Unfortunately Number One Daughter wasn’t able to make it due to a school trip so she asked me to video the whole thing. Obviously, no question.
In doing so it brought back a realisation I made when photographing University Sport back in the 1990s: if you’re photographing something then you are observing; you are not experiencing; you are not taking part.
So I saw the whole performance on the LCD but I wasn’t really ‘there’. And although I really enjoyed the OLOL School Pageant last week it’s a different experience trying to capture it in images rather than just sitting back and enjoying it.
Now I still love taking pictures so I don’t mind most of the time. But there are times in the family calendar when I deliberately leave the camera behind – or at least take the compact and put it in my pocket after getting a few snaps. I’ve learned to forget the capture and enjoy the experience. My memory still serves me pretty well.
Of course it’s often easier if someone else is doing it for you (you knew there was a plug in here somewhere didn’t you?)
So this Christmas, apart from wishing everyone a very Merry One, I’d like to remind you not to make this important time in your family’s year a full multi-media experience and make it a fully interactive one!
Three Wise Children at the Peace Park: slow sync on the LX-5
There’s still a few days left to go see the lights and decorations in the Peace Park (aka Bishop Lucey Park). We went on the first weekend it was open ang there was no queuing.
The kids had a great time running around looking at everything and even throwing an ice cube in the fountain to make a wish.
The Small Fella even said yesterday that he forgot to put ‘something’ on his Santa list but he thinks he’s OK because he wished for it in the fountain. Good luck to Santa with that one!!
The park has a new designer this year and it’s looking fresher. But it struck me that it’s less interactive – certainly compared to the first ‘Franc year’. It really is a photo event: there are lots of festive things to get your picture taken with (see above!).
So bring your cameras and it’s time to try out the slow-sync flash. It may be disguised as ‘night mode’ or something like that. But basically it should slow the shutter down to bring up the ambient lights then blast the foreground with a flash to pick kids out. It takes a bit of playing with and a steady hand but the pic of the kids above was taken on my compact Pansonic Lumix LX-5. You don’t need anything too ‘flashy’.
After a couple of years of missing out, we finally got to go back to Courtmacsherry this year for the horse riding on the Strand.
The View from the Stands
It’s a great event and there are loads of great photos waiting there for anyone who is bold enough to take on covering it: horses galloping at full speed through sand & water; riders covered in muck; the odd horse loosing the steering on the corners; even a serious looking spill and of course the spectators make it too!
But you either have to commit to covering it or not. The view from the stands just doesn’t cut it (as you can see from my pic). And I was there for a family day out, not to disappear off on to the beach on my own for the afternoon.
There were a few photographers who did commit to the sands: definately a few press-pros amongst them. I reckon they got some great pics.
But all of them lacked one essential bit of kit for an event like this: wellies.
In fairness one guy had a high-vis vest and good walking boots but all the horse-people (who had been here before) had wellies. Another guy got inventive with plastic bags but that just didn’t work out and he got mucky in the end.
So what’s my point? Good preparation, research and planning are an important part of a successful photography assignment. You might get lucky and get something wonderfully spontaneous but your chances of good photographs improve on an regular basis if you do your homework and get in the right spot and have a good idea what might happen next (preferably with good light).
Of course you need the skills to capture it once you’re there too.
And some camera gear – but too often the attention is on the camera gear and not the things that let you get in the right spot – in this case it was simply a pair of wellies!
And how do I know? I did a session by a stream in Glengarriff with a small fella who loved to throw stones. The place to be was in the water just beyond where he was throwing so that he faced me. But I brought my walking boots – great for mud (which is what I predicted) but not great for wading out into the stream. That day I needed my wellies and I missed a couple of shots I would have liked to get because I didn’t have them.
Its an old joke in the camera world: amongst the many modes your camera has are ‘A’ and ‘P’ – they stand for ‘Amateur’ and ‘Professional’ :o)
Well of course not really. In fact quite the opposite. ‘P’ is for Program Mode in which the camera makes all the decisions about everything and therefore gives the photographer no control. At least in ‘A’ mode you get to choose your Aperture (‘A’ is for Aperture Priority BTW) so you control how much of your scene is in focus.
Teachers and Pro Photographers generally scorn Program Mode and I understand why. Many courses will start you out with the most basic camera in Manual mode because it really is the best way to learn how photography works (because if you don’t get it right you don’t get a photograph).
This definitely works (although it can be frustrating for people used to instant success in a modern world). I ‘grew up’ on manual cameras (mostly because as a student I couldn’t afford anything else).
But I don’t agree with the ‘you have to shoot Manual – always’ mantra that you pick up on a lot of the Fora. Once you have the skills and experience (which you get from shooting manual) then your camera is a very functional tool with features to help you in many varied circumstances.
Moreover, these days they are very good at what they do: why not use the auto features if you can control them and predict what they’re going to do for you?
I use: autofocus 99% of the time – but I decide which focus point to use; auto ISO most of the time (it is an entirely predictable algorithm); Auto exposure – in Aperture Priority Mode – with a mix of metering patterns and manual compensation when it doesn’t quite give me what I want; and auto white balance sometimes does the job of tricky mixed lighting (and it can easily be changed afterwards).
Using these tools gives me a very high percentage of in-focus, well exposed images so that I can concentrate on my subject.
So, as usual, I think the right answer is ‘never say never’. If you understand how a tool works, you can control it, you know its limitations and you know what to do when it isn’t working for you, why not use it?
The understanding is the key – and that is where the hard work lies.
This holiday, my daughter was sent on a mission by her mother: get a picture of Dad on holiday for once. Prove that he was here. She took this up with some enthusiasm and between Mum’s camera phone, and her iPod she did well.
One evening I took the D700 to the playground to get some overall pics of the place in which we were staying for the holiday album. Daughter Number One asked to use my camera for her Mission. I set it to ‘Professional’ mode, auto iso, auto focus, auto focus point selection, auto white balance. I hung my big, expensive camera around her 9 year old neck and I told her which button to press.
Amongst them is a shot which I might well have taken myself:
