Are you a Heavy Shooter?

[Toby]

I was just reading Tony Ray-Jones' monograph by Russell Roberts when I came across this quote:

I remember when he had just come back from a trip and he hadn't processed the film yet - he had been gone three weeks and shot hundreds of rolls of film. I said "Was it a good trip?" and he said "Yes really good, in fact I think I got six new pictures"

(Bill Jay in interview with Martin Parr)

Tony Ray-Jones Pictures (for sale but no affiliation etc.)

Garry Winogrand left 2500 rolls of film undeveloped at his death. That's five rolls a day for eighteen months. Or nearly £28,000 of dev and contact at my local pro-lab

My question is how many rolls a day would you shoot if allowed to and does this information give you any insight into what it takes to be a truly great street shooter?

 

[rover]

I do believe in snapping that shutter. I shoot and shot when I am shooting, not very conservative with my film consumption.

 

[back alley]

about 265 pounds...oh..not my weight?

shooting film depends on 2 things for me, first my budget and second my mood.

when i shot on someones else's dime i usually shot more film than i normally would.
also, in the old days of motor drives and built in winders i shot more film.

but now, on my dime, i normally leave the house with about 10 rolls of film, sometimes shooting it all (but rarely) and more likely shooting about 2 or 3 on a good day.

my mood contributes much to this. some days i just 'see' and others a good photo does not present itself, even remotely.

i'm happy with a decent shot per roll, ecstatic with a good shot per outing and ready to faint if i could take 12 great shots a year.

 

[hoot]

Even if you're asking only in regard to street shooting, it can still depend on a lot of factors. In my case, I allot a certain number of rolls to an outing planned for this purpose. This number is influenced by:

* How much time do I have to photograph there?
* If I come back in the future, can I expect to be able to take similar photos again? (If so, I'll feel less compelled to take a lot of them now.)
* How many rolls of film is this thing worth to me?
* How many rolls do I feel like shooting today?

The more time I spend thinking about these considerations, the less likely it is for me to take too few rolls with me, or ridiculously too many... and the more keepers I'll be getting per roll.

EDIT: so it looks as though I ended up saying the same as Joe, except in a more cumbersome way. To put a number to the statements above, though, I have shot anywhere between 0 and 7 rolls during a single outing, and usually get about 60 rolls of street shots on a 2-week vacation.

What about you, Toby?

 

[Toby]

Even if you're asking only in regard to street shooting, it can still depend on a lot of factors. In my case, I allot a certain number of rolls to an outing planned for this purpose. This number is influenced by:

* How much time do I have to photograph there?
* If I come back in the future, can I expect to be able to take similar photos again? (If so, I'll feel less compelled to take a lot of them now.)
* How many rolls of film is this thing worth to me?
* How many rolls do I feel like shooting today?

The more time I spend thinking about these considerations, the less likely it is for me to take too few rolls with me, or ridiculously too many... and the more keepers I'll be getting per roll.

What about you, Toby?

If the pictures are there I'll shoot until I run out of film . If they are not I'd like to think I'd walk away but it never quite works like that.....For me street shooting is about getting yourself into situations where good pictures are bound to happen. I've spent a lot of time trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's (pig's) ear but for street shots a little research can go a long way. Even so the amount of film these two photogs shot is frightening.. I wish I had the confidence to back my ability in the same way.

 

[aizan]

hmm...if i had the dough, i might shoot two or three rolls a day, realistically.

 

[hoot]

If the pictures are there I'll shoot until I run out of film.

Oh, absolutely!

 

[DougK]

On vacation I usually budget for one to two rolls per day regardless of what format I'm shooting. On a normal outing I'll usually carry the roll in the camera plus one or two extra. When I'm shooting digital, that still seems to be roughly the pace I shoot at. I usually carry roughly 1GB in storage cards with me although since I upgraded from a 5MP camera to an 8MP camera I'm thinking 2GB will make more sense.

UPDATE: On thinking about this more, I should clarify that I only go out looking for pictures maybe once a month or so, I guess it would average out to about a roll per week. After I got my last developing bill though, all I can say is OUCH! I can't afford bills like that one very often... the bad thing about my GA645 is that it's extremely easy to treat it like a 35mm camera and burn film like there's no tomorrow :bang:. Economics is going to force me to spend more time with my digital, I think.

 

[furcafe]

Right now I average about 2-3 rolls/week. Because I'm too lazy & pressed for time to do my own developing, my film development costs (incl. contact sheets) were in excess of US $2K last year. If I had an unlimited budget/free time but still remained a happy amateur, I could easily go up to 2-3 rolls/day. If I had to shoot for a living that number would go way up (although I would already own or have access to a digital body).

While I don't think there's any 1:1 correlation between how much a photographer shoots & the quality of his/her work, I think it does reflect a photographer's style & willingness/need to experiment, e.g., I can see how a great landscape or portrait photographer working in large or medium format might not have any need or desire to shoot more than a few frames on a shoot. However, for my style of photography (street, performance, available light candids, etc.), it often pays to shoot early & often as lighting & compositional opportunities are often constantly changing.

