#4 in a series of occasional posts on photography.

As a photographer, I rarely take photographs with humans in them, unless I’m doing a wedding or other event. If the photo is primarily of a non-human subject – landscape, building, art, animal, etc – I feel the presence of a human in the photo detracts from the main subject. For me to photograph a person there has to be something very special – an interesting face like the weathered wrinkles of a farmer or old Native American Indian chief, an emotion filled facial expression or what they are wearing or doing that tells a story and compels me to capture that moment.

While I was on Sand Beach at Acadia National Park in Maine, I happened to notice a little Asian boy who seemed to be contemplating whether to wade into the water. He may or may not have known how cold the water was that October day. He kept “flirting” with the small waves. As each wave came up, he would pause, concentrate on the water, then at the last second jump back out of the way.  For the next few minutes, I watched him through my lens. Would he or wouldn’t he? Sure enough, the moment came when he was unable to avoid the waves. The result was kind of cross between the Karate Kid and a little boy just being a kid.

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