Sofobomo [Day 4]

[nisaa]

Today was pretty productive in terms of taking photos. I met up with deyo and mactavish to take photos of them and their dogs. When I got home, I took photos of stevefava and harpydisplayed and a few of our pets.

One thing I found difficult today was taking photos of two people at a time, especially if one or both of them are laughing. Ultimately, I'll be happy with slightly blurry photos if the people in them look genuinely happy.

Photographing dogs if they're not napping is an entirely different story. Well, maybe it isn't. It's difficult enough to take photos of dogs because they don't often sit still. On top of that, deyo and mactavish have dogs that are mostly black. My dog is black too. It's a lot more challenging to get a photo of them that's not blurry, if they're awake.

I will have to flaunt the imperfection then, embrace negative clarity and have a few blurry photos. I'm ok with that.

After today's photos, I'm less worried about coming up with 35 photos for the project. I think I've got at least five so far. And, I might have more subjects to shoot soon too!

Comments

[merchimerch.livejournal.com]

Oh goody, does this mean that you want to take pictures of my Bosnian and me with the kitties?

[nisaa.livejournal.com]

Yes, that would work! Originally I thought about taking just photos of Xander and Spartacus because they're poly(dactyl) kitties but then I thought really, all the pets are part of my chosen family.

[merchimerch.livejournal.com]

Cute! I was just commented to A that we are lucky to have a new couch such that we can each be on a separate piece of furniture with a separate kitty (Mo is right next to me and Artemis is snuggled in A's legs)

[jeliza]

On the technical side, what kind of settings are you using? The "starter set" for available light wedding photography of moving people is usually something like ISO 400, f/4, 1/125th --- and you can get by with many blurry sins if your eyes are sharp, and unless your book is going to be huge, you can probably bump your ISO up a bit from 400....

(I cannot tell you how mind-warping Joe's "iso 100, f/16 and a tripod" approach was for me, being almost exclusively a studio and people shooter.)

[nisaa.livejournal.com]

I started with ISO 400 and ranged between f/1.8 and 5.6 for the most part (the shutter speeds varied - I had it on aperture priority).

Thank you. I will try to have ISO 400, f/4 be my baseline for the rest of this and see how it goes. The book's not going to be huge and it may never be printed (ok, I'll probably print ONE for myeself just for posterity).

Yeah, I've gotten pretty used to using a tripod and shooting things that DON'T move rather than people who DO move for a while now. But I think doing this project of doing just portraits will be good for me, like eating my vegetables or something ;)

[tawny-vixen.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say I really enjoy reading about this project. It doesn't matter if you finish or not, I feel the journey is wonderful and I thank you for letting me share in it.

[nisaa.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! I will at the very least post the photos I'm taking at the end of the project, whether I finish it or not. It's tempting, like I usually do, to take photos and post them to flickr right away. But I'm not doing that now - I'm not being instant gratification girl. I'd like to see what they all look like together, with the text and layout before I show them to you and everyone else.

[evilnicola.livejournal.com]

have you taken a look at dooce.com? She takes a picture of her two dogs every day, and it might give you some ideas on how to deal with pets and movement.

[jennylisa.livejournal.com]

I have found that the project is getting me to lug my big camera in the diaper bag. ;) I brought it to the breastfeeding clinic and got a great one of Abbey squirming on the scale. ;) and today I got my father in law to be cutesy with her! ;) I don't feel like I am quite up to my pro standards, but I think I'm capturing her 4th month pretty well.

[nisaa.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to see your book!