The Pain of Near Misses

One of the most painful yet educational experiences about photography is the near miss. It's a shot that's almost exactly what you wanted, but doesn't quite cut the mustard. You might've gotten the composition just right, but the model closed her eyes just when you hit the shutter. Or maybe you got the exposure ever so slightly wrong and totally blew the highlights or lost the shadows. Or got the exposure, shutter speed, panning, and moment just right... but blew the focus:

I still hate myself for blowing this one -- I haven't gotten quite as good a motion capture of my dog since.

There are a lot of near misses on Photosig. It's hard to let them go, but you have to do it, if you want to progress as a photographer.