Confessions of a Lazy Photographer

In a previous post I referred to myself as a lazy photographer. I’ve never liked using a tripod, I quit my first photo class when they wanted us to use a 4×5 view camera. When one-hour photo came along I left the darkroom behind. When digital cameras came along I was more than happy to stop using film.

I was made for small mirrorless cameras; camera that is always with me either over my shoulder or on the car seat beside me. I can pick it up and shoot without people even noticing me. I also find that shooting from the LCD screen as opposed to the viewfinder lets me get closer and communicate better with my subjects. They seem to be less intimidated when I don’t have a large camera in front of my face. Here are some examples of photos that I’ve shot lately as I travel around Portland, Oregon.

As I’ve written before, I walk around with my camera on Program Mode and the ISO set to Auto so I’m ready for any situation. As soon as I see something I can raise the camera and shoot. Then if I want to stop and adjust the shutter speed, ISO or aperture at least I have the photo in case the moment that caught my eye changes. I do shoot in the Raw format and process the files in Lightroom and Photoshop which I’m pretty lazy about too.—Mark Toal