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TAT Shot
This is a photo for #TAT or #ThrowAwayThursday curated by +Lynn Langmade, +Doug DeTraz, and +Michael Lawson.
I went to Wembley on Sunday to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Chicago Bears. I didn't want to travel with a set of lenses and I was in London to do a bit of the tourist thing too so I only went with my 100mm on the body.
Shots of the game were never going to be amazing – just memories for me really – but I thought it might be nice to see what sort of pictures I could take from my seat anyway. The usual snaps of stadium architecture and shots of flags and seats and people soon surfaced and then I started noticing the people around and in front of me using either point-and-clicks or phone cameras to take shots too; interestingly (for me) there was a noticeable swell in these cameras appearing with their backs lit up with whatever the snapper was looking at whenever the Tampa cheerleaders took to the field. It was quite amusing to see a mass of tiny LCD screens spring into life and hurriedly zoom in on the smiling blondes and happy brunettes in their rather nice (and skimpy) red uniforms. I decided to shoot the shooters.
This particular fan was two rows in front of me. I recall he'd picked out a particular blonde cheerleader of some interest to him and was steadying his camera at its maximum magnification, readying himself for that perfect moment. I was waiting too, locked onto his screen, acutely aware of how the dim conditions in our seats coupled with the brightness on the field and the light from his screen was playing havoc with my camera in its aperture priority mode but I just didn't have time to flip to manual; I knew I'd only have a second or two. I took a breath to give myself a little extra stillness (the 1/50th of a second shutter speed was already worrying me despite image stabilisation) and then pressed down… about one thousandth of a second after he'd done the same and his camera screen had blacked out to capture his image.
At least one of us got a nice memory of that particular moment.
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+Patricia Elizabeth I'm forever photographing photographers photographing. And yet if someone points a camera at me I run away and hide.
A keeper in my book
@Mark, If one were to look at my Flickr stream and took note of all the photos of me, they'd think I have the biggest ego ever. But about 4 years ago I decided I needed to get over my shyness of the camera and so I started a little experiment where I took photos of myself in every angle/light/environment possible. They're not always the most flattering of photos but that wasn't the point. The point was, as you mentioned, to not hate being in front of a camera. I'm happy to say that my experiment worked. During the DC photoshoot a friend caught me in the taking a photo mode and I knew she was doing it. And I didn't run away. That is progress!
+Mark Hooper Wow, this is such an unexpected and wonderful addition to today's #TAT theme. I LOVED this story and shot! It's like a 'meta-shot' if you know what I mean. Wow. Wow. stunned and delighted. (And for anyone reading comments, please make sure to read the whole story because the true ingenuity and strangeness of this shot might be lost unless you read it)
+Mark Hooper This, simply, is outstanding both in story & image. A fantastic idea, just barely missed. Thanks a lot for taking the time to share this with us!
Nice one +Mark Hooper . The story was great, truly makes the missed shot something rather special
agreed.. your story really is special.. you took what you had, and made the most of it.. and what a wonderful memory you still have.. because of it..