Inspiration from LensWork #75

Yesterday I went through my LensWork #75 Extended DVD and found lots of inspiration within. I've mentioned LensWork before and it continues to be one of my favorite and useful photography publications. The Extended DVD has the benefit of delivering LOTS of images, audio, and video interviews, and other goodies. I never fail to find something useful and relevant to my work. The highlight of the issue was an interview with Bruce Barnbaum, who is a very well known fine art photographer in Washnigton. The portfolio shows Barnbaum's latest exhibition called Stone and contrasts the natural and built environments. It is fantastic. There is also a video interview (32 mins) that is enlightening. What is good about the videos is that you get to see and hear the artist, which adds to our ability to relate to the artist's work. Also on Barnbaum's web site there is an excellent essay on digital photography, a must read for everyone.

The other very interesting portfolio was by Larry Blackwood entitled Elevations: Grain Elevators. This was my kind of stuff, details of these huge structures in Montana. There are several grain elevators in Montréal near the Old Port that I pass each time I ride my bike to Ile Notre Dame (the Formula 1 track). I've contemplated photographing them and now I am highly motivated to do so.

One last item, a very valuable interview with Bill Jay, whom I would have never know about should it not be for Lenswork. Bill Jay is one if not the most prolific photographer of photographers. He is also an author and educator. His web site contains hundreds of downloadable essays and also scans of the magazine Album. Very significant reading for anyone interested in both contemporary and the history of photography. He is very critical of the current state of fine art photography today.

Photomerge magic in Photoshop

You know I am so techno phobic about things. Being a former technology/computer guy you wouldn’t think I would be but I’m going to have to confess. I don’t know if I’m just too lazy to learn anything new, or I’m just a techno-dufus. Anyway I used the Photomerge feature for the first time tonight and WOW, this feature is way cool. It stitched together a panorama I did in Tuscany in 3 clicks. Smart stuff. So what if it's a 150MB PSD...I can make a BIG print. It’s actually encouraging for me to know that I can do this…I mean I’m not going to tell everyone that it’s so simple even Doug can do it. Try it for yourself.

I was inspired to try this by Jeremey Woodhouse, one of the instructors on my Tuscany trip.

1) Level the tripod, head, and camera. You must first level your tripod. It you have a ball head, then you need to remove it to level the base, then re-attach the head, then level the head. If your camera is not level then as you swing it around the image will tilt up or down...not good. Take the time to do this right or it isn't worth the effort.

2) Determine exposure and set to Manual. Use some judgement here especially if one of your shots will have a lot of sky. You need pick an exposure that considers all of the shots you will be taking.

3) Manually focus, again with consideration of each shot, but set the focus and don't touch it.

4) Overlap 50%. You can get by with less, but this is a safe bet to ensure that there will be no problem with the merge

5) Process all the single images with the same recipe. This may seem obvious but it's worth mentioning.

6) Once you have all the images, in Photoshop go to File/Automate/Photomerge. Click Browse, select your files, and Voila!, it works. Amazing stuff. I'm sure there are plenty of tutorials on this, but I wanted to give the steps here so you can see how simple it is. Now if I can only find that Autoremovedustspecs function...

Some shots are more conducive to panoramas than others. I did a few others and they didn't seem to jump. Sometime a wide angle does the trick, but it's nice to have one more technique in the arsenal.

Submission for Life Images Magazine

I’m entering a couple of photos for the Life Images magazine from Somerset. This is a nice photo journal style publication with inspiring photos and text, with image capture information. Submission dates are September 15th, December 15th, March 15th, and June 15th, the link is: http://www.stampington.com/html/wanna_get_published.html#lifeimages It was my wife Dorian who first brought me a copy of this magazine. She is a “Stamper” among many other things crafty and Somerset is the main publishing house for these types of magazines. So I will be very thrilled if I could make my way into this publication.

