When taking photos many skills come into play, but arguable the most important skill of all is patience. Photography is the art of catching the right image at the right moment in the right light. The best composition and the lighting won’t make up for bad timing in most situations. While great timing can offset composition or lighting that isn’t perfect. Basically, if you miss the moment there is no photograph.

Catching that moment is a mixture of patience and speed. All of the other skills become important at that very moment. If you aren’t proficient in the use of your camera, or doesn’t understand how light works or get lost in the composition then you’ll still miss that moment; but without patience you’ll miss the opportunity to miss the shot.

The photo I’m using as an example, is one of my favorite photos. It’s a shot I just can’t get where I live by virtue of being landlocked. It’s one of those, once in a lifetime photos. Might the chance present itself again; maybe but I would have to implement even greater patience measured in days or weeks not minutes and seconds.

I was visiting my brother in Los Angeles and we went to Manhattan Beach. While we walked around we checked out the pier and all the people enjoying a California fall. As we walked down the beach path i saw the sun was was about to set and do so with the pier in the foreground. Then I noticed a sail boat meandering on a path to cross the setting sun on the horizon. I began taking some photos to help figure out the lighting and the composition I wanted. From 6:04 to 6:05 I took about 8 photos. I was using a pocket camera so I didn’t have a burst mode, it’s as shoot and recompose. The 7th image ended up being “the one.” The sail boat was exactly where I wanted it. I had the image already in my head before it happened, but I had to be patient and wait for that moment to arrive. When it did I got the shot I wanted. The shot I imagined.

It’s not an amazing photo, but it’s a good photo and quite simply one of my favorite photos and I’ve taken many, many thousands of images. To me it’s the kind of photo you see on posters or books showing what many imagine when they dream of life on the west coast. Had I not combined my skills of composition with patience, the image would have passed me by like a ship on the horizon.