There are two broad ways to photograph people. You can direct them — arrange the pose, the light, the expression — or you can document them, watching and waiting for something true to happen on its own. Both are legitimate, and most photographers, myself included, live somewhere on the spectrum between them rather than at either extreme.
I lean toward the documentary end. Posed portraits have their place, especially for family groups and the handful of pictures people specifically want, and I’m happy to offer gentle direction when it helps. But the photographs I treasure most are the ones nobody performed for: the unguarded laugh, the quiet glance between two people who forgot the camera was there. You can’t pose your way to that. You can only be patient, stay unobtrusive, and be ready when it arrives.
Waiting is harder than directing. It means accepting that some moments simply won’t happen on cue, and resisting the urge to manufacture a substitute. But when you do catch the real thing, everyone can feel the difference — even if they can’t say why.