Have you ever been so frustrated...

LuckySo-n-So · Feb 27, 2009

that you left an event you were shooting?

I just left another LSU gymnastics meet after only about 30 minutes and 75 pictures.

First off, Dora the Explorer was there, so there were several hundred more people there(families with young girls--they were cute, I must say). I could not get my "front row" seat, so I settled for about the 10th row, which was about 20 feet farther away than last time. It made a HUGE difference, as I was out of the overhead "ring of lights."

Then, as I was setting ISO, white balance, etc. and taking test shots with my D40 and Sigma 70-300, two 20-year-old LSU coeds decide to plop their cute, firm behinds

lol

in the seats right in front of me. Other than reminding me how old I was, one had a Nikon D2 with a Nikkor 70-200mm 2.8 lens, the other had the Canon equivalent (Property of LSU, so I assume they were on the staff of the student newspaper).

This bummed me out immediately. Then, none of my pics were coming out worth shiite. The girl with the Canon was shooting in burst mode, which sounded like about 273 frames per second compared to my burst mode, which seemed like 3 seconds per frame.

ANYWAY, after the vault, I moved to shoot the unevens, and after about ten shots and crappy results, I gave up and left.

:banghead::banghead::banghead:

I plan on shooting the LSU baseball game tomorrow afternoon, so maybe I won't be so restricted by low light conditions.

I suck.

Johnboy2978 · Feb 27, 2009

Each year, there are a couple of famous mills I like to visit around peak fall foliage time. I visit Mabry Mill (about 90 minutes away) and Glade Creek Grist Mill (about 3 hours away). This year, despite it being the "peak" time, it was obviously past peak as most of the leaves were down on the ground already at the Mabry Mill. Nevertheless, I went there not knowing it would be too late, and much to my surprise, there were more cars and buses than I have ever seen there. People were all over the lawn of the Mabry Mill, and I was ready to turn around and go home immediately. So disappointing. I took a few snaps and left. I should've known better to go on the weekend. Just a few days earlier, I went to the Glade Creek Grist Mill and captured this, which is probably my best shot of this mill:
Gallery/Landscapes/IMGP6649web
The snow was a real surprise, but it turned out very nice, and there was no one in sight, of course it was a Tuesday and bitter cold for late October.

You live and learn, I guess. I've never left a paid event though, but there have been times I thought about it for a split second. Of course, I don't do this as my "real" job.

Jaszek · Feb 27, 2009

Last week I was shooting a concert. When I got there early I noticed another guy had a camera, but he also had a Canon so we were friendly to each other. Than some time into the concert I see a guy with a Nikon come and setting up wireless flashes on the sides of the stage, which was pissing me off when I tried to take a shot he o so happened to take a shot at the same exact moment. Than later on I got a spot where they didn't let anyone in above the stage so I was able to leave my gear there and come back to it when I had to change a lens or something. Than out of nowhere I see like 20 people up there, which meant I had to go every five minutes to check on my gear. I get a spot on the stage almost in front of the performers. I'm shooting and out of nowhere the nikon guy somehow got in and was standing right next to me firing off his flashes every 2 seconds. I move he follows me. I got pissed and since I had my flash on a cord I "accidentally" flashed it right in his eyes. I guess it worked because he just got off the stage and shot from a different place. SO it didn't turn out as bad with him.

LuckySo-n-So · Feb 28, 2009

I guess I should point out that I wasn't really pissed at the girls for sitting in front of me. I was bummed that compared to their gear, my gear was essentially crap. (2.8 vs. 5.6, 800 frames per second vs. 3.5, etc.)--I really didn't have the glass to get the decent shots because of the low light.

I should say that I was more frustrated with myself than the girls or my camera. I wasn't hitting on anything last night.

Overread · Feb 28, 2009

Usually it takes me a few hours and a very early start to get anywhere - so if my photography is playing up I do try and stay to just enjoy the place without the camera. That said I often find that on really overcast days I start getting very poor results and have to start pushing my ISO up - generally I keep shooting though, even though I know I will get back home and dump most of the shots (ok that is probably not any different from a normal day out

).
It does get abit initimidating when your shooting and right next to you is another person with a 1D blasting away with the shutter - I counter this with a flash gun and softbox

Nobody else bothers with them (least in zoos) so it really stands out

mathogre · Feb 28, 2009

LuckySo-n-So said:
I guess I should point out that I wasn't really pissed at the girls for sitting in front of me. I was bummed that compared to their gear, my gear was essentially crap. (2.8 vs. 5.6, 800 frames per second vs. 3.5, etc.)--I really didn't have the glass to get the decent shots because of the low light.

I should say that I was more frustrated with myself than the girls or my camera. I wasn't hitting on anything last night.

So why leave? You're there, and you've already decided all you're going to get is junk. At that point, anything above junk is a win! That's when you try things that may or may not work, and push yourself and your camera to make it work.

Besides, just because someone can do a faster image or more images doesn't mean they're any better than you. They may be, but equipment doesn't make the photographer.

Go easy on yourself. Work with what you've got!

Mike_E · Mar 1, 2009

Johnboy2978 said:
Each year, there are a couple of famous mills I like to visit around peak fall foliage time. I visit Mabry Mill (about 90 minutes away) and Glade Creek Grist Mill (about 3 hours away). This year, despite it being the "peak" time, it was obviously past peak as most of the leaves were down on the ground already at the Mabry Mill. Nevertheless, I went there not knowing it would be too late, and much to my surprise, there were more cars and buses than I have ever seen there. People were all over the lawn of the Mabry Mill, and I was ready to turn around and go home immediately. So disappointing. I took a few snaps and left. I should've known better to go on the weekend. Just a few days earlier, I went to the Glade Creek Grist Mill and captured this, which is probably my best shot of this mill:
Gallery/Landscapes/IMGP6649web
The snow was a real surprise, but it turned out very nice, and there was no one in sight, of course it was a Tuesday and bitter cold for late October.

Dude, sweet shot!!

Alleh Lindquist · Mar 7, 2009

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NucleaRR · Mar 9, 2009

I had this happen this weekend in fact. I wanted to go shoot at a local park that is right on the water. My wife who is into photography as well decides to bring both of our boxers. One of them is high strung and can't keep focus in public, well he gets the 'good' one riled up. After about ten minutes of her struggling with the two dogs while I was shooting she was done. I was fine with giving up on shooting so that I could help her with the dogs. I figured that if we walked around for a while then the dogs would get tired and I could then get some shots. Another boxer owner stopped to talk with us and I tried to keep our dogs back. I wished the lady had just kept on moving but she didn't. Next thing you know my dogs are barking and getting excited and they begin to fight eachother :gah:. I think they realized 'hey we are brother and sister' and stopped. Nothing bad, I mean they didn't hurt each other and it only lasted a second but it was a pain. At this point, while trying to keep them at bay, I have my camera swinging all over the place around my neck and my wife is flipping out. I remained calm and annouced 'We are leaving'.

Once home we relaxed for a few and then walked down to the beach by our house. The day was saved because I got a few good shots anyway.:mrgreen: