Get the shot.

When it comes to photography, if you don’t have unlimited resources (and nobody I know does) you have to find creative solutions to create the images you’d like to make with what you have. Essentially, once you drop the shutter and capture that image, how you got it there is not important. So think about the image you want to want to create and then think about how you’re going to pull it off. If you start from your limitations your images will show it. Trust me, nobody wants to hear how good an image could have been if you’d just had that latest camera, better lighting, different lenses, etc.. It’s boring. Get the shot. Then tell me how hard it was.

When I was first starting out I didn’t have a tripod or off camera flash units so when I wanted to shoot something indoors or at night outdoors I learned to lean against walls, telephone poles, use the self-timer, anything available to steady myself and the camera. It made me develop my technique for handholding long exposures instead of using the equipment to compensate and come up with creative solutions for lighting a scene. I was forced to figure it out. Just last night I had a example of this. I was trying to get a shot of a flower in the middle of a street downtown and I literally had to lay on my belly in the middle of the street (Don’t try this one at home kids!) to use the pavement to steady my hands, moved my eye back away from the viewfinder to keep the vibrations of my body from moving the camera and use the light from the headlights of the oncoming cars to illuminate the street and backlight the flower. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to encourage people to endanger themselves for a picture but I’m saying if you see a shot that you really want to get, figure out a way to get it. Because, to me, in the end that’s what matters. Did you get the shot? Not did you look cool doing it or “almost got it but at least I stayed dry”, or “If I’d only had a zoom I could have gotten closer”. After you get the shot you forget how uncomfortable you were getting it and if you didn’t get it and you don’t care then what are you carrying that camera for?

For inspiration, check out strobist.com. They have just a ton of articles about how to creatively use lighting and how to create your own lighting on a budget. For example, the photo I call “Window” was taken using a single 100 watt light bulb with a dish type reflector clamped to the ceiling of my garage. No fancy flash setups, umbrellas, or soft boxes. Just one light bulb and a window.

Some photographers refer to themselves as “available light” photographers. Usually meaning they shoot without modifying the light that already exists in a scene. Seems pretty limiting. I heard a photographer say once, “I’M an available light photographer. I use whatever’s available to me. Monolights, speedlights, fluorescents, sunlight…” Whatever it takes. But get the shot.