NZ Visual Diary - entry 306

man with skateboard

Like so many things in life, success at street photography is a mix of skill honed by practice, focused patience and luck. Those elusive elements, preconditions for the capture of an evocative photograph, aligned in the moment I took this image.

I spotted this gentleman as I headed south on Queen Street at the beginning of a regular photo walkabout. He stood motionless, perhaps lost in thought about where to go next, his skateboard resting at his feet.

I was intrigued by his appearance. I studied his understated but deliberate look: cuffed jeans; wide lapel jacket with shirt collar pulled atop the jacket collar; an impressive, albeit unkempt, salt& pepper beard; mounds of hair pulled back and held in place with both hair ribbon and ponytail tie; sunglasses stowed on head.

And then, there was his skateboard. I bring baggage here. As I have aged, my balance has significantly diminished . . . not that I was ever a graceful dancer or talented gymnast. I am appreciably less steady on my feet than I used to be. So, I watched with envy as the gentleman across the street eyed his skateboard. Furthermore, I suspected that a photographic moment was afoot (I know, really lame pun, twice-baked).

Not wishing to signal that I planned to take a photograph, I kept my camera at my waist, hoping that my current exposure settings would suffice. What came next was unexpected: like the teen-aged boys with skateboards I photographed some months back, today’s photographic subject flicked his foot on the front edge of his skateboard and deftly caught it in his hand.

Practice, attentive patience and some luck enabled me to capture the board’s movement in the perfect arc from ground to waiting hand.