This Wednesday, my son, my dad and I took a trip to MiSci (the former Schenectady Museum and Planetarium). I didn’t get as many good pictures as I hoped in their new butterfly house. The area was crowded, and people had to hurry through so the next batch of people (we would pick a day they were holding two birthday parties) go get a chance to enjoy themselves some.
Still, I got a few nice shots and several mediocre ones that have taught me a valuable lesson. No amount of photo-editing can repair a bad picture, so take as many images as you can–better to toss a hundred crappy shots than not have a single good one to remember.
The best shots of the day were some of the candids. They weren’t great photos, but they were excellent storytellers.
In May, we’ll be stopping off at the Joseph L. Popp Butterfly Conservatory for their raptor show, I’ll be testing my photo-taking skills there again, and this time–I don’t care if I fill my whole compact flash card in the day. That’s what it’s there for.
(As an addendum, our trip home reminded me of another cardinal rule about photography that I break too often. Always Have Your Camera READY. There was a lovely juvenile bald eagle circling in a field near a small pond–close enough I could make out its eyes from the car windscreen. I was able to pull over and stop fast enough. But could I get the camera out of the bag and set up in time? There are no eagle pictures here for a reason.)