How many Pictures

I was thinking after seeing aminstars post in the classifieds, where he has 18000 actuations on his K20 in 30 weeks. It struck me that this is an average of 85 pictures per day. What do other people think their average is. I think mine must be down in single figures.

I can reset the counter after 3 or 4 months and mine goes upto 10000 on the counter. But there again I do action photography and am out quite a lot with the camera, it's me job!

Last year on holiday I took almost a 1000 images and that was in 5 days!

I'm with you Barrie I think. Even in normal circumstances I don't have the time to take that many photos.

At the moment when I am struggling to take any photographs at all. I went to the zoo on Monday but I didn't take my camera. I just couldn't face lugging it around. I'm hoping inspiration and enthusiasm return soon. I took nearly 3000 photos in four weeks on holiday. I was disappointed with the bulk of them and it has hit me hard I think. Can't get any enthusiasm going at all.

Hi Barrie i usually take about 150 per week during the summer a bit less in winter.

I took about 150 last Saturday...but nothing for weeks before that.

Don't have the time to get out with the camera enough.

My average on my K20D is ~220 per week (over 60 weeks or so). Nearly all macro and birds with ~70% keepers.

I'd guess 100 a week on average with up to 5 keepers a week.

Mike

My average since I got my used K10D last year is around 65 a day.
Saying that, probably 3/4 of them were taken in the first 6 months.

I probably average that per week now.

The K200D shutter count between 9th january and 15th july was 14885. K20D shutter count is today 1675, first out of the box picture showd counter number 509. I am pretty productive creating digital noise. About 10-15 pictures are kind that I think would like to show someone or print as a gift. Nice family pictures is more.

Really depends, when going to events for the purpose to shoot I can end up with 500+ photos. Had 771 photos of the DTM for example.
When in zoo and such, it's mostly with family so tehy get also in the shots most of the time I'm arounf the 300 then.
But with a walk, I can end up with zero shots so it really depends on if there is something interesting.

Average would be 10 a day.

Gwyn, I understand exactly what you say.

I feel the same way a lot of the time, and end up with the same results, 10 good/fair images from a 1000.

So I put the camera away for a week or two.

My saviour, is logging on to this forum.

I look at photographs from some of the members, and knowing they use a Pentax, and have some of the same lenses I have, and can produce some stunning images, I think, "so can I".

So to, Lilly, Malo1961, Daniel B, RR, Darkmunk, Prieni to name just a few, ( in no particular order, by-the-way ! ) thanks for the inspiration.

I worked Global Gathering Festival last weekend & shot 1200 over 2 days at Glastonbury this year I shot over 2200 over the 5 days, but I did shoot 31 bands!!! Think last time I looked my GX20 had done over 25,000 actuations since June last year.

I think it all depends on what you shoot on a day to day basis, somedays you can shoot 100-200 others considerably more.

Also with digital we all tend to be a bit more trigger happy as there is no worry about costs.
I, and many others on here, learnt with film cameras. Film was expensive to both buy and process also they mainly came in 24's or 36's, unless you had a bulk film loader and managed to squeeze on about 40 or so Every shot counted and obviously you couldn't check if it was exposed properly or not. Also even if you were trigger happy, you could get through a roll of film in seconds.

So now with digital you can be more ruthless with that trigger and take 100's at a time and most of the time you have no idea how many you have taken until you upload to the computer and sometimes nearly faint when you see that you have taken 4GB of photos on the one subject.

The error for judgement has more or less been removed. Dodgy images are just deleted, or if taken in RAW those images can be altered and saved.

So I wouldn't worry about how many you have or have not taken in a day or week, every situation is different.

Paul

Edited: spelling

Well Galoot, it's lovely to be mentioned in despatches, but I have to say inspiration works both ways, and when I look at shots of yours from New York or Shetland, or Amin's smoke pics (and smoke and bubbles, and roses and smoke, and droplets in bubbles on roses in smoke... :lol, and the countless other photos from countless other photographers on here, I take inspiration and it pushes me to try new things, and think about new photos.

