An 'analogue' challenge

Saturday 18 November 2023, 14:07 by Erik Nevels | 3,084 views | 5 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

No, this blog is not about taking photos with an analogue camera. It is about limiting myself to taking a maximum of 36 photos in one morning. As if I had to do it with a roll of film for an analogue camera.

Over 800 photos in one morning

Usually, I come home after a morning photographing in nature with at least 100, and sometimes several hundred, photos. With a mirrorless camera, two fully charged batteries and enough memory, you can reach that number easily, and quickly.

'The more photos you take, the greater the chance of success', seemed like the right statement to me until recently. In specific situations, it is.

When photographing gannets, for example, which start their landing as they approach from the sea, it is very difficult to choose the right moment.

In situations like this, shooting continuously at up to 10 frames per second is useful. On the morning I photographed gannets, I took over 800 photos.

Gannet just before landing. It is the best of the 16 photos I took of this landing

Lazy

In most other situations, I also usually click away merrily. Varying the composition, the exposure and the depth of field, focus stacking, zooming, using a different lens, all the options and the almost unlimited ability to take photos make me, and this may sound strange, lazy.

You can do it all, so to be safe and increase the chance of success, the shutter easily works overtime. I am less critical, and all that clicking also results in overtime when selecting from the many photos. Surely there must be another way.

Imaginary roll of 36

Today, I am heading out with a restriction I have imposed on myself: 36 photos. It is autumn, and the forest and mushrooms are on the programme.

I notice the effect of 'the roll' immediately because I work in a completely different way. Just like in the past, I think ten times before taking a photo.

The 'laziness' makes way for looking more carefully, thinking more carefully about the composition, the settings, the choice of lens, the exposure and so on. I only have 36 photos on my imaginary roll, so I have to be economical.

Mushroom with wide-angle lens

Before taking the first photo of a parasol mushroom under a tree, I am already faced with a choice that I would otherwise have avoided by taking several photos with different apertures.

Do I want a sharp, slightly blurred or bokeh-like tree in the background? I want, or rather 'have to', make that choice here and now, in the field, and not at home behind the computer.

I patiently compare the options on the camera's screen. In the end, I choose the bokeh background. Before pressing the shutter, I double-check all the settings. Only after checking that the photo is sharp do I look for the next subject.

I like the tree in the background best with the widest possible aperture.

The edge of the forest

Especially in autumn, I always search along the edges of forests for contrasts. I soon find one and set up the camera on the tripod. I take my time to find the best composition, compare portrait with landscape orientation, and zoom in and out until I am truly happy.

I carefully check the settings. Is lens stabilisation switched off? Focus again. I wait for the wind to die down a little, and only then press the button on the cable release. This has to be right, there is no doing it again.

One photo is enough

View through the trees

A group of tall pines provides a beautiful view through to the yellow foliage of a tree in the background. I bring the scene closer with the telephoto lens. The disadvantage of a telephoto lens is its limited depth of field.

I stop down the aperture almost as far as it will go, but still find that there is too little depth of field. I cannot avoid a focus stack, which means taking several photos. I take three.

Focusing on the thick front trunk, then on the one at the back, and finally on the tree in the background. That should be enough.

For one photo, I have to take 3 photos, a focus stack

Striking fern

At the beginning of the morning, I had already noticed a solitary fern among the brown carpet of fallen leaves. I walk back to it and try several compositions.

Close to the ground, the trunks in the background are not straight. They lean inwards, and there is also sky in the frame, which I do not want now.

A slightly higher viewpoint makes the trunks stand upright, but the sky is still in the frame. So I go a little higher still, with the trunks now leaning towards the sides.

I still like this view best, and once again I wait for the wind to drop for a moment. I check the photo and zoom in on it. I can still see some blur in the leaf. Two photos later, I am happy.

Only when the wind drops for a moment are the leaves still enough for me to take the photo

Not paying attention

All in all, I have taken only 8 photos so far, but with the next subject I slip back into my old pattern a little. I take several photos of some mushrooms on a tree stump.

By choosing different apertures, I vary the background of colourful leaves from very blurred to much less blurred. So I postpone choosing the photo until I am back home behind the computer.

The best of 6 photos taken. But I could have made that choice in the field too

The finale

I am almost back at the car when I pass a field with large and small parasol mushrooms. I decide to fill my roll and photograph both a group and a solitary mushroom with several compositions.

I even have enough 'film' left for a focus stack. When I take the last of the 36 photos, I already know that many of the images taken in the last quarter of an hour will be rejected. Except for one, number 36.

Number 36

Moral

I can recommend it to everyone. Try limiting yourself and head out with a roll of 36. Just as it did for me, it may help you look more carefully, work more precisely and make more conscious choices, increasing your chances of taking a successful photo. You will also be finished much faster at home when selecting and editing your photos.

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