I can think of two situations that stand out. The first was one night several years ago while I was walking to work. I worked third shift, and if the weather was nice I would make the walk across town (about 2 1/2 miles) rather than drive. I could take the railroad tracks, which sort of missed suburbia while plunging straight through it (surrounded by trees, a strip of wilderness through the neighborhoods). It was October and chilly and nighttime, with a bit of fog hugging the ground. I was walking towards a bit north of due west, and the tracks went straight ahead of me as far as I could see. The moon was almost directly overhead, and due to weather conditions, had a very bright ring around it.
At some point, I noticed a contrail from a jet that had flown across the sky, east-to-west or west-to-east I couldn’t tell. It was drifting south slowly but surely, and I suddenly realised that it would in a few minutes cross the moon and its attendant ring, so I stopped to watch. There came a period of about five seconds when everything lined up exactly: the tracks (shiny from use and reflecting the moonlight) with their perpendicular ties converging in the distance, the moon overhead as a bullseye to the target of the ring, and springing precisely from the vanishing point of the tracks: the contrail–zooming straight towards me and exactly bisecting the moon/ring. It was nothing short of spectacular, and if I’d had a camera (and knew how to use it) I could have had a breathtaking photo. A few seconds later, and the contrail was south of dead center and the moment was lost. Blarg, I say.
The second: walking by a local church and noticing the sign out front where the subject of the sermon, worship times, etc. were displayed. The subject of the sermon that week was something along the lines of “Ye Must All Become As Little Children.” Down in the corner, unrelated yet appropriate, was the notice: “Nursery Provided.”
So what moment would have made your career as a photographer, if only you had been properly equipped?
For me it occured about five years ago in Cape Town, South Africa. It was just after sunset, when it is dark, but the sky still has that “royal blue” glow to it, and I was fetching a friend from her home at the foot of Devil’s Peak (one of the chain of mountains around which Cape Town is built).
As I waited outside her house, I looked up at the mountain and saw that the new moon (3/4 days old, so crescent) was about to set, and right alongside was Venus - shining incredibly brightly. With the (pitch black) silhouette of the mountain in the foreground, the incredible dark blue colour of the sky behind and the brilliance of the moon and Venus, it made for one amazing photograph.
Every New Moon for the next couple of years, I would look to see if the condiditons were repeating themselves, but they never did - either Venus wasn’t around, or was too far away from the moon, or it was cloudy or the sky wasn’t quite right… I guess it was never going to be as good as I remember.
One time, after my morning art class as finished, I was hanging around and waiting for my ride home. As I sat in the shade, I saw a pair of red-tailed hawks flying around. No, wait… it looked like they were… fighting? As I watched, I realized that they were trying to get their hands on the carcass of some recently-deceased animal. Eventually, one fought off the other and flew away, carrying the animal underneath it. In the scuffle, the animal must have gotten torn open, because it’s entrails were hanging out…
Actually…you people are talking about perfect photo opportunities to get a beautiful picture. I was thinking more of a comical incident that I wish I had a picture or video of. I guess I’ll tell even if it doesn’t count.
A few years ago Mr. Sunshine & I were at WaltDisneyWorld, watching the Main Street Electric Light Parade. So it’s all dark and the only light is coming from the parade. I decided to take a picture but my camera suddenly went insane. I pressed the button but instead of taking a picture, the flash started going off, probably 10 times in a row. Well, obviously the flash is blinding and annoying all the other parade goers around us since we’re basically sitting there in the dark. Mr. Sunshine started yelling at me like it was my fault and trying to snatch the camera away from me (only we were both blinded and flailing around) when suddenly it stopped flashing. Mr. Sunshine grabs ahold of the camera and starts giving me a lecture about how I don’t know what I’m doing and blah blah blah blah…and then holds the camera up to his eye to take the dang picture, when it suddenly starts flashing again. What with being in the dark, he had it facing the wrong way so the flash was facing his eyes. When it started flashing, it totally blinded him and he stumbled backwards into a park bench and then actually fell down on the ground, waving this flashing camera around. Each time the flash went off, I could see the totally incredulous look on his face that the camera would DARE do such a thing to him. It was really priceless and I wish I had a picture of it to remind him of the incident whenever he gets all high minded on me.
Gorilla at the Zoo
Recently at the National Zoo in DC we were in the Great Ape House. The big daddy Lowlands Gorilla was hanging out on the ground, just trying to stay cool. He turned his head enough to look at the spectators for a moment, put his finger to his nose… and picked it and ate it!!! He continued this for about 5 minutes with everyone around ROARING with laughter. We couldn’t even speak we were laughing. I actually did have a camera with me but it chose that humid afternoon to not function correctly and I wasn’t able to capture that moment.
Little Italy, NYC, January 1995
One of the most perfect nights of my life, one that I’ll remember forever. There with my boyfriend (who is now my husband), we were staying with friends in Rockaway Beach in Queens. One night we went to a place in Little Italy called Restaurante Puglia, where you sit European Style at large tables with lots of other customers, drinking homemade red wine, eating pasta, and listening to a guy named Jorge dressed as Elvis sing old cheesy songs like “The Brady Bunch Theme”, “That’s Amore”, etc. We made friends with everyone in the restaurant that night, drank MUCH red wine, and at 2 a.m. carried our dancing out into the street at the corner of Hester & Mulberry. It was one of those times when I wished I had a camera to capture just one second of that evening, but I’ll have to keep the memory in my head alive forever instead.
About a month ago I was driving on a back road through some hills in Tennessee. I passed a fabulous shot…if only i had my camera. A rustic red barn, a field full of multi-colored wildflowers, a mountain in the background, and a wire fence in the foreground complete with a cow standing there.
Back in April, I was in Nashville to see a concert at the Ryman Auditorium (Ratdog w/ Bob Weir, if anyone cares). I figured I had decent seats…until I got in. Because of the way they number the seats (they are curved church pews…the Ryman used to be a church), I wound up in the front row. Man, what pictures I could have taken. Oh well.
Not nearly as deep as any of your answers, but I went to a Detroit Tigers game last season and outside the stadium, after the game, I saw the visiting bus (Orioles) and standing outside of the bus, one Mr. Brady Anderson, dressed all in black, hair tousled and still wet from the shower, and he was just talking to fans. A picture of me with him on that night would have been jack off material for a year.
