Second time round

Spain versus the Philippines

Making the shot selection, editing the files, outputting and uploading the files to Facebook often takes longer than shooting a bout, even with a streamlined workflow and a computer with a high-end processor and plenty of RAM. Backing up files and copying them from the memory cards is also a long job. The read/write speeds of the cards, readers, cables and connections all contribute to the time it takes. The optimum speeds on all these products are always optimum using select conditions, real life is very different.

Often, one is in a hurry to get the images done, firstly to satisfy the audience, but also so that one can move on to the next job. Coming home from work with a range of shoots stacking up waiting to be processed can be depressing. The World Cup is a special case, four days without any real opportunity to start work on the files. Shooting for the day, grabbing some food and getting some sleep only really leaves enough time to back up the files. Also my laptop really isn’t up to it. It can chug through the files but the screen is appalling, does that image look good?  I’m not sure, perhaps not, only to get home to realise, well, yes it does. So I tend to shy away from editing while I am away.

The weeks after a major competition is filled with the following routine, get up, go to work, go home, eat, process, repeat, interspersed with the odd night on other jobs and maybe a few cheeky pints to break up the process. It’s not surprising that some good shots get missed. In the eagerness to get through them all the thumbnails are assessed in seconds, either discarded or processed, usually in the ratio of 20 to 1.

It’s why a second or third review is always important. Important to do it in a leisurely fashion when one has some free time. Time to reflect and assess the images with a more critical eye. It could be a few weeks after the event or a few months or a year, a reason why keeping all files from an event is important.

A day off, waiting in for deliveries, is a good opportunity to go back and review the images and maybe find one or two gems in the morass of files, like panning for gold, a lot of effort, but it can be worth it.

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