Blue

Lesson 9 - Blur

We've talked about this before, haven't we...?

But that was ages ago (at least 5 weeks), when I was still using the Canon Powershot, and it was doing all kinds of compensation for me, trying to fix my photos when I didn't want them fixed. (although at that point I did not realise that I didn't want them fixed. How far I have come...)

Now we have the photo-educated (at least partially) me, and I know there is blur... and there is bleh (rhymes with meh, and is usually accompanied by a downturning of the lips and a non-chalant shrug). I am learning that there are different ways we can use our cameras to convey a story in our images - I no longer take a photo of what I want to remember, I create an exposure from life that conveys the feeling of the moment. Blur can help us mould the image into the story we want. Bleh is simply a mistake with focus or shutter speed.

Lesson 4 - Cheating

Our instructor Zahra (incedentally her website is www.zahraj.com) is playing fishing games with us - she draws us in. She lets us loose. We get all tangled in the line. She draws us in again. For now she has me hook line and sinker. I wonder if she is going to kiss us and throw us back once she has finished? Probably. Let's hope we all swim off and grow and learn, rather than get infected then die and bloat.


NOW I find out that there are cheat functions we ARE allowed to use, and they are halfway back to my old comfy home, "auto". These are P, AV and TV.

P is almost exactly like auto. The camera chooses the ISO, aperture and shutter speed for you. To be honest I don't really understand any major differences to "auto", (which remains  - like the chocolate on the shelf reserved for ungrateful Halloween urchins - enticingly in plain view but entirely forbidden) except that the camera seems to assume that you don't want to use the flash, and it will allow you to fiddle with the ISO if you wish. This is a great setting to use if you are completely lost and want a starting point for all your settings - just pop it on P, and check in the display to see what the camera chooses.

Lesson 1 - again. Woopsie!

In what is a typical move for me, I have ignored an important issue in my rush to move onto the next big thing. Before I go any further, I must rectify this and talk about aperture.

Aperture refers to the little contraption in the camera that looks like an iris (in the eyeball, not the garden). Open wide means lots of light gets in, and closed up means little.

The really annoying thing is that the numbers on the camera are the opposite way around. Eg aperture F8 is almost closed, and F2.8 floods the light in. Can't believe I have been doing this course for 4 weeks and I still always turn the dial the wrong way.

Lesson 3 - White balance and Focal Point

Thursday last week saw the first true clouds above Dubai since May, and with it came a breeze that silently drove out the blasted humidity. Instead of being 35 degrees celcius and feeling 46, it was 35 with a sea breeze and just enough moisture in the air to make it smell good. This had to be celebrated with Gin and tonic, and much of it. So by the time my next lesson came around I was at the end of a 3-day hangover, and sat in the corner with my sunglasses on for the duration. Fortunately there were handouts, because things are starting to get interesting.

White balance was not my highlight, because this is often automatic and apparently the only 'auto' function we are officially allowed to use. However, it can be particularly useful in creating fake suntans on yourself and completely washing out all your attractive friends. Like black and white photography, it can also be used to create interest in a picture that may be a little dull, which I found while walking around Bastakiya (see assignment 3) - dusty brown walls can become warm teracotta, and cave-like white-washed rooms can become cozy ethnic retreats. It's very simple - just a choice in the function settings - sunny, cloudy, flourescent (my setting - instant bronzing for polar bears), tungsten and flash.

Lesson 1 - Switching off the autopilot

I bought myself a shiny new camera for Christmas. It has heaps of buttons and features, and is too big to put in my pocket. It is so completely intelligent that it can take my holiday moments and freeze them not just as I remember, but even more romantic, spontanious, fairytale and
dramatic. I am now not just a woman who takes photo, this little black box has made me a photographer.

I have found that I am unable to stop looking at my holiday pictures - and it's not only because they make me feel like I am back there, but that they
provide me with an even more perfect view - they are art. But I never even got off the "Auto" setting. Imagine what I could do if I actually knew how to use the other buttons!

And now I am learning. I have stepped into "Manual" mode. Pictures have become "exposures", and light is paramount. My journey follows......

Lesson One - an introduction to shutter speed and aperture. The faster the shutter speed, the smaller the moment in time - look at the water in the fountain. But also the shorter time there is to let light in - so you need to widen the aperture (the iris of the camera) - which ironically is a smaller number when it is open wider. We took pictures in the heat at the Dubai Ladies Club, and got all sweaty and our Prada Sunglasses fogged up only slightly less than our camera lenses.