I made 4 submissions, each a photograph(s) and then some accompanying text. It was fun writing the text, but I tend to get corny about things and hope that this doesn’t show too much. It’s revealing to write about a photo, just as it is revealing to keep a journal (or a blog). All sorts of things reveal themselves when you start to write. Those thoughts and connected emotions just start to sneak out. Usually when I have an image I like, I post it and work on it in Photoshop, maybe I’ll print it and that’s it. But to write about it…that adds another dimension to the meaning of an image, at least what it means to you. It’s a great exercise and I plan on doing more “photo journaling.”

Here are the submissions (some you have seen before) and the accompanying text. Please, no smirks.

Silent Performance Cooper River Bridge, Charleston SC

As I approached the top of the bridge I could feel the power of the structure as it supported its own weight above the water which flowed below and the traffic which flowed across. The beauty of each essential element working in harmony reminded me of a musical instrument, tuned to deliver a precise function. The sounds of the traffic, the wind, and the water below were rhythmic, while the bridge stood silent in its performance. 

 

Three Lotus Leaves Jardin Bontanique de Montréal, Montréal QC

Graphic, Simple, Revealing. Life should be as such.

   

 

Still Lifes from the Past Wing Lee Yuen Truck Farm, Jacksonville FL

As long as I can remember we visited the family farm once a month. It was a long drive across town, down a dirt road, to four brick houses situated in the middle of nowhere, a bit of civilization in what seemed to be fields that went on forever. Now those days are long past, the houses recently abandoned, and the last of the land up for sale to make way for warehouses.

As a drove up to the farm on a hot August morning the fog was covering the roads and fields. My Uncle Chan was leaving for an early errand and I was left on the property, completely alone, with my camera and a lifetime of memories. I had not returned here since my father died 14 years ago but nothing had changed.

As I walked around the big barn I began to see and notice what I had never realized in all my times here. The smells, the sounds, and the nostalgic feelings were all there, but the details of hundreds of still lifes unfolded around me. Each square foot of the barn was filled with actions frozen in time. A hammer left on a tiller, gloves on a spool of wire, a chain hanging from the rafters used to pull an engine, ropes and wires hanging on nails, the scale which weighed out countless boxes of Chinese produce which at one time were shipped out as far as Michigan and New York. All of these scenes were frozen in time, the dust settled over them, but the life in their arrangements only temporarily arrested.

I knew that it was my time to record these moments with my camera, for in a matter of weeks all of this would be gone, destroyed, and never to appear again. As an animal or plant goes into extinction, so too do these articles of a past time and life. My record would be the only one for the future should anyone want to know what it was like in the barn of the Wing Lee Yuen Truck Farm.

Autumn Start Parc National du Mont-Saint-Bruno, Montréal QC

The beginnings of autumn are often missed as we normally reserve time only for the peak show of color. It is the transition between seasons that often brings us interesting observations and contrasts. The subtle hint of things to come reminds us of our own changing nature and the brilliance that can unfold from within.

Kentuck Knob

  Another FLW home, (note: NO photography inside the house, a major bummer which we informed of as we entered the home). Not as impressive as Fallingwater, but certainly inspired by genius and very intricate in detail. Currently the home is inhabited by an English Lord who has artwork and mementos spread throughout the home (in good taste), but it has somewhat lost the character of the original owners and this was quite evident. After an extensive interior tour, we were left to walk the grounds for all of 15 minutes for photos and then it was back on the bus…oh how I love the guided tours.

Fallingwater – Approaching Architecture as Art

We visited the classic house Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright and it was truly an incredible experience. With camera in tow, I was hoping to get a few shots of the interior and exterior. The guided tour took over 2 hours, and was very informative. We went through the house almost in its entirety, but nonetheless, I found it hard to find the shots I wanted to establish a true sense of place for this piece of art.

