I have another friend. We talk a lot when we are together and we try to fix the world's problems...! His name is Carlos Salinas and he is a professional photographer and Karate-ka living in Calgary.
One day, we were talking about photographing and he told me: "Photographing is like doing Kumite!"
Again, as a good Sensei doesn't say much, he just told me briefly what he means and, typical of me, I didn't ask much...
Many months went by and I kept taking photos occasionally. At the same time, his words crossed my mind.
Sometimes, I managed to take a nice picture but it was just beginner's luck and most of the time I missed the good opportunities... "Ah! this is a nice scene and I want to capture it with my camera", after this thought I first had to get ready to take a picture. By the time finished, it was already another moment and the scene I wanted to take wasn't there any more.
I got ready and was waiting for the same scene to happen again... Of course, the scene I wanted to take never came back or happened!!
I am sure most of you who are parents have experienced something like this...
For example, you want to take a photo of your child smiling but when you point the camera they don't smile or when you ask them to smile it is not natural...
I literary understood what my friend Carlos had said but I couldn't apply it to photographing.
I got frustrated and the time just went by...
When I visited him on another occasion, we again were talking about the world's problems and were trying to fix it! As always, we ended up talking about photographing. I was asking him to find out how not to miss opportunities... His answer was "same as Kumite"!
So we started talking about Kumite instead of photographing and after while...
Guess what? "Ahaa...!" I realized and visualized the answer.
During Kumite, we presume what is happening the next moment and we get ready to react for it... either block the opponents attack, or you attack before your opponent is moving in or moving back and so on. But it happens in a very short moment, in 0.01 sec or even shorter... The next moment is a different scenario so you never get your opponent. When you see the opportunity, it is already too late! When you see what your opponent is going to do it is already too late! you have to be one step ahead...
So you have to know or be able to see, or may be feel what your opponent would do next. In other words, you already see the moment you want before it is happening, you prepare for that situation and then react accordingly... the more you practice and experience, the more often you succeed and make less mistakes. The probability of your predictions gets higher and it won't be a lucky punch anymore...!
I now practice to predict what will happen before the scene comes up! If I miss it or if it is not happening what I was expecting, then I just let go and wait or look for another opportunity and scene...
Extra:
I learned I don't need a good camera to take a good photograph but I found out there is a limitation with it.
So now I want a another camera, a good SLR camera...
Being a good driver doesn't mean you can drive fast. You need a fast car to drive faster...
Often, good equipment is important for the better performance...
Do Karate-ka need a good "machine"?
Yes, we need a good machine which is our mind and body, for the better performance!
So we have to practice to maintain and make them better!!
Mind you, most of us have very good machines but we don't know how to control!!!
Content copyright 2009-2010. Shinji Akita. All rights reserved.
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