But we all go through 'dry spells' I think, and a lot of the time it's when we've reached a plateau on the ability/self-criticism curve. When we first start out, every photo seems like the best we've taken, and it's a great new learning journey to be setting out on.

But there comes a point when the improvement in our technique slows down, yet we're more and more aware of the failings in our photos. It's good to be your own worst critic, because most people who will see your photos will say "that's nice", which as far as progressing your craft is concerned is next to useless. But it's all too easy to be too hard on yourself, and feel that no matter what we do, the photos turn out dull, or uninspiring. (This is normally when buying a new lens livens things up a bit! )

Never mind that technically, and almost certainly artisticly, the photos you produce now are streets ahead of those initial, thrilling images taken when you first started out; you still feel disappointed.

Gwyn, I'm sure this is what's happening with you at the moment. Sometimes I feel the same, and think "Oh, I can't be bothered to take a camera out today", but I always try to, even if it's with just my 50mm lens on. Something usually crops up to take a shot of, and it's a lovely combination to take out for a walk - much lighter than my full kit.

How many photos a day for me? Well to be honest, most of my 'pro' time these days is spent doing tuition, and I really don't take many photos at all doing that. The slides that I use are either ones taken on film years ago, or on my old *istD. That's what's mainly holding me back from the K-7; is it really worth it for me? An average of probably 100 shots a week is probably about right. And as far as 'keepers' are concerned, I'm sure we all have different ideas of what a 'keeper' is.

For me, there are two kinds - the technical keeper, and the artistic keeper, which overlap to a certain extent, but I have far more technical keepers than artistic ones. Of 100 shots, I might keep 40, but only be really proud of 1 or 2. It's a small percentage, but I think if most people are truly honest with themselves, it's probably similar for them too. It's not a failing, just how it goes.

Great images are rare - that's what makes them great.

Dan

Dan,

That was spot on with regard to the dry spells and hitting a plateau. I think its a natural progression with anything we do and in any field. That's the reason why I keep on jumping from smoke to bubbles and then take a breather and go for the wine glasses and end up with drops, and then revert back to smoke, or should I start by smoking then drinking and then revert to smoking again while I try to look for something new again. At first it was obsession with birds and although the addiction hasn't died off but found that the relaxing times in the shed with a sandwich and drink while I smoke bubbles is more appealing than being in the cold waiting for the goldfinches is more appealing so kind of been neglecting the birds in the garden at the moment.

I do get bored pretty easily and my patience can wear thin at times so unless I have a certain goal or idea that I need to implement or even a certain improvement in a field that I am exploring I will end up not touching my kit for days on end. I know someone had the bad idea here on one of the threads of calculating that with 18000 shutter actuations within 7 months I averaged 85 actuations a day , actually its 19000 actuations in 7 months so my average is 90.48 actuations a day lol, we might as well be precise then ha , but the fact is I have had days and weeks that I just did not touch my kit. But when I do and for the macro work and exploring the stuff that I like when I start something it wouldn't be unusual to come out with a 4GB of my SD card full. I don't even dare to check how many that would amount to, all I know is when I sit here and start processing I open FastStone Image viewer and I keep one finger on the right cursor button and the other on the DELETE button and they work in such a synch that by the time I am done deleting the bad images I end up with hardly a handful for post processing.

So, true to the word, as you say we all go through moments of not wanting to take any shots but I think that is actually quite good as it gives us time for a breather and build again the enthusiasm for it and in the meantime acquire some inspiration also in different aspects of photography.

By the way Daniel, you know that I rightly called you a titan in the photographic field a few weeks ago , and reading your comment that you do get inspiration from what I attempt to photograph sometimes is a huge compliment . Thank you for that. That will keep my backside off the chair and get me more inspired to get smoking and bubbling again ha