Now I know I’m not the only one who does this.
When photographing events such as weddings, sports, birthdays and festivals, we as photographers know that things are going to happen fast… like… really fast! It’s taken me years to get my system in place, and you know what? I still make mistakes!
We all go through a similar process. You know, the fighting our way to the front or best positions (knocking over old ladies if necessary to do so). Setting up our cameras to the right modes (if it’s a new camera making a show of it), then flipping on auto focus on our lenses and probably changing lenses to the bigger ones a few times. As the sports play on, clicking the shutter non stop and feeling like a proper sports photographer at the Olympics. Pausing occasionally at dull moments to feel pretty chuffed that your camera’s is bigger than the guys’ next to you, and congratulating yourself on the great position you’ve managed to bully your way into… and then you see it… THE ONE.. that’s right, the money shot.
It could be a ball lobbed high into the air, or the trophy being handed over to the athlete, a long jumper launching into the air. “Oh My God” you think “This is IT!” and you raise your camera, press down the shutter to let the camera fly and as it continuously clicks as fast as a machine gun. Then all of a sudden, you watch as the lens rotates automatically to focus past or in front of the subject, leaving it in complete blurred obscurity. Your mind goes “Ahhhh!!! Noooooo!!!” as you struggle to bring the focus back to the subject, but sadly, inevitably, by that time… the moment is over… the money shot is GONE!
To anyone, including me it’s a disaster! I can’t use it, can’t send it in to be published or even put up on Facebook! It’s too embarrassing. I let the opportunity slip away. But for one of my old photography professors, he sees it in a completely different way. He suggests that images such as these can display a unique moment in time, where the subject is only implied not displayed and in many cases the environment around the blurred subject becomes the point of interest.
So remembering his words, I have uploaded a few of my own ‘Boo Boo’s’ which I took at the Carlsbad 5000 in California last month. Some sweet (if slightly bonkers people) have been kind enough to call them ‘artistic’. I don’t go quite so far as that, but I personally think that they do have something interesting to them.
So here it goes! My embarrassing moments on display!
Do you have any oops images you’d like to share? Please do in response to this post. I’d love to see them.
Danielle Falknor Freelance Photography 