I say this with respect to Bettina Gray award winner Ralph (whose photos are excellent), and everyone else who snaps away. But after you've seen 800 shots of a hang glider or paraglider against the sky...or 600 shots of someone launching...or 500 "taken from the wingtip" shots, they all start looking the same.
It almost becomes a matter of..."Hey, look---the flying wires in this shot form a really wide X, where in that shot the flying wires form more of an H."
Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, but there are many other things to see in our sport---and to take photos of---that would make great photos besides people flying. (BTW, I get tired of seeing the same kayaking shots all the time too, with someone grimacing in the midst of a chaos of spray---so this isn't limited to our sport! See bottom of pg.10 in the latest USHGA magazine.)
What else could we take photos of? Here's a start...
- interesting sights near launches or LZs, like old barns, hand-painted signs, etc.
- pilots clowning around while hang waiting
- pilots sitting around a table having dinner together
- a favorite eatery near a flying site
- interesting details of wings (like PG lines laid out in an interesting way, or the inside of a topless HG wing, etc.)
- unique or homemade pieces of gear
- scenic views from a launch---that don't have to have someone flying in the shot
- cows staring at you in the LZ
In short, we need more photos of everything you see in a typical day of flying, besides the flying itself. Finding other subjects isn't always easy---you have to look around sometimes. But they're always there.
Finally, we could also really use some more nice aerial shots of places we fly...and the shot doesn't have to have any part of the wing or pilot. I realize sometimes this is hard...but c'mon...does every single shot taken from a PG have to have the pilot's feet in the shot? (Some feet shots are cool, but in every one?
)My call for different photos isn't just in general, but specifically for the newsletter...I really had to scrape for shots in this last issue (but many, many thank you's to the folks who did send photos! I just needed more to fill small leftover spaces...) If you have lots of these different shots, then please---send them to me! I'm gonna work on taking more myself. Like I said, it isn't always easy.
Oh, and one last tip---sometimes you'll have a shot that---viewed in its entirety---isn't very interesting. But there might be something in the photo that's really cool (but might be over in the corner of the photo). Often these details can be cropped out of the photo, or enlarged with a scanner, to make interesting shots in themselves (I'm good with Photoshop!).
Thanks,
Scott
PS - I found some examples of "different" shots in the latest USHGA magazine...
p.05 - cool rippling dunes shot
p.22 - aerial of a beach LZ
p.23 - a gang of pilots around a vehicle, loading wings
p.30 - small center shot of pilots playing under a waterfall
p.50 - the portrait of four pilots
p.52 - interesting closeup angle view of a leading edge
p.65 - (bottom) unique, head-on view of a PG pilot on the ground
...and here are a couple "not different" shots in the same issue...
cover - seen it a thousand times
p.29 - PG launching - seen it a thousand times
p.32 - HG launching - seen it a thousand times
p.42 - (bottom) - seen it a thousand times
(Not your same old boring loop.)
