Scribem

Comments when photographing

Apparently, according to some people, I don’t blog enough.

I guess I just don’t have as much spare time as I used to — planning for the CCC music team 08, meeting up with people, spending time with Joyce, work-related matters, other stuff…

Anyway, I’m just going to dig up a half-baked blog entry that I started about six months ago but never got around to finishing. Since one of my aims in 2008 (as opposed to new year’s resolutions) is to tie up loose ends and finalise things, this is somewhat fitting.

Note: if you don’t get some of these comments, don’t worry. However, you photogs out there who read this will probably have a good laugh.

Every so often, I would go on random street photography shoots by myself and just walk around somewhat aimlessly taking shots of whatever I find interesting. A lot of the fun is not just in taking pictures, but just walking around amongst people and to absorb the atmosphere.

Sometimes, though, walking around the streets with a non-subtle SLR wrapped around your hand can lead to some interesting moments. Here are some situations where people have made comments to/at me that I’ve found rather amusing…

“So, what kinda zoom do you have?”

At that time, I had my 50mm prime mounted (and for those of you who don’t know what a prime lens is, it’s a lens that doesn’t let you zoom). I think my response was something along the lines of “not much”. He then went on about how such an expensive camera like mine had less zoom than his point-and-shoot. I congratulated him and moved on…

“With a lens that big, I betcha you can see inside the Opera House”

This time, I was walking around near Luna Park with my 16-35mm mounted. A tourist comes up to me and starts chatting about his new point-and-shoot camera, taking photos of Sydney, and made that remark. Hmmm… maybe it was the lens hood that made it look artificially big…

“Is your flash working?”

I was near the Opera House at night trying to get a long exposure shot of people walking up and down the concourse. Some random person walks up to me and asks why my flash isn’t firing…

“Why are you using flash in the middle of the day?”

Obviously, some people haven’t heard of fill-flash before…

“Holy crap, that’s huge!”

I get this one fairly frequently when I go strolling around with my 70-200/2.8.

I’m sure you other photogs out there have encountered many other amusing comments when on a shoot. Feel free to share them by dropping a comment.