Typically on guided tours you are ushered along with a group of other people and this was no exception. It was crowded and there was little time to digest the space and then to find meaningful shots. Then there was the lighting problems…mostly dark interiors with blinding light from the outside. It was a cloudless sky with bright sun, in fact the heat wave continued and it was 98+ degrees outside. As you could imagine there were lots of people there although they were concentrated into groups (you had to be part of a group to be there).

I managed to get a few shots inside. The camera performed admirably at ISO 1600. By the time we finished it was 11:30 and the sun was high and really lighting up the coral concrete structure. So we will need to do some shadow/highlight recovery on the overall shots from the walk.

For those of you planning to visit you need to make a reservation, I would suggest a 9 or 10 o’clock and getting to the site early (I think it opens at 8:00AM) so you can take shots of the outside of the building before the sun gets too strong. Of course if you get a cloudy day you are good to go. I will definitely put this on my list of places to return as I really enjoyed experiencing the home…what a place to be able to live.

Shenandoah National Park

 On our annual car migration from Jacksonville to Montréal we stopped first in Roanoke, VA and the next morning drove through the Shenandoah NP on our way up to PA. This park is located on the north end of the Blue Ridge Parkway and consists of a 105 mile drive through the park with various lookout points and visitor centers along the way. I think it took us about 3 hours to make the drive, stopping to take in a sandwich and to take in a Visitor’s Center.  

The mountain-laurel were in bloom and made for a nice contrast in the wooded areas. Along the roadside the plants were profuse in some areas and very beautiful.

1 Terrabyte drive, are you serious?

I've been around long enough to know that it is absurd to think that I could walk down to my local superstore and pick up a 1Tb drive for $220. 1Tb is absolutely HUGE. I can remember that the 10Mb drive on the new IBM XT was HUGE. 1Tb = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. That's a lot of zeros. So how does a drive like this end up on my desk? I just got sick and tired of juggling disk space all the time. I have 2 - 250 Gb drives and 1 - 160 GB drive which for a while seemed like an infinite amount of space. That's before 12 MB images. And you know how many images we are all taking now that we're digital and snaps are "free." When I backed up 2007, I ended up with 60 GB free on each of the 250 drives. That should last me through...now. I freakin' ran out of disk space! How could this be so? I'm in a continuous mode of purging and moving stuff around, and I know from experience as a programmer, eventually you are going to lose something. I'm kinda paranoid about digital stuff. I mean you can't see it, touch it, smell it, it doesn't weigh anything, and it doesn't get dusty or moldy. So what happens when it's gone? Well my friend, it is really gone, kaput, no existent, never to be found ever again. That's hard to fathom when we are used to the semi-permanence of slides, prints, negatives, and such. Yes, these can burn or get lost (so can the digital stuff), but you could always be secure in knowing that unless they were burned or lost, you always had them. Now I'm looking at my little 1TB drive sitting over there with the little flashing light, oh it is so sleek and solid. There is absolutely nothing that prevents this thing from dying, right now, before my very eyes. I've had hard drives that failed, it is not pretty. In fact they ALL fail, they are temporary devices, they wear out, they are mechanical things with moving parts and all kinds of electrical components which must work in perfect harmony.

So you need to think about it. Your images are in the ether. They are like storing your negatives on a window ledge off a 10 story building. One day they will be gone. And you better have a backup that works, or you will be crying.

Sir, could you make that 2 - 1Tb drives. Thanks.

Part time work schedule starts

Today I start my 3 day/week work schedule on my day job. I've always wanted to go part time, and now my employer asked me to do it. So I'm there. What does this mean? The first and second week of "free" days will be spent driving to Montréal. So the time really won't be there. I'm hoping to be productive working on things that will contribute to whatever future career I'm carving out. Weekends are for rest, these "free" days are for the "good" kind of work.

Come to think of it I have been working ever since I left college back in 1977. I never stopped, never took a leave between jobs, always obeyed my vacation schedules and enjoyed my holidays. So it is with great anticipation that I look forward to these days off of work-work to engage in play-work. I'll let you know how it all "works" out.

