Instants.

It’s a time machine. You capture a moment and stop time in that instant. That’s a cliche if I ever saw one. Anyone with a camera gets that you stop time in a photograph otherwise what you have is a video. It isn’t a difficult concept.

I feel that it’s over used, but true nonetheless. When you take that picture, your subject will never be the same again. These seals return to the floating pontoons day after day, but the water droplets in the air won’t be in that position again. The baby seal won’t be dropping from one pontoon to another while two adults jostle over prime sunning real estate.

I doubt the shot would have been worth copying from the SD card had I waited another split second (millisecond, microsecond or nanosecond for those playing the specificity game).

Since we have the ability to capture instants in time, why are we not doing more of this? Take lots of photos. Take them all the time. The only downside is that you might wear out your delete button.

While it is true that sometimes you know you’ve taken a fantastic image immediately, most often it’s ones taken quickly and in the moment that are the best upon review. Of course I encourage you to think about your photography. Thoughtful composition, intelligent use of the histogram (the little graph in the corner of your camera) to balance the light in the middle of the range… those can make some amazing photographs. Life doesn’t wait though. Time wont repeat itself so if in doubt, shoot. Take the picture. Storage is so cheap and easy to come by that leaving your entire library to rot on a hard drive is a real possibility.

In fact I’d suggest you do. Go back some time later and have a look. Your tastes change. When I first got back from America I wasn’t that fussed on these seals. Now that it’s been a few months I’ve had another look and think they’re worth sharing. And why not, they’ll never look that way again.