JPG Magazine: Stories: Photo Essay: One spot shooting

One spot shooting

By richard seah

8 May 2008

Shoot from one fixed position. Sit down somewhere (it's less tiring than standing), buy yourself a coffee or tea (it might stimulate creativity) and shoot away.

Don't move. Lean forward, sideways or back if you must. But don't walk around. Stay put and shoot.

Give yourself maybe half to one hour. See how many reasonably good images you can come up with.

This is not as restrictive as it might seem at first. Imagine yourself watching a parade. You just sit or stand there, you cannot move around as you please. But of course you can scratch your back if you feel the urge.

Yet from that one position, you can take lots of pictures. During one Chingay parade (which takes place in Singapore after the Chinese New year) in 2007, a friend of ours shot over 600 images!

Sports photographers do the same. They fix themselves in one position - they even fix the camera onto a tripod - and take hundreds of pictures, some of which might make the front cover of newspapers and magazines.

Life, too is a parade - a game, a sport, a drama, a performance. Wherever you are, there is a parade of life unfolding before you. Do this exercise to to appreciate the daily drama of life.

It can get quite exciting, as we - Larry and Richard, we are presenting this photo essay jointly - experienced recently.

We did this exercise spontaneously. We had not planned for it and were thus not quite prepared. We had only one camera and one lens between the two of us - a Fuji S5 Pro with a Nikkor 28-105 zoom. Moreover, we were seated next to a pillar, so our view was obstructed on one side.

These were not serious limitations. In fact, we felt that being restricted to one camera and one lens (with limited zoom) was more challenging - and fun. And the pillar that blocked out view itself provided an image.

It started with us having teh-o halia (ginger tea without milk) one evening at our favourite hangout - at Baghdad Street in Kampong Glam near the Sultan mosque. This is where, according to a newspaper clipping proudly pasted at the stall there, one can find "The cheapest and best tea in Singapore".

We go there with another artist / photographer friend, David, at least once a week. We usually go on Saturday evenings and sit and chat for two or three hours, over two or three cups of tea. At 60 cents (approx US 42 cents) per cup, an evening out would cost us no more than $1.80, or $2.20 if we throw in a snack called kueh bomb - literally meaning "bomb cake", made from banana, flour and water, formed into a lump like a small hand grenade, and deep fried. (This is one 'bomb' that can get you past the most stringent terrorist security checks, unlike, say, a tripod - especially if it is concealed in a bag - which would surely arouse great suspicion!)

That evening (David wasn't with us), Larry was distracted by a pair of 'boobs' and he started taking a few shots.

Richard thought it was a good time to do this exercise. The two of us had discussed this before. We thought it would make an interesting assignment for a book on "Seeing" that we are working on. So he asked if Larry could produce at least seven good pictures for the book.

No. Larry had taken only three. Richard took the camera and shot a couple more. Then Larry asked for the camera and took more shots.

After a while, the two of us were almost grabbing the camera from each other, anxious not to miss the photo opportunities that kept arising.

In about 45 minutes, we had taken close to a hundred pictures (with some repeats) of which we thought about 25 were worthy of consideration for publication.

Here are some for sharing. We hope these pictures will inspire you to try out the same exercise. It's more fun if you do it with a friend or two, with only one camera and one lens to share.

But make sure you have spare memory cards. You will be surprised how many photos you can shoot, on an ordinary evening, from just one spot!