To snap pics, or not to snap pics…

I went through phases as photography became more digital. When jpegs were young I’d spend hours organizing an archive and backing up to CDs. At some point I noticed I wasn’t an early adopter anymore, I was just part of a flood. Photos became very much less precious from say 1994 (Apple Quicktake) to 2001 (Nikon 995).

There are lots of interesting tidbits in this article, including “Every 2 minutes today we snap as many photos as the whole of humanity took in the 1800s.”

I totally agree that good photography is art, but I think I’m like a lot of people in that I try to cast a few good images into twitter or instagram … archiving just a few to remind me what I was doing and when.

(I’m in a meetup hiking club that must itself take more pictures than humanity in the 1800’s!)

I started enjoying my trips much more and taking better pictures when I stopped trying to take great pictures and instead started taking snapshots that tell the story.

I'm not a photographer, I'm not ever going to take national geographic quality photos. But I like to tell a good story and days, weeks, years later, it's the stories that make me happy. The pictures are there to illustrate the story. In fact, I've started taking particularly illustrative pictures, such as pictures of emptying out my pack to show my gear, pictures of my tent set up, pictures specifically of something I want to write about later.

"such as pictures of emptying out my pack to show my gear"

It can be fun to document this with a stop-action sequence of photos all shot off a tripod. Then you edit it to make it into a jumpy video strip that lasts 15 seconds. Show that to a group of beginner backpackers.

–B.G.–

Take as many pictures as you can. I averaged 700 pictures per 10 day trip the two times I went to Alaska. I spent about 4 hours deleting the bad ones/organizing, and choosing the ones to frame for my home, the work is worth it.

I had the same thoughts last year. I was doing the John Muir Trail and decided on pictures being not all they cracked up to be, and instead choosing it live in the moment. I was fine with it for most of the hike. But man, when I camped at Evolution Lake and saw the sunset, and then the sunrise lighting up the peaks through the reflection of the lake… I busted out the wholly inadequate iPod nano to try to take some video. Some things you WANT to share with others. I now reflect on other peoples JMT pictures and think back, but I don't have mine.

I've just purchased a nice camera (Canon s100) for my upcoming trips. I'd like to think I've learned a few things. a) take less pictures. Take the time to come up with a good shot, composition and all, that you'll want to have, blow up, frame, show people, and look at. Taking fewer pictures on purpose means I don't just snap 20 an hour and keep walking. It means I take two an hour and think about the shots. If I can't see a smaller square of my field of vision that would reflect what I'm seeing with my eyes, I spend maybe some extra time looking instead.

Some things like movement, you being in them, friends, and certain critters, just don't show up in other people's pictures.

My new big thing, taking less pictures than I used to.

From my trip this week… have a blinking battery warning :) Then you will take pics of just the stuff you really want. i ended up doing 3 days 40mi and only taking 20 pictures

I take too many, it's a fact

Probably distracting and annoying to my trail mates every time I stop, but I do enjoy sharing them and looking back at old trips.

My brain is useless at storing images, I must have a bad sector in there, pictures albeit snaps, are the only way I get to relive my adventures.

Remembering just a few basics like general composition, direction of light and the rule of thirds can give you some great memories for when your legs don't carry you like they used to.

I’m not in favor of clicking out each and every moment, it just adds to piling up of snaps and after a span of time one hardly gets time to see it all over again.

I'm a photographer, so I'm always struggling with the balance of serenity vs. the "calling" to capture what I see.

In photography, less tends to be more. The problem with digital photography is that photos "cost nothing", so people just blast their shutter all over everything "just in case". The mindfulness of appreciating the scene is lost with this kind of thing, and there is often ZERO planning with regard to the photo itself.

Think back to the days of film… you'd WAIT for a shot. You'd think of 30~ things you wanted to capture, and went for them. Try doing that with digital. Pretend you CAN'T take 3,000 shots.

Chances are, you will end up with far less, but they will be far better. And when you show your friends you won't be like, "This was a log, this was a stone I sat on, this was the view from the lake, this is the lake again, this is the lake from the other side, this is the log from the lake…"

Because honestly, no one cares. If you're struck with beauty about a particular scene, find a way to capture it in one or two images at most. If you can't, it probably will not translate well to a photo.

…

Beyond that, I just think part of the skill of being a photographer is knowing what will work and what won't, and not expending the effort for what won't. Some things are better as memories. Certain lighting will just crush an otherwise beautiful scene, just due to the nature of how a camera works.

There's also the frame of reference… meaning, when I take a shot, I'm always keeping in mind an artist it may "feel" like, or whether something similar has already been done in a better way.

For example, if I want to take a portrait of a woman on a mountain gazing awe-struck into the distance, my experience with photography tells me to TAKE OFF THE GO-LITE VISOR, or the neon green headband, or other silly "gear" items that just takes away from the photo. This kind of instinct comes only with experience and awareness, but it's something that separates run-of-the-mill family photos, from the National Geographic stuff people drool over.