A photographers dilemma

K_user

My wife, my older son (8) and I all went to town yesterday to finish up our Christmas shopping. It was the usual pottering about, my wife spotting what she wants to buy in the after Xmas sales, my son wanting to buy anything that caught his eye and me swapping the camera from one shoulder to another.

All was fairly normal until I noticed a group all set up with the tripods, out photographing the city at night. The temptation was, of course, to go over and have a chat. Parental instinct told me to stay where I was and continue with the Xmas shop.

Don’t you just hate being an adult sometimes?

CabanSail

Growing older is Mandatory

Growing up is optional

elven

was that parental instinct that said stay with your family, or parental instinct because the crowd with tripods was young?

I wouldn't mind having a chat if someone saw me out with the camera. I'm make polite excuses and leave if it turned out they were weird/creepy/dangerous...

PaulieC

that's not parental instinct, it's survival instinct

K_user

elven wrote: »

was that parental instinct that said stay with your family, or parental instinct because the crowd with tripods was young?

Without a shadow of doubt it was to stay with my family!

elven wrote: »

I wouldn't mind having a chat if someone saw me out with the camera. I'm make polite excuses and leave if it turned out they were weird/creepy/dangerous...

Most people wouldn't. I've often found myself having chats with people who are out with their camera, or vice versa. Its always nice to chat to people with similar hobbies.

K_user

cambo_gueno wrote: »

that's not parental instinct, it's survival instinct

pacman.podge

Agreed!!

mindundalk

nice one

i couldn't agree more

lol lol lol

eas

I will never forget my 2 year old being attacked by a swan while I was distracted taking pictures of an otter.

K_user

eas wrote: »

I will never forget my 2 year old being attacked by a swan while I was distracted taking pictures of an otter.

Crap! That must have put your heart cross ways!
I hope everyone was ok?

I never take my eyes off a swan. I grew up around them, mean buggers when they want to be.

eas

I made it sound a bit dramatic - long story short, the swan thought my daughters soft toy rabbit was a piece of bread or something. I heard my son shouting for me, I turned around to see the swan and my daughter having a tug of war over the rabbit. My son was jumping up and down with excitement, witch I think scared the swan off. I had no intentions on relaying the story to my wife, my son however couldn't wait. Of course I got the "it could have broken her arm" reaction.

Anyhow, either way not a good idea to turn your back on swan when kids are around,


did get a few good one's of the otter though...:)

Ghost Train

its right eye looks a bit yuk

CabanSail

eas wrote: »

I will never forget my 2 year old being attacked by a swan while I was distracted taking pictures of an otter.

So you missed the shots of the attack? :eek:

Maybe if you go back again you could be lucky & it will attack again. I would used fixed focus & as high a frame count as you can. A shallow DOF would probably work best.

K_user

LOL - I had a double reaction to your post eas - which gets to the heart of my point in the OP.

The first was, and I hate to admit this out loud, great photo's, it was worth the hassle!

The second was the poor child, she must have been upset. Not to mention what your wife would have said, cause I know what would have happened with mine :eek:

I was photographing some swans earlier this year and had to stop what I was doing because of one parent. The woman had turned her back on her young child, who was happily throwing stones at the sleeping birds. The kid was standing in the middle of the flock and aiming right at their heads. I had to go over and ask the mother to move the child, explaining that these birds weren't pigeon's.

K_user

CabanSail wrote: »

So you missed the shots of the attack? :eek:

Maybe if you go back again you could be lucky & it will attack again. I would used fixed focus & as high a frame count as you can. A shallow DOF would probably work best.

eas

Ghost Train wrote: »

its right eye looks a bit yuk

yea - half it's nose seemed to have been missing too. Not sure what it would have been scrapping with.

So you missed the shots of the attack?

well - there where other adults around, I considered the action sequence but then thought about the conversation with my wife about why child services are knocking at our door.

Ghost Train

eas wrote: »

yea - half it's nose seemed to have been missing too. Not sure what it would have been scrapping with.

a swan maybe

SinisterDexter

Ghost Train wrote: »

a swan maybe

:pac::pac::pac:

There are some nice shots of the otter! Did you know there was one around or did you stumble upon it?