I don't remember who I quoted recently in some other discussion specific to street photography, but the quote was something to the effect of 'EVERY good street shot requires tremendous luck - the skill is putting yourself in the position and knowing your equipment well enough to be there when the luck happens'. After playing at this for a solid couple of years now, I couldn't agree more. I took/made (your choice) that shot when I felt I was just starting to get a handle on the techniques I still use now. I'd just gotten an LX5, had started using zone focus, and was doing a lot of shooting from the hip/belly/waist, framing on instinct. I'm much better at this now than I was then, so I miss a LOT fewer shots - back then I missed a lot. I just didn't happen to miss that one.
I was shooting the way I often do - walking leisurely down the street, constantly scanning the groups of people and faces I was walking toward, just trying to spot a "moment" developing, or one already happening that looked like it might last a few seconds longer, constantly moving and scanning and reacting. This gal was one of several young women walking around with balloons harnessed to them advertising the Aeropostal store in Times Square. As I was walking toward her, she was hamming it up for some of the people around me (she was promoting, after all) and as I turned the camera toward her, I guess she spotted it and turned toward me just as I snapped the shutter. The posters in the background? I was vaguely aware of them but if you thought I had ANYTHING to do with lining her up with the Mama Mia poster with the woman in essentially the same pose, you'd be VERY VERY wrong. I didn't notice all of it until I saw the photo on the screen a few minutes later. So, a LOT of luck, but it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been looking very intently for people and groups of people and things to shoot. I don't think street shooting happens because you're just walking down the street minding your own business and then you see something and think, "Oh, cool, I think I'll take a photo of that" - maybe occasionally, but not often. I think it happens because your on the street, maybe walking, and you're very intently minding everyone's business BUT your own, just looking for some interesting moment or juxtaposition or just an interesting looking enough person. And you try to spot and anticipate and shoot and you, or at least I, will miss far more opportunities than I'll hit. And once you miss, you can't go back and try again - when you miss it, its gone and you just have to move on and look for the next opportunity.
Make? Take? I don't know - your call... I'd lean more towards TAKE, the only thing i MADE was the opportunity.
BTW, the next time I was in New York City, about a year later, I was shooting in Times Square again one night and made a conscious effort to recreate something like that shot. The best I came up with was this:
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That one was definitely MADE. And its a lot less successful. Its OK, but it lacks the spontaneity and energy of the first one.
So, that's the story behind that shot. And its really the same story behind almost any of my shots that work at all. That's how I shoot. I put myself in position to get lucky by working hard at it when I'm out there - its a pretty involved and tiring endeavor that I can only do for a few hours at a time. And I still only get lucky a small percentage of the time, but the more time I spend working at it, the more often it happens.
-Ray