Timing is Everything

September 30, 2019

This is one of my favorite frames from a session I did in Hollywood a few months ago. Lani and I met up outside of Amoeba Records one evening, scouted a few locations nearby, and went to work.

The sticker- and graffiti-covered stairwells of Amoeba were a must. We found some street art and exposed brick with nice texture around the corner. I captured some great golden hour looks when the time was right, but this bus bench was definitely a late addition. It was one of those, “We got everything we planned for, but what else can we get?” moments.

I went across the street with a telephoto lens, thinking it would be an interesting perspective. Perhaps with some cars in the foreground? To make it more interesting, I set the shutter speed fast enough to capture Lani’s image in focus, but slow enough to also capture the motion of the cars zooming by.

After a few test shots, I could tell I was getting the desired effect, but capturing the motion blur of the car in a spot where it wasn’t going to obscure Lani would definitely be a challenge. With my camera settings dialed in, all I had to do was set the shutter to burst mode and keep my fingers crossed for an exposure at the right moment.

I left the shoot not knowing if I had captured the frame I really wanted. I knew I had made several hundred attempts and would need to sift through the pile when I got home. Luckily, I was excited to find this one single winner amongst a MASSIVE pile of losers. I love the car zooming left, while Lani’s gaze points right, and how her gaze directs you to a mysterious half patch of art in the window behind her. Three or four hundred exposures of this particular composition, and this was the ONLY one worth keeping. Timing is everything!