Diana's book pics

My daughter Diana is writing two books on fashion and technology. I have been doing some shots for some of the projects. It would be great if I could be in NYC with her, it's hard to do these things remotely. Diana is working hard and I can't imagine having her schedule, with a full time job, and writing two books (I mean these are real books, one of them is 336 pages). My life is easy compared to hers. Product photography is a whole other field which I can claim no experience. We were just using the natural light in the dining room.

 

Tuscany and more

Dorian and I just finished a photo tour of Tuscany and Cinque Terre. This was a wonderful way to see this very special part of Italy and I highly recommend a photo tour to anyone who hopes to make significant images while touring a country. Our trip was led by three distinguished pros, Brenda Tharp, Jed Manwearing,, and Jeremy Woodhouse. All are working pros and familiar with the area. As Jeremy put it, “you pay us to get you to the best areas to shoot and we get you there.”

My trip was unfortunately plagued by a broken/sprained foot that I literally fell into on the first day in Florence. As most of you know, I am a fairly active person, so having a foot that was in pain, swollen, and rapidly turning purple, put a crimp in my normal relentless style. The cobblestone streets and hilly terrain did not do much to make things easier, Tomorrow I will be going for some x-rays to see what kind of damage is going on down there, as I am still limping around. In addition, the previous week I had traveled to Grand Rapids and my previous cold/flu seemed to rebound again, so I was on medication, coughing and blowing my nose. So essentially I was a physical wreck going on 4 hours of sleep.

A typical day was up at 4:45 to leave by 5:30 to chase the sunrise at 6:15. If travel was involved it meant getting up earlier. Shooting until 8:30 and then back to the hotel for breakfast at 9:00, then some classroom stuff or travel to another destination, followed by shooting again at 4:30 through sunset at 8:30, then some twilight shooting with dinner at 9:00. Then it was the return trip to the hotel, downloading and plugging in for recharging, shower and in bed by midnight. Then repeat as necessary.

If I was lucky I would grab a nap in between sessions or nap on the bus. So it no wonder that my foot has not healed and the cold lingers on. Maybe now that I am home things can get back to normal.

Anyways, putting myself in this situation allowed me to shoot more continuous days than I have ever experienced, and allowing me to live daily the execution of seeing and capturing images. You can say that by the end of this trip, I was in pretty good shooting shape. As the Tour de France riders get stronger during the tour, so was my own ability to see and capture what was around me.

Florence was magnificent and the surrounding countryside was incredible. Everywhere there were images to capture. I was frustrating to know that you could not stop the car at every turn to take pictures. Perhaps next time if I were driving around just with Dorian we would take the time to do so. The small abandoned farmhouses and vignettes with the cypress trees were everywhere. The group managed to stop at some very picturesque places and small villages. Some of the scenes got repetitive, but there was something around every corner. It all looked similar but each detail was different. Unlike the sprawling subdivisions in the US, or the cookie cutter repetition of modern high rises, the fabric of the small towns and villages each contained uniqueness interwoven throughout, as individual as human beings and yet taken collectively, consistent in the aesthetic feel of the environment. Nothing was jarring to the eye, everything in random order. It felt and looked so organic, something completely missing from modern architecture. The individual buildings somehow merged together massed on the mountainside, into one cohesive entity. It was amazing.

It was this condition that as a photographer one must begin to extract and abstract elements to establish and communicate this feeling. I was taken at once by the mere sight of what was in front of me, constantly changing lenses from wide angle to medium telephoto. Get the overall, get the detail. I noticed that once you zoomed in, almost a random, you could get further lost in the details of a balcony, a window, or a doorway. So this was a good exercise in scale, color, texture, pattern, and detail, one that you can spend hours on. Each city had its own unique characteristic, first at a macro level, and then the micro. The streets and alleys were each a fantastic visual treat. As you peered down an alley you did not know what to expect. Tall and dark, bicycle lined, people, long and narrow, narrow then wide, steps to lead upward, steps to lead down. Each alley had its own story to tell, and was visually inviting, calling you to venture in for exploration.

