Waiting sucks. (A rant brought to you by Strad.)

Stradawhovious · Apr 14, 2011

Well, I was out on a walk the other day, and found a REALLY cool location to shoot the eldest child.

With a camera folks, put the phone down.

Its under an overpass, a bridge over a creek with many different shaped and sized concrete archways. About an hour before sundown, its a really cool place to be. At any rate, I have a picture in my minds eye of what I want, but so far nothing has cooperated.

If I can time it, this place has some potential for really cool play with sunlight, and good opportunity for experimenting with OCF....... but the sun has to be at the right angle, I have to be able to get to the location at the right time, and the kiddo has to cooperate. Today its overcast...... yesterday the kid got his head stuck in his ass again, and we couldn't get it removed until after sundown........ Tomorrow they are forecasting snow...... and Saturday it will be too cold for the kid to want to cooperate.

Jeez, I just want to go take the pic. This whole waiting business is very very irritating.

Grr.

I'm sure this is a constant irritation to some of the more experienced folks here, but for me its a new development.

:grumpy:

EckoZero · Apr 14, 2011

I know your pain very well - there's an area about 30 miles away from me which is renowned for being photogenic.
They also have a decommissioned but manned nuclear power plant so I could get some long exposures at night. There's also a lake between the power plant and a (free) car park so I could catch some epic night-time reflections!

Unfortunately, night-time is getting very late now and finding the time to go down there and wait for the right light is just too much for me to be doing right now.
Stupid waiting - why can't the light do what we want it to, when we want it to?!

dylanstraub · Apr 14, 2011

LMAO it sounds like you got yourself a real problem there. I have one of those children thingy's your talking about. She's very photogenic(must have got it from her mother) but she doesn't have the head in ass problem. I wonder if that comes with age? She has the can't sit still ants in the pants problem and the I can't sit still I just wanna dance problem. They say age cures this but I don't know if that is the case here. Anywho I feel for ya buddy. Good luck with that kid of yours.

Stradawhovious · Apr 14, 2011

dylanstraub said:
I wonder if that comes with age? She has the can't sit still ants in the pants problem and the I can't sit still I just wanna dance problem.

Mine is 13. If he's anything like ANY other human male in existence, his head will more than likely be firmly planted there until his mid to late 20's. It may come out for fresh air every now and again, but I'm not counting on it.

I would take the little one..... But he's 8, and has the attention span of a Ferret on crack. A location shoot with him would be futile. :lol:

The funny thing is.... once everything is exactly as I want it..... the sun, the time of day, the weather, the kid coming up for air........I'm pretty sure that once I get there, due to my inexperience, it will end up being all wrong anyways. :lmao:

My mind's eye has a funny of toying with me.

Forkie · Apr 14, 2011

I wonder how the photo would look with him in a straight jacket?!

Stradawhovious · Apr 14, 2011

Forkie said:
I wonder how the photo would look with him in a straight jacket?!

The Judge specifically said I couldn't use one of those anymore.

Robin Usagani · Apr 14, 2011

Hmm.. I wonder if this bridge is one of my company's project. What you are describing sounds like what I design everyday as a structural engineer. Cant wait to see the photos.

Stradawhovious · Apr 14, 2011

Schwettylens said:
Hmm.. I wonder if this bridge is one of my company's project. What you are describing sounds like what I design everyday as a structural engineer. Cant wait to see the photos.

Unless your company was designing bridges for South Minneapolis in the early 70's.... I would guess not. It's also not that spectacular unless you're right up under it.

It may not be that spectacular in any case. I just saw it and got a little excited. Something about it just really caught my untrained eye. I took a quick snap so I could have a visual reference to put together a shot..... I will post it up when I get home from work.

mc1979 · Apr 14, 2011

LMAO, my son is 15..he has been photogenic all of his life, and just like your son has had the problem of having his head stuck in his ass since 13. As a beginner, I have been begging mine to let me take pics of him, and I get told how "stupid" that would be to have his pics done at his age. I've told him I wouldn't post them on fb, but no..I can't even get candid shots of him anymore, as soon as he sees my camera around my neck he bails.
I just had to post, you made me laugh! Good to know others have the same problem!

~Mel

pokopelo · Apr 14, 2011

well mine is 5 and she might grow into being a model, once she see's my camera out, is like she instantly freezes and smiles to be photographed... it always makes me smile and have to snap a couple so that she is happy...

anyway, i would like to see that bridge you got me going with your excitement there, so once you are able to shoot what you want, post it here... good luck.

enzodm · Apr 14, 2011

Stradawhovious said:
Jeez, I just want to go take the pic. This whole waiting business is very very irritating.

Grr.

Just after having bought my dSLR, one and half year ago, I took some pictures of vineyards that I liked very much (autumn colors), like this one. Back home, I found they were not as nice, slightly blurred. Then started raining, leaves felt. I marked the date on my agenda for the next year to come back taking the same shot.
Last autumn, same day, was too late... we had many days of wind, when I came back the same place leaves were mostly down.

I'll try again next year.

imagemaker46 · Apr 14, 2011

It may be frustrating bt sometimes great photos just take time, but in the end are worth the wait.

Stradawhovious · Apr 14, 2011

Well, here is the pic I snapped to act as a visual aide....

I went back tonight for the hell of it, and snapped a couple of quick shots to see what they would look like.... Please feel free to C&C them, although I'm sure I will be going back and spending more time when the light is better (really overcast tonight....) Both shot with a 50mm 1.8

First a SB-600 hidden in front of the concrete pillar in front of and to the right of the "model", 1/8 power through a 33" shoot-through umbrella -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61095014@N03/5620516834/

Next SB-600 directly behind "model" 1/1 power, bare flash. Shutter stopped down two stops (from what the camera said was the correct setting) to make the ambient light darker. ETA This is true for both pics.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61095014@N03/5620516254/

All in all I had fun, and I think this place has potential or some pretty decent pics.

Let me have it if you want.