Finding the Magical Shots
It's time for our latest installment of Behind the Lens, where Creator and Director Chris Yates discusses how Emmaus: The Nature of the Way got to where it is today. Take a listen and read along below, and don't miss our next addition to the series, coming soon!
23 Jesuits over three days with three different posses garnered just over 3,000 photographs. This number will be narrowed down to 66 final photographs. This is quite the weeding out process and we get a lot of questions about how we pick “the one.” Choosing our selections is a large process that takes many passes through each photograph. The first thing we can weed out are the accidents: The blinks, sneezes, yawns, and everything in between. The next pass we will do is look for more minor mistakes. These mistakes include cropping issues, alignment issues, and even lighting issues.
During each session we asked the Jesuits to do a very difficult thing: To get lost in the lens. This brought about a meditation, which was helped by the soft instrumental music we played in the background as well. Photography is the art of capturing the moment and 99% of that moment cannot be fabricated. We have to wait until the moment arises and pressing the shutter feels natural. 85% of the shoots we did, we simply stopped after that photograph was captured as both Robert and I knew that “This was the one” often proclaimed by screaming abruptly “We got it! Moving on!” Sometimes this moment comes after the very last photograph is taken or the very first. But just like the Jesuits, we are very practical as well – we always get safety shots.
This magical shot that we strive for is quite obvious when you see it in a line with all the other photographs. So narrowing down 3,000 to 66 seems like a very difficult task, it actually brings great joy, being able to relive those “moments” that we captured.
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