almost a kiss

That moment just before contact. Sometimes it is tough to catch. When I look over a serries of photos from a wedding or an engagement shoot I often see two couples with faces smashed together and think ... wow they look goofy. Most people look kinda strange. Either her nose is pushed up or his lips are off center or something. We never really think about it for two reasons.
1) When we kiss our eyes are generally closed so we don't see the squish
2) When people kiss it happens so quickly that we don't have time to take notice of any distortion or goofy faces that are created when faces collide.

The moment before the kiss has such a build of anticipation. Everyone knows what is about to happen. It is like having a snapshot of two cars driving at 80mph on a collision course seconds before the impact. What is about to happen makes us brace. In the same way we see an image like this and it makes us think about all that will happen. It builds drama and weight to an image. You have to think ahead though. An image like this doesn't just happen - you have to plan for it. It isn't a hard image to capture - but it doesn't usually happen by accident. It is a detail. Something a lot of photographers don't think about - but something ever photographer should tune in for.

Most of the time "the shot" happens before the action - so look for the details and enjoy the anticipation.