Flash

After two months I keep meaning to write about my new camera but I’m racing up the learning curve so fast it’s hard to keep up. It seems like every time I take a bunch of shots I figure out something new rendering all my previous photos slightly substandard in my eyes. I’m also getting incredibly critical even if I’m not quite sure what it is I’m not happy about, and while it’s tough keeping track of all the subtle variations in exposure, white-balance and ISO it’s also pretty satisfying to be teaching myself something and actually getting somewhere with it, even if I know I’ve still got a hell of a long way to go.

Today I opened up a whole new can of worms by buying a basic flash gun in the Jessops sale. The main reason for getting this was to bounce the light off the ceiling which gets around that nasty harshness you get from normal fixed flashes and my main reason for wanting to do this is because I want to start taking portraits.

I didn’t make any real resolutions this year because that kind of shit is pointless for me but I did say out loud so I can be held to it that this year I want to start photographing people with their permission. For some reason I’ve always been incredibly reticent about asking folk if I can photograph them which explains why my Flickr stream is full of photos of bricks, street furniture and junk, so this is a hurdle I need to jump, especially as those few portraits I have taken over the last three years are some of my favourites.

So I’ll be looking for volunteers. Get in touch if you’re interested.

(I do intend to write about something other than gigs and photography at some point!)