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It'll end up in the gutter, mark my words.

 

(Also, ya'll so good).

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A friend of my sister has asked if I could do some photography for a children's play she's organising. That's probably a good opportunity, but my prevailing reaction is anxiety. A lot of my pictures are still dreck, and the prospect of anyone depending on them in any respect at all makes me very nervous. Also, taking pictures in front of people I don't know well makes me feel very uncomfortable, and I haven't got a clue how to make people feel comfortable for portraits. I guess there's no way to learn without giving it a go, but I tend to go with the "then don't learn" option.

 

Anyway, to counter my shitty pessimism, here's a nice picture I took of the aforementioned sister:

 

29885845173_92159e2b2d_k.jpg

 

My nephew's out of focus, but it was pretty dark in there, so I was shooting wide open at f/1.4. I guess I could stopped it down and accepted a higher ISO, but I like it anyway.

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20 hours ago, James said:

A friend of my sister has asked if I could do some photography for a children's play she's organising. That's probably a good opportunity, but my prevailing reaction is anxiety. A lot of my pictures are still dreck, and the prospect of anyone depending on them in any respect at all makes me very nervous. Also, taking pictures in front of people I don't know well makes me feel very uncomfortable, and I haven't got a clue how to make people feel comfortable for portraits. I guess there's no way to learn without giving it a go, but I tend to go with the "then don't learn" option.

 

Anyway, to counter my shitty pessimism, here's a nice picture I took of the aforementioned sister:

 

 

 

My nephew's out of focus, but it was pretty dark in there, so I was shooting wide open at f/1.4. I guess I could stopped it down and accepted a higher ISO, but I like it anyway.

 

Good luck! Totally get the anxiety, it feels scarier when you HAVE to perform because someone is relying on you. 

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I volunteered to shoot at PÖFF, the local film festival. Also have some anxiety that I won't be able to perform as well as expected. Luckily there will be 10 or so other volunteer photographers covering it.

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On 10/26/2016 at 4:33 PM, YoThatLimp said:

 

Good luck! Totally get the anxiety, it feels scarier when you HAVE to perform because someone is relying on you. 

Thanks. Yeah, my sister keeps saying I should do weddings, but even the slimmest chance leaving someone with no good pictures of their special day is a nightmare proposition. As is the idea of having to get a whole bunch of (variously inebriated) strangers to pose. Also, I don't really know how to use flash properly, though that seems a more surmountable problem.

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1 hour ago, James said:

Thanks. Yeah, my sister keeps saying I should do weddings, but even the slimmest chance leaving someone with no good pictures of their special day is a nightmare proposition. As is the idea of having to get a whole bunch of (variously inebriated) strangers to pose. Also, I don't really know how to use flash properly, though that seems a more surmountable problem.

Just take a fucking shitload of pictures!

 

One good thing to remind yourself of is that most people won't be that picky. This is partly because others won't be as critical of your stuff as you are, but also non-camera nerds just won't have strong feelings about image quality. Like, seriously, I don't think most people care if the subject is perfectly in focus. 

 

It's like mastering a record to sound amazing on super high quality studio monitors that the vast majority of listeners will experience through the earbuds that came with their phones. In fact, people will largely see your photos on phones with facebook compression.

 

Note that this is just advice from a fellow amateur; I've done one whole wedding reception for friends. https://flic.kr/s/aHsko8cxnk

 

But I totally relate to the feeling of pressure. My mouth was super dry from nerves the whole time I was taking those pictures. The kid's play seems like a great practice run, since people will probably be chill about it, and the play should be amply lit. (That reception was basically in a dungeon, and that does suck. I wish I'd at least had a flash diffuser or something.)

 

In the end, though, the photos at a thing like that are about the people in them. If you can capture them having a good time, then you've done your job.

 

edit: the best thing from that night was the video I got of people dancing... https://vimeo.com/145815871

 

edit 2: and this gif http://wieners.xxx/image/132885622610 People love gifs and continuous shooting is an easy way to make them!

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I'm now being asked how much I would charge for doing the children's play thing. It would be on a Saturday, and sounds like a full day's work: individual portraits of two groups of around 50 students (!), and some photos of a dress rehearsal. I'd presumably charge less than the going rate, having zero professional experience, but beyond that I really have no idea where to even start. I don't even know what the going rate would be! The sheer number of portraits makes it sound like it could well be getting in over my depth, particularly since portraits are the aspect of photography I feel least comfortable with. With that many kids, I don't imagine there would be much time for finding my feet.

 

A cool opportunity, for sure, but I don't know...

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Man,  that's a lot of kids back to back.  If I were in your shoes and had to do it I'd probably scout out a background at the location  and setup a flash+ softbox and have the kids stand on a matk so you don't have to be worried about exposure after the initial test shots.

 

 

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I was recently in Morocco and took a ton of photos. Here are a few of my favorites:

DSCN5514

DSCN5534DSCN5690DSCN6415DSCN6641DSCN6716DSCN6887DSCN7025DSCN7154DSCN7162

 

 
In case you're interested in seeing the rest:
 
Casablanca, Rabat and Meknes
https://goo.gl/photos/17poPmSprqZ63Nny7
 
The Atlas Mountains and Sahara
https://goo.gl/photos/VUSyDTANCv3V6sHWA
 
Atlas Mountains Part 2 and Marrakesh
https://goo.gl/photos/6CWvMdoUBoX7ZesN6

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1 hour ago, YoThatLimp said:

Neat pics! Love the patterns and textures of the second pic! 

there were so many amazing mosaics and carved decorations in buildings. A taboo on depicting humans and animals in art has lovely results.

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Any idea why a lot of people would like this pic? It's currently gathering an unprecedented number of Facebook likes compared to my previous photos. The only thing I can think of is that it's a very recognizable and iconic part of our old town, while previously I haven't photographed well-known landmarks. And I guess it happened to be a pretty enough moment with the light and sky.

 

 

15000019_1351107294900028_72928405589569

 

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1 hour ago, Erkki said:

Any idea why a lot of people would like this pic? It's currently gathering an unprecedented number of Facebook likes compared to my previous photos. The only thing I can think of is that it's a very recognizable and iconic part of our old town, while previously I haven't photographed well-known landmarks. And I guess it happened to be a pretty enough moment with the light and sky.

 

i like the symmetry going on here.

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Perhaps it's because of the extreme contrast between the bright towers and the dark but intensely blue sky that catches the attention.

 

To me the towers look quite peculiar – almost as if they've had their luminosity channel flipped. I suppose that's because they're brighter than you'd expect given the background, and they're being lit from below, meaning the crevices you'd expect to be shadow areas are actually brighter. You know, the same reason people shine torches up at the bottom of their face when telling ghost stories.

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Funny thing, I found out today that my dad did the electrical project for that lighting. And it's rather new, so maybe part of it is that people haven't seen that lighting there yet.

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