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Archive 2013 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???

  
 
dswiger
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


OK, I don't usually post threads like this but this observed shooting methodology
"almost" bothers me.

What I observed kind of takes the inspiration part, out of landscape photography

I was doing my usual pilgrimage to Tunnel View.
I always visit this spot even if it's been "snapped" millions of times.
It's an inspirational location, sort of the quintessential Yosemite icon.

While setting my 4x5 film camera, the only "real way" to photograph ..... jk
I notice a guy setting up his oversized tripod, DSLR and an intervalometer.

The photographer disappears for a while then I noticed "beeps & clicks"
Didn't think much of it till it dawned on me.
He had framed a scene, then let the camera take images every minute or less, probably bracketed. This went on for at least 1/2 hour at which point I was done. Not sure how long he let it rip.

Now to be fair, it was a dramatic "storm clearing" view.
The clouds were caressing, coming & going.
El Cap was playing hide & seek.
So I'm sure there were 100s of "snaps" to be had.

Where's the inspiration in that?
I was always of the mind set that I would be set up & when a special moment appeared, I would open/close the shutter. I might even do this a couple of times for the right poses.

But 100s of them! Why not just crank up a Go Pro at every location in the park?
Turn them into time lapses & sell them as the work of a great photographer.....

So am I just new-old school?
Is this the new wave?
Should I just bring my iPad and hold it up like some Rosetta Stone apparatus and snap away

OK, a lot of this is tongue & cheek but what say you all?

Dan



Nov 22, 2013 at 12:25 PM
Mickey
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


You think maybe he was doing a time lapse?


Nov 22, 2013 at 12:31 PM
killersnowman
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


What comes to mind is that he wasnt shooting for stills but for a time lapse video. If the clouds were moving a lot then the time lapse would be pretty cool. I don't see any advantage for shooting stills this way but for a time lapse it is necessary

Just a thought. I do agree that slowing down is a good way to photograph but i also know that everyone has there way of shooting. Some like to make the shooting process an experience, slow down and enjoy the process (i enjoy taking my time). Others dont. O well



Nov 22, 2013 at 12:33 PM
NCAndy
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


Mickey wrote:
You think maybe he was doing a time lapse?

Probably as Mickey noted, though he might be just taking numerous shots of the scene to pull one later for processing. I bet a time lapse of a clearing storm would be really neat. Many ways to skin a cat I guess.



Nov 22, 2013 at 12:36 PM
stanparker
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


I'm sure it was a time lapse. Some of them cover many hours, even days. You wouldn't expect the photographer to oversee the entire process.


Nov 22, 2013 at 12:51 PM
jdc562
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


As stanparker and others wrote:
I'm sure it was a time lapse. Some of them cover many hours, even days. You wouldn't expect the photographer to oversee the entire process.

In fact, at the classic bridge position for shooting the Watchman at Zion, I stood next to an accomplished photographer doing time lapse photography for the purpose of capturing the changes of light on the mountain. In the steep, narrow canyons of Zion light changes very rapidly. In just a few minutes bright backlight can change to muted reflected light. Out of curiosity, I did quasi time lapse myself, manually taking repeated shots from the same position as the morning and evening light changed. Clicking through the resulting images showed how minute-to-minute changes in light angle made dramatic changes in the images. For me, this serial process of viewing changes was very instructional, not just some shotgun approach to getting a single image.
---John

Edited on Nov 22, 2013 at 01:18 PM · View previous versions



Nov 22, 2013 at 01:14 PM
Ben Horne
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


Though it may have been for a time lapse, I have seen something somewhat similar may years ago in death valley. Two photographers showed up at Zabriskie point (I wasn't shooting, I was just people watching), and they pulled out one of the gigapan setups. The setup shot a bracketed sequence for each shot of the multi-row pano, and when it shot the last frame it returned to the starting point and started shooting it a second time. While the camera was busy taking photos, they were ignoring the sunrise, and instead facing the other direction while drinking tea and talking about something unrelated. Essentially, a robot was taking the photos for them, and they would have been much more at home sitting at a Starbucks than actually watching the sunrise.


Nov 22, 2013 at 01:17 PM
dsjtecserv
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


I often use the technique as Ben describes, but without the robot. I'll set up and do some composition tests well before sunrise or sunset, and then as the light starts to get good I'll run bracketed series of panorama frames (with manual shutter actuation and rotation) repeatedly through the event, often without much delay between the end of one series and the beginning of another. I may change the focal length and framing, and sometimes even position, depending on how things develop, but I try to be in a position to capture the different nuances of the sunrise or sunset. Back home I can review them and decide which series (or occasionally more than one) puts together the best overall representation.

There may be photographers who can intuit the decisive moment that will be "the" picture of the event and take just one picture, but I can't claim to be that tuned in. But at least I do pay attention to the sunrise, and I can truly exhilarate in the spectacle amid all the button pushing and rotating!

Dave



Nov 22, 2013 at 01:33 PM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


I'll bet he is doing a video time lapse. That is how they are done, and they can be quite beautiful, especially when the conditions are right and the videographer understands composition and so forth.

As I've learned, motion images are, in many ways, a very different sort of thing than still photography, despite some important overlaps. A friend with whom I sometimes photograph - a fine photographer who recently had a show open at Harvard U - shoots both still and video when he is in the field. Sometimes he'll even set up the video gear for a time lapse of the sort you describe and then work on the still photography while the time lapse capture continues!

