«A photographer went to a socialite party in New York. As he entered the front door, the host said ‹I love your pictures – they’re wonderful; you must have a fantastic camera.› He said nothing until dinner was finished, then: ‹That was a wonderful dinner; you must have a terrific stove.›»
Sam Haskins
As an amateur photographer, I like to use almost every opportunity to do photos (except weddings, never weddings). Recently, I had the opportunity to do some photos for an university event.
I had done some photos for this event in the previous years, but then came Covid and the last two years they were online. Given that I also had a new camera, I used the day before to do some test photos to get used to the setting and the camera. And yeah, that was a great idea.
It only took two hours or so, but in that time I has enough photos to:
- determine the camera settings for the lighting conditions (used environmental light, not a flash, so I needed a shutter speed that is still fast enough to not produce streaks, which in the end meant going for rather high ISO and a wide aperture),
- found that I had to look up a setting or two (you only notice what you have forgotten when trying to do it),
- determined the main lens I wanted to use (I dislike zooms and used a Fujinon XF 23mm F2 R WR, not the best lens, but the best I can afford given that it’s a hobby),
- find the best places from which to take photos, and
- noticed that there was a window on one wall and found out that it was an alternative place for the event technicians to operate from — which also meant that it could be used to do some room shots from above.
So, yeah, overall, great idea to invest the time a day before and check out the location. No big surprise here, but still.
In any case, it was fun to reignite that hobby. 🙂