 The texture of the streets themselves tied into the overall sense of the place. You could feel the texture, rough and worn. No concrete and asphalt featureless expanses of nothingness. No, these were hand laid stones, all natural, each piece taking its place to pave the path to its destination. This made every street, every alley alive from the ground up. Flat stones, rounded stones, stairs made of stone, each enduring the thousands of footsteps of generations. Why is our own concrete jungle so lifeless?

The people were equally unique in providing the character to the environment. I wonder what these towns would be in the absence of the tourists? How different would all of this be without the tourists, creating the hustle and bustle of the markets, or crowding the streets. Was it always like this? The tourists are an interesting lot, and I do classify myself as one, so count me in. The locals seem to coexists, but you can definitely pick out the tourists. It looks like the locals have taken the tourists in as part of their environment as I was met with smiles and courtesies uncommon in many American cities.

So I look at my 2000+ images and wonder how I am ever going to get through all of this stuff. It takes time just to determine what to throw away. It will be a great joy and pleasure to got through these. The discoveries and the disappointments will all be there. But it is the memories of the place that will forever bring me joy and comfort.

I'm on the NANPA Homepage

From: NANPA

To: Douglas Eng

Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 2:27 AM

Subject: NANPA Website Showcase Photo

Dear Douglas Eng,

FYI, your photo entitled "Reverse Freeze" has been selected as the Showcase image for the front page of the NANPA website at http://www.nanpa.org/ for Sunday, May 04, 2008.

In addition, your listing will start off the day's Members' Showcase Gallery at http://www.nanpa.org/showcase_gallery.php

Best Regards, NANPA Web Services

FAMOUS for a day!

Is there a tradeoff between spontaneity and quality?

For me right now I would have to say the answer is yes. I am not where I want to be on several important skills necessary to execute on both. But this is part of my growth as a photographer and I continue to practice and learn. I have two goals when photographing families for my Photographers For Freedom project:  1) capture the essence of a person that I have just met (most of the time) through my interaction and patient observation. 2) Provide a high quality image that is well composed, exposed, and technically executed, using all the available techniques I am capable of.

    

One must always strike a balance between these two goals. Is one more important than the other? If I were to prioritize the two, I would say Goal 1 is more important. Given the choice, I would take a special moment captured on a point and shoot rather than an insignificant moment captured in a high end studio. That being said there is no excuse for a poorly executed photograph. We have the equipment and the explanations of techniques are freely (and generously) available on the Internet. It’s all in our hands…we need to practice, practice, practice.

Photographers for Freedom starts up again

We are off and running again with another squadron, VP-16. Follow the action on my PFF blog. Photography wise, this is an excellent exercise to practice several things: working with people (families and small children), scheduling a shoot (harder than you think), working fast (oh those wonderful kids), dealing with whatever light there happens to be, figuring out how to use that d*mn flash, dealing with the heat, learning about new areas of town. All in all, a rewarding and education experience that I highly recommend.

A most incredible photographer

Visit the website of Vincent Laforet http://laforetvisuals.com/main.php and you will experience the most incredible imagery imaginable. Vincent is with the NY Times and as most of you already know, has won almost every conceivable award in photojournalism. I was blown away. Thanks Dany for the reference. You will probably recognize some of his classic images. The one of the Superdome in the Katrina aftermath is haunting. Check it out.

A portfolio of life

As I try to cull through my 3 years of images for my best shots I reached a startling discovery that I really don't have many significant shots. I have taken thousands of images from all over the world and it seems that I am coming up short. Basically my stuff sucks (for the most part), but I think this realization is all part of the growing we do as we improve our skills and as our personal standards for quality evolve. Not that I'm going to get depressed or anything about this realization, but this came as a bit of a surprise, as I always envisioned this large body of really cool images in my collection. As many others have mentioned before, your most recent work seem to have the most relevance and represents more accurately who you are at the present time. This all makes sense. But consider that your earlier work represents who you were at an earlier time. This makes those shots (even though they may suck) significant for this reason. We can all expect to grow as photographers and as human beings over time, and isn't it neat to have a visual record of that inner growth. Look at your early images and you can see and feel yourself. Do you like the direction you are taking? How does it feel? What can you learn from the past to help chart your future?

