Decisive Moment

So I came home this evening from the wedding I photographed today, exhausted but exhilarated. I feel like I can barely move or stay aware, but I wanted to check the photos before I went to sleep. (Luckily I shot some stuff with my own cards so I can actually review my work.) I was going through the photos and was feeling pretty happy and then I came to this photo:


(Click on the photo to see a larger view for the full impact.)

I paused on this image and couldn't stop looking at it. This is why I photograph weddings. I see the love on that woman's face as she embraces her niece after the tea ceremony. I remember how the uncle who led the ceremony said she'd traveled a long distance to be there and how proud she felt. I can almost feel how that embrace must have felt. And I think, what a privilege I have to be invited into people's lives, to share moments like this, and best of all to capture moments like this with my camera for people to be able to view over and over again for many years.

I've often felt like photography is my passport, my backstage pass, my security clearance to get me into places I'd never get into otherwise. And when I see a photo like this, I feel like my soul is on top of the highest mountain and I'm singing like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music. I just don't know how else to describe it. I'm so lucky to live this life!

Note: The title of this refers to a term coined by Henri Cartier-Bresson one of the most renowned photographers of all time. The "decisive moment" has been described as "that instant when a shutter click can suspend an event within the eye and heart of the beholder, an exhilarating confluence of observer and observed."