And another learning experience
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Hmm… this blog seems to be developing into quite the diary for my photographic exploits. No matter.
Both still trying to get to grips with all this digital photography lark, for the past few weeks a mate and I have been spending a few hours here and there on “photo expeditions”… wandering out to somewhere local that seems interesting and shooting whatever takes our fancy. And using these opportunities to experiment with different camera settings etc.
Although these exercises are intended to be more of a learning experience than productive in terms of output nevertheless its nice to end up with something to show for our efforts.
Over the past few months I’ve gained quite some pleasure in sharing my photos with the world at large via my Flickr account (www.flickr.com/photos/fotdmike), and the results of these little expeditions are proving to be quite handy for that purpose.
Well, recently we’ve begun to mess about with night photography, trying to get our heads around the requirements specific to this particular branch of the art.
I’m not talking here about the quick snap with the camera’s own inbuilt flash, but the rather more planned shot with tripod, timed exposure, etc.
Not for us of course the manuals, and the studying, and the photography courses that mark out the route any sensible person would adopt. Oh no. We much prefer simply to dive in and learn by doing it.
Well, just last week our town’s Christmas illuminations were switched on, which seemed to offer an ideal opportunity to develop our skills.
So with a spare couple of hours this past evening off we go into the town, armed with cameras, tripods, etc, hoping to end up with some quite interesting piccies.
Two things worked against us, neither of which we’d actually anticipated.
Firstly, the wind. Not particularly strong admittedly. But just sufficient to keep the street-hung illuminations in motion, making it rather difficult (virtually impossible in fact) to take any timed exposure that was in focus.
And secondly, the people. Just too damn many of them. Lack of forethought on our part meant we’d picked what must be one of the worst times of day (early evening, when a lot of folk were just leaving work to make their way home) on one of the worst days of the week (market day, when there’s more than the usual number of people in town).
Consequently, the shots we tried to take of static decorations (Christmas trees and suchlike) were marred by people passing in front of the camera just at the critical moment. And of course we were limited in where we could set up our tripods without causing an obstruction.
The end result being… well, dunno how my mate’s done yet, but I ended up with two just about usable photos out of a total of some 50+.
Disappointing, to say the least.
