Be Patient, Shoot Much

Rory Kelly, Asheville, NC  -  2013

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

I went to the Bele Chere festival for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. It's not really my crowd, but I was bored, and most festivals can be interesting if you like to people watch. Bele Chere was no exception.

Any kind of action photography, be it athletics, dancing, or muscians, I find to be a "hit or miss" activity. Mostly misses. It seems when you photograph people in any kind of motion, more often than not you'll catch them in uninteresting, awkward, or sometimes funny positions. Occasionally, however, you'll catch your subject at "peak action" which makes for an interesting photo. I made about a dozen photos of this guitarist, and most were fairly boring shots - just some guy playing a guitar. This was the only one out of the bunch that I thought captured this guy's energy and attitude. I found this also to be true while photographing dancers last week at Folkmoot. There's really now way to anticipate or plan for a good shot. You just have to be patient, shoot a ton of photos, and then be prepared to wear out the delete key when you get home. Hopefully, one or two good ones are in there somewhere.