its not easy being a photographer


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HelmetBox

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Sep 9, 2003
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I had my first shoot as an official events photographer (backup) for 2 days of a musical that spanned for 4 days, I learnt that its not easy being a photographer.

After reducing my camera's shutterlife by >1500 counts, 3 lithium batteries, 8AA 2100mah, 2 days and a total of 9 hours of continous standing, my body decided that I have overworked it and retaliates with aching muscles.

And looking at all the photos, I wonder when will I finish editing them. I just sit and stare. Wonder why I'm so trigger happy. 'ning4 ke3 sha1 chuo4 ye3 bu4 ke3 fang4 guo4' (rather kill wrongly then let live wrongly) mentality coming into play. Gosh.

A backup taking more shots than the two main pros....... A WHOLE LOT MORE. This only shows my inability to produce good one shot one kill photos.

And what's worse. the panick in changing lenses, fumbling with a slinged tripod and huge camera bag, the settings, metering and trying to be where the action is. Sorry, no battery to review the shots, less say even the time to look at LCD. Fwah, adrenaline rush.

Experience is the key I guess.

I always look at the pros and thought that its not that hard and now being in one of their shoes (just a few toes in :p ), I understand the work involved. Not to mention if its for a living. tsk tsk. A salute to you all. :thumbsup:

Well, its not easy but I have to say, its WAY FUN! :sweatsm:
 

Wai said:
1500 shots....hope u were shooting jpeg and not RAW

RAW? *faints*

At ISO 800/1600, think will take 12GB and 8 batteries? :bsmilie:
 

Twilo said:
Tripod to cover event? hmm...

musical. in the auditorium. then walk outside before and after and during intermission thus cannot leave the tripod lying around :confused:
 

If you have a film camera, you may not be taking so much more. Somehow I feel that photography is slowly being poisoned by technology. Nothing is easy, but practise makes things look easy at the end of the day.
 

theITguy said:
If you have a film camera, you may not be taking so much more. Somehow I feel that photography is slowly being poisoned by technology. Nothing is easy, but practise makes things look easy at the end of the day.
Well, can limit yourself with a 1GB CF, can only snap around 180 6.3megapixel RAW pics...
 

Twilo said:
180 6MP Raw? What camera you is that you talking about?

D70 give u around 180 6MP raw with a 1G CF.
 

I don't see a problem there unless you don't have any decent shots in at all. Always good to shoot more. It's free in your case anyway.
 

Heh heh, i also shot about 1500 shots when i covered a karate tournament in the day and then the dinner at night

wah post processing is a chore man

i shot all jpeg though. But now i'm trying to switch to all RAW already. Got to buy a few 1gb sandisks already
 

That's only one day dude, try a full day wedding shot, you'll probably be on MC for the next two days :bsmilie:

It's not easy being a photographer, most people view it as just press and forget it. The labour & focusing & speed and even knowing when to shoot is not taken into consideration, most just choose for quantity over quality... just shoot more often, you'll get used to it...

I still remember my first CSBF shoot... under the hot sun... 21 shots, non-usable and the next two days I was jumping about in pain due to sun burn... :bsmilie: Enjoyable but torturous.
 

Wonder how many pixs you need to give to client? I shoot 500 for a 6 hr event is already a lot. Very difficult to decide the best 250-300 to print out and give to client. To think of selecting 300 from 1500........cannot sleep!!!
 

FLiNcHY said:
Heh heh, i also shot about 1500 shots when i covered a karate tournament in the day and then the dinner at night

wah post processing is a chore man

i shot all jpeg though. But now i'm trying to switch to all RAW already. Got to buy a few 1gb sandisks already

RAW?!

U r right. Post processing is a chore. I'm stuck. wakakakaka. If its RAW, I think I'm a gonner. :p
 

espn said:
That's only one day dude, try a full day wedding shot, you'll probably be on MC for the next two days :bsmilie:

It's not easy being a photographer, most people view it as just press and forget it. The labour & focusing & speed and even knowing when to shoot is not taken into consideration, most just choose for quantity over quality... just shoot more often, you'll get used to it...

I still remember my first CSBF shoot... under the hot sun... 21 shots, non-usable and the next two days I was jumping about in pain due to sun burn... :bsmilie: Enjoyable but torturous.

Wakakaka. Don't scare me can? I'm still waiting for a chance to join your backup wedding photographer intake.

You are right. alot involved and I need to shoot more for experience. :thumbsup:
 

HelmetBox said:
I had my first shoot as an official events photographer (backup) for 2 days of a musical that spanned for 4 days, I learnt that its not easy being a photographer.

After reducing my camera's shutterlife by >1500 counts, 3 lithium batteries, 8AA 2100mah, 2 days and a total of 9 hours of continous standing, my body decided that I have overworked it and retaliates with aching muscles.

And looking at all the photos, I wonder when will I finish editing them. I just sit and stare. Wonder why I'm so trigger happy. 'ning4 ke3 sha1 chuo4 ye3 bu4 ke3 fang4 guo4' (rather kill wrongly then let live wrongly) mentality coming into play. Gosh.

A backup taking more shots than the two main pros....... A WHOLE LOT MORE. This only shows my inability to produce good one shot one kill photos.

And what's worse. the panick in changing lenses, fumbling with a slinged tripod and huge camera bag, the settings, metering and trying to be where the action is. Sorry, no battery to review the shots, less say even the time to look at LCD. Fwah, adrenaline rush.

Experience is the key I guess.

I always look at the pros and thought that its not that hard and now being in one of their shoes (just a few toes in :p ), I understand the work involved. Not to mention if its for a living. tsk tsk. A salute to you all. :thumbsup:

Well, its not easy but I have to say, its WAY FUN! :sweatsm:

That's why pros get paid big money, haha, yeah right, I wish :rolleyes:
 

Pro-New said:
Wonder how many pixs you need to give to client? I shoot 500 for a 6 hr event is already a lot. Very difficult to decide the best 250-300 to print out and give to client. To think of selecting 300 from 1500........cannot sleep!!!

Wah. That's exactly my dilemma. The client doesn't mind the extra quantity even though she was just looking at ~300 shots. I tried and tried to QC but still ended up with ~1000....... That's alot. Gosh....... :bsmilie:
 

HelmetBox said:
I had my first shoot as an official events photographer (backup) for 2 days of a musical that spanned for 4 days, I learnt that its not easy being a photographer.

After reducing my camera's shutterlife by >1500 counts, 3 lithium batteries, 8AA 2100mah, 2 days and a total of 9 hours of continous standing, my body decided that I have overworked it and retaliates with aching muscles.

don't worry it comes with experience. as you know your camera and equipment better, you'll get more confident and know when you've "got the shot", and your shutter count will reduce drastically, you'll fumble less and so on... :D
 

HelmetBox said:
Wah. That's exactly my dilemma. The client doesn't mind the extra quantity even though she was just looking at ~300 shots. I tried and tried to QC but still ended up with ~1000....... That's alot. Gosh....... :bsmilie:

For this kind of quantity, one way of filtering you try is filter by selection instead of elimination. Carefully pick out the goods ones (from scratch) instead of throwing out the bad ones (from everything). Be very picky, eliminating slight misfocus, not-so-good composition, strictly no repetition of the same shot, etc. If a series of running shots on the same subject (say 20 shots) are all so-so, don't pick any of them. 1st cut should be under 100 photos or so, then go back one more round and keep adding until you get the 300+ you want.

HTH.
 

I will suppose after a few more events shoot, you will reduce your shutter counts and concentrate on those important shots.
 

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