Don't Look Back; Just Keep Shooting!
Emotions ran high, tears shed, laughter ensued. We all hugged and patted each other on the back; thanked all the volunteers, of course. The candidate whose campaign my wife and I helped manage won her re-election bid for CT state representative, and it was time to party. A reporter and photojournalist showed up to cover the event.
Of course, being a student of photography myself, I almost always had my eye, at least peripherally, on the young budding photojournalist hired to capture the mood of the evening. Unfortunately, I knew she missed much of the occasion.
It seemed most of the time she was looking at the back of her spiffy Nikon dSLR, reviewing her latest shot, while the events of the night unfolded.
A professional photojournalist who knows his or her camera and the basic fundamentals of photography should never have to do this (with perhaps the exception of a test shot or two before the event—if time allows).
This is a bad habit young photojournalists need to be aware of. They need to live in the present at all times, ready to capture the next moment. They can't be pre-occupied with what's already happened or be satisfied with it.
If it's the past they want to revisit, then I suggest they use a film camera.
It's like losing focus on the big picture: concentrate on the minute details and miss the overall event. Students in figure drawing drew perfect finger nails but missed the action of the pose because they spent more time looking at their paper than the model. Same lesson/different venue. Maybe that's why written history seems so skewed to readers who lived through recorded events. Change is in the wind.
SDK
A good reminder for everyone with a digital camera, to focus on the job, not the equipment.
And do your homework and practice before the job.
Great tip. I rarely see a professional photographer check the preview unless they are setting up the camera and checking the lighting or there is someone on site reviewing the shots for creative control. Especially when working with film, you just have to take hundreds of pictures, trust that you captured the moment right, keep going and look later. ;)
Good thoughts, guys! It's a tough habit to break, but like you said, if you focus on what's important, it should stop being an issue.
Funny story. After only owning my dSLR for a few weeks, I broke it by putting the memory card in the wrong way (bent some pins). While it was in the shop for repair, I borrowed my wife's film SLR camera, and after every shot, I couldn't stop looking at the back of the camera. Very frustrating.
This experience forced me, early on, to re-evaluate how I approach photography.