More Regarding Why I Shoot People

This update could also be titled, "Why I Don't Usually Shoot Other Stuff." Again, the answer should be simple enough: For the most part, I suck at shooting other stuff.

Saturday, I called my friend, Leesa, and asked if she wanted to do something. (I was thinking a movie or that sort of thing.)

Leesa said, "Sure. I want to go to Echo Park and shoot some night shots."

It wasn't exactly what I had in mind but that sounded interesting. Besides, Leesa's a fun and engaging person to hang-out with regardless of what we might be doing. And who knows? There was a full moon. Maybe I'd get lucky and snap a werewolf or two? (If there are werewolves in L.A., locations like Echo Park would be a likely haunt for them.) At the very least, I thought I might catch some cool candids of homeless junkies with broken needles in their arms as they loitered about the park.

"Hey buddy, spare some change?"

"Sure. Let me snap a few pictures of you, okay?"

Leesa, on the other hand, wasn't thinking werewolves or junkies. She was thinking long-exposure, nocturnal, cityscapes.

We arrived at Echo Park, situated between downtown L.A. and Dodger Stadium, well after dark. It's not the best part of the city -- probably moreso at night -- but that was no big deal for me. I'm no stranger to the seamier sides of cities. Besides, in some ways, with my long-haired, scruffy, somewhat barbaric appearance, I might be scarier looking then the actual scarey people. It was also no big deal for Leesa. She certainly doesn't look barbaric in any way, but she's a brave, adventurous, free-spirited woman and night-time in the big, bad, city ain't scaring her off.

Did you know that the word, "barbarian," originated from the ancient Greek? It referred to anyone who wasn't an ancient Greek.

Back to Echo Park: The first thing I notice is the distinct lack of junkies or werewolves around the park. Oh well. It looked like I'd be shooting nocturnal cityscapes as well.

So we plop ourselves down on the ground, Leesa with her tripod, camera, and everything needed to properly capture long-exposure, night-time photography. And me without a tripod, using an apple box (which was in my trunk) to lay my camera on and not having a clue what I'm doing.

I hear Leesa's camera beeping away as she was using the timer to engage the shutter. "Where's the button for the timer?" I asked.

"You mean you don't know how to use the timer?" Leesa asked, rather incredulously.

"No." I admitted. "When would I ever need to use the timer?" I asked. "I shoot pretty girls, hand-held, with strobes and reflectors and all that. If I was gonna use the timer, it would probably be to put myself in the pictures and no one wants to see me with the girls!" I added.

Here's my point, assuming I actually have one: Just because a photographer knows how to do one thing, maybe even do it quite well, doesn't mean they know how to do everything. For those of you who don't like admitting to that, get over yourselves. Yeah, a good shooter knows the basics and beyond. And sure, many of those basics, as well as advanced skills, can be adapted and extrapolated to shoot other things, i.e., other things other than what they usually shoot. Above average knowledge and skills gives a photographer an edge over tourists and snapshot shoooters but that doesn't mean their knowledge and skills are so easily adapted to all those other things. And it doesn't mean that being able to shoot in one genre, even exceptionally well, means they can shoot exceptionally well in all genres. There's a learning curve for each style and genre and it ain't automatic simply because someone might know their stuff when it comes to *their* stuff.

The mundane, touristy snapshot at the top was captured with my Canon 5D w/ 28-135 mm zoom at a focal length of 28 mm. ISO 100, f/11 @ 30 seconds.