The Secret to Great Photography?

For the past three years in March, my friend (and client) Nancy Sweatt of Dolphin Journeys sends me breathtaking pictures from Hawaii. She runs a dolphin and whale touring business in Kona -- and posts some remarkable client photos at her website.

Her clients often take wonderful pictures from her boat. And they often get some terrific underwater shots, as well. (You can see the whale, underwater, and dolphin photos here.)

Nancy emailed me the picture you see in this post of two dolphins that swam up to her boat. They exhaled simultaneously -- and Nancy somehow got the shot.

Now, when I went on a whale tour in Hawaii, I saw dozens of humpbacks. And I snapped pictures like a crazy woman. But when I got the pictures developed, all I had to show for my three-hour tour were dozens of pictures of endless ocean. Not a whale in the lot.

Here are the sound effects for my three-step, failing process:

• "Ooooh! There's a whale surfacing! Quick, snap the picture!"
• "Splash!" Whale goes back underwater...
• "Click!" goes Laura's shutter.

Nancy laughed when I told her of my plight. She insists that for every great photo she takes, there are 1,000 stinkers. Same thing for her customers -- lots of pictures of ocean.

So I guess I shouldn't feel so bad. Especially when I can look at Nancy's photos online, and dream that I am swimming among the dolphins, instead of looking at the powdery results of a freak April snowstorm outside my office window!

Might the secret to great action photography be: take a thousand pictures? One of 'em might actually turn out to be worthwhile?

Labels: photography

¶ 4/05/2007 01:18:00 PM