Photography is a hobby and it should be fun, but the truth is most of the time it is just frustrating. You mentally create and frame shots that never come. You stumble on a scene a second too late. You get the shot and then realise the damn settings on the camera were wrong.
Man! How often is that the story?
But when things work out, on those rare occasions, it makes it all worthwhile. Back in 2014, I was in Taipei and the rain had followed me from Ireland. I arrived there excited about hitting the street and getting that shot. But the rain was just too heavy. What to do? Stuck under the shelter of a shop’s awning I followed the thousands of little mopeds shoosh past in a blur of colour. Panning: That’s what I could do. But how? What are the settings for panning? I do not like the mathematics and technical side of photography – at all. I have a very rudimentary understanding of it all, and still get confused about it at times. I tend to make mistakes and learn from them. With a bit of messing around on the Nikon D7000 and settling on a shutter speed and ISO, I began to swivel those hips and pan. What fun it was! I absolutely loved it; standing on the side of the street waiting for traffic to pass and moving in motion with it as I held that shutter down.