Behind the camera.

Last week I stopped by the Clay County Republican newspaper office to renew my subscription and to shoot the bull with Smitty also to tell him I'd be shooting some high school baseball games this spring.  That conversation lead to how often photographers take a picture but didn't see the play.  He told of a friend who would ask him what he thought about one of the plays.  His replay was, I was shooting and I don't remember that play.  One day Smitty  put a camera in the guys hands and had him shoot a game.  At the end Smitty asked him about a play, and the guy couldn't remember it.  When I look through a camera I am removed from what is happening.  I am focused (no pun intended) on getting the picture.  To me it's almost like watching an event on television.  I've heard conflict photographers say the same thing.  Bullets are flying, bombs are going off.  But they are only concentrating on getting the picture.  That is why some many of them are killed and injured in their line of work.  It's the same with crime scene photographers who photography a horrible gruesome crime.  As long as they are behind the camera they don't realize what they are shooting until later when they are home.  That's when what they saw that day hits them.  In 1981 when I was at the first launch of the space shuttle I was on top of a van shooting pictures.  My camera was a Minolta XGM that I had just purchased.  At that time there wasn't a motor drive available for it, so I would focus and shoot then wind the film  (later when they were available I did purchase one).  So I'm on this van shooting as fast as I can during the launch.  But I don't remember seeing it.  What do I  remember about it?  The sound and the wave of heat that hit us.   It wasn't until I got my film developed that I realized what I had watched.  When my step daughter played high school basketball I would take my camera and sit in the stands shooting pictures of her playing.  My wife couldn't understand how I couldn't get excited and show outward emotions.  I learned when I started shooting games in high school that if I got emotional I would miss the picture, so I trained myself to not get wrapped up in the game.  Once again I was just trying to get a good shot of her.  Had I gotten emotional I would of missed a good picture of her, because my brain would of been in the fan mode and not the photographer mode.  I do remember one shot I missed, which would of been a great one.  Why do I remember it?  Because I missed it.  One time when my wife and I were in Hawaii we stopped at a small road side park because there were some whales in the bay.  I start shooting as the whales come up out of the water and go back down.  One of the other persons standing there watching said, "Did he get it?"  My wife looked at me and said "Yeah he got it, he always gets it."  Since I was shooting digital I could immediately see what I had watched through the view finder.  And yes I did get it.
Have I missed out on important happenings in my life, while I was looking through a view finder?  I'd have to say no. While I may not of been aware of everything going on around me.  All I have to do is pull up the pictures and I can see the main event all over again.  Ironically of the thousands and thousands of pictures I've taken, a majority I can remember.  If I can't remember I can usually take a look and tell you if I took it or someone else did.  So the next time you see a photographer taking pictures at a game and you think how lucky he is with his place on the sideline just remember you'll probably remember more about the game than he will.