There are times when you seek out to make an image. Searching to find it is one thing, but being there long enough is everything.

So here I was with a group of various photographers, gathered together to share a day taking pictures at the Gold Coast Train Museum  in Miami, Fl. which was a perfect and willing subject.

After spending a few hours shooting the exteriors of the trains  I needed a break from the sun. I stepped inside one of the older cars and sat in one of the seats. My thoughts brought back memories of summer vacations , leaving New York, to visit my grandmother in Tampa, Fl., by a train just like this one, when train travel was more common.

I set the Blad on the tripod and took my time framing the scene. Just as I thought that I had found a perfect image, I looked down to focus, as an older gentlemen came inside tapping his cane followed by his younger granddaughter. As she sat down to duck my camera..

he asked: ” Am I in the picture?”  I raised my head slowly, as though to receive Holy Communion and answered emphatically

” You are the picture “ ..

I asked the gentleman if he could just stay where he was and if he could remember a time he might have traveled in this type of car. He did… it was during WWll, taking him, a young soldier to his training camp… and lost in his memories, he struck a pose, cane in hand. I released the shutter and like in a matador’s “moment of truth,”  time stood still long enough to steal it and become mine.

There are moments in photography that we look for but never find, but once in while, when we stop looking and take the time to connect to our surroundings,  the moment finds us.

 #trains#hassleblad#photography#miamiphotographer