Friday, March 20, 2009

Simple Practices

I'm learning how to keep my camera in a ready state. For me that means the CF card is indeed in place. The ISO is set to 100. Automatic shutter and aperture selected.

Before powering up the camera, I flip open the little door to be sure the CF is really there. So many times I've pushed the shutter and nothing happens. It takes me a few moments to notice the display flashing "no CF". I probably have more trouble with this than anything.

After flipping up the power switch, I double check the ISO and auto mode. I check the exposure compensation as I've once gone for two days off by two stops.

I'm becoming aware of how I punch the shutter. That rough action twists the camera during the shot. I can do much better when I slowly smoosh my finger through the shutter button.

It's these simple little practices that I'm slowly adopting that are removing the frustrations of missed shots, off exposures, and fuzzy photos.

So far I've mostly kept some kind of automation in place, either aperture priority or full auto. I'm often not aware of the automatically selected parameters and I'm wondering if maybe I try shooting full manual for a while. That is, paying better attention by working simply. Besides, shutter and aperture are creative parameters and working manually for a while might increase my awareness and technique.

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