Snap Shots...They Really are Okay

Back almost 25 years ago a few buddies and I took a long multi-day float trip down the Buffalo River, one of many over the years, in Northwestern Arkansas. I guess we floated and camped for 3 or 4 nights and traveled 50 miles or so. Great fun we had getting away from work and enjoying doing what we enjoyed most doing...fishing and floating. While temporarily stopped beneath a place called The Nar's, a unique landmark about midway down the rivers route, I managed to catch the largest smallmouth bass I've ever caught. Man what a fight it was trying to muscle that fish out of a deep hole with a strong current swirling around. Once I lifted it clear of the water, I held it high to show it off with a giant grin on my younger face.

My buddy lifted his disposable 35mm camera and snapped a couple of snap shots to capture the moment. What he captured was more than a picture of a big fish, he spontaneously captured a great deal of emotional satisfaction.

All through this blog I write about how to take better pictures hoping that maybe someone might actually improve on their technique and discover the joys of creating amazing photographic art. In the process, sometimes I come across a bit critical of the Snap Shot. So, this blog post will sing the praises of such photographs, because...well, I have way more snap shots laying around than I do works of art, and you know what, I wouldn't trade them for anything.

You see, snap shots are just that; a quickly captured spur-of-the-moment moment. They have an uncanny ability to capture the thrill of the moment, the excitement of the catch, the surprise of it all. No posed or thought out image could ever capture the spontaneity of the snap shot.

Some years ago Kodak and Polaroid and maybe other camera/film producers marketed a whole series of quick use instant cameras. They were extremely popular and for good reason; you got to see your images within a minute or two. Teens loved them, they were great party cameras. Most important was the fact that millions of spontaneous photos were taken, just for fun, and they were amazing.

Today I will look back on all the snap shots I took and can in an instant recapture the moment. I remember places, names, events, and most of the dates when each of those images were created. I have stacked on a bookshelf a dozen or more photo albums, some I call Brag'n Books, stuffed with hundreds and hundreds of mostly snap shots. Oddly enough, I don't have more than maybe a half dozen individual 'Art Works' photos displayed anywhere. And, you know what...the snap shot images are a lot more fun to browse through.

So, if you ever read anything of mine where it sounds like I am being critical of the snap shot, think of it only as a basis of comparison when trying to discuss how to take fine art images. I love snap shots, probably more now than I ever did back when I originally took them. They really are Okay..:)

Dad's and Sons and BB Guns

My boys were a lot more fun when they were younger than they are now. Both are pretty well grown up with one about to finish college looking to make his mark on the world and the other has been scribbling his mark for several years now in his own way. When I think back on it there are times I wish I could have hit the PAUSE button to slow down the progression of time and enjoy those younger moments more thoroughly. That was back in the day before digital cameras were available and before I began to pursue photography in eanest. Thank God for those cheap disposable film cameras, for without the priceless visual memories created with their help, those memories would only be...memories.

I'll never forget that Christmas I bought the boys a BB-Gun...A Daisy Red Rider, one of the classics. I still use it today all these years later mostly to plink a pop can or two or pop the rear ends of troublesome dogs to scare them off. It still shoots almost straight and level, enough anyway to hit a pop can with it.

That year Christmas it was bitter cold back in Oklahoma with snow actually still on the ground, which is rare that time of year even for that part of the country. We bundled up and stepped into our tiny backyard and setup a pop can or two for them to shoot at. After some instructions and safety no-no's. I knelt behind them to help steady their aim and let them have it. The excitement in their eyes when they heard than can go Clank! when a BB struck home was worth the cold fingers and runny noses.  I still love to hear the clank of a pop can when I shoot it.


There is just something about Dad's, BB-Guns, and boys. A right of passage offered to us as one of the most perfect of bonding times. Grand adventures play out in their minds, I know this to be true because I did the same thing when I was a kid. That BB-Gun I owned was probably one of the greatest imagination expanding tools ever invented. Not only did it open up great adventures it taught me reponsibility. BB-Guns are not toys and need to be treated as such. Even young boys can learn about such things.

