Photography 101: Learn from my mistake

I was looking through some old photos and found one that reminded me of a hard lesson I learned that cost me a nice shot.

Each year, I photographed the team in the Medical Tent at the TD Beach To Beacon 10K road race. There’s not much activity until the wave of runners arrives, so I would hang out at the finish line and grab a few shots of the winners breaking the ribbon.

As that year’s leader was approaching the finish line, I decided to try a different setting on my camera. Bad move. The camera was fairly new, and despite having read the instruction manual, the change took longer than expected. By then, the runner was at the finish line and I missed the shot.

The lesson: decide how you want to shoot something ahead of time, and set your camera accordingly. Yes, you should be ready to adapt to the environment, but changing directions seconds before your first shot is asking for trouble.

While I was able to salvage the day with some nice shots, I missed the photo I really wanted. That said, the experience left me with a lesson I’ll always remember.

I missed the finish, learned a lesson, and was ready the following year.