Forgetting to live life while attempting to document it?

PyeContinental

A lot of the time, I feel that I miss out on, or at least am distracted from, properly experiencing an event, or whatever moment in time I'm photographing, by the actual activity of photographing.

These days, you see it a lot where people at concerts spend the whole time recording it on their mobile phones. I think they aren't really fully in attendance by concentrating so much on the recording of the event.

I used to go to motor races a lot and felt like I never really watched the race when I spent the whole time taking photos and video.

Do other people experience the same or even understand what I mean?

pete4130

With gigs I used to be like that. You'd shoot a gig and at the end of it you don't know if it was a good one or bad one...you knew if you got good pictures or not.

Paulw

Any time I cover a game, if it's on TV, I make sure to record it. I would barely know the score at the end of a game.

But, then again, your only view of the event is the small portion you see through your lens.

dinneenp

Try the 3 song rule- take photos for 3 songs, then put your camera away.

GhostInTheRuins

I was away in Estonia recently, and while we were there we saw the odd group of Japanese tourists going around. We were sitting at a cafe having a drink one day and we watched them for a few minutes as they were passing along the street. Absolutely mental is the only way to describe them. There was about 10 of them, all with cameras and they slowly made their way up the street while taking hundreds of pictures of every single thing. Sign-posts, doors, street lamps, walls, chairs, shops, the ground and every other thing you could imagine. We saw a different group the next day doing the exact same thing.

I couldn't get my head around it at all, where do you draw the line in actually having a holiday and just documenting a holiday. Maybe that's what they're into, but I can't imagine looking through my holiday snaps a year later and thinking "I'm so glad I took all these pictures of traffic lights and bins".

As for taking gig shots, I learnt a fair while ago to not bother even bringing my camera to bands that I really want to see. What's the point really? I now just try to get shots of bands that I'm not too pushed about. And only then if it's in a venue where there's a gap between the stage and crowd and I've a photo pass, and only for the first 2 or 3 songs. Otherwise just enjoy the gig!

Don't get me started on head-wreckers at gigs with their phones up in the air recording it! I'd say 99% of them don't even look at that video ever again, and if they do the quality will be so bad it wasn't worth their while. So what's the point? Eejits the lot of them :pac:

PyeContinental

Although it might sound strange to say, I'm glad to see that others have thought about this too.

Yeah, the cliche of the snap-happy Japanese tourists has existed for as long as I remember! We can see that their photography is pointless because any one of them could substitute their photos of stop signs and footpaths for the ones taken by their compatriots the previous week!

Similarly, I've often considered the usefulness of taking photos of or near any tourist spot, when these days you can be pretty certain that there are already photos of just the same scene, taken by a better photographer with better equipment, available by searching on Google.

pedroeibar1

Why are you at the event? To enjoy taking photos or to enjoy the event? It’s something you should ask yourself periodically, as you cannot do both. I agree with dineenp's advice above.

As for the snaphappy tourists, the professional traveller / writer Paul Theroux never brings a camera on his travels, says it interferes with his memories.

Not sure that I agree with the ‘not photographing a tourist spot’, I have several photos of the same scenic view, each one is different, lighting, clouds, atmosphere, etc. The next one might be perfect!

telecinesk

OP also agree.Its v rare I use the camera to document something be it work or a gig. I only used the thing last week after 9 months of getting on with life things. lol yes I even still use film so that bring it to 12 frames a roll. Be concise is my ploy.

magicbastarder

i sometimes run into the 'photographers can't appreciate things the way the rest of us do' attitude. the rationale being photographers are always trying to interpret the beautiful vista/remarkable scene/naked lady in front of them photographically, and they don't just relax and enjoy it for its own sake. which ignores the possibility that the reason they got into photography could be that they've a heightened sense of the aesthetics...

EyeBlinks

Got trapped in this mode for a short while. Got over it though by figuring out what exactly it is I want to photograph and it's the short side of 1% of whats going on around me. So I've 99% to sit and enjoy.

sineadw

Absolutely 100% agree here. To the point where I've stopped taking my camera anywhere. I look with my eyes, not the viewfinder It's a lot nicer, and it makes me see things that I might otherwise miss if I was constantly trying to frame. Then if I want, I go back.

DaireQuinlan

sineadw wrote: »

Absolutely 100% agree here. To the point where I've stopped taking my camera anywhere. I look with my eyes, not the viewfinder It's a lot nicer, and it makes me see things that I might otherwise miss if I was constantly trying to frame. Then if I want, I go back.

A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera

drdeadlift

Some times i enjoy just looking at the plane land,defo know where your coming from