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Skeeter's Hot Dogs, Wytheville, Virginia. (click to enlarge)
This is not the image I write about in this post. But I thought it was an interesting one, nonetheless.
Nikon D800E; 16-35mm f/4 lens @ 16mm; 1/40th sec. @ f/6.3; ISO 800 |
Just because you may be an experienced photographer doesn't mean you don't do dumb things on occasion. I know. Hopefully, with more experience the number of times dumb things occur becomes reduced. Hopefully. This generalization applies not only to photographers but just about anyone in any situation. It seems to me everyone does something dumb at least once in a while. Let me know if I'm wrong, that is if you've never done anything dumb or have never seen anyone else do something dumb.
Here's a photography related personal dumb thing I did recently. A while back I had a
specific image in mind that I wanted to make to illustrate a blog post. I went out looking and found a suitable composition. I figured out where I wanted to stand, what focal length would best be suited for it and what aperture would give me adequate depth of field. Here is where the dumb stuff comes in.
I was having
trouble with achieving sufficient depth of field while maintaining a handholdable shutter speed as the aperture needed to be about f/11 to f/16. The day was not sunny nor did I want a sunny day. Overcast fit the bill. The light was not bright. A tripod would have easily solved
the problem. In fact, I had counted on using a tripod. But…here's the dumb thing part...a few days prior I had removed my tripod from the back of my car so I could load some large items. Afterward, I
did not return it to my car so it was not there when I needed
it. Doh! On to Plan B.
I then thought of how I could work around this conundrum. Plan B was to
invoke “Focus Bracketing” on my X-T4 so the camera could automatically make multiple
images using the optimum aperture at near-to-far focus points. I could later
merge the series of images to achieve all the depth of field I desired for the image.
But, another problem arose. Here's dumb thing number two. It had been so long since I had used the focus stacking feature that I forgot how to engage it on my X-T4. As much as I fiddled with the menu and such, I couldn’t
figure out what I wasn't doing right while standing there in the cold. Hmmm. What now?
So I went to Plan
C—stopping down as far as f/16, handholding the camera at maybe a ‘too slow’ of
a shutter speed, even with IBIS, and taking a few shots with the lens focused at
various distances hoping one will capture all of the DOF. That wasn't optimum but it was the only solution I had at the time.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. This was a result of lack of preparation and a lack of updating my knowledge of my camera. I used to complain about not being able to figure out how to invoke certain features in my Olympus cameras. The one I wanted always seemed to be grayed out and I couldn't figure out how to enable it.
Afterward, I drove home, put the tripod (in fact two tripods) in my vehicle then promptly went into my iPad and found the Focus Stacking feature in the X-T4's user's manual and refreshed my memory on how to invoke Focus Stacking. I also determined what I was doing wrong in not being able to invoke it while in the field. Lessons learned.
See, you aren’t
the only one. I thought that little story would be encouraging to
you. Even the master can learn from the grasshopper (no reference to myself being a master for sure). This little incident serves as a good reminder for me, when I have some free time on my hands, to get out my camera's user's manual and refresh my memory. Like anything else, if you don't use your them for a long period of time, you tend to forget the skills you have developed.
And, yes, I did
manage to capture the image I had envisioned despite my failings. So
there’s luck.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
All content on this blog is © 2013-2022 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.
Such momentary dilemmas are familiar here. Even worse is when you chastise yourself for not having a tripod in the car, only to find out later there was one in in the trunk all the time.
ReplyDeleteMy wife lost the tax refund check and forgot she lost it. A letter from the VA Dept of Taxation arrived essentially advising us to deposit the check or else. When the re-issued check arrived, I handed it to my wife. She handed it back to me with a stern "Do not lose it again". I didn't lose the first one but I think a new lens is in my future.
Great story. Thanks for sending it. I did check. No tripod in my trunk! Lol.
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