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Take a Shot
I don’t know if it’s because I’m a restless soul or what, but I’m always in search of the hobby. I own a closet full of guitars, two mandolins, an actual stack of penny whistles, etc., and that just scratches the surface of the musical hobby genre. I’ve played inline hockey, I buy a new stunt kite every time I’m at the coast, and there are golf clubs and wood working supplies in my garage. From the best I can tell, my hobby is collecting (and abandoning) hobbies, so let me tell you about the latest!
Photography is the current bee in my bonnet. My vacation this year consisted of a couple of weeks off work interspersed with several day hikes with my kids — hiking being another money sink of a hobby I’m into — and the pictures I took on the first two hikes simply did not convey any of the beauty I saw, the grandeur of the forests through which I walked, or the absolute sense of peace and joy I felt doing such a good, healthy activity with my progeny. Even the iPod pictures my daughter took through the car’s windshield were better than what I was capturing with my long zoom point and shoot camera.
I determined in short order that money must be spent, YouTube videos watched, articles read, and practice taken to learn the skill of crafting photographs that convey my experiences in a meaningful way. I very quickly discovered that it is both easier, and oddly more complicated, than I expected — yet it has been less frustrating and more fulfilling than I could have anticipated.
As an example of my failure that started me on this journey I present this picture of Wallace Falls in the state park where we made our first hike. (click all pics to embiggen)
The exposure is terrible, the framing atrocious, and even GIMP couldn’t turn this mess into a pleasant picture, much less art. The sad part is I took this with a small bit of knowledge about photography. This was a deliberate attempt to produce something worth looking at. Ugh. Since that tragic shot I’ve upgraded gear, relearned the basics, practiced, and hopefully experienced some degree of improvement.
One thing I can’t get over is how technology has utterly changed photography. The basic concepts have not changed in the least — f-stops still matter, depth of field is still a thing, and tripods do what human hands can’t — but the access barrier of continuing monetary expense has been almost entirely eliminated. Each shot now only costs time. Every exposure once cost film and development, but now an amateur can shoot until his battery gives out rather than until his bank account is drained. The downside is that not every shot matters, so hastiness and sloppiness can impede progress, but that cost is well worth the benefit.
This benefit (I think) is helping me get to where I want to be with photography. I have no aspirations of becoming a professional, but I’m already getting shots I think I can be rightly proud of by employing and practicing the basics.
This last one is an example of accidentally getting it right. On Monday The Princess Prawn left home. Today she’ll have the quick elopement ceremony to make things honest, but after the car was loaded I asked for one last shot of the happy couple before they departed. Maybe my own emotions distort my perception, but the shot seems to convey the moment and locks it in amber for me.
So there it is, photographic Ricochetti. I have an obsession guaranteed to last at least another week. Any others out there trying to capture the world? Tips, tricks, advice? Shots you care to share? This one could be the hobby. Only time will tell.
One more before I go. I took a shot of the literal stack of penny whistles on my desk while I was composing the post. Seems a pity to not include it since it does what I really want — to look at an ordinary thing in an interesting way.
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Love these, TKP! My Dad really enjoyed – and got good at -“everyday” photos…Thanks for the enjoyment – and the memory!
I used to love pinhole photography. Really fun hobby. Now I’m not sure the supplies are even available. Which seems odd, because the only supplies I needed was a Quaker Oats can, some aluminum foil, and 5X7″ sheets of undeveloped photographic paper.
I’ve considered getting back into photography. Maybe I’ll watch a YouTube video. That’s how I do most of my hobbies. I watch other people do them, I learn about them, and then I think, “Nah – I’m too busy.” But to me, that still counts as a hobby. I have many hobbies I’ve never tried.
Only two mandolins? I find them very photogenic.
I may have to shoot them (or play them…)
Great post, thanks. I found your comments about the impact of technology right on point, and your photos are beautiful. Please stick with it.
You are so very lucky! Photography is so much easier today than it was when we used manual SLRs and Kodachrome. Any Canon or Nikon digital SLR with interchangeable lenses has all the utility of the very best older cameras and then some if you know what you are doing. In the end, once you know what you are doing, it is about the lenses. Faster is always better. Invest in a good macro lens for those close-ups and a wide angle lens for post cards. Frame your shot around multiple settings. Stay away from those generic telescopic lenses. A long telescopic lens is good for outdoor close-up shots. A straight up everyday lens (50MM 1.2-1.8) is good for most stuff. And have fun.
It’s not just in photography, either. Things like Youtube have opened the doors wide for talent that would never have made it through the filters created by the old systems. Yes, the pump puts forth both gems and garbage, but that’s better — in my opinion — that filtering out some gems.
