Camera? Check. Lenses? Check. Patience? Ummm...

When you're photographing in a target-rich environment, there is a strong temptation to snap off a quick shot or two of each subject, then move on to the next one. After all, you want to make sure your friends and family get to see everything you saw... you don't want to miss out, right?

Sort of. But not quite.

I've noticed that many photographers - from folks with point & shoot cameras to gear-hounds with the latest and greatest - seem content with rushing to get a shot and then moving on to the next subject... as if photography were a scavenger hunt instead of an art form. Oh, and before you think I'm being self-righteous, I'll freely admit that I've fallen prey to this mentality on more than one occasion.

We'll spend a lot of money on the right gear... a lot of money on the trip to the right place... and a lot of time to get there. And then we'll spend 30 seconds setting up a shot before moving on to the next location.

I want to suggest that we take our time... whether it's waiting for the right light, the right subject, or the right moment. The following is an example of what a little patience can do...

This first photograph - of a sandhill crane - is nothing special. It didn't make my final "cut" of images from a recent trip to Montana, but there's nothing particularly wrong with it, either.


The composition is adequate, the subject is sharp and well-lit, but there's nothing commendable about the photograph.

I waited. And I waited a bit more.

A few minutes later, a second crane appeared and I started to take more photos. After a minute or two with the two birds together, they finally lined up for a good shot:
The light was significantly better, the subject's "pose" was much better, and the overall impression of the photograph is significantly enhanced.

And all because I waited for a few minutes before moving on.

Patience. It should be in all our camera bags.

The challenge of originality

a quick comment before I get to the heart of my blog today... I will generally be updating this blog two or three times a week, but didn't get the chance to do so while I was out of town from May 20 through June 1. Since then, I've been dealing with the aftermath of the hard-drive failure discussed in my previous blog entry, but I'm back on track now.

If you enjoy photographing landscapes - particularly at iconic locations like our national parks - you've undoubtedly tried to create images that are like those of the great masters of photography. Your attempt may not have even been on the conscious level - your mind just composed the image in a way that, when you looked at the photograph later, looked vaguely familiar.

Is this lack of originality an entirely bad thing? Or can it be used as a springboard to your own creativity? Are we simply mimicking those who have gone before us, or are we able to develop our own skills by seeing just what our predecessors have managed to create?

I was faced with this very question as I looked out over the Snake River towards the Grand Tetons in Wyoming at the very end of May. Perhaps one of the most iconic photographs ever created, Ansel Adams' "The Tetons and the Snake River" is a truly sublime work of art:


This photograph is © 1942 Ansel Adams. Educational use is covered under the Fair Use doctrine.

When I found myself at the same overlook, I couldn't help but look for his tripod holes! Then again, with the dozens of other people trying to shoot the scene, I was lucky just to find some room. Knowing full well that I am not Ansel Adams, I composed my own version of the scene (click on the photo to see the full-size version):

© 2008 Alan Sisto / freshpageimages. All rights reserved.

It is a slightly different angle and, of course, the trees are much taller than they were in Adams' photograph. Still, anyone who is familiar with Adams' work will see the similarity...

So, does this make me less original? Less of an artist? Not surprisingly, I'd argue that it does not. When it comes to these grand vistas - Yosemite Valley is another example - an entirely unique perspective is nearly impossible to find. (The late Galen Rowell comes to mind, though: he would simply climb a nearby vertical cliff in order to find a new angle - but most of us are not accomplished mountain goats!) What matters isn't just where you put your tripod, but where you put your mind. Sure, I could have tried to re-create Adams' image as precisely as possible, but instead, I created my own version, allowing the light and clouds to dictate the feel of the image. Okay, it's not entirely original; it's like a cover version of a classic rock tune. But it still takes a musician to pull off a great cover...

The point is this: don't be afraid to stand on the shoulders of the giants and learn from their work.

The most important thing you'll ever do.

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled blog to bring you this vital public service announcement:

ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP PLAN

{Rod Serling impression} Imagine, if you will, a computer. One that holds all your priceless memories... photographs of your child's first years, video of your wedding, snapshots from family vacations. Now imagine that you turn on this computer one day, and hear a loud 'clicking' sound emanating from within... your drive has disappeared; your files suddenly inaccessible. No, it's not just a bad dream. You've entered... the crash zone. {end Rod Serling impression}

Like the Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner and that creepy thing on the wing of an airplane, you too WILL open your window one day to see the ugly face that is lost data staring in at you. Are you prepared? Do you have a backup plan - a strategy for maintaining redundant data both on and off-site? Or are you trusting to blind luck?

If it sounds like I'm a little preachy here, it's because I'm hoping that someone wiser than myself will learn from my mistake. I'm running a Mac Pro - a very stable computer that only crashes on me when I'm running a Microsoft application (a little tech-related humor there for ya). But system stability is not necessarily reflective of hard-drive longevity. I'd been keeping all my data - including irreplaceable business-related photographs from my commercial/architectural shoots - on one large terabyte external drive. And, like I preached above, I did have a backup plan... the problem is that I wasn't executing it. So when my hard-drive failed on June 1, I may have lost nearly three months of images and documents. I say "may have" because the drive is currently in surgery and the data "may be" recoverable... but like any other surgery, it's very expensive. (This is where I throw in the old adage that "an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure".) For the amount of money that I'm spending trying to recover the lost data (and there's still no guarantee of success!), I could have bought a second identical drive, a backup application to manage the process, and still had enough money to buy a new lens or two. Not to mention the peace of mind that I'd have right now. Okay, enough about me... let's make sure this never happens to you.

So what is the right strategy for you? In this blog entry, we'll talk about on-site data redundancy - in other words, making sure you have a handy backup right there next to you. We'll save the discussion of off-site data storage next time.

First things first - how much data do you have? Are you able to keep your computer's OS, applications and all your data (music, videos, pictures) on just one internal hard drive? If so, a single external hard drive hooked up via FireWire or USB 2.0 is the easiest solution. Hard drive storage space is getting cheaper by the day, so there's no excuse not to do this. Just be sure that the external drive is at least as large as your internal drive - preferably larger.

If, like me, you've got an internal drive for your OS and applications and a separate, external hard drive for your data, then you'll need either two drives (one to mirror each of your drives), or one large drive that has enough storage to copy both your internal and external drives. For instance, if you have a 250 MB internal HD and a 500 MB external HD, you should plan on getting a 750 MB external HD to store the information from both.

Now, we come to the second question - are you on a PC or a Mac? If you're using a Mac equipped with Leopard, you've probably already discovered the smooth and effortless backup application known as Time Machine. This is a perfect solution, but requires that you have one destination drive to hold all your data - so be sure to get one that's big enough to grow with your data storage needs. This shouldn't be a problem - you can easily get 1TB drives for $200 to $250 these days, so go big.

If you're running a PC or a pre-Leopard Mac, you'll need to look at software applications to help create, manage and execute your backup plan. On the PC side of things, there are a number of great applications out there, starting with Genie-Soft's Backup Manager. For the Mac users not able to utilize Leopard's Time Machine, Memeo makes a great backup application that's easy to setup and use. Both of these applications are able to backup across multiple drives, so you don't have to have one single, huge, drive. If you've already got a few 250GB drives, this is a great way to go.

Whatever you choose, just be sure to have a backup plan and follow through with it. You'll thank me someday... okay, maybe not, but you will be glad you did.

Sometime soon, we'll look at off-site backup - because all the backup in the world won't help you when little Johnny burns your house to the ground.