Libre Magazine

Victory was not made for him; he felt like a born loser. It was competition no 143 that he had lost. He couldn’t even make it to top ten. Seven years of work all seemed blurry and out of focus. His thinking process slowed down as he stood there on the sidewalk; holding a piece of paper announcing another photography competition to be held next month. “Lets make it 144″ he added another defeat to his score. His photography had soul, just not enough luck.

Seven years back when he stepped into a Cannon store to buy his first film SLR camera, he was a novice to the art of photography; all he had was an unmatched, undying passion and no skills.

“Check this out”, said the sales officer showing him Elan7E, “it takes four shots in a second, you can freeze a top speed Ferrari with this.”

“I don’t think I would ever need that, I am more into still life photography” he said while taking a look at other features of the camera. He had decided this was the camera he would begin his photography career with.

Over the years, he captured life through the eye of his lens; at the same time he learnt how to see the world without a camera. Faces, young and old; scenes, fresh and stale; places, strange and acquainted; he had frozen all the natural moments that roamed around him. No one had to tell him, he knew he was a good photographer; ironically, just not good enough to win.

He stood there holding the camera in his hand, staring at it without a thought, when he realized he had never tried the continuous shots option; the one that would take four pictures every second on single touch of a button. He turned the auto-focus on and set the shooting mode to the continuous one and stared towards his right looking for a fast moving object he could capture. There were some kids approaching him riding their bikes; he stepped into the street to get a better angle.

A fast moving car was zooming in on his left and the driver of the car had no time to react to a man with a camera sliding right across him. As soon as the car hit him, the jerk caused him to push the button and before it jumped out of his hand, it had started shooting.

The camera flew in the air as the car swirled and hit a pole across the street and stopped; he fell on the ground motionless. The only moving thing was the camera with consecutive clicks. A horrible sound in that sudden silence … click click click click … four pictures every second.

The camera then fell on the ground right in front of him; the metal body and lens took the shock and it kept taking the photos. Click click click click. Nine seconds and the film roll was all finished; the camera started rewinding the film with a melancholic sound. His whole life rewound itself in his eyes and he stared a painful look at his camera before closing them forever.

One month later, that series of 36 photos, won him his first competition.

Based on a storyline for a teleplay.