I recently talked with a friend who used to be professional photojournalist back in the analogue days. While digital storage affords us the luxury of taking hundreds of snapshots for free (I recently went through 700-odd snaps for a blues band shoot), we take less time and patience to set up each individual one. If you just point your lens at whatever it is you want and make enough photos, it seems, you will end up with one great picture somewhere among the crap.

I, too, am guilty of taking way too many photos. Leaving the camera at home once in awhile and training your eye may improve your skills a lot more than snapping away. The chances of you actually seeing something lost forever if you don’t capture it right now are so low, it probably won’t matter.

Two main challenges for me:
1. Being mindful of customs when shooting abroad. I love to capture candid shots of the locals behaving as if I wasn’t there, but I do not want to offend anyone, or find myself in a hostile situation.
2. Heading out to a location to capture scenes near dusk, only to find out that the neighborhood is not as peaceful and pleasant at night – especially when carrying thousands of dollars of gear on my back. This one is especially applicable in locations where I may not have a rented vehicle – where I am at the mercy of taxis or public transportation.

i often can’t resist the urge to shoot when i am confronted by “something” that begs to be recorded, and i never “just click”..

so i exert effort in ALWAYS bringing my camera EVERYTIME i explore.. that way, i DO get enjoy the travel at twice the fun, and i don’t have to come back just to record it..

If I don’t have a camera, either my Nikon or just my Lumix, I always ALWAYS see something I regret not being able to photograph… Then I’m stuck with a cell phone pic! It’s a very bad feeling…

Carry at all times, choose to balance your exploration of a place or event.

In writing this Ive been thinking how could I show the area I live in. Its a rundown council estate in one of the New Towns that were built to house the Londoners whose homes were destroyed during the blitz. Unlike many of the nearby older towns and newer estates there are trees and open spaces, people walk to get where they are going. Most people are friendly and will talk to you, but fences are broken and over half the people in my block are unemployed….umm…an ideal photo is tricky ..needs more time.

Last week I met up with my son in central Oxford near the Bodliean Library..My ideal photo would have to show the spires, the yellow sandstone, the bikes leaning against railings, several groups of tourist with tour guides pointing out various details, the mish-mash of different building styles, and of course some obvious academics ignoring everyone else and talking animatedly about something or other.

Trafalgar square and I’m going on memory of the last time I had to drive through it…would have to show Nelsons column,admiralty arch and all those people, pigeons and cars,buses and taxis moving past ..So maybe a slow shutter speed to get the movement and focus on a tourist stopping to read a guidebook or sit
and eat a sandwich…or do a panning shot of a suited buisness man walking through the crowd talking on a mobile phone.

I think these word pictures give an idea of the observation skills you are trying to improve so you can get that 1 shot that says it all and like any great picture can be looked at for hours.
Doug
p.s. despite saying this I will probably still snap away and kick myself when I got home and reviewed the 1000′s of shots I took…..duh!

“a suggestion to help improve your eye”… great advice.

I’ve left my camera behind loads of times – accidentally – and I’ve kicked myself afterwards … but, then, so what .. “I missed a great shot!”. Life is full of ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ great shots – I see them everyday on photo-websites!!!

I’ve left my camera behind loads of times – deliberately – just to be in the way you describe. If you’re going to do it, do it as a practice, a training. Go meditatively. Use your other faculties that don’t get such exercise with the camera. Smell…notice the smells, the variations and so on – then contemplate, how the heck would I convey this smell… that range of odurs….that fragrance? Let your intuition be exercised. Your sixth-sense (and seventh and eighth). Don’t waste your time thinking what you might miss by not having your camera – think what you can gain and reflect on how you might convey some of the extra richness that you’ve discovered.

Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.