Is it posed or not?

There has been a lot of talk among my friends about a photo I took during a wedding. The photo is of a dear friend who happened to be a bridesmaid in a beautiful September wedding. The photo was taken in a hotel room and was lit by both window light and incondessent room lights. It has been sweetened a little in PhotoShop, but in general what you see is what you get. So is it posed or isn’t?

Not only isn’t this photo posed, she didn’t even know it was being taken. The truth is she was dialing the bride’s father on a cell phone to make sure the ceremony was being set up properly.

I like to call myself a documentary photographer because I capture the action as it unfolds before my lens. Twelve different photographers will document the scene in twelve different ways. Knowing when to push the shutter and how to compose an image makes all the difference in finding a certain photo. The photograph I am looking for is the beautiful and the expressive. This is the reason why a candid moment I find may look like a portrait and an expressive moment may look like a master painting.