Day 4: Unlike Trees, People Move

The weekend is over, and today is day four of shooting in manual mode only.  And what a weekend it was for spectacular failure.  

This weekend, I am reminded that people perpetually insist on being complex in new and exciting ways, which is why I both love and sometimes avoid them.

I had two social gatherings lined up, which felt like the perfect time to graduate from photographing made up of bricks and leaves. However, unlike trees, people move. A lot, as it turns out. Erratically. With no regard for my learning curve.

Just as I thought I was getting the hang of this photography thing, I remembered why I almost rage-quit a few weeks ago.

At the outdoor gathering, nearly every photo was blown out. The day before, indoors, we might as well have been cave spelunking. You wouldn’t have been able to tell anyway. Every shot came out as a dark, mottled splotch, despite the light not seeming that dim to the naked eye. (Or an iPhone, for that matter.)

I corrected the shot slightly (attached to give you an idea.)

In both situations, I could tell something was off in the preview, but the frenetic energy of a large gathering took over. I found myself overwhelmed, scrambling after my quarry and thumbing through different setting combinations mid-shot.

Even the two concepts I thought I was beginning to understand (aperture and ISO) suddenly felt more complex in tandem with everything around me on the move. It turns out knowing something in theory and using it in real time aren’t the same thing.

Ultimately? I walked away with one or two salvageable shots and learned some new cool editing tricks in Adobe that helped me fake it. But this time, editing, which is usually my favorite part, felt like icing a stale cake - not the cherry on top.

That said, this weekend wasn’t a total loss. My friend’s husband, an acclaimed product photographer, showed me that aperture changes depending on the lens and even how far you’re zoomed in.  Mind blown.

Final thoughts? I might need to heap a photography class in alongside my Italian lessons. With just 41 days until Italy, I’m determined to get this right.

If you want to follow along as I figure this out, in real time and with varying degrees of success, you’re very welcome here. And if you have photography tips, I want to hear them!