Start looking at your older images not only as a measuring stick for your improvement, but as a record of who you used to be. Interesting. Freeman Patterson told us in a workshop, don't throw away your old images, because when you pressed the shutter, you saw something, and sometimes it takes a maturing on our part to later understand what it is we saw.

Ok, so my old stuff still sucks and I won't keep a lot of them in my public galleries. But I will keep them for my own enlightenment and study for my portfolio of life.

Passion, choices, success

Today I had lunch with a co-worker and friend, Dany Flageole who is a motor sports photographer and webmaster/owner of www.flagworld.com. Dany's passion is racing, and he is devoted to this sport. His photography reflects that, and you can find him almost every weekend at the track, doing what he does best, capturing images of motor sports. His week is spent editing and writing (apart from his 40 hr day job as a software QA specialist). So you can say Dany is not only passionate but completely consumed by his interest. This is the kind of dedication that you need to reach a level of success in any endeavor. There are choices to make. I'm sure there are a lot of movies and TV shows that Dany does not see. But he makes these choices. It is always inspirational for me to talk to and see people who excel at their work. It is a testiment to the capabilities of the human spirit. My pet peeve is to listen to people how they can't do this or that because of this or that. So what's the point of making excuses for yourself? If you understand what people do in order to achieve what they are, then one can begin to chart a personal course of action.

My point to all this is that there are inspirational examples of excellence all around us. In fact almost everyone has their own version of this story. As we grow as artists, we need to make decisions everyday. Whether these decisions support your artistic endeavor or not, you consciously plot your own course for what you are and will be. I will apply this thinking to my everyday activity to guide my choices...now let's see, when are the American Idol re-runs going to be on?

Photographing fabrics

I guess photographers need to be flexible. My employer needed some large fabric samples photographed so that they can be used to display on products for viewing on the web. We had 54 samples that arrived in a big box and we had to provide hi-res images at a constant scale. The sample sizes ranges from 24 - 40in in various shapes. After a lot of experimentation, we finally decided it would be easier to mount each sample (after it was ironed) on a 24x36 piece of illustration board with binder clips, position this at a standard location in front of my camera setup. We used two Speedlights for illumination. It ended up taking us a lot longer than planned (don't these things always turn out that way?), but we learned a few good lessons from the experience. 1) don't do these kind of projects unless you can charge by the sample (at least $50 each). Remember this is photography, and after the shoot requires post processing, color balance, sharpening, etc. 2) lighting is critical. It's difficult to get constant/flat illumination from 2 Speedlights, even on the small samples. We managed to pull it off because the lighting was not that critical on most of the samples. 3) to check to see the light falloff, shoot a BLACK background. You will be able to see exactly the light pattern, the hot spots and how the light falls off. This wasn't apparent to me until I shot a dark sample and noticed the gradient, then the black board told all.

It was a good experience but not a good way to spend a weekend.

 

Question: would you buy a quilt with these patterns?

Finding inspiration today

Each day I try to find some inspiration for my photography. Last night I listened to Nancy Rotenberg's "Let Your Light Shine" DVDs that I purchased at the NANPA Summit. I love Nancy's calm voice and gently encouragement. Although I have seen some of the material before at her NANPA Keynote and her workshop, I received a refresher on what she felt we needed to pay attention to when living our creative life.  Nancy's website: http://www.naturaltapestries.com/index.html Today I visited the site of Gary Crabbe who was one of my portfolio reviewers at NANPA. Gary is a long term professional and very talented artist who covers California extensively. His Yosemite and California coastal images are incredible. Gary worked for many years for Galen Rowell. Gary offered me a lot of encouragement and advice during my review and he is a really fun person to be around. Check out his work, subscribe to his newsletter, and read his blog: http://www.enlightphoto.com/home.html You can learn a lot about keyword tagging from his gallery...he knows his stuff because that's what he did for Galen.

