A young friend from the University of Chicago Middle Eastern Music Ensemble (MEME) is interested in getting into photography. As I take photos of the MEME members at almost every practice, he asked me what my secret was for taking such good photos. I really appreciated the compliment and give him my stock and simple answer: take a lot of photos. I mean a ton of photos for two reasons. First, by taking lots of photos and reviewing them, you learn about framing and find your ‘eye’ for taking better and better photographs. Secondly, if you take lot of photos on a shoot, you have a lot of photos to sift through to find the gems. By my crude estimation, I get a half dozen good photos out of each fifty I take. The rest are either mediocre or throw aways.
Modern cameras, be they on cell phones or stand along mirrored (SLR) or mirrorless cameras, are laden with electronics and features that make it easier to take amazing photos. Cameras on the latest cell phones give all but the top tiers of Nikon, Canon, Sony and other brands a run for their money. Using a camera like my Sony Alpha 6000, where professionals might utilize manual settings to craft their images, I am a notch or two above ‘point and shoot.’ Digital cameras also make it easier and much cheaper to take hundreds of photos on a shoot versus the film cameras of old. For me, a camera like my Sony mirrorless and entry level Nikon SLR cameras made it so much easier to get into and enthused about photography than I ever might have back in the film days.
Where do take most of my photos? I take photos of at the Armenian Youth Federation Annual Olympics and festivities each Labor Day weekend. I take hundreds of photos each of the four days at the Olympics. My cousin Levon inspired me to take photos of flowers and blossoms. Because of my photos I have been taking at the MEME practices, I have had the opportunity to take photos of two Arab concerts at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. I take photos at North Park meeting and event. Of course, I love taking photos at family gatherings.
On Thursday evenings in July and early August, the City of Lake Forest, where I live, has wonderful concerts in Market Square in the center of town. They get really good bands from around Chicagoland to perform. We go as often as we can and enjoy the very good music. I only take my camera, however, when they have the Car Show and concert on the third Thursday in July. That evening we leave our chairs and picnic basket at home because we enjoy the music while walking around Market Square and admire the 40-50 classic and late model cars on display. I usually take photos of the entire car and include the people admiring the cars. This year I was planning to do the same. But, for some reason when we got there, I had the idea and urge to take photos of the hood ornaments, logos, and other details of the classic cars. I enjoyed taking these photos that I thought I would share them in this bloggy bit.
Not a bad hobby at all…
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