When you approach an infant at a church, the light is perfect, the baby is looking at the right direction, distracted, perfectly still......

WHY do the parents insist on bouncing the baby to get him/her to look at you?

I could keep going with things that I just don't get, but I think that the above takes the cake. I snuck over to try and get a picture of that cute baby sucking on the back of the Pugh, and before I can start shooting the parents decide that the shot I want to get is them bouncing the heck out of the baby causing it to look like Max Headroom stuck in a tic.

Not that this kills me, but it's enough to make me want to talk a little about it here.

The only other thing I can really bring up to complain or discuss was this bridesmaid... during all the formal dances she was either shooting her own pics, or gabbing to the next bridesmaid over... looking away from the action.. one person out of 15 to ruin the pic

Know what I hate most?

Pointing a camera at someone and they smile at me. It'l be the death of me. So many moments are potentially ruined by the way society dictates to acknowledge the cameras existence.

word

you guys need to up ur ninja game.

Quan wrote:
you guys need to up ur ninja game.

that's exactly what I was going to say. And I don't know about you, but I don't mean it as a joke.

Know what you mean. Ringbearer's mom tried to "fix" these two when she saw me notice them, but I snapped the shot just in time before she could.

Evan Baines wrote:
Know what you mean. Ringbearer's mom tried to "fix" these two when she saw me notice them, but I snapped the shot just in time before she could.

Oh I totally agree. I also hate it when parents fixate on the kids during formals. It's generally ok if the 18 month old isn't looking and smiling at the camera, but to see at least three adults looking away, trying to make the kid smile - even after I've counted to three and asked them to look at me - is unacceptable.

I find things get better as the day progresses, but people that constantly try to get their kids to smile at me... Well, sometimes there's no solution. It's even worse during portrait sessions. Sometimes I want parents to go away and just let us hang out with the kids!

Evan, that is a killer shot. I love it. Did the mom see this one?

DB, I wasn't even thinking of the formals. Normally we have been lucky to have a with/without kids version.

Learn to shoot from the hip! Medium format with top-viewfinder for the win.

What I hear all the time is "Look at the man!", of course in a loud, irritating voice!

I think parents do it partly because they think they know what we want, they assume that we want the same thing that they themselves want. They hope for their kids looking at the camera with a fake make-mommy-happy smile, because it is the best they can do. They don't understand what we are trying to do.

Shoot rangefinder Leica and they'll never even see you coming.

dmacmillan wrote:
Shoot rangefinder Leica and they'll never even see you coming.

I've heard this kind of thing said repeatedly in various contexts at various points in my life.

Would you mind explaining it... assuming that there's some value to what you (and the others) wrote?

Oh and for the record... my wife has a horrendous fake smile she automatically falls into when being photographed. My daughter seems to be headed down the same path... so far my tactic has been that any time she puts the smile on I simply say "I didn't ask for a smile" and put the camera away. Who knows... it might just work in the end.

Try having a kid that makes a stupid face in every photo.

I remember trying to do formals for an event I did a while ago, where this
kid made a stupid face in almost every single photo despite attepmts by
me and his mom to get him to just smile.

I just had to crop/clone him out of the photos. Kids these days..

Jed Eltom
Reminiscence Life Art Studios
www.rlastudios.com

lisy78 wrote:
dmacmillan wrote:
Shoot rangefinder Leica and they'll never even see you coming.

Would you mind explaining it... assuming that there's some value to what you (and the others) wrote?
To assume there's value in anything I say is a big assumption!

My SA comment was meant as a sort of joke playing off what you've heard. There is, however, a grain of truth in it.

First of all, the Leica RF is small and unassuming. Few people are aware that it's a "professional" camera, the just think it's a P&S and pay it no (or little) mind.

Secondly, good Leica RF shooters become very good at judging distance. A common practice is to pre-focus by guessing the distance to the subject. This is done with the camera at waist level. When it's time to shoot, the camera is brought up to the eye and if the focus is a little off, it's immediately apparent in the split window finder. Usually just a small quick tweak corrects. Related to that is the almost complete lack of shutter lag. Therefore, you're able to pre-focus, raise the camera, tweak and release the shutter before most people realize what's happened.

Interesting! Thanks for clearing that up for me... makes sense

Know what I hate most?

Pointing a camera at someone and they smile at me. It'l be the death of me. So many moments are potentially ruined by the way society dictates to acknowledge the cameras existence.

+1

I'm going to admit something here down in the depths of this thread:

When I'm shooting 'party pics' or whatever you want to call it during the cocktail hour or thereabout that time-just some group shots of people mingling, and people say "OH NO DONT TAKE MY PICTURE!!!", inside I say 'fine, be forgotten'.

Is that bad? I'm just tired of what I call 'portrait sickness'.

Humans suck at times.