Look, Then Look Again

Look, Then Look Again

One of our contributors recently shot some really sweet pictures at an outdoor festival.  As he explained, he and his wife got a little overwhelmed by the mid-day 97 degree torment from this summer’s heat wave, so they took a break and sat down on a grassy hill to sip some cold lemonade they purchased from a stand.

A good photographer always checks-out what has been shot before leaving the event, so in like fashion, he and his wife – our resident newlyweds - began looking through the hundreds of shots on the back of his camera.

Don’t forget that a good photographer also keeps one’s eyes open and scans one’s surroundings repeatedly, because both content opportunities and personal perceptions do change and can change frequently.  That’s where his wife – a self-admitted photography simpleton – had a big breakthrough!  While casually scanning his pix, she looked away for an instant and caught a really fantastic photographic opportunity.

What she noticed that her self-admitted photography expert did not, was a couple sitting on the grass about twenty yards away, with their backs to both of them.  What first caught her eye was the fact that they were wearing matching Detroit Tigers t-shirts.  She thought that was cute.  And then she looked again.

What she saw the second time was the Tigers tattoo on her foot.  Whether it was permanent or not didn’t matter.  It was a unique place for a personal expression of team loyalty and the young woman’s attractive bare foot looked really cool in the long grass.

As he explained, she said to him, “Let me have the camera for a minute.”  He thought that she wanted to take a closer look at one of his masterpieces.  Instead, he was taken aback when she handled the cam like a pro, zoomed into what he had not noticed and then pressed the shutter to produce her own masterpiece!

Now, a few days later, the image has been printed at 16 x 20, professionally framed and is hanging in the couple’s sports and entertainment room.  It looks fantastic and is a truly unique and artistic addition to the other prints and posters in the same room that have a rather mass-produced feel to them.  This one’s in a different class.

By the way, she now considers herself a "photo opportunist" and that's a good thin to be if you're a photographer.  Oh...and yes, they are both Tiger's fans!

© 2010, Gail Anderson - Detroit Tigers - Do Not Copy