with a kiss. That photo—my favorite of the entire mass—never made it to print because I didn’t see it when I submitted my first batch. The other moment was at the end of the mass, how a young woman made it to where he was, gave him a hug, and kissed his hand. For the two situations, I was able to capture the photos because I did not want to stop pressing the shutter. Yet, in the second case, I had been kept at the tower where I was after the mass for “security reasons”. Every other photographer covering the mass had headed to the press room to download and submit. If I had packed my camera, like the other photographer did, I would not have captured the post-mass shots.
Barack Obama and His Chewing Gum
Right before the friendly baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban National Team in Havana in March 2016, the Rays all walked to the backstop to shake the hand of the US president. I chased the images, from a long distance, trying to shuffle my focus because of the net. I wanted one specific image: the moment when he shook hands with then Rays’ ace Chris Archer. The image I captured is a composition mess—there are simply too many people around Obama, and they are all looking in different directions. However, when I made a large print to give to a friend, I realized there was chewing gum on the right corner of his mouth. I did not let the bad composition and the distance deter me from taking the photo. Thanks to that, I captured the smile and the chewing gum.
A Seagull’s Bodily Functions
I traveled to Rose Island in Rhode Island in July 20217. The lighthouse is an extremely attractive piece of history, in an already storied location. While chasing the seagulls, I focused on several of them, which were not so scared of having humans around. They were so confident that one of them decided to execute one of its bodily functions at the exact moment I pressed the shutter. It was pure luck, but the photo indeed changed my experience and became one of my favorite images of that trip. The likelihood of capturing such thing was extremely low, but it only happened because I pressed the shutter at the right time, aiming at the right place. I would say it was 90% luck, but I kept on trying, regardless.
Coyote Chillin’ in The Berkshires
Same thing. Even though I had the chance to swap lenses to take the photo of the coyote. I am sure me fidgeting through my bag to get the camera out would have scared him away. Being fast and proactive, and having the camera ready made the difference. Even though I was told by a local he was “hardly wild anymore” (mainly because he probably feared that my long lens was a weapon), I know animals normally have the instinct of protecting themselves against humans, mainly if such humans are not the ones they normally see.
Red-Tailed Hawk on the Fence
My camera travels in the front seat of my car, next to me. No matter where I go, I always keep it on, and it is always reachable. That is one of the reasons why I captured some great photos of a red-tailed hawk perched on a fence post, and then flying away. The series, in which even the Canon USA social media profile commented, is so far my favorite animal series of those I have captured. And the only reason I could do it was because I kept the camera on and close to me. The time it would have taken me to unpack it and turn it on would have been enough for the hawk to get scared and fly away.
Final Thoughts
Whenever I talk to the students in my school’s photography club, I tell them to always expect the unexpected and be ready to shoot at any time. Again, the camera becomes an extension of your body and a tool to help you see better than you normally would with your naked eye. Camera, whether point-and-shoot or DSLR, or even your phone, can help you capture a moment that may be everlasting.
It has nothing to do with becoming a shoot-it-all person who always wants to take photos to brag and show people where they have been. It is more about understanding the beauty and the magic of a moment and, if you have the knowledge to take a good photo, do it.
