On Mar 6, 2011, at 11:07 PM, Boris Liberman wrote: > On 3/4/2011 1:50 AM, Bob W wrote: >> This chap must have one: >> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12618167> >> >> B > > Thanks, Bob. That made my day today. > > It is interesting to notice that throughout the narrative he mentions that he > shoots a lot and brings back enormous amount of images. It is, as he > explains, because he's very picky about his images. Seems somewhat connected > to the last few threads Larry has started regarding his photography.
If you go to this collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/collections/72157625015584626/ And bear in mind that I've been shooting 24 exposure rolls in the Argus, you can see that I am capable of photographing at a more judicious frame rate, and still getting decent shots. The sets labeled "snapshots" are each a roll of film and I got between 5 and 20 decent ones out each roll. At the end of the week I got about 43 keepers out of about 200 frames. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157624809385751/ The Rollei sets don't really count because they were pretty much all experimenting with the camera. One thing that racks up my shutter count is that I'm not looking for good photos, I'm looking to get the very best photo that I can. So, I'll keep shooting until I get it right. Another thing that racks up my frame count is that when I'm taking photos of people, it's really tough to get a good expression on their face, especially if they aren't professional models. I could stop and chimp after each and every frame, but that would take longer, and would interrupt the flow a lot more than just taking several frames in the time it would take me to chimp one. Action shots are a similar situation, because it's hard to capture the right instant. That is one reason pros used to use motordrives, and cameras marketed towards sports photographers have high frame rates. When you consider that a lot of my photography is action shots, in light where I have to push the camera to ISO 3200-6400, shooting wide open, sometimes as slow as 1/6 second, and it is dark enough that auto focus doesn't work, I need to take a lot of frames just to get one that is clear, multiply that by needing to take a lot of frames to catch the right moment, and the frame rates mount up. I don't think of myself as a professional photographer. I think of myself as a hobbyest that aspires to professional quality work, and occasionally a professional quality paycheck. I'm curious about the keeper ratio that the real pros on this list get when they are on assignment. When Doug, or John are at the racetrack, is it "one shot one keeper", "spray and pray" or something in between? Likewise when taking pictures of people, do the pros keep one shot in five or one in twenty five? And is it different between professional and amateur models? Many years ago I used to play with a medieval recreation group called the SCA. One of the things that I'd do is put on armor, and spar with rattan broadswords. I learned that I could make up for a lot of skill with aggression, if I threw a lot of shots, they were too busy blocking to swing back at me. In photography, I think I do the same thing, I make up for my lack of skill by taking a lot of shots. I keep trying different things until I get the shot right. Maybe someday, I'll be able to walk up, see the perfect composition, and my camera will have perfect autofocus and perfect metering, and I'll be able to nail the shot on the first try. But these days it's more a case of my seeing something interesting, setting the exposure, taking a test shot, checking the histograms and blinkies, resetting the exposure, taking another test shot, checking the composition, correcting the composition, correcting the exposure again because the new angle changed the exposure requirements, and realizing that I should bracket in case I ever care enough about the shot to use HDR to bring out all of the detail in both the sun and the shade, lather rinse repeat. Then, invariably, on the next shot, I take about 10 frames trying to nail the exposure, with it inexplicably changing on me every frame, before I realize that I had left bracketing turned on. If I were a good photographer, I wouldn't do that. -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
