21st July 2009 - Cooperation and Photography
Submitted by wlscapes on Wed, 07/22/2009 - 19:03
Have you ever noticed how often photographic subjects choose not to cooperate with the photographic process? I find it quite often with many subjects and very often with a few subjects.
All I want, when attempting to capture a particular shot, is for the subject of interest at the time to appear in the best possible light, strike a competition winning pose and hold still for long enough for me to photograph it. I can't count the number of times I have gone to great effort to obtain a particular image only to have subject completely muck it up for me. Let me describe a couple of examples to illustrate.
A few months ago, after planning a week ahead and spending many hours choosing and verifying a suitable location, then getting up long before dawn on the particular day, driving half an hour to the nearest parking spot and then hiking for half an hour, in the dark, up into the bush, carrying a heavy load of equipment to the chosen location, the setting full moon disappeared behind a thick cloud bank, long before it drew near the desired position just above the city skyline, and never reappeared.
Some subjects are worse than others, this moon was particularly capricious.
I actually tried the same shot a month later - foolishly thinking it wouldn't do it to me again. Of course a new location was required because the thing keeps moving about, and so many more hours were spent working things out. Come the morning everything looked perfect. After getting to the location in the dark without injuring myself, the beautiful full moon sank slowly down behind the city skyline. Hah, I thought, I've got the shot. I followed up my film shots with a couple of digital images as a backup, and then found, upon examining the images at 100% on the back of the camera, that the atmosphere between myself and the moon, and the city buildings for that matter, had this strange haze which made everything appear out of focus. It wasn't visible to my naked eye or through the view-finders. Moon two, Richard zero.
I haven't tried the third time yet, but this sort of thing just goes on and on. It's a wonder anyone ever gets the shots they want.
I could go on to give you examples of birds that hold perfectly still in a brilliant pose, just until I get the camera settings right and then fly off, or grasses and leaves that will insist on waving around in the breeze as the beautiful light fades away while I watch with my cable release in hand, unwilling to be content with blurred detail.
Over the years I have done several experiments to see if catching the subject unawares would help. I have to say that it doesn't completely solve the problem, but that it can in many circumstances reduce it. For landscape photography it doesn't seem to help at all, but for animals, birds and people, it does to an extent. Uncooperation does seem to be a stable behavioural characteristic of the universe, and I have spent many hours lying under a sheet in the bush pointing my camera lens in the direction of birds and animals trying to catch them unawares. I can't win completely of course, the ants, insects and assorted bugs, as well as the weather all know I am there, no matter how I try to hide.
It's a good thing that I am very patient with my photography. Mind you, I wasn't always.
Some years ago I suffered adrenel system failure due to continuous high stress levels. Since then, I have forced myself to take things a bit easier. I have found that it is better to sit quietly and enjoy the serenity than to shriek and shake my fists at the moon - or the forest - or whatever I am trying to photograph. Even if I completely fail to obtain any useful images, let alone the one I envisaged, I still enjoy the experience of being there.
For example, arriving back at the car, soaking wet and cold - and I mean soaking wet and cold - after running a couple of kilometers through the bush in the pouring rain with 30kg on my back, and then waiting quietly while the rain clears and the sun suddenly bursts through throwing a brief, brilliant evening light onto the scene, now distant, that I was trying to photograph, is nothing out of the ordinary. But I have now come to enjoy the process whether or not the shot is in the bag or I am warm and dry.
It's all in the expectation. Most every subject I have tried to capture has at some stage failed to cooperate. So I now expect this complete lack of regard for my feelings and find enjoyment all around me in most situations.
You will understand that I was not in the least surprised, when, turning away from trying to capture images of uncooperative Oyster Catchers on a southern beach, I obtained the shot below. My son had been assisting me by carrying a tripod and one of my cameras, but I didn't expect him to cooperate when I wanted an image of him. I find that family can exhibit some of the most consistent and intense uncooperation available.
