“The lost chance is never the last one” - Leonid S. Sukhorukov (2005)
One lesson I have learnt from my time as a photographer is that there is little in the real world that is more useful or more destructive than random chance. I am a little unnerved to say it has been responsible for some of my best images. On occation I have been praised for images that I know I would never have been able to get without divine intervention.
On the other side of this coin are the times when an apparently perfect shot was ruined for reasons beyond my control. Nothing can be quite as bothering as having set the shot up and taken the time to make sure every little detail is right to then have a bird fly into shot or the sun to come from behind a cloud.
These are two shots that illustrate the effect of random chance,
This shot was taken at the western end of Mono Lake in California, just where the 395 freeway leaves the lake shore to head north into the mountains. It was taken at about 5:30am, I was leaving Mammoth Mountain heading back to San Francisco after a rather difficult shoot. I was tired and drinking Red Bull just to stay awake. As I rounded a corner I looked across the lake for the last time just as the sun rose and it gave me this perfect view. Its good that it was so early in the morning as i slammed on the brakes, grabbed my camera and jumped out to shoot it. If there was anyone following me there would have been an accident.
This next shot was from covering a historic motor race at Brands Hatch a few months ago. I had spent most of the weekend looking for the best places to shoot the track. I found a good spot from just below Paddock Hill Bend. Having followed the progress of several of the cars I was ready to shoot a series as they passed. In this case I had the double trouble of the car moving out of the racing line and closer to the fence just as a spectator stepped into my line and blocked part of the shot in just the right place to not be something that can be cropped out.
The moral of all this I suppose is that in photography and life you get the perfect timing for a landscape on occasion but every now and again someone’s head gets in the way.
The trick is letting go of the ruined shots and being grateful for the perfect chance moments.
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