How many shots ??

scott199

scott199

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Just a quick one, got thinking the other afternoon, im very disappointed with most of my pics,

now i generally know whats wrong, but by that time i am home and missed the day.

So when you out for a day or half a day how many shots would you take. ???

My thinking is, should i be taking a lot less pictures and spend more time framing, getting setting right, and come home and hope i got something worth keeping.

Or do i just Just go for quantity and hope their is something worth keeping.

I know its a bit random, but to be it in context, if i shoot my sons U/15's football game, i will come home with maybe 50-60 pics.

When i take some pics of the dogs out and about maybe 20-30.

the whole afternoon in the snow with the family i took 76.

So what or could you give me an idea of what you do or take in these times ???

cheers
wayne
 
scott199 said:
Just a quick one, got thinking the other afternoon, im very disappointed with most of my pics,

now i generally know whats wrong, but by that time i am home and missed the day.

So when you out for a day or half a day how many shots would you take. ???

My thinking is, should i be taking a lot less pictures and spend more time framing, getting setting right, and come home and hope i got something worth keeping.

Or do i just Just go for quantity and hope their is something worth keeping.

I know its a bit random, but to be it in context, if i shoot my sons U/15's football game, i will come home with maybe 50-60 pics.

When i take some pics of the dogs out and about maybe 20-30.

the whole afternoon in the snow with the family i took 76.

So what or could you give me an idea of what you do or take in these times ???

cheers
wayne
Click to expand...

I don't consider myself a prolific shooter, but those numbers remind me of my film days.

I'd never recommend spray and pray, but at a football came I'd expect to be in the hundreds.
 
As above, when doing cars, or bikes or generally sport hundreds are more what I am coming home with, dependant on the number of cars or bikes, I came away taking 768 photos the other week from Cadwell
 
At a full day shooting at an airshow last year I took nearly 2800 shots. Out of those I pared them down to just over a 1000, taking into account the shots that I didn't get the framing right, misfocussed or just too small on the photo etc. That's about the only time I take a high number like that, on a day to the zoo or something similar I usually get between 5-800 and at parties and events it's usually no more than 200 max.
 
For many pros 50 shots would be just 5 seconds of shooting at a football game, I too would expect anyone to be shooting in the hundreds a game ( given shooting at the fastest frame rate of your camera )
 
As said above, your numbers are reminiscent of film-days; low.

A day out with the Kids to Bosworth Battle re-enactment last summer, resulted in.... 314 pictures. 270 images, though some likely to be selective crops of others, made it to Face-Book as record of the day for the family.

Trip to local park, in the snow, to watch the kids tobogganing? There for maybe a couple of hours; 176 frames taken, 60 made it to Face-Book.

My Daughter's figure skating practice? about 45minutes; 509 shots; 82 made it to Face-Book.

What makes it to Face-Book, of course isn't necessarily 'The best', but the primary cull taking out the real dross; for the family to see. Out of them, there may be three or four that might make a 'headline' photo, worthy of printing and sticking on the mantle-piece.... if I'm lucky!

So sounds like you need to shoot more, not less; but how much, is circumstance dependent; footie or skating or other action will take more pics than a walk in the park.

But don't forget why you are there, in the first place. All too easy, to get so involved in taking photo's, of I dont know; a family party, a day on the beach with the kids, you dont actually 'take-part'.... photo's of your kids building a sand-castle is good.... actually building that sand-castle with them better, blurry photo after of you, kids and sand-castle after, icing on the cake, kind of thing!
 
Out with the family for a day - at least 700+ shots which are then reviewed in a viewer before editing and the real bad ones (blurred, oof etc) discarded and the rest edited and displayed for the family to see.

On holiday in good weather at least 1000+ for 2 weeks.

Overall in a year at least 10,000 general shots.

.
 
I used to shoot 35mm film and in those days the most I could afford was 1 or two rolls a week, so I was careful to ensure that I only went for the shots that were worth it,

When I moved to digital I was like a kid in a candy store and shot until I'd filled my card, then put in a new one.

After a while I realised the quantity might have gone up but the quality hadn't, I was snapping, not photographing, I needed to slow down and think about shots before taking them.
I then decided to limit myself to a max of 2 roles of film's worth when just out and about, so that was 48 shots maximum.

It had the desired effect, it made me slow down and think before pressing the shutter.
 
