More Bloopers

I actually kind of like this one

Who doesn’t love bloopers? I felt like it was time to pull out some of my favorite bloopers again (aka, I didn’t have any new photos for today’s post). As always, there are recurring themes amongst my bloopers.

Let’s start with the “Oops! Did I press the shutter button?” theme. This occurs in two distinct ways, dependent on whether I’m shooting with my iPhone or my DSLR. With my iPhone, different screen-tapping behaviors often get me.

For example, when you double-tap the “viewfinder” in Hipstamatic, it becomes full screen, making it easier to see what you’re shooting. In the Camera! app, if you touch the screen with one finger, it sets the focus and if you touch the screen with a second finger, it sets the exposure. To confound it all, most apps also take a picture when you single-tap the screen.

Nice keyboard

This was the article (on the left side) that got me started with the Hipstamatic app

You can probably guess what happens. Curiously, I seem to be mostly likely to mis-tap when I have my laptop in my lap. I don’t know why I would be tapping my iPhone screen while I’m working at my laptop, but I have a surprising number of random shots of my laptop. My second favorite mis-fire subject seems to be the ground.

I might be able to get away with pretending I took this one on purpose

Carpet

More carpet

By comparison, I have happy shutter finger issues when carrying my DSLR. This results in strange shots of the ground (usually out of focus) or other random objects in the frame when I accidentally depress the shutter button. Of course, these are more fun than when the lens cap is still on.

The next common blooper theme, which I will spare you a deluge of photos of, but I have plenty, is the “Oops, there’s a stranger in my frame!” theme. When we’re at a popular place for tourists, it’s a little hard to manipulate every scene to eliminate all people. But, I get a little frustrated sometimes when I actually forget I’m in a public place and I take so much time getting ready to take my shot that I fail to notice people walking into my shot until the shutter has gone off.

Where did the cyclists come from?

The next theme we’ll call “Oh shoot! The lighting was terrible!” While lighting is often terrible, a lot of time exposing for the thing you most want to be visible will solve at least the major issue of ending up with a too-dark subject that looks like a silhouette. Then there’s the approach of lighting a too-dark subject by using a handy-dandy tool like a flash light. Sometimes this works OK, but probably not when the subject is too far away for the focal length you have to shoot with and the flashlight is donned by a young tour guide who has little photography experience.

I know Pat is in this photo somewhere

With a macro lens and some better lighting, this would have been a cool shot

Finally, we have the “Darn it, hold still!” theme where uncooperative subjects decide to leave at inopportune moments, hide behind less interesting subjects, or move faster than expected and the camera’s autofocus can’t keep up.