Don't be a "Machine Gunner"

[Mr.Photo]

While photographing during an event yesterday I was reminded of the "Machine Gunner" syndrome by another person photographing at the event. I Wanted to post up this little tip for some of the up and coming photographers out there. Especially those that may want to learn how to do sports/action photography.

The event was a Veteran's thank you type event which had several guest speakers. I happened upon a woman using a Canon 6D and for every 2-3 frames (or single frame) I took she would pull up her camera (didn't matter what she was shooting) and fire off a 3-4 second continuous burst (about 25-30 frames). She did this over the course of the event (about 2.5 hrs.), and when I chatted with her towards the end of the event she told me that she had taken more than 5500 shots compared to my 350.

Continuous burst mode is great when doing action shots such as birds in flight, auto racing etc. It can even be useful when doing portraits as sometimes you may have someone that blinks a lot and you have a better chance of getting them with their eyes open. However don't do what is commonly referred to as "spray and pray". Other than the undue wear and tear on the shutter in your camera, you will then have a ton of photograph's to weed through to pick out the best one and delete the rest, and there is still no guarantee that you are going to get that magic shot.

Instead learn the various focus modes in your camera, how they operate, and when to use them. Learn to anticipate the right moment, then just before that moment happens begin to fire off a quick burst of 5-6 shots through that moment. If shooting moving action, learn how to properly pan with the action while doing the burst. With practice it will become second nature, and you will save yourself a heap of time as well as frustration when you're editing your photo's.

I will also add (having done a little bit of birds in flight work myself) that you will rely on the "spray and pray" method at times as birds can be a nightmare to track. However photographers who do this on a regular basis can take shots of birds doing only short burst's of a few frames and consistently get good shots. It all comes down to technique, practice, and knowing your equipment.

 

[tirediron]

Oh for the days when you'd roll into a wedding with a half-dozen '36' rolls in your bag and figure you had enough for two weddings!

 

[Mr.Photo]

Oh for the days when you'd roll into a wedding with a half-dozen '36' rolls in your bag and figure you had enough for two weddings!

I remember watching a documentary on Netflix about a year ago or so about a National Geographic photographer by the name of Joel Sartore who went on a three month expedition in Alaska and burned through 800+ rolls of film.

 

[tirediron]

Yeah, but even if he was hand-loading and managed to stuff 42 frames into a roll, that's only 33,600 frames. Assuming he was using 'tailor-made' and assuming a 12 hour work day, that's only about a roll an hour. Most amateurs I know blow through that in a MINUTE at an event.

 

[lambertpix]

Continuous burst mode is great when doing action shots such as birds in flight, auto racing etc. It can even be useful when doing portraits as sometimes you may have someone that blinks a lot and you have a better chance of getting them with their eyes open. However don't do what is commonly referred to as "spray and pray". Other than the undue wear and tear on the shutter in your camera, you will then have a ton of photograph's to weed through to pick out the best one and delete the rest, and there is still no guarantee that you are going to get that magic shot.

Yup.

It took a little while for this to sink in, but I've found even with racing, I'm way better off with a single shot or a short burst of 2-3 at the right time vs. spray 'n pray. I'll hold down the shutter if I'm tracking an off-track excursion or some fender-banging, but it's been a long time since I filled up my buffer. Sorting through all the junk is a powerful motivation for change, though.

 

[Derrel]

OMG!!! 5,500 frames in a two and a half hour, indoor event! Utterly laughable! She'll need a garbage truck to haul away all the rubbish! I have never heard of such ridiculous overshooting. Wow...what a waste of resources.

 

[MichaelHenson]

I see the attraction in the "spray and pray" approach...to an extent but I can't imagine having to work through 5,500 images of a 2.5 hour event. Ugh!

I've done three separate "shoots" at this point that were for other people and ended up with 226, 60, and 250 images. The shoots were 2.5 hours, 30 minutes, and 2.5 hours (ish), respectively...

I know that someday I'll be able to be even more selective with my shooting but I'm pretty happy with that for now and only hope to get better.

 

[runnah]

While photographing during an event yesterday I was reminded of the "Machine Gunner" syndrome by another person photographing at the event. I Wanted to post up this little tip for some of the up and coming photographers out there. Especially those that may want to learn how to do sports/action photography.

The event was a Veteran's thank you type event which had several guest speakers. I happened upon a woman using a Canon 6D and for every 2-3 frames (or single frame) I took she would pull up her camera (didn't matter what she was shooting) and fire off a 3-4 second continuous burst (about 25-30 frames). She did this over the course of the event (about 2.5 hrs.), and when I chatted with her towards the end of the event she told me that she had taken more than 5500 shots compared to my 350.

Continuous burst mode is great when doing action shots such as birds in flight, auto racing etc. It can even be useful when doing portraits as sometimes you may have someone that blinks a lot and you have a better chance of getting them with their eyes open. However don't do what is commonly referred to as "spray and pray". Other than the undue wear and tear on the shutter in your camera, you will then have a ton of photograph's to weed through to pick out the best one and delete the rest, and there is still no guarantee that you are going to get that magic shot.

Instead learn the various focus modes in your camera, how they operate, and when to use them. Learn to anticipate the right moment, then just before that moment happens begin to fire off a quick burst of 5-6 shots through that moment. If shooting moving action, learn how to properly pan with the action while doing the burst. With practice it will become second nature, and you will save yourself a heap of time as well as frustration when you're editing your photo's.

I will also add (having done a little bit of birds in flight work myself) that you will rely on the "spray and pray" method at times as birds can be a nightmare to track. However photographers who do this on a regular basis can take shots of birds doing only short burst's of a few frames and consistently get good shots. It all comes down to technique, practice, and knowing your equipment.

I disagree. I shoot tons of events and know that the one shot at a time doesn't work for speakers. You have to fire off quick bursts. A speakers facial expression changes so much when they are speaking that you have to be quick to get a good solid expression rather than a "derp" face. Plus you have to try to get an expression that fits the tone of the event. I have many shots where it looks like the speaker is angry or yelling but they really aren't.

 

[tirediron]

Reminds me of my brother's wedding - I think I shot about 250 -275 frames (small, back-yard affair, <30 guests); there really was the stereotypical "uncle with a camera" and for every frame I took, he fired of 10-15. It's one thing if you're shooting a cheetah taking down prey, but the bride's formals?????? I 'bout laughed myself silly all the way home.

 

[MichaelHenson]

I disagree. I shoot tons of events and know that the one shot at a time doesn't work for speakers. You have to fire off quick bursts. A speakers facial expression changes so much when they are speaking that you have to be quick to get a good solid expression rather than a "derp" face. Plus you have to try to get an expression that fits the tone of the event. I have many shots where it looks like the speaker is angry or yelling but they really aren't.

Makes sense...but 5,500?!?!

 

[runnah]

I disagree. I shoot tons of events and know that the one shot at a time doesn't work for speakers. You have to fire off quick bursts. A speakers facial expression changes so much when they are speaking that you have to be quick to get a good solid expression rather than a "derp" face. Plus you have to try to get an expression that fits the tone of the event. I have many shots where it looks like the speaker is angry or yelling but they really aren't.

Makes sense...but 5,500?!?!

Yeah that is overkill. But I will say when its your job to get "the shot" if you have to burn through 4,499 shots to get the one, well its worth it.

 

[MichaelHenson]

Can't argue with that! I just can't imagine going through that many images and trying to cull it down to a select few of the keepers...My couple hundred take long enough!

 

[runnah]

Can't argue with that! I just can't imagine going through that many images and trying to cull it down to a select few of the keepers...My couple hundred take long enough!

It's easier than you might think. its not about "art" its about documenting the thing that is happening. That makes it easy to know what to ditch.

 

[Mr.Photo]

I disagree. I shoot tons of events and know that the one shot at a time doesn't work for speakers. You have to fire off quick bursts. A speakers facial expression changes so much when they are speaking that you have to be quick to get a good solid expression rather than a "derp" face. Plus you have to try to get an expression that fits the tone of the event. I have many shots where it looks like the speaker is angry or yelling but they really aren't.

I never said to shoot a single frame all the time and while I didn't provide every instance where you would or wouldn't use continuous burst mode, I did say that in some instances taking multiple shots can be useful. The moral of my tip is to learn when you might need to take several shots in succession or when simply 2-3 frames might do. I myself during this event shot 3-4 frames at a time when the speakers were talking as I know that you can catch the wrong expression more often than not. The woman with the Canon was pulling up her camera every 10-15 seconds, firing off burst's of 25-30 frames each time. Even when she was photographing people just standing around talking or taking group photo's she was taking 3-4 second burst's. When you know what you're trying to accomplish there is no need to take 50 shots of the same thing over the course of a few seconds.

On another note. I witnessed this same woman after leaving the event on my drive home. She stopped on the side of the road to photograph a tractor cutting corn. I had to stop behind her to allow an oncoming car to go by, and with my window down I could hear her camera "click,click,click,click,click,click,click,click,click" for like 10 seconds.

 

[sashbar]

I was working at Wimbledon some years ago (not as a photographer) and went to the photogs gallery above the main court. There is a small gallery where you can see the whole court from above. There were several guys shooting the Gasquet-Roddick quarter-final , and it was fun to watch them - they were shooting in complete unison. Same moments, same series of 5-7 shots, they were all shooting with the same make - Canon 1D, even the lenses were all the same. I was watching the entire match, it was a 5-setter ( Gasquet won) and I thought they had each shot at the very least a 1,000 frames. Probably much more. They were shooting each and every moment that might be worth it, throughout the whole match. And there were moments in each point. I was impressed. I thought: "competition is fierce there" .