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I Just Don't Have The Patience
161 (210)So many great photos require a lot of patience and persistence from the photographer.
I see landscapes shot at just the right light conditions, which of course meant that the photographer had to go back many times, waiting for the ideal opportunity. And photos of insects which must have taken a lot of waiting next to a pond or somewhere in the dirt. Bird shots, undoubtedly carefully selected from thousands of shots, taken with the hope that one of them will be just what one wanted. And the list goes on.
I admire the people who take these photos. They have patience. Lots of patience. they sit in their bird hide, waiting for a bird that may show up - or not. They stalk animals, hoping that they'll strike the right pose in usable light at just the right time. They go to their favourite viewpoint time and time and time again, trying to catch that elusive combination of the perfect light and the most wonderful sky.
I don't.
That is to say - I would like to. And I try. But my patience just doesn't last, you know. Maybe it's a streak of the ADD one of my children has. Maybe I'm just not used enough to having to wait for results. I don't know what it is. But I get restless. Very restless. I just want instant results. Well, maybe not instant. I'd settle for quick. 
I do try to catch animals in a nice pose, landscapes in good light, flowers in photogenic spots. But I just don't seem to have the patience to wait until conditions are perfect. Sometimes that drives me to stage things. But you can't always stage what can happen spontaneously in nature.
So - how is this for you?
Are you the patient type?
Or the restless kind, like me?
Tags: Add, Patience, Persistence, Waiting
Comments
Same here. My hat off to those who have that patience. Think I might actually be able to show some of that patience every now and then... if someone gave me a guarantee that I would end up with a cracker shot. It's the not knowing that drives me crazy. If you tell me "in three hours a deer will pass by and stand exactly in that spot with the perfect light" I could perhaps be convinced to sit there for three hours. Without guarantees, I won't budge though lol. I'm definately not a "it's the road to the destination that counts, not the destination itself" kind of person lol
Yep, me too!! Most of my shots seem to be a 'Wow' moment - when I'm on a walk and happen across something. I don't even plan enough to use a tripod - I think, by the time I set everything up, the subject would be long gone! Thank goodness for IS that's what I say!! 
I would say I'm fairly patient and yes go back again and again and again and wait cos I love sunrise - took me 5 visits on icy roads to see a Buttermere reflection and since then never really seen it rough - sods law
and yes will spend a long time looking for the right flower but then I did used to practise flute for 5 hours every day at uni so guess its very much part of me plus I always think there must be just one more shot!
holds people up though.....
Quote: If you tell me "in three hours a deer will pass by and stand exactly in that spot with the perfect light" I could perhaps be convinced to sit there for three hours.
TBH, I think I'd be inclined to come back in two hours and fifty minutes, and do something else in the meantime!
Quote: I did used to practise flute for 5 hours every day
See - you have practise - literally and figuratively speaking. I tried piano and (don't laugh!) banjo, but just couldn't be bothered practising for long, so it didn't work out.
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