How many photos on average...

I'm sure this question has been asked thousands of times already, but I'm curious as to, on average, how many pictures do you walk away with from a single shooting? Whether it be sports, nature and landscapes, portraiture, automotive, etc.

Sports: 300+
Portraiture: 60-100 (only go out with friends)
Nature/Landscape: 20-50
Automotive: 20-30

Anyone mind playing along?

Most I've shot is about 20000 over a major four day race meeting.
I usually average about 2000 - 2500 a day at a two day event.
I all depends on how many categories I'm covering and how many clients I've got to supply.

My annual peak is at EAA AirVenture in Oskosh.

I average around 12K frames over six days of active shooting.

Whenever I attend a race that takes the majority of the day, i shoot a good 1500+

If Im just shooting my car or a buddies car--100-200

A 'shoot' for me would generally entail a one to three hour walk around the city. I feel very prolific if I get more than four to five shots. Often I return back home with none.

I recently covered a ten day series of concerts and only took 1700 +/-100 (not a lot, I know but there really wasn't much to photograph). Though over a 3 day event last year I took 2K+ photos

I bought my T2i last November (which is about five weeks away) and I'm in the 9k range, so I guess that's a little less than 1k per month. I've slowed down a bit. A lot depends on what I'm doing. Any time I travel the count goes up quickly. When I'm in my day-to-day routine I average about twenty shots a day. If it's of people (most of my shots) then I carefully compose and most are keepers. If it's of landscapes, action, etc., then I probably keep a fourth of them.

Hmm, for an active sports-like event, easily over 1000 shots in a day, or If I'm just shooting say 3 hours in an afternoon, more like 500 shots.

For a dedicated landscape session, as in one scene, well that's hard to say because typically I will try for different approaches, maybe hike around for different angles, likely do some bracketed exposures, and look for different subjeces. So just one scene could be say 3 bracketed shots and from there it's just what the location offers in terms of points of view and whatever. So, I could walk away with three or 300 shots, depending on the location!

Events and street photography can be similar -- if I encounter photoworthy scenes, subjects, the camera will ckick away. I wouldn't consider 500 shots to be over-do on something like that. It depends on the time spent and the activity as well as any "photogenic" subject matter.

Shooting people, as in portraits, is not something I do much of and when I do it's typically a casual "envirinmental" shoot. I don't typically take more than, say, 20 shots unless the subject and I are on some kind of roll, which has occasionally happened, going from place to place and such and sure, with that type of scenario I'd be in the hundreds easily, even if it is all around one main subject!

[Edit]: For a walk-aobut, non-street photography, maybe 200-300 shots if there is interesting stuff

Wildlife shooting, if I have subject matter, could be a couple hundred an hour or more...[/Edit]

And I carry spare cards and batteries whenever I'm out "shooting".

sjones wrote in post #13157058
A 'shoot' for me would generally entail a one to three hour walk around the city. I feel very prolific if I get more than four to five shots. Often I return back home with none.

I don't think the OP mean "keepers" per se...Just how many total shutter actuations.

Do you really come home from three hours of walking around without ever having pressed the shutter even once?

I admire your resolve...

sjones wrote in post #13157058
A 'shoot' for me would generally entail a one to three hour walk around the city. I feel very prolific if I get more than four to five shots. Often I return back home with none.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #13157167
...Do you really come home from three hours of walking around without ever having pressed the shutter even once?

I admire your resolve...

That's funny Jay...
I was thinking something similar.
You live in NYC and go for a three hour walk with a a camera and can't find anything to shoot?
Amazing!

Heh! When I take a camera out it is always with the idea of doing at least some photography, even if I don't have a specific location in mind. And so I can stop right in the middle of, well, whatever, grab my camera and shoot. With me, it's just getting out with the camera, and from there, just eyeing "subjects"!

Yep, I'm talking shutter counts, not keepers. Generally, it takes me about two to three months to go through four to five rolls of film (144 to 180 shots). Yeah, film slowed me down, but even when I was shooting a DSLR, I was experiencing a considerable decline in the rate of shutter pressings.

These days, it just takes a bit to titillate the ol' eyeballs. However, there are times when I walk a block or two and think, well, if I was truly artistically inclined, I probably would have detected several opportune shots to which I'm currently blind.

But the more I photograph, the pickier I get as to what viscerally attracts my attention, and what I feel is not a matter of being right or wrong, and I'm certainly not operating under some compulsory quota system.

Just to let you know, I could walk around Tokyo for a bit without taking a shot (and, for me, Tokyo is more visually exciting than NYC). Don't get me wrong, there are numerous things to shoot, but just not what I want to shoot. I'm not a generalist, and I don't feel inclined to photograph something for the sake of pressing the shutter (hence, not too many photos of what my keyboard is doing late at night).

Just to note, I stated one to three hours; if I'm out for three, I'll typically get a few…and some days, maybe I'll take a walloping 15 or so shots within 45 minutes…the excitement and action almost leaves me faint.

But yeah, as for street photographers that I admire, Garry Winogrand was the type of guy who loved pressing the shutter for no other reason than pressing the shutter, departing the world with tens of thousands of undeveloped rolls. His approach is cool, as I do believe that enjoyment of the process of photography is as important as any other aspect of the hobby (for pros, I understand that other priorities exists). But his approach is not mine.

And really, if photography gets me out of my apartment without resulting in so much as one exposure, fine, it's gotten me out, walking about and such (I seldom have any planned destination in mind, it's all a bit spontaneous). So no love lost. And the way I look at it, I am doing photography; developing and honing my interest, my intent, and my vision.

And frankly, while I still have a long way to go, with learning a perennial venture, I'm relatively proud of where I've come since starting all of this in 2005, and part of that is simply because I have become more personally discerning in regards to what I consider worthwhile.

Great job of voicing your feelings about photography...

I bow 'umbly to your viewpoint!

It is not uncommon for me to shoot 11-1500 images at a 7 inning softball game or field hockey, etc. I'll thin 'em out later while looking for a few hundred good ones. For tournaments, 4-5K per day when it is shoot all day stuff like a track meet or softball tournament.

One thing I've found -- I don't have one field that I specialize in. What happens to me is that at some point I've "been there, done that" about various things, and then, in a matter of time something else will get my attention...

It's funny, but this week I got into doing a "focus stacking" project with macros of a little spider. It was my first go at that and it was cool jumping in there and getting results!

I only took 9 shots in all, and only used 5 for the project, and out of it came one actual "finished" image!

But now, I find myself thinking about my next stacking project!