IT was raining on Tuesday on South Beach when a photographer positioned himself outside a black Lincoln Town Car and waited. He didn't wait long.

Carlitos — mid-exit, one foot still on the car step, door half-open — looked directly into the lens a full half-second before his arm came up. Too late. The shutter had already fired.

The flash blowout caught everything: the suit, the rain on the pavement, the neon reflections of Ocean Drive behind him. The only photograph in recent memory that shows him without control of the frame.

He recovered in under two seconds. Stepped onto the sidewalk. Said nothing. Walked into the building. The photographer was gone before security reached the street.