happiness is a wet dog

[nubui]

subtitle: "it's worth to take pics, even though you might not expect a keeper"

I have always been in favour of taking more pictures rather than less, especially with digital where the cost doesn't matter. There are people that would say that with shooting too many pictures, the quality might get worse and that you don't put as much attention into the individual one as you used to do when you were still using film. That's true to a certain extent, but what I frequently find is that coming back home and weeding out the bad ones, I often find that pictures that I didn't think would turn out good, but kept on a whim, would turn out to be real keepers.

Here's an example. I took this picture mainly because of the dog trotting along in the water. Even though there was a nice mood in the air, I didn't think it would turn out good, but took it anyway.

Later at home I discovered something in the picture that I didn't realized while taking the shot: there were all those people watching the dog and smiling. And even though I've cut off their heads, I still think the overall atmosphere of the picture conveys quite good and therefore I've declared it a keeper and I like it more and more.

Did you have similar experiences with any of your pictures?



--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that your questions have already been answered: http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68

 

[nubui]

subtitle: "it's worth to take pics, even though you might not
expect a keeper"

I have always been in favour of taking more pictures rather than
less, especially with digital where the cost doesn't matter. There
are people that would say that with shooting too many pictures, the
quality might get worse and that you don't put as much attention
into the individual one as you used to do when you were still using
film. That's true to a certain extent, but what I frequently find
is that coming back home and weeding out the bad ones, I often find
that pictures that I didn't think would turn out good, but kept on
a whim, would turn out to be real keepers.

Here's an example. I took this picture mainly because of the dog
trotting along in the water. Even though there was a nice mood in
the air, I didn't think it would turn out good, but took it anyway.

Later at home I discovered something in the picture that I didn't
realized while taking the shot: there were all those people
watching the dog and smiling. And even though I've cut off their
heads, I still think the overall atmosphere of the picture conveys
quite good and therefore I've declared it a keeper and I like it
more and more.

Did you have similar experiences with any of your pictures?



--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that
your questions have already been answered:
http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68

--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that your questions have already been answered: http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68

 

[st3f]

I'm trying to do exactly the reverse. After a few years of letting my (film) SLRs gather dust while I used a P&S, I'm trying to retrain myself to 'see' the final image when I'm looking at a scene. What happens at the moment is that I sometimes get the shots I want but end up changing the crop radically (or wishing I'd shot differently at the time). It's just a case of doing whever works for you.

Speaking of crops... the cutting off of the owner's head disturbs me. I'd be tempted to recrop, either by removing the owner completely (has the advantage of making the dog walk into the frame but may make the image incomfortably tall) or cropping everyone's heads off; cutting at about the owner's waist (makes the image more about the dog but loses the reaction of the people there).

I like the shot, though. Revisiting the first paragraph, the reason why I try for the one shot is that I mostly shoot static subjects -- landscapes and buildings. If I were out doing street pics I think I'd just shoot 'till my card was full then go home. When the shot depends on capturing what might be a fleeting moment I guess you can't sit and think for ten minutes.

• stef.

subtitle: "it's worth to take pics, even though you might not
expect a keeper"

I have always been in favour of taking more pictures rather than
less, especially with digital where the cost doesn't matter. There
are people that would say that with shooting too many pictures, the
quality might get worse and that you don't put as much attention
into the individual one as you used to do when you were still using
film. That's true to a certain extent, but what I frequently find
is that coming back home and weeding out the bad ones, I often find
that pictures that I didn't think would turn out good, but kept on
a whim, would turn out to be real keepers.

Here's an example. I took this picture mainly because of the dog
trotting along in the water. Even though there was a nice mood in
the air, I didn't think it would turn out good, but took it anyway.

Later at home I discovered something in the picture that I didn't
realized while taking the shot: there were all those people
watching the dog and smiling. And even though I've cut off their
heads, I still think the overall atmosphere of the picture conveys
quite good and therefore I've declared it a keeper and I like it
more and more.

Did you have similar experiences with any of your pictures?



--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that
your questions have already been answered:
http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68

 

[Jim-williams]

I suspicion about half my good unplanned shots fall in that category, digital helps, you can take a bunch of pictures and it doesn't cost much to not use the "just in case" files.

subtitle: "it's worth to take pics, even though you might not
expect a keeper"

I have always been in favour of taking more pictures rather than
less, especially with digital where the cost doesn't matter. There
are people that would say that with shooting too many pictures, the
quality might get worse and that you don't put as much attention
into the individual one as you used to do when you were still using
film. That's true to a certain extent, but what I frequently find
is that coming back home and weeding out the bad ones, I often find
that pictures that I didn't think would turn out good, but kept on
a whim, would turn out to be real keepers.

Here's an example. I took this picture mainly because of the dog
trotting along in the water. Even though there was a nice mood in
the air, I didn't think it would turn out good, but took it anyway.

Later at home I discovered something in the picture that I didn't
realized while taking the shot: there were all those people
watching the dog and smiling. And even though I've cut off their
heads, I still think the overall atmosphere of the picture conveys
quite good and therefore I've declared it a keeper and I like it
more and more.

Did you have similar experiences with any of your pictures?



