So close, but so far

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, as either Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan said (depending on which motivational poster you’re looking at).

Michael and/or Wayne weren’t wrong, but I’ve found when it comes to street photography it’s more accurate to say that you miss 99.9% of the shots you do take.

I’ve heard many top street photographers say they’d be happy with 10 “good” photos a year. Which, when you consider that some of us take hundreds of photos a day, is a vanishingly small proportion of the total. By their metrics, and at this stage of my career, I’m probably yet to take a single good photo.

So this week I thought I’d share this snap as an example of how narrow the margin between a (maybe) good photograph and a missed opportunity is.

Step inside the sausage factory

I took this one on Sunday while I was walking around the Opera House, a bit the worse for wear after being dragged into a party the night before. I’m not saying this image is a banger, but I quite like it.

Recently I’ve been attempting to make layered compositions in the style of Alex Webb or Julia Coddington, mostly with little success. But the crowd spilling out from a show at sunset seemed the perfect chance to practise.

I was aiming to use the dramatic background of the entranceway to create a photo with subjects at different distances from the camera. The girl and her mother in the centre of the frame were the anchor, and I was moving in the crowd to arrange other subjects around them, trying to keep them separated - a challenge in a large group.

I was concentrating on the man in the hat and his girlfriend in the foreground when the blind man on the left appeared. You couldn’t ask for better. I liked it even more when I got home and noticed girl’s glance to camera right and the man shielding his eyes on the left. I think there’s a lot of action in this photo.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll ever get it printed. There’s a problem with this image which isn’t immediately apparent on a small screen. I hadn’t set my aperture correctly, so the depth of field was too shallow. While the man in the hat is tack sharp, the subjects in the background are all slightly out of focus. Aiiieeeeeyyaaaa!

So instead of what I think would have been a decent photo, I’m left with a near miss. I shared it on Instagram because I don’t think anyone will notice the focus issue when it’s the size of a postage stamp, but unfortunately it won’t make it to the portfolio.

This scene is gone forever and all I’m left with is a reminder to get my settings right next time. Oh, and this somewhat self-indulgent newsletter (please let me know if all this process-driven chat is boring you to death).

PLEASE HELP ME FIND NICK

You might remember in the last edition of this newsletter I asked you to help me find a Sydney photographer named Nick, w

ho bought a couple of prints from me but never collected. Well, I’m still looking for him!

The clues: Nick is Greek, has a great moustache, used to be a professional photographer and has shot Anzac Day in Sydney every year for the last two decades. Do you know this man?