A laid back day of shooting. I stayed away from close in work to concentrate on something different. I shot from a distance and tried explore some landscapes (See previous Photo Note). I was being all fine art and shit, with emphasis on the fine.
- Focus wasn’t a problem. I did try to shoot at f14+ at some points to get a deep DOF but it seems that I have difficult even hand-holding 1/80 out in the field. Some shooting stance and stability work would be good for this. I should be able to hand-hold 1/40 when I’m other there shooting still subjects.
- The big things I was playing around with beyond composition was colour. I shot some in Standard and although it looked allright on the screen, back home everything looked really over blown and unusable. It looks like Neutral will be my home forever. Having set white balance Auto to adjustment A6, and desaturate Natural to as far as possible has meant that I’m getting what I want out of the camera and rarely have to touch these things in post.
- I am adding a tiny bit of contrast to the images that are coming out. I’m using Active D-Lighting, to keep a flatter tone to the thing, but on the laptop screen things look to gray.
- I went out past Gaptoli bus station and caught a mini van. I didn’t know where I was going so I waited to hear where others were going and what they were paying. I got off and wandered around brick yards and sand dunes. It was a welcome change from the usual intensity of the city.
- There was an interesting moment where a girl who was travelling with her husband and child started reacting really badly to the rough road we were travelling in and was having a mini panic attack. I was able to shoot of three shots in the crowded minivan of her panic, but because of the darkness there was a little blur. It was interesting that her quite genuine panic didn’t look as distraught as some of the pictures captured of people happily walking by on the street. The camera is a big fat liar most of the time. I see now what others meant.
- I didn’t take my headphones as I was going so close.
- The other day I went out at night for a stroll. Just to see what’s out there at night and what lights are about and what photos can be made. It was really strange, often frustrating being out there without a camera. I’m now so used to reacting to things instantly with a photo, that not having one took some getting used to. It was calming in a way too, which is not something I often feel with camera there. But I don’t need to be calm when shooting I feel energised, recharged (at least mentally) from the act of shooting. I will go out in the dark one of these though.
Why tomorrow will be better
- Will need to get back to shooting faces.
- Need to do more editing than shooting at this stage. Perhaps I can miss a day of shooting to put the Burqa work together and submit some of the other albums that I have.
- If I do go out, need to reduce active d-lighting to low.
- Need better, firmer, more still stances at the point of a shot. Although this will make me more conspicuous.
Posted 2 years ago
