My shot of Queen Anne's Lace inspired by watching Ms. Mary Lou Roberts. |
The morning ended with a PhotoWalk. |
It turns out that Ms. Roberts took a some photography instruction from a fellow with whom I once worked — Dave Chidley. Chidley is one of the finest newspaper shooters in Canada. He taught his students that if one isn't getting their knees dirty they aren't finding enough different angles. It's a good rule.
The afternoon photo shoot had two professional models. |
I felt out of my league shooting with my simple cameras — my Fuji FinePix HS10 bridge camera and my point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot S90.
DSLRs and long lenses were the order of the day. We learned that all lenses have an f/stop at which they perform best. The info can be found on the Internet using Google.
The leader of the walk, James Wilkinson, said he was shooting at f/4.0 with his portrait length lens. This gave him reduced depth of field to make the models pop from the page. Also, f/4.0 was the sharpest setting with his particular lens.
The models had photo-perfect bodies. |
I'm a still photographer but my background is in film. I have a degree in filmmaking from Ryerson in Toronto. I found the talks on shooting video the high point of the day. I found myself fully in agreement with the advice delivered at the morning panel discussion.
Edward Platero told us: "Embrace the limitations of the camera." Man, is he right. Chris Hachey added: You must get "the best you can with what you've got."
This is good advice for still photographers as well as videographers.
Chris Hachey |
"You'll never stop learning."
Addendum: At PhotoCamp I learned there's a lot of experimenting being done with Canon DSLRs being used to shoot video. For instance, a season final of House was shot using a Canon 5D Mark II. Amazing! If you're interested in seeing a short shot with a Canon DSLR check out this post on Rockin' On: The Blog.
My best shot of the young model was taken before the shoot. |