As a photographer, I am both bothered and
relieved that my favorite clicks, more often than not, are happy accidents.
I was visiting my sister, and she had asked me to take a portrait of her
daughter. Being the somewhat gear-addicted photog I am, I brought every
piece of location portrait gear I could cram into the car. It took about an
hour to get it all set up and then another 30 minutes or so of shooting
(about the limit for a 6 year old). While the pics turned out great, my
favorite image from the weekend came the next day. My sister’s neighbor
stopped by with her kid, and just for fun we decided to take a shot or two.
Not wanting to make a big production out of it, I grabbed a camera, a flash
for fill and a reflector. With the heavy grass and bricks for a background,
everything just came together.
Images like this serve as a good reminder – gear doesn’t equate to good
pictures. Often, simple is best.
Technical Details: 1/160s at f/8, 70-200mm lens at
78mm, pixelroom conversion to B&W, RAW ISO 200
I almost always shoot in aperture priority mode, and when I'm not, I’m
shooting manual. I started my photographic career without a auto-exposure
meter, and still prefer to shoot with most of the auto-majiggers off. When
I don’t have a need to be specific about the aperture I am using, I opt for
f/5.6 or f/8 – they tend bring out the best in whatever piece of glass I am
using. I shot this with my 70-200mm zoom – it’s actually my favorite
general use lens. I have an 85mm that is optically better, but it isn’t in
the bag as often. Except for wide-open shooting, you'd be hard pressed to
tell the difference between the two, especially on a DX body.
This was shot with some auto fill flash – that is the one automatic setting
I do use a lot, if only because the camera gets it right nearly all the time
and I don't like to measure distances to apply guide numbers. I do
typically dial in a -1/3 to -1.0 stop of flash compensation, just to soften
the impact of the flash. I don’t mind using a flash, but for this kind of a
shot, I don’t want evidence of the flash in the photo. The output reduction
leaves enough flash to open the shadows, but not enough to leave a mark.