--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that
your questions have already been answered:
http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68

 

[st3f]

Oops. I forgot to expand the picture in my browser and thought it ended after the woman with the rucksack. I'd probably crop it there, but then again this is exactly what I end up doing with my pics at home.

 

[nubui]

Thanks for your extensive feedback!

I agree that the cut off heads aren't too fortunate, but for me the watching and laughing faces of the people make up for that.

Composition-wise I sometimes spend a lot of time to get things right, both outside and in the studio (see my pics linked below), so please don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating pure snapshot photography. All I say is that sometimes it can be worth doing those snapshots because you might end up with a great picture unexpectedly.

Having that said, the image I posted might not be great at all It's all in the eye of the beholder.

Cheers,
Chris

Oops. I forgot to expand the picture in my browser and thought it
ended after the woman with the rucksack. I'd probably crop it
there, but then again this is exactly what I end up doing with my
pics at home.

--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that your questions have already been answered: http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68

 

[Richdavid]

I too didn't expand your excellent capture at first and was wondering what you found so good about the photo. Well, once I took another look it all made perfect sense and my faith in you was restored!

I love it! thanks for posting!
Keep em coming please!
Rich

 

[nubui]

I too didn't expand your excellent capture at first and was
wondering what you found so good about the photo. Well, once I took
another look it all made perfect sense and my faith in you was
restored!

I love it! thanks for posting!
Keep em coming please!
Rich

Thanks for your great words! And I'm even convinced that quite some viewers mightn't like this shot 'cos it contradicts some of the "rules" (don't cut off heads etc.)

--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that your questions have already been answered: http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68

 

[Boo]

Thanks for your great words! And I'm even convinced that quite some
viewers mightn't like this shot 'cos it contradicts some of the
"rules" (don't cut off heads etc.)

I must admit, I'm not a great fan of composition rules etc. and I don't think about them as much as perhaps I should - for me, a picture either sits comfortably with me, or it doesn't. I either like it, or I don't. If you like this shot - which is as much about being in the moment it happened, as a picture someone who wasn't there can enjoy - what anyone else thinks is pretty irrelevant.

I'm not sure yet that yours sits that comfortably with me - I simply haven't decided if I like it or not. I certainly don't dislike it, as a candid, it's a great moment to capture. As someone else suggested, both the significant crop of the dog owner and the extra people to the right feel a tad uneasy for me, but then, if you crop the people after the lady with the rucsac, you lose the impact of additional people being amused by the dog. At the end of the day, it's your photo and if you like it, there's not much more to it.

I'm also a fan of keeping everything and often shots you thought were failures, turn out not to be. Unless a shot is totally unusable and obviously spoiled, I keep it (CDs and DVDs are so cheap, it's nonsense not to) and revisit it later.

This is a classic example. This was some reportage work I did of a band about to go on stage at a huge festival in front of something like 25, 000 people. I followed them for the day taking informal shots and this was at the back of the stage as they walked up the ramp for their set. It was going dark, I was at 1600ISO, there was some daylight left and the big hallogen lights at the side of the ramp were starting to show. I was panning with the first chap in the shot and he simply walked too fast for me and was leaving the frame already as I took it. As it was a pressured environment, I thought I'd missed the shot when glancing at the LCD, touched the shutter button to save it, rather than spend time deleting it.

When I looked at it when I got home the day after, I decided it was perhaps my favourite shot of the day - it's ended up as about half of a landscape view - I cropped off another figure on the right and made it black and white. I was so busy concentrating on the first chap, the keyboard player, who I was aiming to take, I didn't notice that the drummer behind him was totally in focus, looking straight at me and the biting of the lips of the first chap and the blowing of the cheeks in the second shows the tension they are both feeling as they take the stage.

I'm jolly glad that I didn't delete this one. But then, perhaps this is also because I was in the moment (it was one of the most exciting days of my life) and that's why it means so much to me, rather than being a good shot - I like to think that it's a bit of both:



--
So many photos, so little time . . .
http://www.peekaboo.me.uk - general portfolio & tutorials
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http://imageevent.com/boophotos/ - most recent images

Please do not amend and re-post my images unless specifically requested or given permission to do so.

 

[bombelman.com]

I agree with you.

Nice gallerie also.
mine: http://www.bombelman.com
--



http://www.Bombelman.com - http://bombelman.deviantart.com/gallery/ - VISIT !

 

[nubui]

This is a perfect example of what I meant - thanks for illustrating and sharing this great picture with us!

Thanks for your great words! And I'm even convinced that quite some
viewers mightn't like this shot 'cos it contradicts some of the
"rules" (don't cut off heads etc.)

I must admit, I'm not a great fan of composition rules etc. and I
don't think about them as much as perhaps I should - for me, a
picture either sits comfortably with me, or it doesn't. I either
like it, or I don't. If you like this shot - which is as much
about being in the moment it happened, as a picture someone who
wasn't there can enjoy - what anyone else thinks is pretty
irrelevant.

