A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

target shooting

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing: Unintended (13/28)

For those of you who are photographers, you might be able to relate with this post.

Photography is a hobby (job/career, whatever you call it) where one reacts to situations, or sets something up and gets some amazing pictures. Alas, sometimes you miss that shot that really screams at you. And, other times, you get shots you never intended on getting, whether it’s something you didn’t realize you shot or something you did that made for a cool image, many “great” shots are full unintended.

Other times, those unintended images are something you were hoping to get — but didn’t think you really captured it. Then, when checking things out, you realize you did get it, which makes the photo day even more successful.

So, below, I’m going to share five of the more recent unintended shots I’ve taken. I’ll explain each below, but it’s a mixture of shots I was hoping to get and ones I didn’t realize I got. That’s the beauty of photography — you can snap and snap away and get some awesome stuff.

1 – Disc crashing the chains

I took so many shots this day. Several hundred to be exact. My goal was to get the disc seemingly in mid-air, but deep into the chains. I had been laying on the ground aiming up, because of the blue sky, and thought I had taken a few neat shots, but when I saw this one I knew I had captured something beyond what I had planned to do. It was definitely an unintended result.

Crashing the chains.

2. Sap house

I’ve posted this photo before, but I truly love it. My goal was a long-exposure shot to show a friend’s sap house. In fact, I was irritated with myself for leaving the door open. I actually have several others with the door closed as it was what I originally wanted. Then I got home and saw this shot and couldn’t believe how cool it was. The sky, the door open and Gid working on some sap. Talk about an unintended, but awesome result.

 

Gid working in the sap house.

3. Oh no!

This shot will forever be one of my all-time favorites. I was taking photos of my friends’ kid playing on a tractor. Something happened and he did the “oh no” sort of thing. I was snapping away and this is one of the shots that I got. Unintended, but one I’m glad happened!

Oh no!

4. Blurry flag

Boy did I mess this shot up. I was setting up for something totally different. It was at a 2CW wrestling show and it was during the Sgt. Slaughter match. I messed up on focus. I never really delete photos on the fly, so I didn’t realize how much I liked the shot until I got it on my computer. Something about it really makes it one I like. And highly unintended!

 

USA! USA!

5. Faster than a …

I shot a couple of days of target practice with some friends and wanted to see about getting a bullet coming out of the gun. But for those who have ever shot, you know how fast a bullet comes out. So getting this image would prove to be hard. I took many shots in rapid fire and was pretty sure I didn’t get anything. Thankfully, I was wrong.

Speedy little thing…

I really do love the unintended images one gets when shooting photos. It really proves the point that you can’t always take the time to look at the back of the camera and the screen. Just keep shooting and you’ll get some amazing results.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Bang bang!

Faster than a speeding bullet!

Shooting makes for some fantastic photography.

I grew up around guns. My father was a cop and there were always guns in the house. However, we all knew what guns could do, so we never touched them or tried to play with them. We learned to shoot at a younger age so we knew the power of what a weapon could do.

When my father got sick a few years ago, I made sure to get my pistol permit so I could own his pistols. He had a couple remaining and I didn’t want to see them go somewhere else. I keep them locked up and have only shot them a couple of times — at target ranges.

A friend, Pat, recently got his pistol permit and asked me this past weekend if I wanted to shoot. Considering I had wrecked my arm/elbow the day before trying different ways of throwing discs at a tournament (seriously), I wasn’t up for shooting.

But…

I’ve wanted to take photos of the shooting process for a while. Another photographer friend took some wild shots of his brother shooting a while back, capturing the flame coming out of the end of a shotgun. Way too cool.

This was my first attempt at it and I have some ideas on things I’d like to do for future chances at doing this. Possibly this weekend, if all goes well.

Anyway, we loaded up a few containers with water and food coloring and got some cool shots. Too, shaving cream cans make for some awesome shots. Allow me to show a few of my favorite images I took of this process:

Some clay pidgeons being blasted!

Green water being sent all over!

Shaving can creamed into the air!

I’ve come up with a small list of items I might try and get to take photos of while things are being shot. It’s tough for sure as you have to be on rapid fire with the camera and hope like heck that you are clicking fast enough to get the good stuff. I’m hoping there are a few rifles and we can catch something coming out of the barrel a little better, but we’ll see.

Either way, this is a good photo challenge for me.I look forward to it.

If any of you shutterbugs out there have photographed shooting before, any tips?

If interested in some of the other photos I took that day, you can see them on this Flickr set.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.