When I'm out for a day I normally take anything between 10 and 150.

I'm not a great believer in machine gunning or taking shots just to delete them later but if I think I'm pushing what I can capture I'll probably take more than one shot of the same thing but rarely more than two, three at the very most.

When on holiday I've never had to change cards.
 
thank you so much peeps, gives me an idea.

So to also ask, after taking 7/8/900 odd pics you then have to sit their and sort all of them.

but to give me half an idea. if you took 500, how many would you expect to be worth keeping/printing ???
 
I'd be angry with myself if the number I deleted got into double figures.
 
scott199 said:
now i generally know whats wrong, but by that time i am home and missed the day.
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter if you take 1 or 10,000, the answer is if you know what your doing wrong, then don't!
Look at the pics that you know are wrong, before you delete them, make a mental or physical note on how to not make that happen again. Go out the next day and retake the same shot and get it right.

Yes with the football shots you will miss many, or catch better expressions in some than others, but that is the nature of sports/wildlife shooting. You shouldn't apply that methodology to all general shooting as well. Learn from mistake and all that, don't play the percentage game :)
 
What I always say about keeper rates is:

As you get better, the number of keepers doesn't necessarily increase. But the quality of what goes into your rubbish bin does.

So for a newbie their rubbish bin will be full of focus and exposure issues.

Mines full of 'dont really like that rxpression'

With the exception of when I'm shooting experimentally. At which point it'll be as rubbish as a newbies.

People lie to themselves about 'keepers' because they think throwing photos away is wasteful. I think of the waste like potato peelings or eggshells, they're necessary to produce fondant potatoes or souffles. If I never make mistakes I will never learn how something works.
 
Its entirely dependent on the subject, and the viewer.
Remember the viewer; & whats important to them.
You shoot 1000 pictures of a soccer match.
- Paper might want just one stunning action shot.
- Fan-Zine may want a dozen really good ones.
- Players? Probably only want ones with them in them.... and then only the ones they look good in.... but as many as you got!
- Team manager? Probably wants the ones that show thier mistakes!
- Players Mum & Dad?
- Every-One else?

Pro-sport photographer may shoot 10 thousand pictures during a 90 minute football match, and not get anything any-one will buy.

School portrait photographer? Herd'em in, sit'em down. Press the button. Sells every shot, five times over! One set up. One test shot. 90 subjects, in the chair for 45 seconds, three poses each... same 90 minutes, just 300 pictures and every-one a winner.

- Who is the viewer?
- What is going to interest them?
- How good do they have to be?
- How do you get them?

Same questions whatever the subject. Some-times machine-gun-markmanship is the best way to get the pictures people want to look at. Some-times, you need precision markmanship to get it in one shot. Some-times the technical quality is most important, sometimes merely the subject is important. This is the 'craft' of photography, working out WHAT is important, and knowing what tools and techniques to use to get it.

There's no one-size-fits-all solution to every situation.
 
At most, two rolls of film. So that could be anything from 12 to 72 shots depending on film type and format.

With digital it's around the same amount.


Steve.
 
I mostly shoot landscapes. As I've progressed I've found it more productive to think more and click less when I'm at a location.
 
I usually throw away around 90%. They are not thrown away because there is technically anything wrong with them (they are all in focus, correctly exposed etc,.). They are thrown away because when looking at them on a big screen they just don't capture what I wanted them to.
I am able to make a very quick decision on whether I like a photo or not and it is only worth keeping if I really like it. I am someone with zero sentimentality which is most probably a large part of the reason to my approach!
 
Depends what I'm taking, last week I set myself a challenge of taking some action shots of the dogs that I could print and frame , 3 days and I averaged between 2 - 300 and out of each day I had around 50 keepers, if I'm out for a landscape day I only take around 70 a lot being test exposures and hope to keep around 10 - 15
 
I'd say it depends on what you're shooting. For landscapes, its about composition, light, etc. Setting up a tripod etc slows you down which may be a good thing. But then you can take all sorts of shots - in manual, in auto, in P mode, with grad filters, bracketing your shots. Take lots, but not all of the same, e.g. settings. Digital is 'free' in the sense that you can look on your computer and discard the ones that didn't work, or at least use those to learn from. You don't have to print 'em.

