Five seconds later he was gone.
This post really stems from my younger days when I was shooting advertising, corporate, and editorial photography, and was on the road over two hundred days out of the year. Once I did all my pre-visualization and the subsequent pre-production I moved fast. My policy was more shots per hour and because I shot very early in the morning and very late in the day, my actual shooting was limited to The Golden Hour when the sun was low on the horizon.
That’s not to say that it was the only time I shot, but I can safely say that 80% of every photo I’ve ever taken in the past fifty years was taken during this time of day…Why? Because the color is more saturated and richer, the light softer and magical, and the shadows long and directional.
I’ll often mention this pearl to my online class with the BPSOP, and with my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops, I’ll be able to physically tell my fellow photographers just what I mean…and what exactly do I mean by more shots per hour?
Since light is so fleeting I want to shoot as many photos as I possibly can, whether they’re adjustments of the same composition or totally different ideas at the same location. Once I’ve gone through my fifteen point protection plan, my border patrol, and checking my four corners (all are done withing a few seconds) I take the shot and move on to the next one.
I don’t stand there and study the silly histograms, or admire the photo, or anything that’s going to eat up any precious time. There’s plenty of time for that later when I’m home sitting in front of my computer with a nice Chianti!! I trust myself to not click the shutter until it’s ready to be clicked; and if it isn’t, I don’t.
In the old days when I was a director-cameraman, we had a phrase for any of us that were wasting time. We use to say to one another, “Hurry up, you’re burning daylight.”
For me, one of my favorite times was when I got back to my studio and started looking at all my images. Because I was always shooting more shots per hour, I forgot a lot of what I had shot. It was a total surprise when I saw photos I didn’t remember taking.
So my fellow photographers if I can give you some advice, the next time you go out don’t worry about anything but shooting. try going out either at sunrise or sunset and shoot as much and as fast as you can; adhering to my three ways to check your photo before clicking the shutter. For all you film people you don’t have to worry about paying for the film and processing anymore. Now you just have to remember to take more than one card with you…running out of cards when the light is perfect can be a real bummer!!!
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. On July 30th I begin my 29th year at the Maine Media Workshops. I’ve had the same week since the beginning. It’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. It offers a completely different set of photo ops than one would expect when coming to photograph the coastline, lighthouses, and fishing villages of Maine. Come join me and spend a week completely immersed in your love for photography.
Keep sending me photos and questions to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique for you.
JoeB
