Ballinora Butterfly

Last month I posted a shot of a bee in flight, taken in the garden of my parents-in-law in Ballinora.  At the time I mentioned that I had been attempting to photograph bees and butterflies, and so today I’m posting one of the butterfly shots I got.  It’s not a great shot of the butterfly, but I like the depth of field in it and how the line of focus creates areas of interest in differents part of the frame.

When I was taking those shots I was able to benefit from seeing results instantly on the back of the camera to determine if I had achieved a usable image or not.  And it struck me at the time, as it often does, how lucky us digital photographers are to be able to get that instant feedback and how difficult it would have been to come away from a shoot of butterflies and bees with usable shots if you were using film.

Last night I got a different take on that idea.

I started a 7 week course in commercial photography last night at the Light Exchange in Dublin.  It looks like it will be a very interesting course and the use of commercial photography in its title is probably mainly related to the fact that the man who is giving it, Ronnie Norton, is one of Ireland’s foremost commercial photographers – it’s content is likely to go beyond that.   Last night we started with a discussion about our photography, the workflow we use, how we photograph, what we photograph, and what we want to achieve from the course.

In the middle of the discussion we talked about off camera flash.  Ronnie mentioned that one of the difficulties with off-camera flash can be the need to hold the flash in one hand and the camera in the other, and the risk of camera shake introducing blur into the resultant image.  This is especially true when you are trying to balance ambient light with flash, and are slowing down the shutter speed to allow that ambient light to register on the sensor.  There are times when the effect of this is aesthetic, but there are more times when it isn’t.

I made the point that one technique I sometimes use in this scenario to overcome camera shake is to use burst mode and take a number of shots in quick succession.  If the flash is at, say, 1/4 power or less, it can keep up with the camera shooting at 6 frames per second.  He countered that when you are taking multiple frames to get one good one, you’re doing something wrong.  Not only that, but there is no guarantee you’ll get that one correct one anyway.

His point is a very good one, and it struck me that his way of thinking comes from having been, for many years – in fact the majority of his career I presume – a film photographer.   Shooting on film for so long has instilled in him a discipline for getting the shot right, in camera, first time.  That discipline is something that can be easy for digital photographer to ignore, relying instead on the LCD screen and the ability to just take another shot.

It’s easy for digital photographers to adopt the view that if you throw enough mud at a wall, some of it will stick.  Myself included.  Whereas the correct approach is to understand what can go wrong technically and otherwise with your shot before you take it (i.e. why most of that mud won’t stick) and take steps at that stage to ensure things go right, rather than working around the problems afterwards.

I’m looking forward over the next 6 weeks to keeping that discipline forefront in my mind as I progress through the course, and I have no doubt that my photography will improve because of it.