Now for footie, that's different. Its about timing, framing, reacting the the play. I can take loads on multi shot, more than likely a lot fewer will be good ones, but its a different skill set.

There was a photographer sitting near the goal, had a camera and a smallish lens. It was a film camera. At half time, I asked him 'how to do you get on changing film rolls during the match'. His reply? 'I make 24 last a match!' I can take 800 frames during a match. Hey ho!
 
some really good points and lots to think about.

As a base line personality type person, i am some what of a perfectionist, from all the pics i have taken, i have them all still, but think maybe i have 3-5 keepers and none im impressed with.

Maybe its a personal thing, and i should stop worrying about number and just take pics ??

Its just frustration never having anything i would call "good"
 
I think it's the fear of failure that stifles your creativity. The phrase 'If you never make a mistake you will never achieve anything' springs to mind.

Forget the numbers and explore the angles, discover viewpoints and lighting patterns, eventually you'll learn what works and what doesn't.

I learned in the days of film. There was no internet, no settings saved with my pictures. Just a couple of magazines and a few crap books to teach me the basics. No feedback from other photographers or community to lean on the way that we have with the internet.

I wasted hundreds of rolls of film, and always considered myself lucky if I got a good shot on a roll. But by keeping at it I learned what works.
 
Phil V said:
I think it's the fear of failure that stifles your creativity. The phrase 'If you never make a mistake you will never achieve anything' springs to mind.

Forget the numbers and explore the angles, discover viewpoints and lighting patterns, eventually you'll learn what works and what doesn't.

I learned in the days of film. There was no internet, no settings saved with my pictures. Just a couple of magazines and a few crap books to teach me the basics. No feedback from other photographers or community to lean on the way that we have with the internet.

I wasted hundreds of rolls of film, and always considered myself lucky if I got a good shot on a roll. But by keeping at it I learned what works.
Click to expand...

Thanks, i would agree with you, sometimes i think the interweb is a bad thing, where as you took pics, looked learned and moved ahead, i do think sometimes the info or maybe even the pictures we see on the web and so on, can be more of a hindrance than a help.

After reading all this, i really wish i could just get out and enjoy the actual photography, rather than concerning myself with the perfect image.

I see great pics, interesting shapes and scenes, just never mange to get them the way i want.

Think i may need to stay off the web and just learn for myself ???
 
The video of Don McCullin shooting street which was made by the Canon Professional Network covered this. He was shooting street in France and spent a couple of hours snapping away. When asked by the presenter how many good shots he expected to get, he said a couple or so (from memory).

OK, his standards are likely to be somewhat higher than most, but it makes me feel better!
 
The OP isn't shooting professionally so the biblical numbers spouted in this thread don't all apply.
Pros have an agenda, a quota to fill, and its nobody's business why they find it necessary to shoot the numbers they do, maybe they're shooting motocross and need as many pictures of every rider they can get to secure the best chance of a sale, maybe they're looking for a back page spread in RLeague weekly, who knows, alls fair in love and the pursuit of the pound note.
But personal projects, I'm kinda struggling to rationalise 5-800 shots on a day trip to the zoo..:shrug:
Not knocking it mind, do what you want, it just seems like trip is not the actual event, the event is the opportunity to shoot 800 frames of god knows what.
Ish, I doubt I could shoot 100 a week on a 2 week holiday never mind 800 in a day.
In that respect, I find the OP's shooting count more reasonable than low in numbers..:)
 
I aim to get one top notch saleable / exhibitable shot per day I am out and about.

Unless I am bracketing shots to do some HDR I will usually take only a couple per composition, unless it is something moving like a seascape where I will take a few to choose the best shaped wave for the shot.

Yesterday I was in the Lakes, took 48, of those 28 or so were bracketed shots leaving 20 or so, that comprised 6 different compositions.
 
Yellowbelly said:
The video of Don McCullin shooting street which was made by the Canon Professional Network covered this. He was shooting street in France and spent a couple of hours snapping away. When asked by the presenter how many good shots he expected to get, he said a couple or so (from memory).

OK, his standards are likely to be somewhat higher than most, but it makes me feel better!
Click to expand...

This is an important point. His standards may be no higher than mine, he just takes better photos than me. He gets a couple or so shots, I may get none as my couple of shots may still not be good enough to warrant keeping.
Others may keep things that I would throw away so asking for keeper rates is a bit too subjective really.
 
