Today, Saturday was Demir’s birthday. I arrived at 7:15, and decided to stick with the children who were playing Xbox Kinect. I enjoyed myself greatly and learned a lot more about photography which I wish to share.
First, this was my first time shooting with flash. When I entered I set the camera on aperture priority mode with Auto ISO. Though this produced fairly good shots at wide angles, it was not sharp on anything tighter than 50mm. This is due to the low aperture of the lens (3.5-5.6). So I turned flash on, switched to shutter priority and experimented with different shutter speeds. I found that 1/100 was the best speed to capture decently exposed shots. I shot with the on-board flash which was not too effective at properly lighting up the image, and left a strong reflection on closer subjects (Image 19). It also left a shaded semicircle on the bottom of the picture when I shot at wide angles (Image 2). This was due to the lens hood being in the way of the flash. Since I was forced to shoot at a wide aperture it was difficult to produce a picture in which every subject was fully in focus (Image 8).
Aside from technical issues I found it very interesting photographing children. Especially when you catch them off guard. They are very energetic, smile easily (once they break out their shy shells), and most of all are great company. Coming from shooting Bar Mitzvah’s and Bat Mitzvah’s I had some ideas in mind of how to capture group pictures. Things like “Everyone point to the birthday boy” and, “Everyone make a silly face” (Image 17) work great. Emotions are also very important to capture (Image 10). It is also nice to try to capture unity. Take image 23 for example, it gives a feel of togetherness. As Efe reads a birthday card everyone peeks in to follow the words.
Nonetheless, I am now looking into better lenses for the future. As the summer approaches I plan to buy some accessories for my 60d to make shooting more enjoyable.
