I was quick on the draw when I saw this boy turning to look back at me. I also had my camera readily on hand, shooting architecture and street photography. Sometimes, we are lucky. I only had one picture of this event, so I successfully grabbed my one and only chance.

Of course, having a 24-70mm zoom and a fast-focusing camera system with AI-based people detection helped tremendously. And because I was using a 70mm lens at f/2.8, I was able to achieve a pleasing amount of background separation.

Thinking about how the old masters shot these scenes with manual-focus cameras, you had to be equally lucky, but with much more significant limitations in the equipment. They might have been shooting with a 50mm focal length, which is very popular for street photography. The odds are you shot at a near f/8 and zone-focused, creating a less-blurred background. Most likely, it would’ve been in black and white.

Their photograph could still be compelling, but would look and feel different. You needed more expertise to execute pictures like this in the past, and the sense of accomplishment would be even greater than it is now with all our computer-aided photography.

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