If only ….

Which of us (us as you are a photographer if you are reading this) does not rue the what might have been?

You know, the moment that you missed.

The other day I found myself on one of those picture perfect days in America’s most beautiful city, camera in hand, and there it was. The picture.

But, boob that I am, I missed it.

Too old, too slack jawed, too slow.

I would love to blame the gear. Shutter lag, poor auto exposure, blah, blah, blah.

But age or equipment is no excuse.

Because, dear reader, I have been missing great snaps since I first held a camera. And the curse of it is that I can remember every one of those misses. Far more so than I recall the successes.

And while my interests in photography are fairly catholic, meaning genre is neither here nor there, it’s street photography that brought me to this wonderful place and it was a street snap that I missed.

My excuse is that I was simply in the wrong mindset for street work. Upset about this and that. Distracted. None of this conducive to street snaps.

In the studio you bang away and sooner or later get it. Still lives always behave. Landscapes are tricky but lighting generally gives you a second or two. But street snaps are the most unforgiving of taskmasters. Miss one and it never comes back. It is gone. For ever. Except in your mind’s eye, which vision you can share with no one.

But that only means I will be back. I’m no quitter. But I am upset.

The city? Why, San Francisco of course.

So, much as I hate to do so, I’ll share one of the also rans with you.