Hi! SB> I recently put up a pic for a few people to comment upon. Ann really tore SB> into me for posting such crap. One of her comments was that it was obvious SB> that I wasn't thinking about the light. So, while the subject was good (she SB> allowed me that much <g>) the photograph was poor. I realized I'd been SB> relying too much on the meter in the camera (as a result of spending too much SB> time playing with my digicam). I took Ann's criticism to heart, borrowed an SB> unfamiliar camera that had no built in meter, and which required me to SB> concentrate on the entire process ... BINGO! While i was just shooting a SB> test roll, there were a couple of very simple pics that turned out to be very SB> nice photographs because I was very conscious about working with the light SB> ... thinking about reflections, shadows, time of day, emulsion, color caste, SB> DOF ... I made myself think about and consider every aspect of what went into SB> making a photograph, and the results showed.
SB> Now, maybe i didn't have to make it so difficult for myself, but I felt my SB> skills were deteriorating a bit, and I didn't want to fall back on anything SB> familiar (like aperture priority or using a meter) while testing myself. You know that's the main problem with me. I remember when I was playing tennis (having a partner, time and so on), it always was the case that some of the shots just did not go. Either I was throwing the ball badly for serve, or not taking proper foot work for backhand, or making odd moves with the wrist for forehand... Only sometimes I could concentrate deep enough so that my game had resemblance of sense. As of now, I cannot possibly see how one could make these two shots with totally manual control of totally manual cameras... Well, I agree that faster film and wider aperture would let to hand hold... Other than that I am at total loss here. Indeed, if one is about to take a scenery picture - one has time to prepare and even reconsider. But if your friend looks at you smiling and raises a glass of beer and you decide you want to have this captured, you're not going to ask them to repeat this exercise 5 times just that you can bracket your exposure manually and try some interesting angles while bracketing... I definitely need more guidance <g>... Boris