Dorian pulled a book from our libray that is out of print but very appropriate to the type of photography I do. "By Nature's Design" by Pat Murphy provides images and explanations for all of the patterns and textures you find in nature. It's good to get the scientific explanation for what we see. You can get this used on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811803295/sr=8-1/qid=1207073377/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1207073377&sr=8-1&seller=

I also updated my Photographers for Freedom blog with a final entry for the Topcats and the Disestablishment Ceremony we attended last week. http://photographersforfreedom.wordpress.com/ (see entry dated March 27)

Corporate headshots

I was approached by one of our closest friends to provide some headshots for their marketing materials. Eek! So this is where you really do have to perform, these pictures will actually be used for something. Plus, our friends are architects, and you know how architects are when it comes to visual perfection (I know...I married one). Ok, it's the moment of truth when there are no excuses and you need to finally figure out how to use your d*mn flash. We arrived at their office and setup the softbox and Speedlight. Dorian posed for a few test shots which turned out terrible. Yikes, too much ambient light, do you shoot on manual, what was the sync speed, now the flash needs to be on slave channel 1 for the wireless thingy to work, decrease exposure, did I want TTL?, is the fill flash on, where do you put this soft box, let's see the light is coming over my right shoulder, wait, the stuff in the background is growing out of his head, watch out for the glasses...too much glare, man, is it hot in here? who screwed with the ISO setting? let's start with the 24-70, f5.6 or was that f4, no f7, oh who cares just take the shot.

Doug's rule of thumb worked..."if you take enough shots you are bound to get one good one." So I'm not a pro, gimme a break.

  

Wedding photographer...or not

Yesterday we attended a beautiful wedding service for Dorian's best friend. It was held at Amelia Island on the beach and it was just the perfect setup. Now when you get invited to these things you always wonder, do I bring all my camera gear or is this a job for the G7? Sometimes you want to be able to just enjoy the event, without have to schlunck around 30 lbs worth of gear. I wasn't the official photographer but Dorian told it it would be "nice" if I could take some pictures. Ok, exactly what does that mean, do I take my stuff or not...take your stuff. We arrive early and it is a perfect cloudy day, soft breeze, and the "real" photographer must have loved it. I was trying to find the best strategic place to sit since I knew I was not going to be wandering around during the ceremony. We found a good spot, 2nd row and I plopped my stuff down. As all the people started coming in and filling up the seats one of the sons came over and asked us to move because there would be some relatives taking the second row. Geesh, no more seats left, glad I came early. So we relocated and I chose to move one row back but towards the far end. As the time approached we could see the wedding party approaching and everyone got up. There goes the view, shooting through 15 layers of bodies just doesn't work.

It turned out that no one ended up on the second row, but I didn't have the nerve to relocate. So I remained content in my seat and did what I could. The ceremony was perfect and so low-key. I really wanted to be the photographer for this event, it was tough staying in my seat. So out came the 70-200 lens and I looked like a big game hunter stalking his prey. Nothing like being discrete with your camera.

We eventually moved indoors and that's when I should have put the camera away. Early in the evening Dorian asked me to shoot a flower arrangement, so I bumped up the ISO to 1600 and handheld a few shots. You guessed it...the ISO never got reset. Flash at ISO 1600 isn't too bad...right! Yikes, I need a big red blinking light in the viewfinder for the high ISO warning. It's not that this is the first time either. My guess is that a few of you have done the same?? At least I wasn't the official photographer.

I was using the Gary Fong Whaletale and maybe because of the ISO screwup I was still getting some pretty harsh stuff. Definitely need to get the flash off the camera.