Category: Photography

It Ain’t Rocket Surgery

With some hours before the irresistible hoopla of the Super Bowl and desirous of no more examples of inhumanity in the global news, I surfed over to a camera forum dedicated to the brand I used in all my work.

A poster asked for help with the abysmal results he got from a newly purchased, expensive camera featuring the latest auto focus automation – in this case for birds (it’s always birds). It hit a nerve about a relatively recent eBay sale and the fallacious belief that automation will trump understanding and skill. 

I made this 13 years ago, with #3 of 12 DSLRs I’ve used since. Hardly current technology.

Bond Park, Cary, North Carolina, 4 Dec. 2010 – For Cary Citizen

The technique is straightforward. Reassign Focus from the Shutter button to a button on the back of the camera aka “Back Button Focus” – it’s free! Yes, it does require (horrors) reading a page of the manual. Or watch a You Tube video. 

Set the focus function to “Continuous” (mfrs call it different names but it’s still a Rose). Leave it with a single center point . Then point at what you want in focus while holding the rear button with your thumb and track it. Mash the shutter button when you see what you want. Disclaimer: 60 to 80 K of Dancer images per year may result in a callous on your thumb.

Static subject, on a tripod? Just release the back button. Or change the focus mode to “Single”. 

Back to eBay. I honestly listed a “Bargain” condition camera body with the real shutter count, some 6OK shy of the mfr. rating. A guy bought it and two hours after he picked it up, e-mailed me it was no good, couldn’t focus on birds in flight. I had set it to mfr defaults. But I’m pretty sure he didn’t read any of the manual. 

I immediately refunded his purchase, realizing any explanation was pointless. He did return it. Kept it and another copy, as my retirement gear. Haven’t experienced any issues.

As for the birds, this from camera either #6 or #7 (always kept two of the same model), in 2014

Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina – 16 July 2014

In The Moment

I started writing about photography recently  mostly to help some friends and students understand some principles of the Craft.  That part is the “How”.  Gaining that knowledge gives you a chance at the other part, the “Why” or Art.  I was going to write about making this image. About why it’s important to learn and understand lighting, composition and posing.  All those things are important but still, mostly craft.  After staring at this blank narrative for a long time, I realized everything I had to say was in the photograph. The key is something no camera can provide. Universally, every dancer I’ve met, from high school students to principals in major companies, said the performance on stage, those few minutes of a lifetime, make it all worth it.  It is, the moment, the clarity, the poetry, the magic of the best expression of ourselves, creating something that transcends the mortal and the specific. Which is why, as an artist, the few minutes of my lifetime it took to make this portrait are worth the years it took to reach them. The proof print of this image is much richer than any electronic display. That image, that moment, I hope her children will share.

Senior Portrait Session, Cary Ballet Conservatory, April 2015

Before The Call – First Dress

Chapel Hill High School

Last week, Monday through Sunday, I photographed the dress rehearsals and performances of “Anastasia”, a production of the Ballet and Jazz  Companies of the Cary Ballet Conservatory.   21+ hours of rehearsals and 5 performances with 300 plus dancers in each.  This was made before the first rehearsal