Out of my comfort zone again

I suppose my 'comfort zone' is in the middle of an Aberdeenshire glen shooting abandoned communities or clachans. Well, over the last few weeks I have done 2 weddings, a traditional singing festival, horses and last Friday, a fashion show.

It all adds to the steep learning curve. I played around with my settings at home tonight because I was convinced the camera wasn't doing what it should have done on Friday night. On Friday I had the D300 with the SB600 flash on. I put the camera on Shutter priority to keep the speed at 1/80s (50mm lens, 400ISO) and I thought the camera would control the aperture to suit. However the aperture stayed at f1.8 which is very dodgy as the DOF is narrow making focusing an issue and it tends to blow highlights. Tonight I reproduced the settings and the set up and the camera changed the aperture to suit which means it detected very low light in the hall and kept the aperture open. Our eyes are amazing because I thought it was well lit but obviously not. Maybe I should have put the ISO up but the noise I hate. I'm sure a more experienced photographer can tell me what I did wrong. Essentially, I haven't quite got to grips with getting a correct exposure using flash in a dimmly lit room which also has spotlights working. NO, to be truthful, I haven't quite got to grips with getting a correct exposure using flash!

The great thing is, I learnt a bit more about photography on Friday night.

Ironically, my favourite shots taken without the flash:





And one taken with the flash but inside the small changing room:



Love to hear any comments or any advice.

My experience as a wedding photographer

This summer I had the opportunity to photograph two weddings. There is one thing to be said about taking wedding photos - it is exhausting, especially when you are there from when the bride is getting her hair done to the last Auld Lang Syne. However, it is a steep learning curve. Using flash almost constantly is unusual for me and I had to always remember that 1/250s was the fastest flash sync speed (well it isn't really in the D300 but we'll leave that just now) and when the sun kept popping in and out of the clouds, I had to think aperture, NOT speed. At the same time I had to remember about the correct poses and watching out for clothing flaws. For the second wedding I was also using a lens I had never used before (Tamron 18-270mm – Nikon user avoid this lens) and wasn't sure where its 'sweet spot' is. Sharpness seems fine but fuzzy at the edge of some shots and some annoying chromatic aberration, which the dpreview said was very good. I will need to get to know it a bit more.



That said, I think I've got one or two more unusual shots which I hope will post process well. When I finally deliver their wedding photographs, I hope I have given them a decent record of their special day. I learnt a lot those days and I was so grateful for the opportunity to be their photographer. At times I made mistakes or struggled to understand why the exposure wasn't quite correct (lots of whites and blacks in suits/dresses together with sunshine/clouds and using flash); sometimes the lens wasn't as good as I hoped; sometimes it came together and I captured a moment and it didn't matter if the shot wasn't technically perfect. It was a great experience all in all and I don't know why I thought I would instantly be a great wedding photographer when I had never done anything like it before but I suppose I did think I would be good at it. Truth is, there is so much to be in control of - not only the camera and all of the technical stuff, but the poses, the clothes, hair, expressions, making sure all the important people/events were taken, and so on.

Purpose

Whilst in Barcelona on holiday, I stumbled upon a major exhibition by Diane Arbus. It stopped me dead in my tracks. Each picture spoke to me. I thought they were outstanding. This exhibition opened up a dusty file in my memory about photography and me. I took lots of photographs as a teenager and they got praised at school by the art teachers, which encouraged me. However, career guidance at school told me to leave that 'arty stuff' alone as there were no jobs and money in it, which was true generally, but you can't just ignore such urges. Now in my forties, I'm going to satisfy that artistic urge. So essentially this blog will play a part in bringing art and photography back into my life. It will record the things I am going to do to be a better photographer. It will be a showcase for my photographs as well and hopefully it will not get full of the junk my Flickr stream got cluttered up with.

So what have I done so far? I've been taking loads of photographs since Barcelona and trying to learn how a camera works, how to get the best from light and using Photoshop Elements. Many Magnum photographers were asked to give advice to 'budding photographers' and I was pleased to hear them say - 'embrace life'. I liked that and I will be doing much more of that. I have had a Flickr account for three years now and I feel it could be better and get more views. I have a Nikon D300 and D50, the kit lens 18 -50, a 50mm 1.8, and the Sigma 10-20mm. I will write more about what else I've done and plan to do later.