I'm an amateur use both film and digital.

For any project, I never take more than 100 photographs. Usually in the range of 60-80. If I'm shooting film it will be one roll of 36.

I struggle to cope with reviewing and vetting that number of photos, so get a bit light headed at the thought of doing that for hundreds.
 
You have to think when you are doing sports or nature, your burst rate will be 7 to 10 frames per shot on high speed,depending what camera you have, so having taken 100 to 1000 shots in a day, alot of these will be duplicates because of the speed rate, i do the same as yesturday taking 500 shots in a day.
 
joxby said:
The OP isn't shooting professionally so the biblical numbers spouted in this thread don't all apply.
Pros have an agenda, a quota to fill, and its nobody's business why they find it necessary to shoot the numbers they do, maybe they're shooting motocross and need as many pictures of every rider they can get to secure the best chance of a sale, maybe they're looking for a back page spread in RLeague weekly, who knows, alls fair in love and the pursuit of the pound note.
But personal projects, I'm kinda struggling to rationalise 5-800 shots on a day trip to the zoo..:shrug:
Not knocking it mind, do what you want, it just seems like trip is not the actual event, the event is the opportunity to shoot 800 frames of god knows what.
Ish, I doubt I could shoot 100 a week on a 2 week holiday never mind 800 in a day.
In that respect, I find the OP's shooting count more reasonable than low in numbers..:)
Click to expand...

It's true that the OP's not a pro, but I'd argue that the numbers being irrelevant.
The OP shoots sports (sometimes) and the low numbers he's shooting there suggest to me he's being overcautious.

I'm not a particularly prolific shooter, but I've learned that the more I shoot the more I 'get my eye in' and the better my output.

You can't ignore the old adage 'practice makes perfect', and as the OP started this thread to learn whether shooting more might help the quality of his shots, I'd argue that it does.
 
About 8000 an hour :D

No, seriously, more is more. I take loads and loads and loads at various apertures and things to make sure I get at least one shot I like. If I photograph the girls horseriding I take hundreds in the hope that I'll get a handful that are perfectly focused and have the horse at just the right moment or the rider with her eyes open...
 
It's the learning curve thing. I'm no pro either. I will, where circumstance suggests, though, shoot big numbers; others hardly at all, its all circumstance dependant.

Back to the learning curve. Like Phil, I started in the days of film; moving from iunstamatics to an SLR, with the guidance of a few books, magazines, advice of others who spot the camera bag and offered thier wisdom from when they were 'in-to' photography... to a C&G course....

Perfectionism. I'ts a strange concept. What makes a 'better' photo?

Getting 'into' photo... you start getting very concerned with exposure, tidy composition, image crispness, etc etc etc.... and all too easy to forget WHY you are taking a photo, and who may ever want to see it after!

You go looking for stuff to take photo's off, rather than simply taking pics of what interests you from what happens around you. Consequently, you loose a lot of the 'interest' in a picture before you even begin, and whatever you get is to some degree contrived.... following a path towards looking for ever more contrived photo's, displaying ever greater technical merit, and often significantly less real 'interest'.

Photography for Photography's sake......

Last few years; I have not been able to afford to use my fancy film cameras. I haven't even been able to afford to use my not so fancy film cameras! I haven't been able to afford to buy film! I have been snapping away with 'cheap' digi-compact.

Technical merit goes out the window. Fixed wide angle lens; low sensor sensitivity. Negligible manual control. Getting 'better' pictures, only thing you can do is look for the 'interest'... and you start getting 'better' pictures again, even though, technically they are not that wonderful. THEN you can start thinking of how to make your 'good' pictures better, through kit and craft.

Yes... modern media fills our eyes with a lot of very high quality images, that do set a bench-mark for us to aspire to; but this is real life, you cant expect that level of excelence or perfection in your own hobby photo's, and certainly not every one. even the pro's that take the aspirational shots, dont get them every time, so you are setting an unnatainable goal for-yourself and setting yourself up for constant dissapointment, trying.
 
Some very good points there Mike. The "interest" part is where I struggle and I have taken to using a fixed lens compact as until I get the interest into more shots the ultimate IQ is very secondary/needed at all.
 
ernesto said:
Some very good points there Mike. The "interest" part is where I struggle and I have taken to using a fixed lens compact as until I get the interest into more shots the ultimate IQ is very secondary/needed at all.
Click to expand...

