Have You Tried Anything New, Lately?

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So I had a bit of a disasterous weekend, but something constructive very much did come out of it: it made be think about my approach to photography — and hopefully, by accepting a few hard truths, I may even improve because of it.

Here’s the thing: for years, now, I’ve been using the zone-focusing method in my street photography. It’s served me very well, but by insisting on using it all of the time I’ve been been limiting myself creatively.

You see, it works very well on a bright sunny day when my subject is framed by a nice non-distracting background… but… this is the UK (sunny days aren’t exactly common place) and this is street photography (and streets are full of anything but constant distractions).

And here’s another hard truth that was difficult to swallow: I’ve somehow managed to convince myself that I NEED a high ISO when the light is anything short of a full on supernova and I NEED that fast shutter speed and I NEED that f8 apature… or otherwise, no matter what, my subject will be an out-of-fuocus and blury mess.

The hardest truth of all to accept? It’s realising exactly why I think those things. It isn’t because of the gawd-knows how many excuses I’ve told myself, but it’s because I’m just compensating for poor excecution; from slipping into bad habbits and being sloppy and lazy — slow down… the reason you’re not getting that focus right is because of YOU… stop… think about what you’re doing properly… breath… NOW take the shot…

So I’ve decided to abandon my zone focusing on those ocasions where a different approach is needed and go with auto focus for a while. I kept trying to tell meyself that zoning suited my style better no matter what the occasion — what it REALLY did, though, was it allowed me to get decent results from my sloppy approach — I even caught myself taking planned portrait shots this way, which is absolute madness, so I’ve decided to work on this pronto before my fellow camera buddies stage an intervention.

Don’t get me wrong — I’ll still be using zone focus a lot when it’s the right time and place; I just won’t be using it in the wrong time and place purely to cover my bad habbits.

And this got me thinking: have you tried something new lately, or thinking of doing so? I remember someone very smart once saying ‘the definition of stupidity is repeating the same process over and over again and expecting a different result,’ or something like that.

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While on vacation, I promised myself to not look at forums. Frankly, this improved my mood, made me less stressed, and more present. The irony is not lost on me that I’m posting this to a forum.

So, as much as I love this place, you’ll see less of me, and I’ll be happier for it. On the weekend, I went on a long bike ride, instead of editing the holiday photos, or scrolling pixls. It was wonderful.

I previously tried the same with news, which had a much stronger effect. But that left me excluded when friends and colleagues talked about current affairs. So, begrudgingly, I do still need to consume news in very limited quantities.

The next long, hard look, will need to go towards YouTube. And Chocolate. :cry:

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I’ve been doing something similar, but with hiking for me — though I don’t think I’ll ever get away from eating too much chocolate (well… no one’s perfect :wink:).

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Yes:

Well, new to digital, did this a lot on film in the '70s. Conclusion I came to is that I have the software tools to do this better in post than damaging the capture. Had fun with it, though…

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This weekend I ended up taking quite a few photos outside my normal setup and subject matter. I had been thinking recently about what prime focal lengths I’ve used in the past and whether I actually enjoyed them or not.

I’ve mostly used 50mm in the past, from my film camera back in high school to my Rebel XT that I bought after I graduated college. Though I think the Rebel XT is APS-C so with the crop factor it was more like an 80mm lens (but I was unaware of this at the time). In both of these cases I never felt intuitively good at framing with these lenses, but I didn’t realize that at the time. After I got my Canon R10 I got the 35mm prime lens, which is roughly 56mm equivalent. The Canon 35mm prime is a great lens, and was what enabled me to get into macro photography (it is a 0.5x “macro” lens). But for travel / street / event type photography I always feel like it’s either not wide enough or without enough reach. Again, it never feels intuitive for what my gut is telling me.

When I got a micro four thirds camera a few years ago I grabbed the 20mm pancake, and it instantly felt better than the 50mm focal length I’ve used before. But it still doesn’t quite have that gut feeling intuitive feel for me.

Recently I was looking at some photos and realized that 35mm has been there waiting for me this whole time. I like the look of photos taken with a 35mm focal length, I’ve just never really tried it myself for whatever reason.

So this weekend I put my 14-42 Olympus zoom lens on and took my camera along with me most of the weekend. I made sure the zoom was set at 17mm at all times and had a blast snapping photos of things that aren’t my usual subject matter. That intuitive feeling I was looking for was present, and while none of the photos I took are award-winning, mind-blowing, top-notch photos, it felt just right to me.

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I have been experimenting with reflections. Specifically, two subjects with a piece of glass/plastic between them. What, in theory, should be fairly simple is turning out to be anything but.

Part of the issue is my lack of proper lighting gear. I have DIY light modifiers on 1x 250w halogen constant light (worklight) and 1x Godox speedlight. Given the light ratios I (think…) need and the small space I am working in, managing spill has been a nightmare. That spill wrecks the reflections.

