Anticipate Action

Much of the art of capturing a moment comes as you develop the ability to anticipate action before it happens, and be ready with the camera when it does. It is hard to describe this ability in cut-and-dried terms, because it's kind of a sixth sense you develop with practice; newspaper photographers and photojournalists refer sometimes to “reading the street” or “reading the situation.” It's the rare photographer who has the reflexes and the command of his or her equipment to snag a fleeting instant once it actually occurs. To capture a moment, you have to be able to see it coming.

You can learn to recognize situations that may develop into moments by doing some serious people watching, in, say, a park on a pleasant afternoon. Spot the mother cooing to her baby in the carriage? At one point, she'll pick up the child for a hug and “snap,” you've got your moment. See the dog chasing the Frisbee? Eventually, he's going to sail into the air for a dramatic catch, and if you've been following the action through your viewfinder, you'll get it. That young couple strolling hand in hand down the path? It's only a matter of time before one will lean over to plant a kiss on the other.

As Carly Simon sagely observed, “anticipation is making me crazy,” and indeed, you'll often find yourself waiting for something that never happens. However, with a little practice, you'll get better at recognizing situations with “moment” potential.

A Backdrop for Moments

The ability to anticipate action is probably the single most important skill in capturing a privileged moment, and it can take many forms. Sometimes, it means recognizing a good background or potential picture setting, one that is worth waiting for or returning to when there is something happening. For instance, scenes like a painted mural on the side of a building in an urban playground, a row of trees bedecked with fall colors, or an appealing curve in a mountain trail may not make great pictures in and of themselves. However, wait for a game of pickup basketball to happen in front of the mural, or a pair of joggers to run down the line of trees, or a hiker to come around the bend in the trail, and suddenly the scene has the sense of moment it was lacking. There's no set rule on how long you should wait for the elusive moment–you have to use your judgment. Sometimes it's better to come back to the scene at different times in order to increase your chances.

Weather

Just as you recognize the potential for great moments in front of interesting backgrounds, you can also do the same for unusual weather. Nothing gives the sense of capturing a moment more than when you catch a scene in unusual weather—a full rainbow, a shaft of sunlight penetrating a cloudy sky, or a bolt of lightning streaking across the frame.

Don't put away the camera if the weather takes a turn for the worse; bad weather can make for some very interesting pictures. When I'm on assignment and it's really raining or snowing, I get out with my camera, because I know that these conditions can transform the mundane into the magical.

Once, on the island of Dominica, I noticed that the late afternoon showers produced a few rainbows here and there. The trouble was, I was never in the right place to capture them—there were always buildings or telephone lines in the way. After a couple of days, I finally hired a fishing boat to take me out into the water so I could move around and put the rainbow wherever I needed it in the composition. The captain thought I was crazy to be sitting idly in a boat without a fishing rod, but soon enough, the rainbows appeared, and I snagged my catch: a shot of a beautiful rainbow soaring over the mountainous coastline.

Ready to learn more?

As we travel to new places, digital camera in hand, we all feel the desire to capture them forever in images: the scenic vistas, the unique architecture, the people who inhabit that landscape. With this magnificent new study, award-winning National Geographic photographer Bob Krist can help us achieve our goal. It's distinguished from other digital how-tos by its comprehensive scope, easy-to-grasp explanations, inspirational attitude, and upscale aesthetics. Krist examines the technological aspects of shooting digitally on location, and explains how to select the right equipment, from cameras and lenses to flashes and tripods. He offers tips for saving, backing up, and sending images on the road, and gets to the heart of what it takes to portray the true spirit of your subject. He poses such questions as: What makes a truly great photograph? How can you create a well-rounded portrait of a place through its geography, people, and culture? The answers are all illustrated with the author's collection of stunning travel photography to inspire us along the way.
» Click here to get your copy today! ISBN 978-1600591105

About Bob Krist

Bob Krist is a freelance photographer who works regularly on assignment for magazines such as National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, and Islands. These assignments have taken him to all seven continents and have won awards in the Pictures of the Year, Communication Arts, and World Press Photo competitions. During his work, he has been stranded on a glacier in Iceland, nearly run down by charging bulls in southern India, and knighted with a cutlass during a Trinidad voodoo ceremony. He won the title of “Travel Photographer of the Year” from the Society of American Travel Writers in 1994, 2007, and again this year at the 2008 convention. In 2000 his work was honored at the Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography in New York City.

Bob's books include In Tuscany (Broadway Books, NY), which features 270 pages of his photographs of the region and is a collaboration with author Frances Mayes. It spent a month on the New York Times bestseller list. He also photographed the coffeetable books Caribbean and Portrait of the Caribbean and Low Country: Charleston to Savannah (Graphic Arts Center Publishing), A Photo Tour of New York (Photo Secrets Publishing, San Diego), and Impressions of Bucks County (Old Mill Productions, New Hope PA).

An accomplished writer as well as a photographer, Bob is a contributing editor at both National Geographic Traveler and Outdoor Photographer, where he writes a travel photography column. His how-to book Spirit of Place: The Art of The Traveling Photographer (Amphoto Books, NY) was hailed by American Photographer magazine as “the best book about travel photography we've ever read.” His newest book Travel Photography: Documenting the World's People and Places was recently published in the Digital Masters series by Lark Books. He lectures in Washington DC as part of the ongoing “Live at the National Geographic” series. He teaches photo workshops for the Maine and Santa Fe Photo Workshops, National Geographic Expeditions, and Linblad Expeditions.

A former professional actor, Bob hosted Nature's Best Photography, a 13-part series for National Wildlife Productions on the Outdoor Life Network, and Photography Close Up, one of Cablevision's “MagRack” series. Currently, he can be seen as the host of the PBS special Restoration Stories. Bob lives in New Hope, Pennsylvania, with his wife Peggy. They are the parents of three sons, Matthew, Brian, and Jonathan. www.bobkrist.com

About Lark Books

The digital age isn't coming, it's here. With amateur and professional titles on such topics as lighting, digital photo art, nature, glamour, digital scrapbooking, wedding, the business of photography, and our great Magic Lantern series, Lark is at the heart of digital photography publishing.