Continuous shooting mode is for more than simply capturing sports action. We don't always have to strive for a peak action moment depicting time halted: a dog frozen in mid-air leaping for a Frisbee, a tobogganer launching from sharp bump in the slope or any of a thousand other exciting moments captured at the peak of the action. No, continuous shooting mode can be used to carve quiet moments out of a hectic activity.
This little girl can be a live wire, a tightly wound little bundle quickly fraying at the seams. Her smiles are grand but fleeting. They stick in one's memory but can be hard to capture with a camera. When she started bouncing, literally bouncing, about the room, I slipped my camera into continuous shooting mode and began firing. I cranked off more than five hundred pictures.
This moment was truly fleeting. She had bounded across the room and stopped quickly by grabbing the iron bed. She brushed her hair back and then with a solid yank on the bed she quickly exited stage right.
The moment is a bit of a lie. Oh, it happened. It had to have happened. I have the picture. But no one watching would have seen this moment. This is a purely photographic moment and a very good one at that.
Does the image show a side of the child with which we are all familiar? I'd say, "Yes." Is it a fair representation of what was happening Sunday? I'd have to confess, "No." And yet, I love this picture.
In the larger scheme of things, this is a very good picture of this little girl. It is both good and accurate. Anyone knowing her would recognize the expression and the gesture. It is a fine picture and I have no qualms about having shot a pile of images per second until I had burned through more than 500 images in order to get it.
I've got a fine shot, a fine family memory picture, and that is all that is important.
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