Can A Pro Shoot A Simple Snapshot?

St. Louis Science Center

Can a pro photographer shoot a simple snapshot? Sure! To me, this is a simple snapshot. But to others, this is a pro shot.

I suppose you can say that because the image is properly exposed and the composition is pleasing, there had to be some kind of thought made before the shot was taken. So does that qualify this as a simple snapshot?

Some people believe a snapshot is simply that... a quick snap of the shutter release. No thinking, no nothing. What typically is used for snapshots is a "point and shoot" camera... you know, the ones you can put in your shirt pocket. But what about this shot? It was taken with a Fuji S5 Pro digital Single Lens Reflex camera with a Tamron 17-50 mm f 2.8 lens. The camera was "set up" to optimize for ambient light photography... auto white balance, auto ISO, aperture priority exposure, fast camera lens.

So is this truly a snapshot?

With a point and shoot camera, most likely the built-in flash would have been used for a shot like this. That would have made the shot look totally different. A bright light in the front would have lit the kids in the foreground just fine, but the background would have been totally darkened. With this shot, the lighting is even throughout because the existing ambient light was relied upon. It looks natural and it looks basically like what the true scene was in real life.

So is this truly a snapshot?

To me, this is a snapshot. I shot it fast. I didn't think much about it. I didn't spend more than perhaps 3 seconds to stop, aim and fire. While you may argue that I was equipped with a camera with more capabilities than the typical person might have with him for a vacation shot, it's still a snapshot... to me.

If this is a snapshot, then what would this shot have looked like if it were a "pro shot?" Well, perhaps I would have hired professional models. Then maybe I would have positioned them in the photo so that each person had a specific reason to be there. Maybe I would have played with changing the lighting by adding additional lights or reflectors so that the kids in the front would not be so dark in the photo. And maybe I would have thought more about the composition.

With all that effort to take a shot, I'd consider that a pro shot.

This is a snapshot... to me at least. But it's not a bad snapshot at all, for 3 seconds worth of effort. It took me a lot longer to write this post than it did to take the shot. (Click on the photo to get a closer look.)