Rogg4n
How not to take a picture ? - Piran - Slovenia
After my last story about the difficulties of planning a shot, let’s go to the opposite way : how not to take a picture ?
It’s a commonplace among amateur photographers on holidays : how to manage the desire to take pictures, the desire to have some rest, and the desire of others (wife, husband, child, friends, … ) of you NOT spending all the time taking pictures? How not to slow everyone else in a wandering when you wait for this butterfly to open its wings for the 7th time in order to be sure that you can get a 7th good shot “just in case” ? How not to prevent everyone from having a well-deserved meal after a long day walking (and waiting for you), and this precisely at the worst hour (aka the best for you) : the golden one ? How not to ruin their day by asking them to wake at inappropriate time in order to avoid people and get a decent light ?
Let’s be honest : the requirements of good photo seem to be – ironically – the exact opposite of the requirements of good vacations. And, as any other amateur-photographer-that-like-to-think-that-he-is-not-a-tourist-but-knows-very-well-that-it’s-exactly-what-he-is, you develop many strategies to manage your desire to be a good photographer and your desire to be a good husband/wife/dad/mom/friend and so on …
Some couples or families found THE strategy, which is quite simple : being all photography nerds ! Is there anything better that spending hours together four-footed at the first few meters of a pathway leading … you don’t even remember where … waiting for the butterfly to spread it’s wing for the 7th time ? Who cares about being back before dark ? Who care about sleeping or eating ? Who cares about going somewhere after all ? What matters is taking pictures ! I probably envy a little bit these couple of passionate people, but I still think that the “no limit” attitude in photography is also a little bit dangerous …
So my wife DON’T share my will of taking special pictures. She likes the fact that I bring back some souvenirs (she makes beautiful album back home), but she really don’t see the point of eating at 22pm because “it’s maybe possible that the light could become just a little bit better in a few minutes”.
So what are my strategies ? The first and the best : waking up early and being back when she wakes up. This let me HOURS to take nice shots in best light conditions. However, I still have to find strategies when I am with her. So the second one is simple : telling her that “it’s maybe possible that the light could become just a little bit better in a few minutes” and hoping she’ll understand; what she does … sometimes. The third one is to be confident, quick and effective : taking the right shot once for all and not needing to take 55 more shots with and without the little tree in the background just to be sure that I have a good one (which always turns out to be the first).
My last strategy, which I am still practicing, is to evaluate my chance to get an interesting shot in order to determine if it’s worth spending time on a picture or not. How many times did I fill up my memory card with 74 bracketed versions of the same shot before realizing, back home in front of my computer, that it has no interest at all ? Sometimes, there’s memorable things that can’t give you a memorable shot. In this cases, it’s probably better to take one picture and to live the moment …
That’s what I decided to do on this evening, in our last evening in Piran (Slovenia). We were sitting in a very nice Restaurant facing the sea, enjoying seafood spaghettis with grilled vegetables. The atmosphere was very nice and I had the will of being a good husband (for once). So I saw the sunset, tried to look relaxed and tried to convince myself that sunset shots are just cliché and that there’s nothing interesting to do with them anyway. I am pretty sure I was really good at doing this and that my secret desire to leave the table to take pictures was INVISIBLE ! However, my wife still told me a couple of time things like “Ok go ! I’ll wait” or “I don’t care as long as you come back soon” and so on. Every time, I bravely declined telling her how important for me it was to stay with her enjoying the moment (which was true, at least partially !). So we just enjoyed the sunset while eating … until the moment this sunset turned to be really crazy : there was four different colors in the sky.
Then all these questions about when to take or not to take pictures vanished : it was just absolutely sublime ! She told me to go once more, this time she was not “letting me go”, she really wanted a souvenir of that crazy colors. So I grabbed my camera, climbed on the rocks and took this shot and a few others. After two minutes the light decreased and the magic disappeared. I was back at the table happy to have been there at the decisive moment …
And you, what are your strategies ? Thank you for reading !
