Biting The Cherry

Some photographers are luckier than others - they get more bites at the cherry. Whether this means they break their teeth on the stone in the middle is another matter, but every good thing has a bad side. The shooters who do not get that second, third, or fourth bite are the ones in the sports, news, and wedding trades. What they see, whether it is at a car-race track, a political riot, or a church aisle is seen once, and needs to be captured at once. They can sometimes increase their chances of getting it by using a camera that will shoot quick bursts of continuous shots - they sort it out later on an editing desk, looking for the peak action moment. But even given this technical help, nearly all the successful ones will admit that there is a great deal of skill in the timing of what they do. Note: The equipment they use plays a vital role in whether or not they can actually get the one-off shot. It must be capable of fast multiple shots, as we said, and possess shutters that operate quickly. It must sustain a high ISO. Even the viewfinder needs to be taken into consideration - I know from my own experience that EVF is nowhere near as good at capturing action as a DSLR mirror or a direct view window. LCD watching is worse. The best and quickest sight is through a wire finder, but I daresay you'll never see another one on the market ever. Just not fashionable. Even the Ikodot is long gone. The other side of the coin - the opportunity to do and redo an exposure until it is perfect - belongs to the tabletop studio workers, the architectural shooters, and the landscapers. The last-named may be confronted in some instances with one-of-a-kind images, and here's hoping they get them...but more often than not the scene that they want on the screen is going to remain static for a number of minutes, if not hours. They can shoot, examine, and re-shoot on a much longer time-frame than the sporters or newsies. Indeed, Sometimes there is a tendency on the part of the slow worker to shoot too much - to never stop when they should. This may be because they do not recognise the optimal exposure when they see it - or they may not be confident of their own artistic compositions. These days it is no burden to overshoot a little and then select the best at the post-production stage, but there is a limit at which one should stop. In my own toy-car pictures I sometimes find that I will have made a series of 6 shots and I accept only the last one as best product. I was a lot more economical with my time and purse when I shot sheet film! Note: I take pride in tabletop product illustration when I can nail it in one. I've generally not got a deadline and could take all the time in the world, but getting it right - first off - shows to me that I am actually absorbing the lessons of the writers I study and getting better at it. Clear and bright is the go most of the time.