You write: If you think too much, you lose the moment.

That is a statement in which its use depends on what kind of a photographer you are. I was a magazine photographer from 1977 until journalism, magazines and newspapers became moribund in my Vancouver and perhaps everywhere else. I was once assigned to photograph a boxing match. There I was right next to a Vancouver Sun photographer Steve Bosch who was the expert on boxing because he always worked the night shift. A young good looking boxer noticed that the old man he was pummeling had lowered his guard and his trainer had thrown the towel. The young boxer looked back at the officials and notice that they had not seen the throwing of the towel. So the young boxer walloped the old man who fell like a stone. I was so astounded that I did not get my shot. Bosch did. Why? Because he was the newspaper photographer and I wasn’t. When Eddie Adams photographed the South Vietnamese Police Chief executing a Vietcong sympathizer I could not have taken that shot either.

I like to pre plan my photographs and unlike Cartier-Bresson I don’t wait for decisive moments but make them happen.

You might enjoy reading about the career of Osmond Borradaile who happened to be the man who discovered Sabu in India. He was also a very good stills photographer with his Leica.

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2006/03/osmond-hudson-borradaile-man-who-found_06.html

Alex Waterhouse-Hayward — Vancouver BC