Photography isn’t always about coming away with the exact shot you imagined or the one that everyone else is aiming for. Often, it’s about seeing what’s right in front of your eyes and yet isn’t obvious.

I REMEMBER one of our regular readers asking several weeks about how to shoot air shows. Then, I suggested working within the limitations of the equipment and came up with alternatives.

I also mentioned that not all shots had to be of flying aircraft. The possibilities are also vast on the ground, where there are numerous aircraft on static display. Furthermore, you can also capture the atmosphere of the air show by shooting the visitors and the people involved.

This photo is one example of that. It was taken when I was invited to a media review of the new Olympus E3 DSLR (digital single lens reflex). You may have read my rave reviews of the camera in a previous article.

If you have broken eggs, make an omelette. If you have a short lens at an air show, look for unusual ways to capture an interesting shot, within the capabilities of your equipment.

We were taken to the Langkawi International Maritime and Aviation (Lima) exhibition on the beautiful island where the booze is cheap (it is, after all, a duty free island) and the photo opportunities boundless.

At that moment, I had only a 12-60mm lens on the camera, which was the film equivalent of 24-120mm. I knew that this lens was not going to be suitable for shots of planes zooming across the sky and, as I have said before, I had to work with what I had.

So I decided to try out the lens and camera on ground subjects. First of all, I must say that this lens is excellent. If you buy the E3, then the first lens you should get has to be the very versatile 12-60mm. I would call it a jack-of-all-trades lens.

It is sharp, concise and accurate. With a maximum aperture of f2.8-4, it still works quite well in low light conditions, especially when the E3’s image stabiliser is turned on.

I was going to use the lens to shoot the static aircraft displays on the ground, when I spotted an RMAF Special Forces sentry standing guard near one of the planes.

There were many other sentries on the tarmac but this one happened to be wearing sunglasses with mirrored lenses and he was facing the aircraft displays.

I noticed that I could see a very large swathe of the airfield and displays reflected in the curvature of his sunglasses, very much like a fish-eye lens. I started taking photos of him that eventually worked up to close-ups.

All this while, I thought he might chase me away or, worse still, turn away and I might not have gotten the shot. I was actually quite surprised that he was very obliging while I was taking photos of him.

After I was done, I nodded a thank you and he likewise, returned my nod. It was all very friendly.

I reviewed the shots in the camera’s LCD screen and was instantly rewarded with a couple of good shots. One of them was the extreme close-up of the soldier’s mirrored sunglasses shown here.

I really like this shot because not only does it show a good portion of the airfield with quite a number of aircraft visible, but I could also see his partner reflected in the sunglasses, too.

Unfortunately, I can also be seen in the reflection. I tried stepping to one s9ide but I couldn’t get an angle that I liked and I wasn’t about to ask the sentry to move around a bit. So I had to take the photo as it was.

On reflection (if you’ll pardon the pun), having myself in the reflection was a minor flaw that I could live with and I was pretty happy with the results. I still managed to achieve my main objective, which was to photograph the scene at the airfield reflected in the sunglasses.

When you are on a photography assignment or while you are on holiday with your camera, always be aware that there are photo opportunities almost everywhere and sometimes they jump out at the most unlikely times. You have to be able to see them and prepare to shoot them.

Whenever you think that your equipment is lacking, work around its limitations and use it to your advantage.

In other words, find subjects to shoot that your equipment was designed to handle and leave the other stuff for a time when you are more prepared and better equipped for it. Don’t be disappointed or discouraged if you aren’t able to get the shot you were looking forward to because there’s always another time.

n A picture may be worth a thousand words but Star photographer Lai Voon Loong, who holds a BA in Media Studies, believes that behind every picture taken is a story worth telling, too. He’s open to queries and suggestions, bouquets and brickbats; send e-mails to the address above.

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