This is getting to be a bad habit. What excuses can I conjure up this time for my utter reticence on this forum? Time again is at an all time premium. Ah, but should I continue supplying you with the same excuses?
It's late and my creative juices have stopped flowing. The fact is this – this last week I spent a great deal more time on a digital wedding photography forum learning the ins and outs of wedding photography than I did looking for cool content for this site. I can't mention that site's name or the URL. Suffice to say, I have learned more in a week than in a whole semester at college.
Some of you know that I have dove in head first into the digital realm. It's a little overwhelming. Harikrishna, a fellow photog, who posts his comments here has encouraged me to look at capturing images in the RAW format. But even before that crucial step, I have learned now, it's vitally important to know how to set the White Balance for the camera so that one's RAW captures can be easily converted. That's where I am sort of stuck. So, Hari, if you are reading this, holler at me. You know my number.
I am heading to the West coast this coming weekend to photograph a wedding. Yes, all digital. Am I nervous? Hell yeah, I am. If it were film, it would be a cake walk. But pithy comments aside, challenges are meant to make one stronger and I do hope this experience does for me what it has done for countless other photographers; make them better image makers using the tools of today. I don't mind acknowledging the fact that, in some respects, it does feel like I am photographing for the very first time. It is frightening, exciting and certainly exhilarating all at the same time.
The last few weeks of using my Nikon D70s has been very interesting. I have encountered lots of successful moments capturing precious moments in beautiful light. I have also been confounded by a recurring exposure problem when I use my 35mm f/2.0 lens on the new camera. [I understand a lot of this is going to be glossed right over by non-photographers, but bear with me please.] Consecutive exposures produced by my new camera have all had blown-out highlights and that too when I was just messing around in the “P” [or Program] mode. This is the mode that most amateurs will depend on for creating images. I use the “M” [manual] or the “A” [Aperture] modes for most of my image making. The “P” mode provides the user both the shutterspeed and the aperture to create adequately and [most of the time] accurately exposed images. To find that the machine fails in this rather basic function perplexes me. I have to wonder if I have unwittingly hit some button on the machine and it will remain whacked till I reset it to factory specifications.
Ok, I have rambled on enough for one night. I hope to have something more substantial and wholeheartedly interesting to post tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
