I went out tonight in the evening hoping to catch an image or two after the rain. Nothing interested me. So, being bored, I decided to point the camera down from my waist and capture my feet strolling on the damp sidewalk at a slow shutter speed of several seconds. Viewing the image on my monitor, I initially had no idea where the white streaks came from. But I am sure they are my white shoelaces. The bronze tone is the motion of my sneakers. The red is the color of my shorts. Well, I made an image, for better or for worse.
I had a nice time mentoring Connor earlier today. Connor is the son of a good friend. I believe he is 12 or 13. Connor is enthused and smart. He just got a new camera, a Canon Rebel with 2 kit lenses. We started by me asking what one does with one’s eyes to see something especially far away. Yes! A squint. I then pulled out a vintage Nikon fast lens (1.2) and demonstrated it “squinting” at F16. Then I opened the aperture one stop at a time to relate the aperture opening to change depth of field and to double and half the light. I then placed two apples on the counter, one behind the other. He focused on the near apple at F 3.5 (his largest aperture) and then walked the depth of field back in aperture priority one stop at a time until eventually both apples were in focus.
Next I showed him two rolls of film, one 100 ISO the other 400 ISO. We moved the doubling concept over and Connor answered my question correctly, the 400 ISO film is 4X more sensitive to light. That’s ISO! We then went into a darkened room and took a shot at ISO 100 at F 5.6. No go, all black. Next we moved the aperture to 3200. Overexposed. Then we moved it to 2500. Perfect!
Then, we went to the waterfront using his 70 – 300 in Shutter priority. Since our goal was to stop motion of the passing powerboats, I explained and he understood the concept of bumping up the ISO enough to get 1200 shutter speed at F5.6. He nailed several shots stopping the action of the motorboats. I was so happy, and.I think Connor was too.
Lastly, we tried Manual mode and I had him walk through exposure of two men carrying their dinghy from the shore. We walked the shutter speed from under to over to great.
This was great fun for me, and I think for Connor. Not many boys his age have interest in learning to use a camera. We will continue to meet periodically to work on his skills and getting familiar with the controls on the camera. I am so glad to impart my knowledge to this endeavor. I have another teenager Zao in the queue and have to get together with him.
I won’t dare show Connor this crazy image, he will think I am off my rocker!
Perhaps next time, I will post a portrait of us together.