Shooting anything in Glasgow over this past month has been nothing short of a nightmare. Grey skies, rain and more of the same. Sunny spells when you're doing anything but holding a camera.
I look at forums all the time and I think it's because everyone is closer together that you feel you're the only one who is restricted by your variable aperture lenses.
Everywhere I seem to go it's always f4 telephoto primes, or even f2.8 and excellent, well exposed images. I can honestly say that the difference between 1/640th and 1/800th is quite a margin in birding.
I even resorted to Tv at 1/1000th and auto ISO. My camera just sat at ISO6400 the whole time. I wanted birds landing before the top of the fence and anything slower was not good enough.
My aperture of f5.6 was killing me, and I was crying out for less.
Like most I got to the point where frustration was getting to the point where I was cursing Canon. They draw you in and make you need expensive lenses, because we see how good an image they can produce everyday on forums, photo sites and magazines. The users of these lenses probably took ages to save for them and they deserve it.
It fills you with a distinct sense of fail to know that if you had £1000, you'd probably need something else first, and that's just for an entry level f5.6 that wouldn't solve your light issues anyway.
Part of my rant is that photography is probably one of the most difficult pursuits i've ever taken on, and you need either long reach lenses that let loads of light in, or mid range stuff and take on an OU degree in stalking or sitting in a hide for 6 hours, 5ft away from a perch, hoping that something will land on it. Life tends to get in way of life sometimes and with all the noise that comes with it, your photography really does suffer.
I think a lot of new photographers make a grave mistake as I have been doing of late.
You have an allocation of time, or a window of opportunity. You set yourself up for shooting a particular thing, or something that you've been trying for a while. It then falls apart at the seams outwith your control and your window is gone for another few days.
Frustration then sinks in and the cycle begins. You start getting mad at everyone around you, and blaming them for taking up all your time and wish that just for once you could actually put some real effort into it.
You want to go live in a log cabin in the woods and just go out all day taking time to learn how the light falls on your surroundings, and that's what its about. It's not about learning light, it's about learning how your environment changes with the light that is available.
I think photo consumption on a daily basis can be the most damaging aspect of this lifestyle, and sometimes we forget and don't appreciate why we picked up a camera in the first place.
Sorry for the rant but it can't only just be me that feels they're going crazy.
Paul
I look at forums all the time and I think it's because everyone is closer together that you feel you're the only one who is restricted by your variable aperture lenses.
Everywhere I seem to go it's always f4 telephoto primes, or even f2.8 and excellent, well exposed images. I can honestly say that the difference between 1/640th and 1/800th is quite a margin in birding.
I even resorted to Tv at 1/1000th and auto ISO. My camera just sat at ISO6400 the whole time. I wanted birds landing before the top of the fence and anything slower was not good enough.
My aperture of f5.6 was killing me, and I was crying out for less.
Like most I got to the point where frustration was getting to the point where I was cursing Canon. They draw you in and make you need expensive lenses, because we see how good an image they can produce everyday on forums, photo sites and magazines. The users of these lenses probably took ages to save for them and they deserve it.
It fills you with a distinct sense of fail to know that if you had £1000, you'd probably need something else first, and that's just for an entry level f5.6 that wouldn't solve your light issues anyway.
Part of my rant is that photography is probably one of the most difficult pursuits i've ever taken on, and you need either long reach lenses that let loads of light in, or mid range stuff and take on an OU degree in stalking or sitting in a hide for 6 hours, 5ft away from a perch, hoping that something will land on it. Life tends to get in way of life sometimes and with all the noise that comes with it, your photography really does suffer.
I think a lot of new photographers make a grave mistake as I have been doing of late.
You have an allocation of time, or a window of opportunity. You set yourself up for shooting a particular thing, or something that you've been trying for a while. It then falls apart at the seams outwith your control and your window is gone for another few days.
Frustration then sinks in and the cycle begins. You start getting mad at everyone around you, and blaming them for taking up all your time and wish that just for once you could actually put some real effort into it.
You want to go live in a log cabin in the woods and just go out all day taking time to learn how the light falls on your surroundings, and that's what its about. It's not about learning light, it's about learning how your environment changes with the light that is available.
I think photo consumption on a daily basis can be the most damaging aspect of this lifestyle, and sometimes we forget and don't appreciate why we picked up a camera in the first place.
Sorry for the rant but it can't only just be me that feels they're going crazy.
Paul
Comment