The Photograph I Almost Didn’t Take

This wasn’t supposed to be the photograph. I’d gone to the pier to photograph the Supermoon. I’d planned the shot, checked the forecast, packed my gear… and then the clouds rolled in.

I was irritated.

Actually, if I’m being completely honest, I pouted like a two-year-old for about thirty minutes because the photograph I’d come to make wasn’t going to happen.

Eventually I realized something. I was already standing under one of the most beautiful piers on the North Carolina coast. Maybe I should stop worrying about the photograph I couldn’t make and pay attention to the one I could.

So I flipped the center column on my tripod upside down and hung my camera just a few inches above the sand. One hand held the remote shutter. The other hovered inches from the tripod, ready to grab the camera if a larger wave rolled in before the tripod decided to become part of the Atlantic.

Wave after wave rolled underneath the pier. Eventually, everything lined up.

The light.

The symmetry.

The water.

The moment.

I drove home without the Supermoon photograph I’d planned. Instead, I came home with one of my favorite photographs I’ve ever taken.

Sometimes the best images aren’t the ones you plan.

They’re the ones you almost never take.