My first add to the kit. It’s both fantastic and challenging, but that only makes it more fun.
There are still companies producing photo paper and film (even Polaroid film) as this is a hobby with a lot of people still invested in the old ways.
One of the pros who regularly shoots Formula 1 races even dug out a 100 year old camera, not for mere nostalgia, but because he could capture moments in races in ways that modern digital cameras can only imperfectly simulate.
So, your daughter is, or is about to become a married woman? Wow! Time flies.
I shot this one at the Valley of Fire earlier this year with my iPhone 6S, but not with the built-in camera app. There are some very good programs out there for better control of the phone cameras (I use Camera+) that allow you to control exposure, focal points, light metering, and filtering. Still doesn’t replace the value of a quality lens and larger sensor array (@rightangles can discuss this in some depth), but there are some fantastic tools out there.
This is another one of which I am proud. Dusk on an overcast evening in Chicago with @midge and her husband, again shot with my phone and Camera+. No way I could have gotten this with the native software, but some easy tweaking with dials in Camera+ I could get the lighting levels where I needed them.
One more. Old harvester.
I like odd things (and old things) like this anchor.
The first time my eyes were opened to this possibility was in 1982. I was working for a company that manufactured word processing equipment (this was in the days before there was such a thing as a PC), and on the weekends we would occasionally go into the office and let the kids play on the equipment which, in addition to word processing, also ran some very rudimentary games like Pong.
When my stepson was recovering from a catastrophic head injury, it became clear just how valuable the technology was. Rather than tortured and painstaking capital letters; erasure marks, strike outs, and holes everywhere; culminating in a largely illegible message, he just pressed keys, backspaced and typed over mistakes, and then printed out what was the best copy he could produce. As a result of his injuries, spelling mistakes abounded, but it was legible and clear.
It was a revelation.
And what have we done with all this marvelous technology? Cat memes and electronic lynch mobs. Humanity is still the problem — and the solution.
Thanks again, @thekingprawn, @skipsul and all for odd/old, and eye-popping pics – not to mention advice – @dougkimball!
This one was featured as the Cloud of the Month by the Cloud Appreciation Society last year, and even made it onto the Weather Channel!
I find subject matter counts:
Venice fish market. I’ve come to the conclusion it’s impossible to take a bad photo in Venice:
I use a Nikon D3300 digital SLR. Bobcat & kittens, & San Xavier del Bac. I’m still learning, but that’s half the fun. The bobcats were in the backyard, and I keep the camera on the dining room table because you never know what will wander into the backyard.
I put this up all the time on Ricochet, but it is my favorite photograph that I have ever seen, and I never get tired of it. My son took it when he was on a photo shoot in Haiti for an orphanage there:
Now, see? Your son is a real photographer, Marci. If it weren’t for happy accidents and an idiot proof camera, I wouldn’t have any good shots at all.
The disadvantage to a digital camera is that is very sensitive to movement. In Arizona the bright sunlight also has a tendency to wash out the digital screen at the back of the camera. The reason I opted for the Nikon D3300 was that I could use the viewfinder, a viewfinder that has an adjustment for my eyes, eyes that require reading glasses. I also spent the extra money necessary for Nikon lenses that have a vibration reduction feature. I use both a 50mm lens, and 50 to 200 mm telephoto lens. I’m still reading the manual, and an additional book on this camera. One more photo I took in January from the patio. Snow and sunset. The hardest thing to learn is patience, but the advantage to digital is you can discard those photos that you do not like. I have discarded an entire sequence of photos, and there is disappointment.
Ben took this one too, and I just get lost in it:
And he took this one of my grandson three years ago (my little guy just started first grade this week!);
What I find so interesting as Ben’s mother and having been on the scene and watching this amazing talent develop is that photography is all about timing.
He gets stunning shots when he is doing portrait work. It’s as much about human psychology as it is about the camera. He really needs to know when that smile is going to be at its most wonderful. And wow, is he good at making people laugh and smile and relax.
And it’s about timing. Hitting the ball when it is at the right spot on the bat (I sat through Little League too). It’s the same thing: snapping the picture at the optimal moment.
It’s very exciting watching children grow up. The best gift God gave us here on earth.
What I’m trying to say about the baseball is that Ben waits until the moment is right. He’s very patient and confident in how beautiful that smile will be in another second.
It’s just like baseball.
Mr. C has the opposite talent. He waits until I’m irritated and close my eyes… ;-)
Whenever we find a fairly good picture of me with my eyes open, we call it a “funeral picture.”
Not on the photo thing, but speaking as a Dad. I both look forward too, and dread the day my little girl looks at another man like that. I am not there yet, TKP, but I am praying for you now.