I forgot to mention this until now but the camera that takes photos first and focuses later is now a real product. For a starting price of $399, you can own one.
while browsing today, I came across the flickr of a haunted house that at an identical moment in the walkthrough of the house, fires a strobe and takes a picture right as the patrons are most scared. it actually makes for some extremely interesting photographs. the most interesting thing however, is simply how many of these shots there are. they have hundreds from each month of operation. as someone who stages photos, and tries meticulously to get people to look at least kind of scared, im finding this to be some great source material.