Keep Shooting!

Last night, I uploaded some images where I had set up some lights and shot some more controlled images. With controlled situations, I am more confident in myself that a good image will come out.  But there was a boxing class going on during the photo shoot. So in between the shots, I would try to grab some images of the boxers training with my second body fitted with a 50mm lens.

These images on the other hand, I am less confident about. Only because it is complete randomness. During a controlled shoot, I may shoot off 20 images and feel good and call it a wrap. Usually, I don't try to do this unless the person I am photographing is busy cause I like to get some type of variety. But with more candid stuff, I may shoot anywhere between 500-2000 images because of how random it can be. The more images you have, the more likely you will have something to work with.

Take the below image for example. I shot about 20 images of him in this pose. Why did I choose this one? Cause it was the only one, where he was on his toes, giving him the sense of movement. The other 19, he was flat footed.

Another example with the below image. He was yawning and looking in some weird direction that didn't fit. If I had snapped 1 image, I may have just been left with the yawning image. But I was able to grab an image that I enjoyed by taking about 8 different shots.

The one thing that I kept in my mind, from assisting a wedding photographer over a year ago, was that when your shooting something...always grab two images of your subject. The more images, the better. This way you know, at least you got one image that is in focus.

Other things that can happen in candid documentary photographs, is weird faces, blinks, covering up parts of the body that are main focus points. The biggest issue I had with the boxers, is that when they would throw a punch, I wouldn't see their face half the time.

Now the great thing about digital cameras, is that you can review the image to make sure everything is okay and if not, you can delete it and keep shooting. With film, it was a different story. You had no idea until you developed, to know if the image was workable or not. And if it wasn't you couldn't rewind the film and re-shoot it...well you could, but you would get a funky overexposed double exposure.