Getting beyond "the shot"

You will sometimes hear photographers talk about getting “the shot” — they captured what they wanted to get. If you were to compare photography to the way we commonly think about education, this picture is the equivalent of the diploma. It’s the reward. The achievement is complete. We’re done here.

This concept has some precedence in art history. Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer of candid scenes and he was known for capturing “the decisive moment.” The elements in his photographs were so perfectly arranged that a picture taken even a split second earlier or later would appear obviously inferior.

Three nights with Comet C/2023 A3

The vast majority of my images are taken during the light of day, but that doesn’t mean I do not enjoy the night. So when there was a chance to photograph a comet that hasn’t passed by Earth in 80,000 years, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) was discovered in early 2023 by astronomers using telescopes at the Tsuchinshan Observatory in China and the ATLAS survey using a reflector in South Africa. At the time, it was nearly 700 million miles from the sun and already showing a tail. It made its closest approach to the sun at the end of last month, and became the brightest comet to grace our night sky in 27 years.

This, too, shall pass

When curators talk about the artistic vision behind a photograph, they sometimes start by explaining how the picture represents a singular moment of time and space. The artist found something special right there and then and crafted the image to capture and share that feeling.

By extension, this means that that particular moment was over by the time the film was developed or the file saved to the camera’s memory card. For the picture to represent a truly unique slice of time, everything must ultimately be ephemeral.