Day 28

Isn't she cute? This is a bad photo of Vids. I am having a bad day.

You know how whatever Midas touched turned to gold? Today, whatever I touch turns to shit. Maybe instead of Midas I can call myself My-ass... cos that's where it looks like my pics came from today.

I was meant to get to a Hindu wedding this morning to cover the ceremony, just to get some "refresher" experience in how things progressed, the best angles, where the action is etc. Our wedding was 12 years ago :) We got there just as they were about to take the "seven steps" or Saptapadi. That means we were REALLY late.

Awesome.


Anyway, things went downhill from there as my attempts at establishing myself as an "authorised" photographer were getting nowhere, and I had seriously, just given up. As I had not really touched base with the Bride, and had not even met the groom, I could not really get the rapport, or "bond" I feel is important to get the right attention from the couple... you know, the occasional glance at the camera and a smile etc when you hover in front of them ... this was not happening. It was all crap. And because I was a late comer, establishing myself in the "unlce and aunts with a good camera" pecking order list was not happening either.


I managed to get a few crap, high iso images before tossing the camera back into the bag, eating, saying hi to the bride, and leaving.


Upon arriving home, Vids requested I take a pic of her in her Sari. She had just gotten the blouse made during our recent trip to India. So, both tired and cranky, we went to the garden to try getting a nice pic. I was not thinking, and not in the mood to play. Nor was I going to force Vids to stand in the sun while I played numbuts with my camera. I wanted shallow DOF, but could not be arsed going inside to get a ND filter. So what we have here is a crap pic of a lovely gal in a lovely sari. One can only dream if I had put an ND filter on and kept the background from blowing out, and used my flash for fill, we could have had a nice pic.


85mm f/2 at f/3.2, 1/125s, iso100, 580EXII held off-camera for fill. And that just goes to show you again how little I was thinking - I should have gone to 1/250s to cut things back by 1 stop. I was having a bad day :(


I could have used High Speed Shutter sync (HSS) for my flash, but I don't like using HSS flash unless I can avoid it, as it often really reduces the effective range/distance the flash can work in, and with an 85mm lens I was quite a way back. Better to stick to the x-sync speed or below and use ND filters if needed. I know it sounds odd, but it is true (trust me, as you can see, I know WTF I am talking about! ha ha haaaaaa).

My lesson for today... THINK before you push that button. And, once again, half arsed efforts get half arsed results... or more pleasantly, "what ye sow, so shall ye reap". In programmers terms, garbage in, garbage out.