Snap. Got it!

I love it when something wakes me up, pulls me out of wherever I am and grabs me, makes me pay attention.  The other day, as I was readying my equipment for a shoot, I saw this.  I wasn't there to take this shot.  This little guy was on his way to ball practice, not part of the photos. 

But something made him stop, turn around and stand right there in the doorway for just a second or two.  My head was busy scanning the area for the perfect light, when my eyes caught sight of him.  He just got me, standing there, doing whatever it was that he was doing.  

I grabbed my camera, hurried to put on the lens and snapped as quickly as I could.  Just as soon as my finger hit the shutter, he was gone.  I don't know why he stopped there, stalling for just a moment on his way to practice.  I just knew that I wanted to capture it, knew that was a moment that wasn't coming back.

There is nothing remarkable about this photo.  Technically speaking, it's not superb.  The reason shots like this are special, at least to me, is that they represent moments.  They are tangible pieces of history that we can look at and touch later, when this little leaguer is a man.  

He must walk in and out of that door fifty times in a day.  It's all very average.  But years down the road, he won't look like this.  That little uniform won't fit.  He'll have moved on to bigger things.  I wanted this shot because I scanned the area and my eyes stopped to focus on a moment - an average old moment when a five year old slugger was about the important business of growing up.  

I pressed pause for just a sec and we can stare at that later for as long as we want.

What will you see today?  What might your eyes focus on while you are busy doing something else?  Is there something you might want to press pause on today?  

You could take a photo, write it down, say it out loud or laugh about it with a friend.  Try that; it will last longer that way.