Shooting with purpose
One of the very first benefits I realized when I first began shooting digital SLRs back in 2001 was that I didn't have to worry about running out of film. In the past I'd have to "ration out" my shots during a big shoot. I was always afraid I'd run out of film before I ran out of pictures.
But digital changed all that. If you were willing to fork over enough cash, you could buy a memory card that would hold several hundred photos. And since I’m usually in the habit of downloading the images immediately after shooting, several hundred available photos certainly covered just about any job I had.
Today it’s even less of a worry. You can easily pick up a 4GB memory card for less than $50. In an 8MP camera, that kind of capacity will allow you to store somewhere around 500 photos recorded in RAW format, or up to 1000 recorded in highest quality JPEG. One thousand shots! That’s roughly equivalent to having twenty-eight 36-exposure rolls of film available every time you go out to shoot (if you download your images after each photo shoot and keep your card clean).
As a consequence to this, I began shooting A LOT more photos than I’d ever had the luxury of doing before. I mean, I’d just shoot everything. And most of the time I’d be thinking, “I’m not sure what I’ll need this for, but I might as well shoot it anyway because I can.” I’ll bet some of you do the same thing!
I never gave my gonzo shooting technique much thought, however, until recently. I have a pretty good size collection of old cameras – many of which are still in working order. And I was thinking how fun it would be to buy some film and run a few rolls through some of the “better” ones. But I quickly decided that if I was going to go to all the trouble of buying film and having it processed, that I should be kind of picky about what I shot with them.
It was a true epiphany. Obviously I’ve been guilty of holding my photography to two different standards. With the seemingly endless storage capacity of digital, I find I’m more likely to shoot quantity over quality, with the intention of going back and picking “just the right one” out of the hundreds of possibilities. But when shooting with film, and therefore a limited number of exposures, I feel as if I need to make every shot count.
I won’t say that either method is the right – or wrong - approach. There are certain shooting situations where one is definitely better than the other. When shooting sports, for example, you have very little control over your subject, and it’s very difficult to make every shot count (unless you’re VERY good). In that kind of situation I’m better off to shoot a ton of photos with the motor drive blazing. That gives me a higher probability of getting a great shot.
But there are a myriad of other subjects that do allow us to slow down and be more deliberate with them. Just think about the work of photography’s “old masters” who made classic images with huge view cameras, exposing one sheet of film at a time. They HAD to be deliberate. They focused all their effort on getting the perfect shot using as few exposures as possible – checking, double-checking, and triple-checking the focusing screen to make sure everything that was included was necessary to the image.
The constant care they exhibited in creating their images is a testament to their superlative skills. And, I believe we modern-day masters can learn a lesson from this. Most of us could benefit from being more deliberate in our photography. We have the skills. Let’s take the time to use them. Let’s strive for quality over quantity and to put purpose back into our technique.
- Steven Broome
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