I am going to try fixing a broken speedlight I was given to see if that helps my technical problems…then I only have to fix the lack of experience problem! :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

For all of my complaining, I do actually enjoy the process. My wife always says I am only happy if I am doing hard things in the hardest way possible…

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This isn’t exactly new, as I’ve been at it for a few years, but I’ve been trying to scrutinize my focal length choice at the scene, and really been trying to refine my choice of focal length in my compositions. I used to shoot a lot more of the interior of abandoned things, so 24mm full frame was a general go to, or even wider. I’ve moved more towards exteriors and their surroundings now, so I’m not limited. I’ve really been paying attention and deciding if I want the thing to look isolated and alone (so wide angle) or if I want to close the space with the background, which is often the mountains (longer).

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Do you feel that this has changed with the GFX or it’s just the same logic but going by equivalent focal lengths to FF?

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I’m still getting adjusted to judging depth of field on the GFX, man, the thin DoF is no lie! But its the same logic. At this point it is easier on the GFX because the choice is 55mm or 100-200mm, where as with my Nikon I have 15, 24, 50, 100, 100-400mm. The system doesn’t effect this thinking so much though.

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In the last couple of years, I have been experimenting with street photography (and some other types) using my cellphone. I finally got a phone with a decent camera in 2022 (Nokia XR-20) and I have been increasingly appreciating the ability to just blend in while taking photos, without whipping out my Norbecker (Nikon D-7200) or even my newer Z50.

My phone (Nokia XR-20) will do 48 MP raw, but I have been just sticking with the 12 MP jpgs for now, partly because the raw mode is very annoying with all the “Pro mode” screen overlays. Smaller, lighter, far less obtrusive, and with no real/practical ability to mess with f-stop, shutter speed, focus, or zoom, I can respond very quickly to interesting street scenes. I set all those things instinctively with my dSLR and Z50, but they still take time. Results with the phone are mostly good–some very good–but there are certainly some duds where the sharpening and or noise reduction, and/or saturation have gone off the rails. At its best, it does provide a certain joy of snapshooting and seeing what results–just like the days of my first film cameras (when I was 9 or 10 years old).

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I also just had very enjoyable week of mobile phone snapshot experience. There is a photo competition in IG that does not limit number of entries. So, I went out to take different street photos. Half of the time, I just do not look at the screen and press the shutter button by instinct. Usually, it’s more candid and non traditional framing.

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Hell yeah! I was recently on a photography workshop in Haida Gwaii (an archipelago of islands off the coast of British Columbia, Canada).

Doing a workshop was itself trying something new, since it was my first. While there, I:

  • made my first attempt at Milky Way photography (which I think went well, although I haven’t finished learning the post processing I need to do) and there was some faint aurora too!
  • had my first go at photography in a temperate old growth rainforest;
  • made my first attempt at waterfall photography with some little tumbles in the rainforest;
  • shot (and f’d up) my first pano;
  • did my first non-trivial wildlife photography (I’ve been specializing in landscapes);
  • had my first non-trivial go at ICM;
  • undoubtedly there are other things that aren’t coming to mind right now.

I’ve been back for a month and a half and, honestly, I’m still buzzing. I got to see what it’s like to not have to fit photography into a half hour here, an hour there. I had the time to take on all sorts of things that I had being denying myself due to lack of time. Plus the place is drop dead gorgeous and the Haida are wonderful people with a strong connection to their environment and a fierce determination to protect it. I’ll shut up now…

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I am confused. Isn’t zone focusing referring to auto focus option based on looking with a zone (area) of the viewfinder?

As for something new. I am a long time user of the color balance rgb module in DT but I know I haven’t fully exploited its capabilities. I still have a long way to go but I now regularly use the shadows lift option in the module to warm up cold shadows when they occur. Its like WB just for the shadows :wink:

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Me too and then when I got a digital camera I put a red filter on. I soon realized I was better off doing it in the software.

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I am now going for (motion) blur in street photos. The light is my enemy, I fight it with ND filters so that I can get to 1/15s or so shutter speeds, they bring life and motion to an image.

I tried that, but the chocolate somehow disappeared while I was looking at it. I am still not sure how it happened.

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The biggest motivator in stopping chocolate is learning that most brands have almost unsafe levels of cadmium and other heavy metals. This is only a problem if you eat dark chocolate of course. Sourcing high quality chocolate is instantly a big bothersome which leads to reduced consumption :smiley:

PS: If anyone knows good organic coco powder that can be bought in europe for not a lot of money please let me know as I would like to add it to my diet instead of regular chocolate bar.

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Not around here it isn’t

  1. The Highland Chocolatier
  2. Explore Chocolate
  3. Charlotte Flowers Chocolate

The first one on the list does cocoa powder, but I think it probably fails your proviso on price :rofl:

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22 pounds for 500g of pure cocoa mass is not that bad as long as the quality is high I’d say.

Seems good, and they source their beans from São Tomé. From what I read African chocolate seems to be a bit better than American one when it comes to contamination.

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You don’t need to worry about the quality, Iain Burnett (who runs the place), wouldn’t have won world chocolate championships if the quality wasn’t high.

What I don’t know is whether they actually export any more, and if they do, how much it costs (Spit; Brexit).

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I’ve been trying to capture motion too, either by holding the camera still and having moving objects in the scene, or with panning shots. So far, my results have been fairly not great but I’ve been told there’s a clear learning curve involved with advanced techniques like that.

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You’re indeed correct ‘zone focusing’ is a type of autofocus, but it’s also a form of manual focus: A Simply Explained Zone Focusing Tutorial for Street Photography