Do try to make the best of any photo op that presents itself. It's amazing how a single photo opportunity can transform your day.

Make the Most of Every Photo Opportunity

One thing that’s great about being a photographer is the opportunity it provides you to meet and interact with all manner of people.

Nonetheless we need to be respectful about whom we photograph and also where and how we go about making our photos.

I’m certainly not one of those guys who jumps out of the bushes with a huge telephoto lens mounted to their camera.

I do not shoot anything, animals or photographs.

Nor do I take photos.

I make photos, the process of which is often done in collaboration with those I photograph. Together we make the most of the opportunity that’s brought us together.

Would you consider yourself to be a picture maker or a picture taker?

Your Camera is a Passport

I’m all about employing my camera to celebrate the beauty of our world and its people with an ever wider audience.

It’s all mindset and I don’t see the camera as a physical barrier between me and the world.

I see my camera as a passport through which I’m able to engage with and learn from folks whom I otherwise wouldn’t be likely to meet.

Matching Camera And Opportunity

I purchased a compact Panasonic camera a few years back. It was very well made and featured an excellent Leica lens.

Yet, despite the quality of the images produced, I only used it a few times. It just didn’t feel right and I wasn’t overly impressed with the camera’s menu, button structure or viewing system.

It’s a very personal relationship, the one between photographer and camera. Sometimes the two are just not all that well suited to each other. As a consequence they don’t work well together.

Frankly, I found it a slow process to navigate my way around the various buttons and dials on the camera and to find the functions I needed to access from within the camera’s menu.

I wasn’t well suited to this camera, nor was it suited to the way I go about making photos.

I missed a number of photo opportunities that I would have easily been able to record with my main Sony camera.

That’s not to say Panasonic don’t make great cameras. They most certainly do.

It’s just that this small compact camera didn’t have the functionality nor the ergonomics that are associated with the more professional Panasonic cameras.

Despite these difficulties and the fact that I sold the camera not all that long after buying it, I did take it on a few adventures including a photo walk around the city of Melbourne.

This post features a few photos from that particular adventure. 

Girls With A Difference

One thing that, as a country boy, impresses me about Melbourne is the wide variety of people wandering about enjoying this beautiful city.

More and more the Melbourne CBD (Central Business District) and it’s surrounds have become a meeting place for all manner of interesting people. Photo opportunities are everywhere.

This is great news for the enthusiastic portrait and street photographer. I’ve tended to find that, the more interesting someone dresses, the easier it is to make their photo.

I found these two young ladies at a meetup in the Fitzroy Gardens not far from Parliament house.

They were there with a bunch of other folks, all dressed up as zombies, anime figures and the like.

While the characters depicted were completely unrecognizable to me the girls were very photogenic and were happy to be photographed.

They’d clearly gone to a lot of trouble getting ready for the meetup and seemed to appreciate the attention and the opportunity to have a memory of the event recorded for posterity.

I made sure to share these photos with them. It was the least I could do.

Photo Opportunity And Posterity

It’s my view that each and every photo opportunity allows you to preserve a memory for posterity. You might even think of it as memory insurance.

Next time you’re out and about in the big smoke, particularly on weekends, be sure to keep an eye out for interesting characters.

They really do make great subject matter for your photos.

Just be sure to share the joy by forwarding one or more of your keepers to them. Your pics will, more than likely, be the best photos they’ll get of themselves dressed up in such unique garb.

And what a great memory your photos will be for them. Potentially for many years to come. 

Glenn Guy, Travel Photography Guru