Longwatcher
2nd of May 2005 (Mon), 08:15
Actually it was probably the camera's fault.
So there I was taking pictures of Belly Dancers doing a demo for Earth Day at a local park.
My favorite conditions for shooting (I say sarcastically), scattered clouds and the dancers going in and out of the shaded portion of the stage. Always a joy to get correct exposure in those conditions. Although great practice, which is why I was out there.
Because of the shading, I decided to use my flash as fill. most of the hour they were dancing it helped (or it would have if I had caught the right moment), but as soon as the batteries started going out was when I started having problems. I have discovered that if my 550EX flash on my 1DsMkII is used for fill in daylight and is only charged up to quick shot mode the aperture of the lens will go to f32 if flash on M and camera set on P mode (I gave up on manual after 30 minutes because of the constantly changing light conditions). That would have been okay if it had slowed the shutter down enough, but no, it had to leave the shutter up at around 1/250 and 1/500 (can you say dark pictures). And of course, Murphy's Law had to play a role and pick the ones that from what little I can see would have been more likely to capture the dancers at the correct moment in the dance.
In other lessons learned, Must buy more CF cards for location shoots, Picture Pad not even close to fast enough to keep up. Checked on Epson P2000, still won't be fast enough, even though it is apparently the fasted outside of a laptop. Again Murphy's law struck. Battery ran out half way through second 2GB card download and although I had spare batteries, I forgot to bring the tool I needed to change them out. And I left the AC adapter at home, which I could have used with my car since I have an inverter. Just one of those days. Good thing it was just for the fun of it.
Did I mention, since it was so nice, I forgot suntan lotion and got my self slightly burnt, good think it was early in the year.
On the good side caught a few decent shots and I do love my 70-200/2.8L. Got to play a little bit with slowing done the shutter to capture more of the movement, looks like around 1/20, 1/30 are good speeds to have some blur, but not too much for belly dancing at least.
The Best part though, I got to play with my toys.
To see the results:
http://www.longwatcher.com/event_p_03.html
Not my best work, but I had fun, so who cares.
So there I was taking pictures of Belly Dancers doing a demo for Earth Day at a local park.
My favorite conditions for shooting (I say sarcastically), scattered clouds and the dancers going in and out of the shaded portion of the stage. Always a joy to get correct exposure in those conditions. Although great practice, which is why I was out there.
Because of the shading, I decided to use my flash as fill. most of the hour they were dancing it helped (or it would have if I had caught the right moment), but as soon as the batteries started going out was when I started having problems. I have discovered that if my 550EX flash on my 1DsMkII is used for fill in daylight and is only charged up to quick shot mode the aperture of the lens will go to f32 if flash on M and camera set on P mode (I gave up on manual after 30 minutes because of the constantly changing light conditions). That would have been okay if it had slowed the shutter down enough, but no, it had to leave the shutter up at around 1/250 and 1/500 (can you say dark pictures). And of course, Murphy's Law had to play a role and pick the ones that from what little I can see would have been more likely to capture the dancers at the correct moment in the dance.
In other lessons learned, Must buy more CF cards for location shoots, Picture Pad not even close to fast enough to keep up. Checked on Epson P2000, still won't be fast enough, even though it is apparently the fasted outside of a laptop. Again Murphy's law struck. Battery ran out half way through second 2GB card download and although I had spare batteries, I forgot to bring the tool I needed to change them out. And I left the AC adapter at home, which I could have used with my car since I have an inverter. Just one of those days. Good thing it was just for the fun of it.
Did I mention, since it was so nice, I forgot suntan lotion and got my self slightly burnt, good think it was early in the year.
On the good side caught a few decent shots and I do love my 70-200/2.8L. Got to play a little bit with slowing done the shutter to capture more of the movement, looks like around 1/20, 1/30 are good speeds to have some blur, but not too much for belly dancing at least.
The Best part though, I got to play with my toys.
To see the results:
http://www.longwatcher.com/event_p_03.html
Not my best work, but I had fun, so who cares.