Why do I get these feelings? - and do you?

Roger Hicks said:
Dear Dave,

I went to Venice once (and once was enough). I got far better pictures in the back-streets and around the back-canals than St. Mark's Square -- where frankly, all I shot was tourists shootong the pigeons, and the like. Likewise in Athens I was happier away from the Akropolis.

photographers: c
Cheers,

Roger
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Dear Roger

Love Venice and the back street canals and the early morning deliveries by gondola's to the stores and the morning winter frosts on the rooftops.

Do wish the 'tourists' would shoot the pigeons in St Marks though
but not with cameras.
Regards
Peter.

PS will not be able to post for a few days at least as the 'sawbones' await my presence in the operating theatre.
P
 
This is why it's so important to use a Leica Dave ... being in amongst numerous other photographers all taking photos of the same thing still remains a unique experience due to the unquestionably superior quality of your equipment!
 
Ten years ago I went to Europe and carefully avoided for the most part the usual "scenic" places of London and other European capitals. Instead I spent my days walking around the ordinary and interesting streets and byways of the cities. I thought that in London for example, there are much more interesting places to photograph than the Tower Bridge or Buck House - the Inns of Court for example, the ancient area where barristers work near Fleet Street, same idea in Budapest, same in Vienna. And for the most part here was not another "rubber neck" to be seen. I kinda make it my rule of thumb for good street shooting - point the camera in the other direction!
 
Keith said:
This is why it's so important to use a Leica Dave ... being in amongst numerous other photographers all taking photos of the same thing still remains a unique experience due to the unquestionably superior quality of your equipment!
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Yes, I suppose there is that aspect - even though it's supposed to be the results that count!, and I can't help feeling a little pleasure, at the look of amazement from some people when I tell them I've been using that Nikkormat since 1973!:)
Dave.
 
There are days in which it's better to take in the scenery, event of circumstance. I've been there and done that... and never regretted it.

So, Dave, you're not losing your enthusiasm, rather refining your taste.
 
Hi Dave,

I'm sure everyone feels the same inertia that you felt at some time or other. As some others have alluded, it may be more fun to point your camera towards the crazy scene of all the other people trying to get the same picture. There is a fantastic book by Martin Parr called "Home and Abroad" where his approach has been to show the quirky behaviour of people, more often than not with cameras, in similar situations to yours. I'd personally love to see a picture of all those people at the docks - your description gives me a great mental picture of it.

Cheers, Phil
 
Touristy areas are still part of the city I think and I like to photograph many different aspects of cities. Actually I think places with lots of photographers are good to photograph. In places where cameras are rare or uncommon (like in the suburbs), you stand out too much and it forces you to act differently and to take different type of photos. These touristy areas might give an opportunity for the kind of photographs you might not be able to get anywhere else because you blend in more. The photographers themselves can be interesting subjects too, as others have suggested.
 
I posted some pictures in the critique forum this morning of a recent motorsport event. I had a similar feeling at the event - I got there and saw a load of people milling around the track in yellow vests (so allowed to go beyond the barriers for the 'best' shots), toting DSLRs with huge L series lenses. It took me a while to get the courage to grab my camera bag from the car and have a go.
I did take some boring same-old type pictures of the cars on the track, and it was a useful learning experience, but my favourites were the ones I snapped while wandering around the pits and the edge of the circuit.

A few days later hundreds of photos appeared on a related forum but someone commented that mine were their favourites of the day, mine were also posted on the main page of the Driftworks website (online store and community for drifting). The pictures aren't anything amazing but they are different and seem to evoke memories in people who were there which is more than enough to make me happy and glad that I went back to the car for my gear. I just wish the battery in the Canonet hadn't died.
 
There's difference between snap shots and real pictures. You people understand this, most others don't. I have a camera with me most of the time (lately), and look for anything that will make a picture, and a few snap shots here and there to keep the missus happy. Going the other direction when faced with a hoard of camera-packing snappers is not just a good idea, It's a life saver, I get the screaming heebie-jeebies in crouds like that.

And I think you can console yourselves with the fact that less than one in ten of them will ever venture beyound the Auto setting on the camera, explaining why the results will predominently be less than satisfactory. Waste of gigabytes.
 
Ezzie said:
There's difference between snap shots and real pictures. You people understand this, most others don't. I have a camera with me most of the time (lately), and look for anything that will make a picture, and a few snap shots here and there to keep the missus happy. Going the other direction when faced with a hoard of camera-packing snappers is not just a good idea, It's a life saver, I get the screaming heebie-jeebies in crouds like that.

And I think you can console yourselves with the fact that less than one in ten of them will ever venture beyound the Auto setting on the camera, explaining why the results will predominently be less than satisfactory. Waste of gigabytes.
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What’s wrong with snapshots? most of my photos are snapshots
 
What then is the definition of snapshot? In my book its snapping of a shot documenting that you or the family where there, doing this or that, which in these cases is more important than photogprahic quality. A snapshot is, according to lore, originally a hunting term coining the act of firing off a shot without time to take aim.

EDIT: And by the way, most of my pictures are also snapshots, at least what I deam to be snapshots. What is your point really?
 
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Ezzie said:
What then is the definition of snapshot? In my book its snapping of a shot documenting that you or the family where there, doing this or that, which in these cases is more important than photogprahic quality. A snapshot is, according to lore, originally a hunting term coining the act of firing off a shot without time to take aim.

EDIT: And by the way, most of my pictures are also snapshots, at least what I deam to be snapshots. What is your point really?
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photographing stuff as it happens, without any pre-visualisation or conscious thought

I don’t have a point :)
 
Bobfrance, Renzsu good suggestion.

IMO, you can try taking a photo in different way you or other one would take
a different angle that you've never try or compose the way that other didn't.

If any one go to take a boat you can take in the back of them or taking a photo
of a big group of photographers that point all of their lens to a nice pretty in the event...

I used to wait someone to be out of my frame and I can take the photo that I want
but when I saw some pictures that have other people there is something
inside these picture. They interact with each other or doing something together
that can add some story, mood, lifelines into the frame.


with my evil SLR taken on 1996


with my evil SLR taken on 1996


Kodak Retina IIIC taken on 2009
when your can not get close to the subject you can try different thing







think different and you'll enjoy photography again. :)
 
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The scene of photographing photographers tent to be more similar from event to event than the events themselves!
 
Renzsu said:
...
I such cases I would just take out the camera and try to shoot little things around me, kids dropping their icecream or people yawning while they're standing next to some amazing boat.. I don't know.. I usually also don't care for shooting stuff that everybody else is already taking pictures of. I prefer just to look with my own eyes at those things and use my camera for other stuff :)
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Exactly!

I think this is what differentiate some of us than the throng with their cameras. Some of us like to take pictures of people doing what people do. It's not being a snob, it's a subject preference.

When you look at it that way, events become so much less boring :)

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"Yo! up here..."
 
I get the same feeling sometimes when I go to visit a hugely famous monument. What picture can one possibly take of the Eiffel Tower that has not already been taken a zirillion times? But then I think that if one feels that there are only finitely many picture you can possibly take of a tower then what about a bottle of perfume? And I try something. When I go to sport events it is a completely different story, I just feel always incredibly under equipped. I often know that a fast 600mm, a good location and a monopode could make the difference but I don't have them and probably if I had them I would still lack the determination of speaking to people in order to get permission to get to that good spot, which is probably also full of other photographers with whom you have a elbow battle which requires muay thai skills... Just that kind of photography is not for me pure and simple... But I know it is my problem, and that better photographer can get incredible shots which I very much enjoy watching, I am simply not good enough!

GLF
 
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