How not to take a picture ? - Piran - Slovenia
After my last story about the difficulties of planning a shot, let’s go to the opposite way : how not to take a picture ?
It’s a commonplace among amateur photographers on holidays : how to manage the desire to take pictures, the desire to have some rest, and the desire of others (wife, husband, child, friends, … ) of you NOT spending all the time taking pictures? How not to slow everyone else in a wandering when you wait for this butterfly to open its wings for the 7th time in order to be sure that you can get a 7th good shot “just in case” ? How not to prevent everyone from having a well-deserved meal after a long day walking (and waiting for you), and this precisely at the worst hour (aka the best for you) : the golden one ? How not to ruin their day by asking them to wake at inappropriate time in order to avoid people and get a decent light ?
Let’s be honest : the requirements of good photo seem to be – ironically – the exact opposite of the requirements of good vacations. And, as any other amateur-photographer-that-like-to-think-that-he-is-not-a-tourist-but-knows-very-well-that-it’s-exactly-what-he-is, you develop many strategies to manage your desire to be a good photographer and your desire to be a good husband/wife/dad/mom/friend and so on …
Some couples or families found THE strategy, which is quite simple : being all photography nerds ! Is there anything better that spending hours together four-footed at the first few meters of a pathway leading … you don’t even remember where … waiting for the butterfly to spread it’s wing for the 7th time ? Who cares about being back before dark ? Who care about sleeping or eating ? Who cares about going somewhere after all ? What matters is taking pictures ! I probably envy a little bit these couple of passionate people, but I still think that the “no limit” attitude in photography is also a little bit dangerous …
So my wife DON’T share my will of taking special pictures. She likes the fact that I bring back some souvenirs (she makes beautiful album back home), but she really don’t see the point of eating at 22pm because “it’s maybe possible that the light could become just a little bit better in a few minutes”.
So what are my strategies ? The first and the best : waking up early and being back when she wakes up. This let me HOURS to take nice shots in best light conditions. However, I still have to find strategies when I am with her. So the second one is simple : telling her that “it’s maybe possible that the light could become just a little bit better in a few minutes” and hoping she’ll understand; what she does … sometimes. The third one is to be confident, quick and effective : taking the right shot once for all and not needing to take 55 more shots with and without the little tree in the background just to be sure that I have a good one (which always turns out to be the first).
My last strategy, which I am still practicing, is to evaluate my chance to get an interesting shot in order to determine if it’s worth spending time on a picture or not. How many times did I fill up my memory card with 74 bracketed versions of the same shot before realizing, back home in front of my computer, that it has no interest at all ? Sometimes, there’s memorable things that can’t give you a memorable shot. In this cases, it’s probably better to take one picture and to live the moment …
That’s what I decided to do on this evening, in our last evening in Piran (Slovenia). We were sitting in a very nice Restaurant facing the sea, enjoying seafood spaghettis with grilled vegetables. The atmosphere was very nice and I had the will of being a good husband (for once). So I saw the sunset, tried to look relaxed and tried to convince myself that sunset shots are just cliché and that there’s nothing interesting to do with them anyway. I am pretty sure I was really good at doing this and that my secret desire to leave the table to take pictures was INVISIBLE ! However, my wife still told me a couple of time things like “Ok go ! I’ll wait” or “I don’t care as long as you come back soon” and so on. Every time, I bravely declined telling her how important for me it was to stay with her enjoying the moment (which was true, at least partially !). So we just enjoyed the sunset while eating … until the moment this sunset turned to be really crazy : there was four different colors in the sky.
Then all these questions about when to take or not to take pictures vanished : it was just absolutely sublime ! She told me to go once more, this time she was not “letting me go”, she really wanted a souvenir of that crazy colors. So I grabbed my camera, climbed on the rocks and took this shot and a few others. After two minutes the light decreased and the magic disappeared. I was back at the table happy to have been there at the decisive moment …
And you, what are your strategies ? Thank you for reading !