Tag: photography

ACL Festival Street Photography

I took my new Sony A7C II all around South Austin last night for its first street photography outing. I caught the crowds leaving the Austin City Limits music festival and bounced a few times between South Congress and 1st Street.

I only took my Sony/Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens instead of the 35mm length I’m so used to. These days I mentally compose photos in 35mm, and now I have the itch to practice more around 50mm and 85mm.

The crowds and pedicabs were moving fast. I love low-light photography, but don’t have much experience doing it with shutter speeds over 1/125 sec. And I hadn’t even tested the decade-old 55mm ZA’s autofocus capabilities in low light. I missed focus and exposure a lot.

Lesson learned: Don’t learn new techniques and new gear at the same time. 😛

It may have felt uncomfortable and frustrating, but in a constructive “growing pains” way. I think the next time I go out, I’ll think less and enjoy more. That probably means I should do it as soon as I can!

My Resolution for 2013 That Worked: Carrying a Real Camera Everywhere

2013 was the first year I made a New Year’s resolution: to carry a real camera around everywhere. It went great!

Photography has been a strictly casual hobby throughout my life. It’s always been something that lets me capture enjoyable things that happen in my life, but never something that itself became a focus of my life. So why make a New Year’s Resolution for it? Aren’t those things usually done with the intent of bettering our lives?

The answer lies in how most of us have changed our photography habits: anyone with a smartphone is carrying a camera with them everywhere. Before smartphones, I was carrying along more traditional cameras to events where I thought I’d want them: vacations, concerts, and the like. But smartphones were the ultimate popularization of the old photographer’s adage: “The best camera is the one you have with you.”

Now, blame my twentysomething lifestyle, but many of the best moments in my life happen in the shadows – exactly where tiny cell phone sensors struggle to perform. Concerts, restaurants, twilight walks, and the like. I started finding myself out with something great going on, taking out my camera, and getting results that made me feel like I wasted my time even bothering to take a picture. That was it, really – I guessed that I’d capture more good moments if I carried a “real camera” to it all. Continue reading My Resolution for 2013 That Worked: Carrying a Real Camera Everywhere