CAUTION: Philosophical pontification ahead!

[SolaresLarrave]

Photography does make you see the world differently. It's strange how many details you start noticing, in the street and even in movies and TV, that you wouldn't notice otherwise: lighting conditions, image composition, events like sunsets, large gatherings of people, facial expressions...

My only complaint is that everytime something occurs, I'm without a camera. Not long ago, I was driving home and an intense red halo came up in the sky. It was about half hour before sunset and the sky was almost on fire, while I was driving without a camera. Not on a highway, so if I had had one, I could have pulled over, get my gear ready and shoot.

But no, that time and on other ocassions, when I've seen things happen or found nifty potential images, I've been camera-less.

And when I carry my camera with?

Well.. sometimes nothing happens, sometimes something happens, but I always snap a little shot... Like this one, with people, buildings, sky and a girl, anticipating a sip of her favorite drink, taken in State Street, Madison, WI, with my M3 (hipshot).

 

[ch1]

Yep. Done that. The fact that I had a camera made me really look at what was going on. The fact that I chose not to shoot allowed me to really experience what I was looking at.

My granddaughters spent 3 weeks with us last summer. I got LOTS of shots I really cherish. On one of our many trips to the park, I of course took a camera instead of a book to keep me occupied while they ran like wild animals around the slides/bars/etc. So, of course I was REALLY watching them looking for "the shot." But as I was watching, it dawned on me, "I"ve got plenty of good shots at home. I think I'll just put the camera in the bag and enjoy the kids." And I did. No regrets of missed shots. And I still chuckle remembering their antics that day... some I might have missed had I been framing, focusing, f-stopping and fiddling with a Zorki.

Cool but OTOH - perhaps that was the time when a SLR AF or even a simple P&S would have been the "tool" to use?

Last year, after I got my Nikon D-70 (a totally different tool from what I normally use), I took a basic class in DSLR technique. The first session started with the usual "introductions" by the teacher and each student.

One of the students said he was taking the class to learn better how to use his new Canon DSLR. As with me at the time, it seems it was his first AF camera. He mentioned too that he'd gotten it because he now had a couple of grandkids and was frustrated using his manual camera to try and "catch" them!

As others have said here at times: Choose your tools to fit the situation.

But I agree, given the gear you had at hand at the time, it was much better that you just enjoyed the moment rather than frustrating yourself trying to grab pictures of "wriggle worms"! 🙂