This was the end of a long day of shooting street. When I am out doing my work, I like to spend a full complete day out (normally sunrise to sometime after midnight).As I am out taking these fleeting moments from life, and I always feel like I have a bad case of FOMO (fear of missing out) of the next great image.

This fear can also be defined as that one moment that will define me as an artist. I would argue that there is some Dopamine rush I have associated with ‘the decisive moment’ we are all searching for, as photographers. In my five years of almost daily shooting, I had that full dopamine rush experience maybe seven times. Something happens in my brain, and it all clicks. Time slows down and I have a moment. I just know. This is gonna be a solid image.

That happened to me with this image. I purposefully got off the train two stops away. I’m constantly on the chase 🤓. It was well past midnight, and I was sure the street would be empty. Luckily I was wrong. The stars aligned, the wind blew, and this person lined himself up in my sites.

Compositionally, I did not have to do much in post. For editing purposes, I did run the image through Silver EFEX Pro and apply the Kodak Tri-X film simulation to this rather flat RAW image. I absolutely love the contrast and grain structure of Kodak Tri-X film, and I definitely wanted this piece to have that feel in the end.

Finally, I think the subject is backlit so well. That fact, coupled with contrast of the silhouette of the subject, gives a certain mood to the image. I like this piece.

Let me know what you think about this image. And thanks so much for reading this work.

Maurice