Why You Should take a Photo of Balloons
Category: Photography
There are 3 problems with taking photos in Scotland: 1) The weather sucks 2) it’s always raining 3) and the sky is always cloudy.
Okay, so that’s a bit harsh. The weather is not always that bad. I’m just venting after a (very) long winter.
The point is, if you want to take photos in Scotland (or anywhere else with bad weather), you have to ignore those 3 problems and just get on with it.
That’s what I was trying to do last Friday when I brought my camera into work.
That week happened to be our first week of proper Spring weather, sunny skies and all! So on Thursday night, I had the brilliant idea to take advantage of the weather and capture some shots during my lunch hour. Problem was, I woke up on Friday to find that winter had returned.
Soldering on, I put on my rain proof coat and headed out anyway. And I’m glad that I did, because I captured this shot of some balloons:
Now I’m not saying this is the world’s most impressive photo. I wouldn’t say that about any of my photos as I’m just a beginner and therefore I’m very modest : )
What I’m saying is that I’m glad I was there to take the photo. It’s another one for my collection and every time I go out on a photo walk, I usually learn something along the way. This shot was slightly underexposed and I had to fix it up a bit in Adobe Lightroom. Next time I’m pay more attention to the exposure. Practice does make perfect.
Now, people tend to say the phrase “practice makes perfect” without backing it up with a solid reason. Well, here’s mine. You should practice photography often, because you will make mistakes and it’s better to make those mistakes during a casual walk around the city than on your next holiday in Spain.
Okay, that example is a little specific to me, but you get the point.
I’ve made so many photography mistakes in the past few months (dark exposure, wrong aperture, etc). And I’m so glad I made those mistakes when I was taking casual photos. I was able to learn from my mistakes and correct those behaviours with practice. By the time I went on a recent holiday to Spain, I was a much better photographer.
On holiday or during any significant event, your shots are more meaningful and you are trying to capture a once-in-lifetime moment. You don’t want to ruin that moment with a novice mistake.
So get out there as much as possible, even in the rain, even with the cloudy sky and take a photo of balloons.