Thread: After 400 shots, do you keep shooting?

Don't know if this belongs in the "philosophy of photography" or not, so mods feel free to move.

Over the weekend, I joined a church retreat up north. It was a great time, and I got over 400 shots with my RX100 (a few more with film, but they aren't ready yet).

This morning, I went for my am dog walk, and brought my camera, but thought "I don't want to take any pictures. I've already got a pile I need to wade through."

I was wondering what others do -- If you run through a large shoot, afterward do you just keep shooting, or do you purposely pause, while you process what you have? I'm sure the answer is dependent on what is coming up next and what else is going on in your life, but would love to hear some thoughts.

I'm prone to let it rest, but not sleep for a few days.

If I am going out and I see things, I shoot. It doesn't matter that I shot the day before, every day is a new day. If you go on vacation, every day will bring you new things. One day on vacation I had two cameras on me, shot with each. The next day I had one camera and barely shot at all, not because of the camera capabilities but because I really didn't see anything I wanted to preserve. If you are concerned about the number of shots you are taking backing up on you and having no time to sift them, then concentrate on each shot like you are using film and you don't get to just delete it if it's no good. With digital people take a lot more photos firstly because wow, you can have more than 36 or even 72, but also because you don't feel bad about throwing out what isn't good. If you already have the attitude that many aren't good, why take them in the first place-- and to complicate things, not shoot the next day because you have such a pile to sift through. You'll miss the good opportunities.

Where I do pause is I don't edit the photos unless I need something out of them right away in which case I get what I need. Not editing right away, not sifting them, gives you a little time to become more reflective when you do look at them and you will see things you didn't before, appreciate shots you might have thrown out as junk and just decompress from all that shooting. So if you go out daily.. then you set up a pattern of looking at your images a few days later. While you don't have to be shooting for art or for perfection and some photos are great even if they are blurred because they captured something really special, those 400 photos you shot weren't all worthy of saving. So of course you keep on shooting. Besides, practicing as often as you can increases your mastery of the camera and your percentage for more photos worthy of keeping next time. :)

Kristen, good thoughts. Thanks! I especially like "Not editing right away, not sifting them, gives you a little time to become more reflective." I think I have a compulsion to minimize storage impact. It's almost OCD. I think I'll try the "step away for a time" approach.

Learned the not editing right away from a lot of pros. Another tip they suggest is that even after you sift your photos, keep them a bit longer for a second sifting. Your perspective changes over time as you get more practice and you might find that you liked the shot of the woman with the red handbag and want to add it to your 'people and their accessories series' later.. etc. To deal with the ocd, promise yourself every two weeks you will look or after a month you will purge, whatever time frame works for you. But do not stop shooting.

Keep shooting. And when you think there is nothing to shoot look again ... look left, look right, look up, look down, look behind ... look harder.

(Remember that this is coming from a guy who used to get free film, so shooting with total disregard to film cost, I'd always would shoot a ton. So my opinion on how much to shoot is sorta based on my free film days.) I am so backlogged on processing ... it isn't even funny. Last night I shot the opening day of the Brea Jazz Festival and I still haven't processed last year's images.

Gary

Nice comments here. I make no real plans. I go through my stuff during the evening when I typically do very little shooting. If I fall behind, so be it. The opportunity for a shot won't last but my SD card will.

I keep shooting, because you never know what might pop up the next day and you may miss out on that one special shot :-)

I can usually keep up with processing because I don't shoot very many frames. Some months I may not even shoot 100, but I'm pretty choosy. But every once in awhile I'll have a couple hours free for shooting and I get a whole bunch and then not have time to process until later. No worries...the files can wait. Shooting and processing exist on separate planes of existence.

Similar to Luke - I don't tend to shoot a whole lot. I've tried over time to reduce the number of pictures I take.Even so, I still end up deleting the majority, though I also adhere to the 'let it sit for a few days approach' and then use the star ratings in Lightroom to do repeated runs through to whittle them down.