Timing is everything

If you’re going to laugh, do it before we get there.
For Better or For Worse

Ever had that sneaking suspicion your timing was all wrong? Yeah… happens to me all the time. I manage to laugh at inappropriate moments, ask humorous questions at just the wrong time, or walk into a room at the worst possible moment.

But Karma maintains balance, and I can look back to find that there were many occasions where I was in exactly the right place at the right time. I couldn’t have wound up in a better place after discovering that college was just not the right spot for me in 1993. My journey took some bizarre turns along the way, but timing eventually brought Amanda and me to the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas, in 1998 with a great job that gave Amanda the freedom to go back to school and get a teaching certificate. That timing along with some fortunate (and unfortunate) events found us in a position a few years ago that let me quit my job and go back to school to finish my baccalaureate so that I, too, could join the ranks of high school teachers and more directly influence the next generation.

It’s such a joy to capture that exceedingly brief moment in time as an animal does something unique or interesting…

Timing always fascinates me when I take my camera in search of images—particularly when I’m taking shots of animals. The combined magic of modern, fast-shooting digital cameras that allow 5-7 or more images per second and no appreciable “cost” per image results in my capturing animal shots that are, quite often, fortunate happenstance. Fourteen shots within two seconds are far more likely to capture that humorous moment. Even in landscape photography, the greatest images exist only for mere moments. To capture them, one must be standing in the right place with the right equipment and looking in the right direction. The camera must be set and ready—exposure and focus, possibly even a touch of fill flash—when the qualities of light as photons traveling from the sun are refracted, reflected, and scattered through our atmosphere. The magic hour becomes the magic minute for just that instant as the shutter snaps and a photo takes on mystical qualities with warmth of light and tone. Of course, one can “add” these mystical qualities in Photoshop these days, but there’s a certain magic and sense of accomplishment to capturing that moment of light through the lens. Perhaps, in a sense, it is stealing the light—just as one unfamiliar with a camera might fear that a photographer has stolen his soul. I say it’s worth the risk, and will strive to steal just as much light as I can…

Entropy defines the direction of time, showing that it must move forward… Since we’re just along for the ride, it’s probably pretty important that we keep our eyes open so that we don’t miss opportunity as it’s flying by.