One Lens - Three Views - 9 shots

St. Agnes, originally uploaded by Fotodog_1.

I've seen a ton of blogs on digital photography that have been carrying the same message lately, "shoot a lot of images and then shoot some more. You can always delete the ones you don't want. And the more you shoot the better results you'll get"

I've been a huge opponent of that view for one reason, just because you shoot a lot doesn't mean that you'll get something good or that you'll get better. Being prolific only increases the CHANCE you'll get a decent shot.

In the case of this image, I used my Nikon 16-85 on my Nikon D300s and challenged myself to capture the essence of this magnificent building (St. Agnes) as well as the glorious light that January brings us in the Great White North. I challenged myself to only three views.

I walked around and composed in the camera over a dozen times, but I didn't trip the shutter until I had exactly what I wanted. I did take three exposures of each composition, bracketing +/- 1.0 just in case I wanted to do HDR on them (which I did). I didn't want to take 50 or 100, then review and edit them all. I don't have the patience or time to do this with every assignment.

One thing I do advise is for photographers to practice new technique, refine the ones they already use and shoot often to keep fresh. But to shoot 100 or 400 or 1000 images to get a few usable ones is a waste of your time unless each of those images is a different composition or a different subject.

I do think it's ok to shoot a lot when you're first learning photography or just got a new camera or testing new techniques to master them. I also think it's ok to shoot a lot when you're doing sports or weddings (to a certain extent) to capture those fleeting moments. But, as an example a noted photography blogger recently posted on his blog that he shot 144 images in 12 seconds on one play of an NFL game. But by shooting 12 fps he still didn't capture the decisive moment of the play because his buffer got full at the key time. If you're going to shoot like that, maybe you should think about doing video.

And a final note, if you do shoot a lot, please edit what you put on your website, or online photo album or facebook. Think about the story you want to tell and put your best shots in a best of folder and then place the rest in another folder so if you have viewers that want your best they can view it easier and if they have time to view your 2000+ photos they have another option.

Peace and Love,
~fotodog