Interest came back for me, when I stopped trying to find it.....

Hyatus of marriage turned a lot upside down; but I had got very prosaic about my photography, and working too hard, trying to get established in my career, photo's was almost all I did outside work.... Monday to Friday, 80 hour working week, punctuated with eat and sleep. Saturday? Shopping, housework, washing!

Sunday! Ohh... go take some photo's! What can I snap?

After three years, and filling the bin with endless landscapes, I finally got the pay-raise I had been hoping for and went and bought the motorbike I had promiced myself.

Cant lug a heavy bag of cameras about on a bike too easily.... so didn't..... started slipping the compact back in my pocket.... and found my photography 'improved', because I was actually going places and seeing stuff that was interesting, and WORTH photographing, rather than loading up with cameras and then trying to find something to use it on.

Pull rather than Push motivation. You take photo's because your doing stuff that's worth photographing; your not doing stuff, because you want a photo!

Photography, back where it should have been, an 'compliment' to my life and my life's activities, a tool, recording the OTHER stuff I did or saw.

And I got more out of it as a consequence; then of course.... looking at pics from the compact; it was "Oh... now If I had had the SLR....." Had used Olympus kit... it was fairly compact, but bag blown out with paired bodies, with winders, big lenses, flash guns & gadgets.... "Hmmm, well if I take the winder off the OM4, and 'just' fit the 28-70 and leave the rest behind!"

Ultimately, I cut some old cusion foam up and compartmented a tank-bag to take a bit more kit.... but, point is, the camera was back to being my companion in travel.... not my reason for travel.

Met a chap once, who had spent half his life traveling; describing the places he had been and the people he'd met. I asked him about cameras, and he looked at me as though I was daft. "Surely seeing all these places and meeting all these people, you'd want to take photo's of them?" I'd said.
Revealing reply; If he wanted pictures of stuff he saw... he bought a post-card "Better than anything I could take!" he said "And tells you where it is on the back. Interesting philosophy.... all too easy to put too great an importance on our own photography, as well as pertinant to the matter of IQ.... why try for that quality, when others have already achieved it, and its in a rack for 10p!
 
Teflon-Mike said:
It's the learning curve thing. I'm no pro either. I will, where circumstance suggests, though, shoot big numbers; others hardly at all, its all circumstance dependant.

Back to the learning curve. Like Phil, I started in the days of film; moving from iunstamatics to an SLR, with the guidance of a few books, magazines, advice of others who spot the camera bag and offered thier wisdom from when they were 'in-to' photography... to a C&G course....

Perfectionism. I'ts a strange concept. What makes a 'better' photo?

Getting 'into' photo... you start getting very concerned with exposure, tidy composition, image crispness, etc etc etc.... and all too easy to forget WHY you are taking a photo, and who may ever want to see it after!

You go looking for stuff to take photo's off, rather than simply taking pics of what interests you from what happens around you. Consequently, you loose a lot of the 'interest' in a picture before you even begin, and whatever you get is to some degree contrived.... following a path towards looking for ever more contrived photo's, displaying ever greater technical merit, and often significantly less real 'interest'.

Photography for Photography's sake......

Last few years; I have not been able to afford to use my fancy film cameras. I haven't even been able to afford to use my not so fancy film cameras! I haven't been able to afford to buy film! I have been snapping away with 'cheap' digi-compact.

Technical merit goes out the window. Fixed wide angle lens; low sensor sensitivity. Negligible manual control. Getting 'better' pictures, only thing you can do is look for the 'interest'... and you start getting 'better' pictures again, even though, technically they are not that wonderful. THEN you can start thinking of how to make your 'good' pictures better, through kit and craft.

Yes... modern media fills our eyes with a lot of very high quality images, that do set a bench-mark for us to aspire to; but this is real life, you cant expect that level of excelence or perfection in your own hobby photo's, and certainly not every one. even the pro's that take the aspirational shots, dont get them every time, so you are setting an unnatainable goal for-yourself and setting yourself up for constant dissapointment, trying.
Click to expand...

Teflon-Mike said:
Interest came back for me, when I stopped trying to find it.....

Hyatus of marriage turned a lot upside down; but I had got very prosaic about my photography, and working too hard, trying to get established in my career, photo's was almost all I did outside work.... Monday to Friday, 80 hour working week, punctuated with eat and sleep. Saturday? Shopping, housework, washing!

