High Risk, High Reward (or, Against Spray and Pray)

I have recently stumbled upon a video of a guy ‘debunking’ the alleged myth of ‘one shot, one keeper’ —actually the orginal Japanese version was hikken, hissatsu, one shot one kill— in photography. In short, his reasoning was: 1) I have seen the contact sheets of many famous photographers, 2) all of them actually took many photos and then picked-up the best one, 3) taking bursts is not spray and pray as soon as you are attentive to what is going to happen and don’t casually shoot whatever moves.

Although he might have a point by differentiating casual and deliberate burst shooting, I am not entirely convinced of the validity of his argument.

Over the years, I have taken photos at local, national and international sporting events — a sector where there is no opportunity for a second chance to capture a moment — and I have never resorted to burst mode.

Believe it or not, the photo featuring this post and this next one are single shots (like the hook thrown by the pugilist)

same as this photo of a beach wrestling bout.

Another example is this photo, which was taken during an Italian national team handball match.

or this one, taken during a leg of the International Volley Verteran Association’s tournament

or —finally— this one, taken in a World Skate event

I didn’t need to spray and pray — or whatever you want to call this way of shooting — because I knew exactly what was going to happen. This comes easily to me in sports that I have practised myself. But when it comes to disciplines I don’t know, I fill the gap by studying the rules of the game in advance and watching hours of videos to understand how events will likely unfold.

This knowledge base is built incrementally. The rules stay as they are for longtime and body mechanics don’t change throughout different sports, so once you become adept at recognising the precursors of a jump, run or turn, you are automatically ready for what comes next.

Of course, it’s undeniable that burst-shooting increases the likelihood of getting good photos, and I would say that all the professionals I met don’t even consider taking just one photo, even of a non-moving subject. Nevertheless, I believe that this approach, while highly rewarding in the short term, negatively impacts one’s ability to take good —i.e. worth purchasing— photos.

By contrast, focusing on a single shot or a few deliberately taken frames, forces the photographer to stay focused, alert and ready to anticipate athletes’ movement.

The main downside of this choice is that you cannot afford to be distracted, even for a split second, as there is an increasing likelihood of missing a shot. Plus, even if you stay 100% switched-on, you might still miss something worth capturing. But it is exactly this high-risk/high-reward mindset that pushes you forward.

Finally, rules are meant to be broken so I see nothing wrong with adapting a shooting style to a specific context. However, it is important to note that burst shooting should only be attempted once the ability to take a single shot has been mastered. This makes it possible to expand one’s photographic skills, instead of turning onself into a simple camera-toting guy.

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