Take care,

Dan

dswiger wrote:
OK, I don't usually post threads like this but this observed shooting methodology
"almost" bothers me.

What I observed kind of takes the inspiration part, out of landscape photography

I was doing my usual pilgrimage to Tunnel View.
I always visit this spot even if it's been "snapped" millions of times.
It's an inspirational location, sort of the quintessential Yosemite icon.

While setting my 4x5 film camera, the only "real way" to photograph ..... jk
I notice a guy setting up his oversized tripod, DSLR and an intervalometer.

The photographer disappears for a while then I noticed "beeps & clicks"
Didn't think much of it till it
...Show more



Nov 22, 2013 at 02:13 PM
dswiger
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


OK, I've been enlightened

1st time I have seen it up close.

Thanks

Dan




Nov 22, 2013 at 02:25 PM
andyjaggy82
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


It probably was a time lapse, but I was actually just thinking about doing something similar the other day. Sometimes I am in a location and know I will only have once chance for a shot, and can't decide between two locations that are several hundred yards apart from each other. I've wondered if about packing two tripods, setting one camera up on the interval timer to shoot off on it's own, and then go shoot the other location by hand. I've never actually tried it but may some day.


Nov 22, 2013 at 04:53 PM
andyjaggy82
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


Ben Horne wrote:
Though it may have been for a time lapse, I have seen something somewhat similar may years ago in death valley. Two photographers showed up at Zabriskie point (I wasn't shooting, I was just people watching), and they pulled out one of the gigapan setups. The setup shot a bracketed sequence for each shot of the multi-row pano, and when it shot the last frame it returned to the starting point and started shooting it a second time. While the camera was busy taking photos, they were ignoring the sunrise, and instead facing the other direction while drinking tea
...Show more

They very well could have been doing that for something else, work related even and weren't there for the photography. I don't know, I am disturbed by how often photographers love to judge each other, the condemnation and snobbery of those who look down on others who may stand in lines of people and shoot the same icon, or gasp even shoot out their car windows. We all have our own reasons for doing what we do, and if they are enjoying themselves and experiencing nature how they like to experience it then good for them.



Nov 22, 2013 at 05:01 PM
Ron Bailey
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


I can easily see how this thread can devolve rather quickly. Let us avoid that.

Suffice to say that each photographer does what pleases him. Are we to rant against someone who shoots only JPEG? Only RAW? Manual mode? Auto? You get the idea.

To each his own and whatever turns your crank.



Nov 22, 2013 at 05:43 PM
dswiger
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


Andy,
I said it was tongue-in-cheek
Now judgement or looking down on.
Cell phones, iPads, it's all good.
Taking home a memory is always a worthy endeavor
It was a contrast with what I was doing, an incongruity if you will.
Time-lapse good, still photography good

Dan



Nov 22, 2013 at 05:49 PM
andyjaggy82
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


dswiger wrote:
Andy,
I said it was tongue-in-cheek
Now judgement or looking down on.
Cell phones, iPads, it's all good.
Taking home a memory is always a worthy endeavor
It was a contrast with what I was doing, an incongruity if you will.
Time-lapse good, still photography good

Dan


Sorry, that wasn't necessarily directed at you, but just to the many people over the years who I have run into with that sort of attitude.



Nov 22, 2013 at 05:59 PM
dswiger
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


Andy, that's OK, I could have deserved it.
I shoot film, DSLR, iPhone. OK, I admit it, the iPad shooters still seem odd, but that's me

Dan



Nov 22, 2013 at 06:13 PM
runamuck
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


Would you feel better if he had used a movie camera?


Nov 22, 2013 at 07:46 PM
JeffAUSTIN
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


at least you didnt run over while he wasnt looking at steal his memory card


Nov 22, 2013 at 09:32 PM
Greg Campbell
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


I'm not convinced of the time-lapse theory. To get smooth cloud motion, you really need single-digit seconds between shots. A movie made of 30~60 second interval shots will look awful.

I enjoyed (I did produce a chuckle!) a similar encounter the last time I was in Lower Antelope. I'd been banging my head against an overhanging canyon walls for several minutes, trying to coerce my tripod and 6x6 to point in some crazy, neck-straining direction, when two or three guys came marching through, shooting as they went. Whenever they happened to see an interesting scene, they'd hold their camera at arm's length and rip off a series of 5 or ten shots. BZZZZZZT! (I didn't see what they were shooting, but the high frame rate suggested high end equipment.) In doing so they didn't even begin to break stride, much less stop to refine the shot. To add to the fun, I heard them talking about how much time they had left in the day, and how many more regional slot canyons they'd have time to shoot. I bet they 'did' every one in record time. The question is, "What, if anything, did they remember of their experience?" Damn little, I'd guess.

This 'almost bothers me' a little too, but I also enjoy ample sardonic amusement in watching people like this do their thing. I chuckle with evil glee at the thought of them spending the next 5.6 years hunkered over their computer, attempting to find, and then 'fix,' the few random keepers that may have survived the Rambo-inspired massacre.

Isn't the experience of immersing yourself in the scenery at least as important as any pictures you may manage to make?



Nov 23, 2013 at 03:27 AM
Next39
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Spray & Pray Shooting, Automated, Really???


I enjoy doing time lapses. It's an entirely different way to appreciate sunrises, sunsets, cloud movement, fog coming and going... You get the idea. And I always have another camera with me while the time lapse body is tied up on the tripod or time lapse rig.


Nov 24, 2013 at 09:26 AM
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