I'm not sure yet that yours sits that comfortably with me - I
simply haven't decided if I like it or not. I certainly don't
dislike it, as a candid, it's a great moment to capture. As
someone else suggested, both the significant crop of the dog owner
and the extra people to the right feel a tad uneasy for me, but
then, if you crop the people after the lady with the rucsac, you
lose the impact of additional people being amused by the dog. At
the end of the day, it's your photo and if you like it, there's not
much more to it.

I'm also a fan of keeping everything and often shots you thought
were failures, turn out not to be. Unless a shot is totally
unusable and obviously spoiled, I keep it (CDs and DVDs are so
cheap, it's nonsense not to) and revisit it later.

This is a classic example. This was some reportage work I did of a
band about to go on stage at a huge festival in front of something
like 25, 000 people. I followed them for the day taking informal
shots and this was at the back of the stage as they walked up the
ramp for their set. It was going dark, I was at 1600ISO, there was
some daylight left and the big hallogen lights at the side of the
ramp were starting to show. I was panning with the first chap in
the shot and he simply walked too fast for me and was leaving the
frame already as I took it. As it was a pressured environment, I
thought I'd missed the shot when glancing at the LCD, touched the
shutter button to save it, rather than spend time deleting it.

When I looked at it when I got home the day after, I decided it was
perhaps my favourite shot of the day - it's ended up as about half
of a landscape view - I cropped off another figure on the right and
made it black and white. I was so busy concentrating on the first
chap, the keyboard player, who I was aiming to take, I didn't
notice that the drummer behind him was totally in focus, looking
straight at me and the biting of the lips of the first chap and the
blowing of the cheeks in the second shows the tension they are both
feeling as they take the stage.

I'm jolly glad that I didn't delete this one. But then, perhaps
this is also because I was in the moment (it was one of the most
exciting days of my life) and that's why it means so much to me,
rather than being a good shot - I like to think that it's a bit of
both:

--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that your questions have already been answered: http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68

 

[Justme]

subtitle: "it's worth to take pics, even though you might not
expect a keeper"

I have always been in favour of taking more pictures rather than
less, especially with digital where the cost doesn't matter. There
are people that would say that with shooting too many pictures, the
quality might get worse and that you don't put as much attention
into the individual one as you used to do when you were still using
film. That's true to a certain extent, but what I frequently find
is that coming back home and weeding out the bad ones, I often find
that pictures that I didn't think would turn out good, but kept on
a whim, would turn out to be real keepers.

I'm sure this has happened to me too. I also believe in taking more pics and especially with a dynamic scene such as this where a certain expression or pose may be lost if you wait to compose it just so before taking the shot.

Here's an example. I took this picture mainly because of the dog
trotting along in the water. Even though there was a nice mood in
the air, I didn't think it would turn out good, but took it anyway.

Later at home I discovered something in the picture that I didn't
realized while taking the shot: there were all those people
watching the dog and smiling. And even though I've cut off their
heads, I still think the overall atmosphere of the picture conveys
quite good and therefore I've declared it a keeper and I like it
more and more.

Did you have similar experiences with any of your pictures?

http://fs5.deviantart.com/i/2004/314/5/3/happiness_is_a_wet_dog_by_nubui.jpg

--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that
your questions have already been answered:
http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68

--

I know you mean well but please DO NOT link my images into the forum. Thanks for respecting that.

http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/nova_scotia_summer_2004
http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/digital_rebel_birds

 

[Justme]

subtitle: "it's worth to take pics, even though you might not
expect a keeper"

Well, happiness is catching wet poop...with a camera. Came home with this keeper because I took a chance not knowing what I would end up with: http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/image/30577604

I have always been in favour of taking more pictures rather than
less, especially with digital where the cost doesn't matter. There
are people that would say that with shooting too many pictures, the
quality might get worse and that you don't put as much attention
into the individual one as you used to do when you were still using
film. That's true to a certain extent, but what I frequently find
is that coming back home and weeding out the bad ones, I often find
that pictures that I didn't think would turn out good, but kept on
a whim, would turn out to be real keepers.

Here's an example. I took this picture mainly because of the dog
trotting along in the water. Even though there was a nice mood in
the air, I didn't think it would turn out good, but took it anyway.

Later at home I discovered something in the picture that I didn't
realized while taking the shot: there were all those people
watching the dog and smiling. And even though I've cut off their
heads, I still think the overall atmosphere of the picture conveys
quite good and therefore I've declared it a keeper and I like it
more and more.

Did you have similar experiences with any of your pictures?

http://fs5.deviantart.com/i/2004/314/5/3/happiness_is_a_wet_dog_by_nubui.jpg

--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that
your questions have already been answered:
http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68

--

I know you mean well but please DO NOT link my images into the forum. Thanks for respecting that.

http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/nova_scotia_summer_2004
http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/digital_rebel_birds

 

[nubui]

subtitle: "it's worth to take pics, even though you might not
expect a keeper"

Well, happiness is catching wet poop...with a camera. Came home
with this keeper because I took a chance not knowing what I would
end up with: http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/image/30577604

WHAT A CATCH! That's hilarious

--



My Photography: http://www.nubui.com/gallery/portfolio

New 300D users, please read the 300D FAQ first! Chances are that your questions have already been answered: http://www.marius.org/cgi-bin/fom?file=68