One wild eye stares at me as I am offered fruit by an old lady who sits looking out over Hillat Mina at 5pm. I’m not sure what she is saying but the grapes aren’t bad, and I know I will return in a day or two with a local contact and get the story. For the moment, I lean in, and ignoring what I just said at the workshop – that whole bit of spending time with the subject, the quieter approach, the soft step – focus on that glorious grey eye and shoot, shoot while I wait for things around her to fall into place at the same moment she does something. Shoot while the boy blurs in the foreground, the Pakistani passes through, the girl shows up in the lane behind, the fruit stick out, the head lifts up, the eyes widen. 14 frames before she knew what was happening: a lousy approach that guaranteed results. A story might follow, but right now 14 frames of an old woman add up to one paragraph.
© 2008 Pinaki
