P3D Re: Back from Baltimore

["David W. Kesner" <drdave@xxxxxxxxxx>]

In p3d 3567 Bill Walsh writes:

> 100 rolls of film, but why?Sooner or later you get to the point of
> OVERKILL.I think in many things including photography quantity does
> not equate to quality.

Unless you equate experience to quality. Every image you capture 
has the potential to help you improve. More often than not it is the 
ones that don't work that teach us the most.

I am not advocating going out and shooting blindly, but I am saying 
that you should never pass up a shot just to save film, or time, or 
effort.
 
> I'm curious what everyones thought process is when taking a picture.
> Are you a thinker and composer photographer or maybe your the snap
> shot photographer or the worst of all the shoot and run photographer?

I shoot both ways and even a third. Many times I have a specific 
image in mind and try to recreate it on film. Other times I just have 
my camera with me and shoot whatever presents itself. The third 
way is when I have something specific in mind and go to shoot it, 
when something else over-rides it.

This last scenario produced a medal winning slide for me. I planned 
a trip up to the mountains to photograph a hot springs in winter. The 
juxtaposition of the hot steamy water surrounded by the frigid ice 
and snow, the sun setting low with warm light on the harsh white 
ground. Yes, I had it all planned out in my head right down to the 
angle I would shoot it at. After driving a few hours it was still a short 
mile hike along a river to get to the springs. Along the way I 
encountered a cobblestone beach where the water had risen, froze, 
and then retreated leaving behind a very thin shelf of ice half 
covering and surrounding the stones. I shot three rolls of film before 
I even got to the springs. (By the way the hot spring images sucked!)

> I think 50% of all award winning images are well thought out and 50%
> are truly by luck.

What about those that are both? One of most favorite images is 
one where I knew what I wanted, but it was all luck that I got it. I was 
flying back from Seattle and new I would be passing incredibly 
close to Mt. Rainier. I wanted to try some hypers as I had never 
done this before. It was pure luck that I got a window seat on the 
right side of the airplane, that we passed by the mountain just as 
the clouds cleared and the sun was setting on the opposite side of 
the plane, and that I got the right stereo separation.

By luck do you mean someone who doesn't know how to take an 
image gets one or do you mean just being in the right place at the 
right time? I consider myself very knowledgable about exposure, 
composition, and such and therefore none of my images are pure 
luck. However, 90% of my images are luck for being in the right 
place at the right time.

That's all for now,

David W. Kesner
Boise, Idaho, USA
drdave@xxxxxxxxxx