Sunday! Ohh... go take some photo's! What can I snap?

After three years, and filling the bin with endless landscapes, I finally got the pay-raise I had been hoping for and went and bought the motorbike I had promiced myself.

Cant lug a heavy bag of cameras about on a bike too easily.... so didn't..... started slipping the compact back in my pocket.... and found my photography 'improved', because I was actually going places and seeing stuff that was interesting, and WORTH photographing, rather than loading up with cameras and then trying to find something to use it on.

Pull rather than Push motivation. You take photo's because your doing stuff that's worth photographing; your not doing stuff, because you want a photo!

Photography, back where it should have been, an 'compliment' to my life and my life's activities, a tool, recording the OTHER stuff I did or saw.

And I got more out of it as a consequence; then of course.... looking at pics from the compact; it was "Oh... now If I had had the SLR....." Had used Olympus kit... it was fairly compact, but bag blown out with paired bodies, with winders, big lenses, flash guns & gadgets.... "Hmmm, well if I take the winder off the OM4, and 'just' fit the 28-70 and leave the rest behind!"

Ultimately, I cut some old cusion foam up and compartmented a tank-bag to take a bit more kit.... but, point is, the camera was back to being my companion in travel.... not my reason for travel.

Met a chap once, who had spent half his life traveling; describing the places he had been and the people he'd met. I asked him about cameras, and he looked at me as though I was daft. "Surely seeing all these places and meeting all these people, you'd want to take photo's of them?" I'd said.
Revealing reply; If he wanted pictures of stuff he saw... he bought a post-card "Better than anything I could take!" he said "And tells you where it is on the back. Interesting philosophy.... all too easy to put too great an importance on our own photography, as well as pertinant to the matter of IQ.... why try for that quality, when others have already achieved it, and its in a rack for 10p!
Click to expand...

Their it is in a nutshell, some really good point and to be fair exactly how i feel, shooting because i need the practice, rather than shooting because i want to, i mean i do want to, but im forcing myself to try and learn and get better in hope i will satisfy my own delusional aspirations of getting "the perfect shot"

Think you should write a book for beginners with that in.

their is always that feeling for me, if i have the cam, i must use it, when in fact like you said this could be my problem.
 
Shooting a certain sporting event twice now, I came away both days with 120 and 125 photographs.

Only one was a true keeper on the first day (poor light) and about 6 or 7 on the second.

I do try and get it right the first time and spend time with the viewfinder before depressing the shutter but sometimes with the movement of people a good composition can be there one second and gone the next.
 
Last edited:
Teflon-Mike said:
It's the learning curve thing. I'm no pro either. I will, where circumstance suggests, though, shoot big numbers; others hardly at all, its all circumstance dependant.

Back to the learning curve. Like Phil, I started in the days of film; moving from iunstamatics to an SLR, with the guidance of a few books, magazines, advice of others who spot the camera bag and offered thier wisdom from when they were 'in-to' photography... to a C&G course....

Perfectionism. I'ts a strange concept. What makes a 'better' photo?

Getting 'into' photo... you start getting very concerned with exposure, tidy composition, image crispness, etc etc etc.... and all too easy to forget WHY you are taking a photo, and who may ever want to see it after!

You go looking for stuff to take photo's off, rather than simply taking pics of what interests you from what happens around you. Consequently, you loose a lot of the 'interest' in a picture before you even begin, and whatever you get is to some degree contrived.... following a path towards looking for ever more contrived photo's, displaying ever greater technical merit, and often significantly less real 'interest'.

Photography for Photography's sake......

Last few years; I have not been able to afford to use my fancy film cameras. I haven't even been able to afford to use my not so fancy film cameras! I haven't been able to afford to buy film! I have been snapping away with 'cheap' digi-compact.

Technical merit goes out the window. Fixed wide angle lens; low sensor sensitivity. Negligible manual control. Getting 'better' pictures, only thing you can do is look for the 'interest'... and you start getting 'better' pictures again, even though, technically they are not that wonderful. THEN you can start thinking of how to make your 'good' pictures better, through kit and craft.

