When you think of what the photographers of years past had to do to get a good shot. I have fun because out of hundreds of shots, I get two or three and I think it is a good day. I have memory cards that will hold thousands of images. All of it still costs $$$s, but for me it is paid for. All the cost is up front. That's not always how it used to be.
Photographers back in the day had to be good. Or broke. No one could have the miss to hit ratio that I have and survive to tell about it. In golf terms, I'm a hack.
That's OK. As long as the ratio gets better, I'm doing OK. When I was playing golf, if I had one or two memorable shots a round, I was happy. In the photography game it a bit different. Sure, looking for the one 'money' shot is good but I look at it as a two track adventure. The first track is the 'artsy' one. Do I have the 'eye'? Do I have the sense of story telling with one image? The second track is technical. Is it sharp? Is it in focus? is that a bird, or a dust spot?
When both tracks meet, that's the one.
Yesterday I was testing the D500. Looking at the two tracks, the story just wasn't there. The story was never going to be there. Weather was nice. No real wave action. Unless someone fell off the pier, nothing interesting. But I can work on the technical stuff. Sunlight off the white tower presents some pixel washout, unless you can work the camera, ie exposure compensation. Work it. While not a total loss, I wasn't expecting much more.
A lot of time when I go out, it is just working the settings. Shooting (photographing) the Sea Gulls. So when the time is right, I'll be ready to forget everything I've learned.
When I went to the Air Races, the story was in front of me. No excuses on that end. Just don't screw up the technical stuff.
But even when the story is in front of you, not every shot is a winner. I took probably close to 5k shots in the four days. In the end, I was looking for about 25 per day that were keepers. There were plenty of multiple shot sequences that produces good shots, but they count only as one.
In the case of the Air Races, it was all fun, even when this happens.
No saving this one. When you think about it, so many things had to go right. The story was there. It is tough for me to tell the distance, but let's call it .2 mile. Let's say each aircraft is traveling at 500 mph. Closing speed, round numbers 1,000 MPH. I'm .2 miles away, trying to catch a scene at 1,000 MPH where I can only guess the money shot will be? In this shot, I only missed by a couple of feet.
Out of the 5k shot, let's say 4k were action. There were many that were near "hits". But you keep shooting away. And then you get something like this.
ISO 400, f/8, 1/4000 sec, 450 mm
NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6
Aesthetically you either like it or not. But technically, it is there. And I definitely had fun.
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