Where there's one, there's many

Ants. that's the only thing I can compare people to at this work shop to. when all 90 or however many of us were unleashed on the Riverwalk to capture work and play in San Antonio, you never only saw just one person with a camera.

even when you think your alone, and you see a mariachi band strumming away in some unique light from a bar, as soon as you click the shutter closed on the first shot, the noise is echoed somewhere behind you from no less than three other photographers trying to capture the same moment.

An even worse scenario is when you see that great shot, check your back to see if your idea will be copied in less than five seconds, and see noone. So you line your shot up, and as you reach for that little button on the front of a camera, another photographer steps in behind your subject and completely ruins your shot.

I understand shadowing an experienced photographer is a great way for new people to learn, but for me its just off-putting and demotivating.

That's not to say I am experienced, I just hate being copied, regardless if my photo isn't going to come out right, which it usually doesn't. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, or so the ever-present they say.

Needless to say I have been very flattered all week. I just hope everyone had better luck capturing the things I tried shooting.

One Wrong Turn...

All you dedicated photographers out there, beware, one wrong turn in San Antonio can lead you down a wrong path. Or in my case, straight to a massive collection of Chucky dolls. Let me explain…

I wouldn’t even consider myself a novice photographer because that would be giving me too much credit, so this workshop was supposed to help me out, that is, if I didn’t go looking for my photos in all the wrong places.

First there was the ice cream shop and I might have been playing it a little too safe with that one, because 80 pictures later and there was no good one to be found in the bunch. That got me all fired up to go out and take some more compelling photos. That is where my trouble started and one or a few wrong turns lead me over the bridge, under a highway, and all of a sudden I wasn’t in the safety of El Tropicano and the cool looking bird and tortoise anymore.

Passing through this neighborhood, I realized those around me started putting their cameras away and walking really fast, so I followed. I most likely missed taking the photo that would have been the award winner of this whole conference even with my lack of skills.

Let me paint you the picture…

As we are walking briskly through this neighborhood, we come across a lady having a yard sale that mostly consisted of Chucky dolls spread out on a dirty pink blanket. In the background was a run-down house and as it was starting to get a little dark outside, it made for a scene that would be a perfect cover shot for an upcoming horror movie.

When she started talking at us, not to us, we started walking faster and never looked back. I think I’ll always be disappointed at not being braver and I should have just started snapping those pictures, but maybe I made a wise decision, I guess I’ll never know.

In my pursuit for photography competence, I gained a good story and will always have that disturbing picture of the dirty pink blanket with Chucky dolls spread out on it in my head. Thanks a lot Communicator Workshop, and I really mean that!

Image courtesy of: http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/hauntedfurniture/hauntedweddinggown/

I am pretty sure the lady having the yard sale didn’t have a website, or I would have gone right to the source.