I do not disagree with anything you said, but this sentence did remind me of one thing… in some cases, the photographer has very little control and “snap and see” becomes the mantra. I photograph aircraft a lot, and if they’re landing a standard approach at a familiar airport then there is a lot I can do to compose the shot ahead of time. But at an air show — my favourite venue — the aircraft whizz by at hundreds of kilometres per hour and I do not know from one pass to the next which way they will turn, nor when. And sometimes I don’t even know they are coming and am surprised with an opportunity.
That said, to back up your view, some of my best photos are technically not that great, but are still great images… because of timing.
I couldn’t agree more!!! But I think you’re leaving something out. I used to photograph radio control car racing for various magazines, and as you described, sometimes I could set up for a shot, but things happened so quickly, very often the “best” shots turned out to be the “grab” shots - as you wrote - but my “grab shots” (and probably yours as well) benefitted from the gazillion other photos I had made, allowing me to “grab” a fantastic image without thinking - I (and I’m sure you!) just did it.
Yes, I did a lot of “snap and see” as well, and found out what did or did not work, but many, many times all that previous experience allowed me to get an awesome photograph that otherwise I’d never even have taken. This includes keeping the action “inside” the frame, and moving the camera “with” the main subject to keep it sharp in front of a blurred background.
Long ago I tried photographing at an air show, and got boring results. I had no “feel” for what was going on, or when something might become photogenic. You’ve undoubtedly done this so much that it’s probably almost automatic for you. Me? I would never realize that something photogenic was about to happen.
I think of WWII war photos, the landing at Normandy, where the images were technically horrible, but the photos captured the FEEL of what was happening. To me, that is far, far, FAR more important than the technical details of the image.
Now that you mention it, yes, I do have the camera set up just so, and I do have a feel for the angle, and backdrops, that work. Specifically, front quarter shots are almost always pleasing, and if you can get the ground (or something of obvious scale that lives on the ground) then you get a much greater sense of the situation that occurred. In the example above, the nearby trees and house and radio mast and hut, along with the motion blur on those, gives the sense of low and fast which is exactly what was happening. Probably the most adrenaline-pumping pass of the day.
The other thing I have developed is technique for situating myself, both in a suitable spot on the crowd line (and at the front, of course) but also planting my feet apart and parallel to the flight line, allowing over 180º of panning with the aircraft without needing to move my feet.
I actually tend to flounder more when I try to take shots that I do have time to set up for.
