Mike Clegg

What is too many photos, 50 a day, 200 a day, or how about 500+ a day?

On my trips abroad, adventures through London, or hikes through the countryside, I normally average between 300-500 photos per day.

I tend to take lots of photos. I often use recommended settings depending on what I am taking the picture of, plus a few little experiments of my own – to see if I can get something a bit more unique.

On reviewing my shots, I more often than not will need to delete at least half of these, not just because they look identical to other images, but also due to technical issues, such as bad focus, exposure wasn’t quite right or I had accidentally cut someone’s head off! Not the kind of photos I want to be showing people eh?

So I guess you do get some of those amazing one shot wonders. My Royal Albert Hall Royal Albert Hall Royal Albert Hall pic for example.

I turned up quite late in the evening, and went to take this photo. Then over comes a man telling me the park (which is opposite the building), was closing and I need to leave. I had about 30 seconds to get this shot, and didn’t take more than one. Luckily the focus and lighting looked good, and I came away with a shot I was happy with.

I think I was lucky here, if it wasn’t for my nice new tripod, knowing roughly the right settings and the lighting being just right for this kind of shot, I wouldn’t have got quite what I was after.

Is one photo of a subject enough, or should we take as many as possible? I would say take lots of photos, try different angles, shutter speeds and apertures, experiment to your heart’s content, and then check the photos full screen when you’re home. You may discover a shot that you didn’t think would work, turns out to be your best photo yet.