How to capture the shot

True or false: good photographers nail it first time?

Before you answer, take a look at this photograph by Dorothea Lange, taken during the extreme hardships of America’s Great Depression.

Just look at that deeply preoccupied gaze. The turned heads of the children. That delicately placed hand and that strong vertical forearm. This image has an intensity that makes it totally compelling.

Migrant Mother is the iconic finale to a few other, not so amazing, photographs. But if Lange hadn’t taken those other shots, she’d never have captured this one.

When shooting, give yourself time and keep probing. Often the act of taking pictures leads you to what you’re looking for.

Photography isn’t about hitting a winner with every click. Getting the shot is a process. Here Lange needed to spend time observing, waiting, shooting – and she didn’t stop until she found what she was looking for.

With every shot she edged slowly forward. This built a mutual trust between subject and photographer. In the end, it was this patient, methodical process that made the difference between something meh and something magnificent.

Migrant Mother

Dorothea Lange

1936

Sunday 25th June 2006, 23:42 from ‘Cardiff After Dark’

Maciej Dakowicz

2006