Caught in Motion or On the Way

The question is really about whether you prefer action frozen in time or blurred indicating that it is in the midst of happening. I hear a voice saying, "That's not how real life moves along. In real life you can't change a setting, slow down your shutter speed, increase your shutter speed—control life's speed."

How many times do we see life in slow motion? I recall a bloody nose in first grade. The school nurse called my mother and asked her to pick me up. I waited in the nurse's office for what seemed like hours. Time slowed down and the door never opened. The clock's hands were caught in one position. The hours were probably ten or fifteen minutes.

I heard someone who had been in a car accident say that the car that hit his car appeared frozen in space before ramming into his car. And that moment before impact lasted for an eternity.

Sometimes the action is blurred, moving quickly from one spot to another. The rapidity almost eradicates the actors. "Did that happen?" The edges, like the bleary photo, lack sharpness. It isn't possible to pinpoint the action or the actors. "What does it all mean." Clarity shrouded in haze.

Tomorrow I'll go outside and attempt to manipulate time by playing with shutter speed. Perhaps I'll take a photo of the young man who wears a hooded gray sweatshirt—pants hanging low enough to reveal skin—as he shuffles along, skateboard tucked under his arm. Slow speed and I've captured him in the rhthym of adolescence , fast speed and I've frozen an iconic photo of his life.