Friday, February 8, 2008

Busy, busy, busy!

Hi everyone!

I've had a busy couple weeks since I posted Lesson #4. I haven't forgotten about you but I also haven't heard from any of you.

HELLO, IS ANYONE OUT THERE? I'd love to hear some feedback - positive or negative - about the first four lessons.

Last week I had the opportunity to shoot a dress rehearsal and one of the performances of the Aledo High School Theatre Winter Musical production. It was a fun exercise in low-light, high ISO photography in which the quality of my work was tied directly to the quality of my best lens. I shot with my Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS and my Canon 40D body using 1600 and 3200 ISO settings. Most of the shots were done in Aperture Priority mode (AV) with the lens opened up to its largest aperture value, f/2.8. This meant that regardless of the amount of light in a particular scene, the camera would choose the fastest possible shutterspeed to stop the action. The faster shutterspeeds (and a good sturdy monopod) ensured sharp photos. Were there any tradeoffs in shooting that way? Unfortunately, yes. The high ISO means more digital noise and the wide aperture means smaller depth of field. The good news is that the tradeoffs weren't costly. But really, you should be the judge....

Here's a link to the gallery in my Smugmug site: How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying

And here's one of the shots taken during a big dance number.


Adios, Amigos!