There is something magical about the un-posed and un-poised moments in life. The moments that you could never plan for, don’t anticipate, and can’t possibly recreate. This momentary, fleeting magic is part of the reason why I love photographing animals and adventure sports so much.
We humans have grown up around cameras so much that even so young, we are hyper-aware of a camera pointed at us, and we stop acting naturally. We start smiling more, holding our posture better, sucking un our guts. We pose, even unintentionally, for the picture. Animals, however, usually don’t know any better. Unless someone has trained their dog to “pose” to a camera, animals don’t care what is pointed at them and when. They live in the moment, they live freely, and they don’t have an opinion whether their neck is saggy or their teeth are crooked, so they don’t bother trying to cover it up.
Similarly, when someone is engrossed in their sport, committed to their craft, and focused on their goals, they are not paying attention to me. When someone is rock climbing or mountain biking at their hardest, they don’t have the energy to pose for the camera: everything they have is put into the route or the trail, and they show a little glimmer of what they’re really made of.
It is always my goal to capture the un-posed, even in other photo shoots. The moments where no one is watching me, or when I’ve been clicking away so long that my subjects forget I’m there, or that I even have a camera at all. No one can stay posed forever, so if you just keep clicking, eventually their facade will crack, and you will break through to their true selves. Their goofy, awkward, and true selves.
Un-posed, un-poised, and beautiful.