Yes... modern media fills our eyes with a lot of very high quality images, that do set a bench-mark for us to aspire to; but this is real life, you cant expect that level of excelence or perfection in your own hobby photo's, and certainly not every one. even the pro's that take the aspirational shots, dont get them every time, so you are setting an unnatainable goal for-yourself and setting yourself up for constant dissapointment, trying.
Click to expand...

Teflon-Mike said:
Interest came back for me, when I stopped trying to find it.....

Hyatus of marriage turned a lot upside down; but I had got very prosaic about my photography, and working too hard, trying to get established in my career, photo's was almost all I did outside work.... Monday to Friday, 80 hour working week, punctuated with eat and sleep. Saturday? Shopping, housework, washing!

Sunday! Ohh... go take some photo's! What can I snap?

After three years, and filling the bin with endless landscapes, I finally got the pay-raise I had been hoping for and went and bought the motorbike I had promiced myself.

Cant lug a heavy bag of cameras about on a bike too easily.... so didn't..... started slipping the compact back in my pocket.... and found my photography 'improved', because I was actually going places and seeing stuff that was interesting, and WORTH photographing, rather than loading up with cameras and then trying to find something to use it on.

Pull rather than Push motivation. You take photo's because your doing stuff that's worth photographing; your not doing stuff, because you want a photo!

Photography, back where it should have been, an 'compliment' to my life and my life's activities, a tool, recording the OTHER stuff I did or saw.

And I got more out of it as a consequence; then of course.... looking at pics from the compact; it was "Oh... now If I had had the SLR....." Had used Olympus kit... it was fairly compact, but bag blown out with paired bodies, with winders, big lenses, flash guns & gadgets.... "Hmmm, well if I take the winder off the OM4, and 'just' fit the 28-70 and leave the rest behind!"

Ultimately, I cut some old cusion foam up and compartmented a tank-bag to take a bit more kit.... but, point is, the camera was back to being my companion in travel.... not my reason for travel.

Met a chap once, who had spent half his life traveling; describing the places he had been and the people he'd met. I asked him about cameras, and he looked at me as though I was daft. "Surely seeing all these places and meeting all these people, you'd want to take photo's of them?" I'd said.
Revealing reply; If he wanted pictures of stuff he saw... he bought a post-card "Better than anything I could take!" he said "And tells you where it is on the back. Interesting philosophy.... all too easy to put too great an importance on our own photography, as well as pertinant to the matter of IQ.... why try for that quality, when others have already achieved it, and its in a rack for 10p!
Click to expand...

I haven't been back to this thread for a while, but these are two brilliant posts, i sometimes think in chasing technical perfection we forget what photography is all about, which is capturing a moment, the pleasure for me is in the taking of the photo, i want it to evoke a feeling or remind me of somewhere i have been, if its not 100% sharp at 100% crop then so be it, at the end of the day it was taken for my pleasure, if someone else likes it then so be it
 
lizzy23 said:
I haven't been back to this thread for a while, but these are two brilliant posts, i sometimes think in chasing technical perfection we forget what photography is all about, which is capturing a moment, the pleasure for me is in the taking of the photo, i want it to evoke a feeling or remind me of somewhere i have been, if its not 100% sharp at 100% crop then so be it, at the end of the day it was taken for my pleasure, if someone else likes it then so be it
Click to expand...

I totally agree, those posts should be a sticky in the beginners/welcome section,

Does really make you sit back and think, tbh since i read that i haven't taken a shot.

Now its not because of the post, its made me think, i just dont have the time or the weather to photograph the things i like, so why try to force the pic, and then be annoyed with myself.

Some of my 'best' pics have come from messing with a new lens, or being silly with the kids.

Please sticky that for the beginners
 
this is a great thread. not only have I found that I am throwing away around 80% of my images, I probably should throw away a little more, and I probably would but then I dont want to throw away "moments" - if its a live event or whatever, you're stuffed theres no repeating it.

Out of the 20% of images I do keep, from TP member reactions to my posts, Ive probably got more like 5% of images are actually "ok".

I'll keep on shooting though. Still in my first year, I really want to make a success of it so I make a living out of it. Im no where near where I want to be with the images I take but so stressed out with my normal day job and photography calms me down so much.
 
It's an interesting thing this topic... and something that used to depress me no end.

Now I've accepted the fact that I'm picky and, as an example, from a recent holiday where I took around 2000 shots I've got about 70-ish that I'm happy with. That's a 3.5% success rate... nice... :nuts:
 
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