My question is how many rolls a day would you shoot if allowed to and does this information give you any insight into what it takes to be a truly great street shooter?

 

[Rick Waldroup]

I shoot a lot and I am a street shooter. All I shoot is B&W and I process everything myself. I average a minimum of 10 rolls a week, sometimes a lot more. I buy my film in bulk, outdated film off ebay, etc. As I type this I have over 50 rolls of Neopan 400 in my freezer and over 20 rolls of Tri-X. I am constantly looking for film. Lately it is a never ending quest.

 

[jan normandale]

I shoot about 1-2 rolls on an outing. Usually less than a roll. A lot of what I take is what I have shot before where I want to improve on the existing image. Some of my stuff is just banged off because I'm playing with the camera/film combo to see what I get. Still I treat each shot seriously. I do not take shots of stuff for the sake of it. I have to see something or I am shooting something I have deliberately decided to do as a project.

Still 48 shots in a day are a lot. Most times it is 15 - 20 shots for the day. More than that and I'm in an unusual situation or very fortunate . Interestingly I tend to shoot the most film where I am in a totally new situation and 'don't know what I'm really doing' I seldom can distinguish those situations until I get the film back!

 

[peter_n]

I don't shoot that much at all, I really wish I could shoot more. My excuse is work, but right now I'm commuting on the subway so I am shooting at least almost every day. My days are very long - long hours and long commutes, and often at weekends I am knackered and the last thing I want to do is chase pictures.

I was on vacation for 8 days about 5 months ago and I shot 14 rolls in that time. I thought I did really well. Then I was staggered last weekend when Manolo reported that he had shot around the same number of rolls in about 4 & 1/2 hours! 😱 I would love to be able to shoot 2 or 3 rolls a day but I don't see that happening for the forseeable future.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I shoot *a lot*. I tend to get 4-5 shots on a roll that are good, but I shoot 3-4 rolls when I go out, and I'm talking 36 exp rolls. It's why I'm looking for film all the time. 🙂

 

[sf]

shooting heavy

shooting heavy

I am a shutter glutton, for sure. I like to produce shots too, really work for high keeper percentages, but I also rely on my prodigious shutter-clicking for those "kodak moment" images. For a shoot, where I have a client that wants material to work with, I generally shoot no less than 10 rolls of 220 (in a day), but when I shoot digital, well, I fill 1GB cards every hour or so.

If I had the money, I'd shoot piles of film.

I think there are three main categories of shooter. No one fits any of these all of the time, but these are surely the main modes of working:

1) shooter creates the moment, lets the camera wait
2) shoots lots and lots of frames, hoping to capture the perfect moment
3) shooter waits for the moment, let's the camera capture the image

I fit any of the three, depending on 1)my bank account balance, 2)the needs of my client or myself 3)what camera I am using.

I think that #2 is basically just a more nervous mode of #3, someone with a keen and practiced eye is more likely to fit #3. When I am unsure of myself, when I don't feel like I have "the eye" on a particular day, I am more likely to fit #2.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

And yeah, I think we should start a *Bay film watch thread so that when really, really good deals come up we can alert others (and possibly go in together on film purchases). It's hard to get good deals here in podunk Iowa because there isn't that much demand for it anymore, especially where I am.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

And speaking of...someone's selling a box of Tri-X Pan for $50 Buy It Now. 50 rolls. Anyone want to go in on some? I can't use it all. 😛

 

[Kin Lau]

I'm a lousy street shooter. But with an event or activities going on, I can relax and easily shoot thru several rolls. That would be a street festival, wedding, social event etc. I did 2 gigs or 700 pics in 3hrs for our company picnic, equiv of 20 rolls.

Because I dev/scan/print my own, and I'm basically lazy also, that tends to hold me back a little since shooting film is often a lot easier than the work afterwards. But like hoot brought out, if the event won't repeat (like a wedding) and I may not be back again soon (special trip/vacations), then i just keep going as long as the pictures are there.

I've seen contact sheets of Winogrand's work. He starts shooting as he senses action and shoots right thru it. He'd basically shoot a whole roll just crossing the street.

ps. this is all in the context of RF style shooting. With wildlife/birds, 1000 in a good day is not unusual for me.

 

[gns]

[QUOTE: ...does this information give you any insight into what it takes to be a truly great street shooter?]

I think it gives you some insight into a method of working is all. The low cost of a 35mm negative affords one the liberty of shooting a lot of frames and editing heavily later. Pretty common small camera approach, and arguably a key component in the emrgence of a small camera aesthetic (if you beleive that exists). But it's certainly not the only approach. William Eggleston said he never takes more than a single frame of a subject.

Whatever methods you adopt, it's still damn hard to do something original and good. And to recognise it when you've done both.

Gary

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I'd like to think I've lost some weight in the past year. Then again, I've been carrying more cameras with me than I used to, so I don't know if I'm that much of a heavy shooter or not...

 

[jan normandale]

....... this is all in the context of RF style shooting. With wildlife/birds, 1000 in a good day is not unusual for me.

Kin did you mean 100 or 1000 in a day. That would be over 40 rolls of film if it was 1000.

Jan