Taking Notes?

[Paul Davey]

I once read a photography magazine and in it, a couple wrote about their experience photographing a meadow of flowers in the UK. They used digital cameras, EOS 1D Mark II and EOS 5D. Then I read a sentence where they had a break to "compare notes". I was surprised. With digital these days I had no idea people would take notes on their subject. So why take notes? What are the notes and is it for the amateur or professional photographer?

Paul

[JH Tugs]

It could of course be a metaphor for stopping to see what they had each managed to capture? No idea what their notes might have been if they were really notes.

On a related note though, the EOS 1D as I recall has a microphone and you can take voice memos to attach to a photo. Cool idea for adding notes about the place, event, who was with you, etc. Add in some GPS capability to your camera as well, and you'd have a mighty fine record of your photo in the meta data, your voice recording and the location via GPS. Mmmm...

[Josh O'Donnell]

They may have been comparing notes concerning weather conditions? Who knows.... I for one TRY to keep a journal/take notes about the conditions I find at all the various locations I may visit...Especially those that I visit frequently in a feeble attempt to try and predict when birds will be present/most active based on previous observations coupled with predicted conditions.

Was it windy, and if so what direction was the wind from?. If I'm at the beach, was the tide high, low, going in, coming out, etc? Was it sunny, overcast, was there a cold front approaching?

[Dave Stewart]

Ah - Two nations separated by a common language. Here in the UK it does not necessarily mean written notes. In this context it means comparing photos, techniques, etc.

[JH Tugs]

3 nations, in fact... US, NZ and UK ;-) And to add confusion, I'm British, living in the US...!

[Paul Davey]

Well then, I guess that clears it all up. Thank you all for the input.

For the record, the magazine was Outdoor Photography.

Paul

[Paul Davey]

And to John, as I am aware quite a few cameras have a voice memo feature. There is even such one on the camera range that my semi-compact is in. I have often used it in the past for attracting birds closer. First, I took a low-resolution photograph of the illustration of the target bird in the field guide, and then used the voice memo to record the birdsong from a CD on computer. This was applied to the photograph and played when I was out. It worked with a couple of species up to an extent, but have since not tried the method again.

Paul