How Many Great Photos Do You Shoot?

I need to start a business selling memory cards. At the rate all of you shoot and use up cards, I will make a fortune!

 

And just as soon as I set that record, I beat it!

Today in Weltvogelpark Walsrode I took 2575 pictures!

 

I think this thread shows the difference between photographers who are focused on the art of the photo versus those who are documentarians of various species.

 

With most slr camera's these days they have multiple shooting modes and with the most up to date ones they will take anything up to 9 frames a second so their is no reason why 5,000 or more photographs should be classed as a lot.

 

I thought of this thread as I was watching BBC2 'Artsnight' last night. The first item in the programme sent Martin Parr HonFRPS for a day at the Cheshire Show, and the cameras followed him around as he photographed the livestock judging, the produce stalls, the Committee tent, the tea tent and the spectators. Mr Parr is famous for producing images of people (mainly British people) enjoying their pastimes: his pictures are usually gentle and easy on the eye, but slightly off-beat and quite revealing when studied closely. He wandered around, apparently aimlessly, but he spoke about the amount of concentration his work required and his images showed his characteristically keen eye. I recommend this short piece, less than 9 minutes, to people with the BBC iPlayer.
Anyway at the end Mr Parr said that he had taken about 350 pictures during the day, more bad than good. He would make an initial edit of thirty to forty and then select half a dozen. His final comment was "If I'm lucky, one will be quite good."
And remember photographing wild animals, even in a zoo, has a much higher failure rate than taking photos of trained domestic livestock or of people.

Alan

 

Thanks @gentle lemur for the heads-up on that Artsnight programme I found it very interesting -- not least because my main photography sideline (apart from zoos) is photographing the livestock/judging at various agricultural shows around the UK.

Regarding the numbers of photos taken versus numbers edited and selected, my proportions are entirely different depending on whether I'm shooting at a zoo (where the photos are mainly for my own pleasure), or at a show (shooting people and their animals - mainly sheep - where the photos are destined to be made available for purchase).

At a zoo, my amounts and percentages are remarkably similar to those Mr Parr ended up with at the Cheshire Show (although I'm not of course comparing my photography abilities to his!). I usually take 300-400 during a full day visit. Initial edit is maybe 50-70, selecting a dozen or so of those; the hope is always for one decent one (usually never happens though).

At a county show, I'd probably take 500-1200, then selecting, speed-editing, and uploading to my website around 70% of those. My 'keeper' rate was much lower when I started a few years ago, but practice over the years means that nowadays I don't shoot nearly so many unneccesary shots at shows.

The practice I've had with animals at shows has since carried over into my zoo photography, where I tend to only take a shot when it's 'worth' taking. Most of my time is spent observing, paying repeat visits to enclosures at different times of the day, looking around the enclosures for different angles, waiting for the right light, etc. Exceptions to this would be a first visit to a particular zoo, when I usually take more shots to use as aides-memoires for future visits; also some recent attempts at bif (bird-in-flight) shots, where I pre-focus and shoot short bursts, hoping to get one usable image.

I should point out that none of my zoo photos (or show photos, for that matter) end up on my walls; although I do make prints of some of them. I do have some of my landscape work up, but most of my wall decorations are non-photographic.

 

Ah, the smell on popping open a Kodachrome canister.. mmm the aroma!

The working hard on technical skill so that the the image was 'right' at the point of exposure so when the little yellow package arrived that was it - good or bad - instead of gaffing about with a computer.

Anyway, they're about the only two aspects of film I miss and I wouldn't go back for the world, but its just not the same these days...

Back on thread, and yes its not unusual for me to get up well into the hundreds from a day, especially if somewhere new or rarely visited.

Adrian hits the nail on the head though, when shooting at 5 fps and looking to do a specific subject well, the frame total soon climbs up. Taking up the subtly different angles from motor drive sequences and the total soon looks more reasonable.

I've started leaving my camera at home more often on Chester trips, especially in the busy summer months. Always see a picture when I do, unfortunately, like sat week when a cassowary in Islands was absolutely tearing backwards and forwards across the front of its enclosure. Action shots like that are so rare!