I have been reading my way through “Annie Leibovitz At Work” and ran across the following passage:
“I didn’t start off thinking that the pictures would be so dark. That look was almost accidental. The first polaroids we took were badly exposed, and I loved them. As soon as you opened up the correct exposure they weren’t interesting. Whatever the meter reading was in the barn, we went down about two stops. The natural light was supplemented by lights that had been designed for music videos. They produced very flight light. The flattest light I’d ever used. As the light hit the body it would fall away, creating soft shadows and almost translucent shapes. I thought it was gorgeous. Very fleshy and strangely green. But there was very little information in the negative. My assistant begged me to get a brighter exposure. He said we could darken the print down later. I hear this all the time, even in digital work. The technician will say, “You can’t exposit like that. There’s no detail It’s blown-out.” But sometimes I want it to look like that. I don’t want to play it safe. And I lose control of the process if I don’t get what I want when I’m shooting. The nudes didn’t have the translucent quality when the film was exposed properly. 

The passage was a great reminder that sometimes the best photographs happen initially through an error. In this case it showed her something she would never have found if the exposure had been initially correct. Then used this mistake to create a number of images that are very striking and unique.

I think it also says something about being in the moment and reacting to what is in front of you rather than seeking deliberately. You have to be on “Flow.” 

In positive psychology, a flow state is a mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one’s sense of time.