Through every season, numerous times I monitored their activity with the BB-Gun until they were old enough to shoot on their own. That tiny backyard transformed into big game hunting, Olympic style target shooting, and just plain-ole fun of shooting a can. Hot or cold we found time to shoot in the backyard...not often enough I now realize, but at least we have those moments.

In time we graduated to going squirrel hunting. Tim the oldest got to carry a single shot 22 rifle, and Christopher, not quite big enough to handle such a gun got to carry the BB-gun. We hiked across a grassy field almost as tall as Christopher and he wasn't too happy about it, but all of that changed once we got to the squirrel spot. There was a small creek barely wide enough to call it a creek that meandered through a tnagle (that is tnagle not tangel) of woods. We saw a squirrel or two but never got to shoot one, but man-o-man did they have fun. Great times they were, and alas, not often enough did we do such things. Where is that PAUSE button when a DAD really needs one.

Too often life interferes with..well...life. Work, responsibility, bills, mortgage...you know the drill. All important elements of being a dad that cannot be ignored. Too often though they tend to take up a disproportionant amount of time, resources, and energy to be able to truly pursue those memory making moments.


I am thankful for that BB-Gun and the perfect times it created back then. In my older age now I realize a missing PAUSE button was not the problem...I was...for not making more time, but at least we do have those old grainy disposable camera film pictures.

So...Why do My Snow Pictures Look Gray?

It's snowing in Kentucky at the moment. Not just any ordinary snow, but one of the heaviest snow falls in this part of the country in quite some time. It's still coming down and we're showing between 11 and 12 inches with another inch or two expected before the storm finally sweeps on east. Over the next day or so, locations east of us will receive upwards to 2 feet of snow breaking long standing records.  Last year we had a late but big snow as well...not this big, but beautiful.

From 2015

I managed to get out for while this morning. Conditons were not very good for taking picutres, tomorrow will be better after it clears off some, but it was fun to drive around in a real blizzard. Driving a 4-wheel drive Jeep makes blizzard driving a whole lot easier and safer. Also managed to take a few pictures along the way. Snapshots mostly, not worrying too much about exposure, just trying to capture the blizzard while it was happening. A short time later I downloaded the images and as I expected, most of that beautiful white snow looked dingy gray. I suspect this happens a lot out there. So here is a short primer on why your camera tends to turn white snow gray.

Digital cameras with all their high tech standards built in have no clue what it is looking at. It could care less if you are shooting a sunset, a brick wall, a beach, or a snow scene. When you are shooting in one of the AUTO modes, and that includes Aperture or Shutter Priority, it wants to move the exposure to a middle value.

Examine the gray scale chart below.  Notice how the scale goes from pure white on the left to solid black on the right with the middle bar being a neutral value gray with varying degrees of shade between. What your AUTO exposure wants to do is move your exposure to the middle where that neutral gray value resides. It reads the light, then sets the exposure for a middle tone value, an average in reality. This average exposure tends to work just fine when you are photographing a scene with varying degrees of tonal variations, but when you are photographing a field of snow that is mostly white, well, that average exposure is really gray. There are other factors involved including time of day, whether it is overcast or sunny, but for the most part this is why your snow pictures look gray.

So, how do we get around that situation? Look at these two images. What is different about them? The first one is an AUTO exposure out of camera shot, while the second one used what is called Exposure Compensation. The first one is quite gray looking while the other retains a more realiztic looking white about it. The light was the same and they were taken just seconds apart. So why is one gray and the other more white in appearance?

Camera AUTO Exposure

Camera +1 Exposure Compensation

Ever notice that little +/- button usually located on the top or back of your camera? That little button is purhaps the most useful function on your camera. The only button I use more is the shutter release button.

This +/- button is used to tell the camera to compensate up or down from the exposure value it wants to set. If you want your snow to look more white, then dial in a + value...something in the neighborhood of a +1 give or take. This will tell your camera to go ahead and select the exposure value it wants to use, then compensate that value a full STOP brighter. What happens is your gray snow images will shift more toward looking white, like the second image above. Actually there are a lot of factors involved and it takes some trial and error to get it to work right for any given lighting situation, but that is the simple explanation of why your snow pictures will often look nice and bright to your eye, but turn out gray on your pictures.