Shooting in Low Light - Welcome to Winter in Germany

This is sunset. Full daylight was only 20 minutes prior!

In the northern climes,daylight doesn't last for long. When the sun sets, it sets fast. When you're enjoying the traditional Christmas markets, filled with lights and internally lit stands, the lighting environment is positively nuts. Daylight, various types of artificial light - not a single setting in the camera is static between shots.

What do you want to expose for? Without additional
light, you have to choose

In order to make better photographs, as I walked through the market, enjoying all of the sights, sounds, smells, and people, I consistently had to adjust the ISO, shutter speed, f-stop, and white balance. Oh, the white balance. Want a nice shot of the architecture surrounding the market? One setting. How about the inside of one of the market stalls? Change that setting right up. The one nice thing is, if you're shooting in RAW, at least you can avoid the white balance issue, and deal with that in post processing. Honestly, that would be the best way to handle things for the beginning photographer, like myself. Nailing the manual camera settings is what is most important. The white balance feel comes with time - just as the ISO, shutter speed, and f-stop feels come with time.

Unless you're bringing your own lighting in situations like these, not only are you composing the shot in terms of what appears within the frame, but you are also composing the light within the frame. In the above shots, I could have taken an identically framed photo, but composed the technical settings in such a way that the subject of the photo completely shifts. What it boils down to are the artistic sensibilities of the photographer.

Equipment Used

Nikon D7100 Camera
35mm f/1.8 lens


 Images

Always Prepared - It's Not Just for Boy Scouts

Horses approach a jump in the Montpelier Steeplechase

So I was recently invited to head down to the Montpelier, Virginia annual steeplechase horse race. A steeplechase isn't like a standard thoroughbred horse race where they simply go around a track. Oh, no, a steeplechase has horses going over (and sometimes, by mistake, through) a variety of man-made jumps on a course that can be upwards of 1.5 miles long. But, not every race uses every jump, or even the same jumps. Throughout the day, each race makes use of different portions of the course. Per usual, I brought along my camera gear, hoping to experience a great day. One thing I did not pack, however, was a schedule of the day's racing. Now, were I professionally shooting this event, this would be an unforgivable sin. If you're being paid to produce photos of an event, you damn well better know what is happening and when. How else can you plan for the best shots?

This may seem like simple advice, even for the amateur photographer just going out to have fun (me). Well, let me tell you - over the course of several hours, schedule delays, and enjoying not just the racing but the infield sites, it is quite easy to lose track of things. When you lose track of things? You end up not knowing which event is up next, nor which jumps they will (or won't) utilize. The below photo is precisely what happens when you miss a chance to get a photo as several thousand pounds of horses come thundering by, less than a foot away.

Surprise! They're on the rail for this race!

The horses did two circuits for this race. As a result of having my telephoto lens ready on the first circuit, I had to choose which lens to use for the only remaining one - 35mm or 11-16mm. As you can see, I went with my 35mm lens, and I'm fairly pleased with the result. A shot just a split second later would've captured more energy, I feel, but I'm pleased. I'll never know what the 16mm photograph would look like, since I never had the chance. So, the lesson? Be prepared!

This horse's eyes were absolutely mesmerizing

A perfect action shot... until I chopped off the jockeys' heads

Equipment Used

Nikon D7100 Camera
55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens
35mm f/1.8 lens
B+W 52mm circular polarizer filter


 Images