Excellent Experience

[dazedgonebye]

I've been a bit shy shooting people in public, but today I had a very good experience.
I took my son to the Dr. today, and we stopped at an old diner on the way to kill a bit of time and a piece of cherry pie. I used that chance to point the camera at him then shoot off at angles at the other patrons. After a couple of minutes, an old gentleman sat in the both next to ours. He struck up a conversation with my son.
We soon found out that he was 85 years old and a Marine Corps veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam. I snuck a shot of him while he was ordering, then a minute later asked if I could take pictures as we spoke. I got off a few over the next 20 minutes or so.
I won't have the pictures for awhile, but frankly, it was such a good experience that it has boosted my confidence in public shooting quite a bit.

 

[mtbbrian]

You know what "they say"...
Practice, Practice, Practice...
Keep shooting!
Brian

 

[jky]

That's great to hear.... there hasn't been a time, either here locally or while travelling, that I haven't had butterflies in my stomach when photographing somebody. Sad to say though that a lot of times... Mr. Chicken wins....

Hope to see the pics...

Cheers, j

 

[Robert]

It's nice to get over any nerves and ask if you can photograph someone.
Ask and the worst they can say is no.

 

[vrgard]

Good for you, Steve. And I sure know what you mean about that hesitatant feeling when photographing strangers in public. Glad to hear it went well and do post the pics when you get them!

-Randy

 

[dazedgonebye]

Every little sucess.....

 

[physiognomy]

That's really cool to hear... Congrat's! While travelling out of DIA over the holidays I saw a guy with a dslr ask several groups of people if he could take some shots of them. I watched with interest & he did surprisingly well, but what I took away from it was his effort in sitting & chatting a little before or after taking pictures. Some were obviously surprised at first, but after they said yes he quickly took the shots (some in a beautiful yellow late afternoon light) & then sat & talked briefly without intruding too much. From what I could see he had it down to an art...

Peter

 

[dazedgonebye]

I SHOULD be able to do it. I'm actually pretty good about casual conversation with strangers. It's just getting down to the part of asking to take their pictures.
This old gentleman, who'd seen me taking snaps of my kid (not really, he was too close and I was faking it) didn't give it a thought.

 

[Ash]

I've been a bit shy shooting people in public, but today I had a very good experience.
I took my son to the Dr. today, and we stopped at an old diner on the way to kill a bit of time and a piece of cherry pie. I used that chance to point the camera at him then shoot off at angles at the other patrons. After a couple of minutes, an old gentleman sat in the both next to ours. He struck up a conversation with my son.
We soon found out that he was 85 years old and a Marine Corps veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam. I snuck a shot of him while he was ordering, then a minute later asked if I could take pictures as we spoke. I got off a few over the next 20 minutes or so.
I won't have the pictures for awhile, but frankly, it was such a good experience that it has boosted my confidence in public shooting quite a bit.

Now where is that quote from you saying you would never shoot photo's of strangers or be able to ask their permission? 😀 😀

It's really easy huh? 🙂

 

[FrankS]

Congratulations. I am in the same boat as you, being shy about photographing strangers.

 

[dazedgonebye]

Now where is that quote from you saying you would never shoot photo's of strangers or be able to ask their permission? 😀 😀

It's really easy huh? 🙂

Geeze! Never type anything you don't want to come back on you! 🙄

Yea, I'm trying to get over it...long way from here to there still.

 

[Ash]

Don't worry, most people are flattered, they think anyone with a decent looking/old camera is an amazing photographer (course, for the fine people on this forum that is mostly true 😀 ).

There will be positive and negative responses, but just remember, if the guy/girl isn't bigger than you, and you're healthy enough to run to the nearest police officer, you should be ok 🙂