For the Love of Photography

There is a story behind every photo. And I think you'll want to hear the one behind this image.

Today is May Day, and there was a huge lei festival over at Kapiolani Park. Aside from the beautiful lei displays and booths, one thing that struck me while I was there was the influx of photographers. It seemed like there were cameras of every conceivable size being used at the event, and I kept wondering to myself how many photos were being snapped every second!

Anyway, I came across this guy in the image above. He was dragging around a tripod, and would set it up, shoot a photo, and then move it again for the next shot. I kept wondering why he was doing that. There was enough light outside where you didn't need a tripod. I watched him for a little while, and then noticed that his hands were shaking violently when he was fiddling with his camera. He could barely zoom the lens on his camera, because his hands were shaking so much. In fact, he couldn't even press the camera shutter, and had to use a cable release to trip it externally. After a while, I realized he probably had some muscle disorder that prevented him from controlling his hands properly. This is what he had to do to get a shot: set the tripod...fiddle with the tripod head...look through the viewfinder...fiddle with the lens to zoom it in...look through the viewfinder again...pick up the cable release...click the release and trip the shutter. But despite this, I could tell how excited he was about taking photos of the colorful costumes in front of him! He moved his camera around with such purpose and enthusiasm, I just sorta stood there for a while, watching him.

It was a really humbling experience for me...this guy can't even hold his camera, but he still found a way to shoot photos. That's the amazing thing about photography...people will do whatever it takes to get that shot. And here I was...grumbling to myself about bringing the wrong lens...experiences like this really puts things into perspective.