LOVE TO TAKE THOSE PICTURES

I’ve been in love with photography ever since I was about twelve. It was then that my father allowed me unlimited access to the family Argus, and I began to snap 35 mm shots of the usual things that present themselves as subjects to photographers of twelve: family, neighbors, squirrels in trees. Film cost forty-nine cents a roll and developing eighty-nine. Since my allowance was fifty cents a week, I had the resources to shoot a roll every third week and still buy a candy bar or two.

To this day I remember the smell of the camera…a heady brew of the leather on its back and its intricate metal interior. It had no light meter, so I was forced to guess at f-stop and shutter speed. Through trial and error I got quite good at approximating the right amount of light onto the film.

Today, I am quite content to let my new Sony digital camera sweat the exposure readings. I rarely photograph squirrels today, but more often than not, it’s people who interest me as subjects. I find that I spend a lot more time photographing people than I do sunsets. It takes more nerve to photograph a person than a landscape, and the rewards are sporadic, but as in all photography, if you take a lot of pictures, you vastly increase your chances of taking a good one.

The number of shots taken separates rank amateurs from serious amateurs and professionals. Serious photographers take lots and lots of pictures, planning to discard most of them in favor of keeping a few choice ones. When handed a camera, non-photographers take a couple of pictures and then expect to be disappointed.

I buy two cameras a year. Yes, it’s an addiction, but a manageable one, for I can sell the older cameras  at a tolerable loss on eBay every time I want to buy a new one.  The pace of development in digital photography equals that of computers. Who wants to be stuck with a four-year old gizmo? My latest camera, which I bought for less than two hundred dollars, defocuses the background for portraits, making it seem like a much pricier single lens reflex. The lens is sharp as a Sicilian razor, and the resolution is so high it burdens my two-year old computer to process the images.

So what do most people want to see in a portrait? The eyes. Those windows of the soul must be in sharp focus, and lit. If you want to take really sharp pictures, use a tripod. You can buy one at your local Goodwill for six dollars. Camera shake is the biggest cause of so-so photos. Put your camera between an open window and your subject and make sure the background behind the subject is as dark as possible. Zoom in a little. Nobody looks good in a wide angle lens. The light coming in the window should be indirect. Direct sunlight will cause your subject to squint and your photograph to be over-exposed in all the wrong places. Remember, we want to be able to see eyes.

Take twenty photos for every one you expect to come out. Remember, there’s no penalty for trying too hard and you’re certainly not “wasting” anything. Even camera batteries are almost all rechargeable nowadays, so at worst you’re guilty of squandering a few electrons.

The most impressive pictures I’ve taken have been candid portraits, usually done when I’m holding the camera chest or waist-high and snapping as rapidly as the camera will allow. In a way I’m stealing images, without taking the time to develop relationships, but, heck, Henri Cartier Bresson made a career of it and we’re all the better for it.