Pull!

I shot a shotgun once. Well... I shot it a few times, but I hardly ever hit anything. So since shooting a shot gun didn't seem like the thing for me I started to shoot a Canon... wow. Uh... Canon Xt to be exact. Got the camera and immediately went on a road trip to master the world and take amazing photos. Low and behold, my photos were bad. They were quite bad. I had no clue what I was doing. I didn't know how to make things brighter and didn't know what the M was or the different numbers that were changing. I just knew that if I moved it one way it got dark and if I moved it the other it got lighter. I think that I have come a long way from that, but my learning process is still the same. By the end of the road trip I could kinda use the camera to take an okay photo that wasn't all black and wasn't totally blown out. Which brings me to my point for writing this blog...

There are always new things to learn and learning how to learn is crucial for growth. I didn't know anything about weddings when I shot one and learned a ton. Didn't know anything about lights when someone gave me two and now I know at least a little bit. Didn't know anything about off camera flash, but got one and got some triggers to get that thing off my camera and now know a bit about it, but not half as much as Sir David Hobby of Strobist.

Tonight I got new flash receivers for my camera. Weeeeell, one for me and one for Sarah, who's receiver I happed to have dropped when it was attached to my flash. Oops. The other one that I needed was because I dropped my flash with my receiver attached to it. So I ordered two of them, one for me and one for her. I decided to break out the flash again and do a shot for my 365 photo project. I have always liked shadows. There are lots of stories in the shadows. You don't know what is hiding in them and you don't know if they hold something good or bad. If it is a horror flick, stay in a mall or someplace that is well lit, but if it is real life, go and explore (Unless you are scared of spiders like my brother). I had the idea of using a hoodie and getting shadows on the face and only having part of my face lit. Then I was walking in the kitchen and decided to take the photo outside.

Outside presents a problem because there isn't much light out there. That isn't much of a problem because it adds to the photo, but it makes it really hard to focus! The camera is good, but it is no eyeball that can see and focus with just the tiniest bit of light. It took a shot or two to figure out how to get the lighting to where I needed it and then a few shots to get something in focus. When you are shooting outside, bring a flashlight or some sort of light to constantly illuminate what you are trying to shoot, at least until your camera focus on it. I used my cell phone. I didn't know where my little pen light was, so I grabbed my phone and opened that baby up, focused on it, then took its place after I pushed the self timer button. Getting a shot in the dark without a remote trigger, without a flashlight, and without an assistant can be annoying, but I enjoyed the results.