I came in 1st place in one of the challenges sponsored by dpreview.com. I’ve entered a few (and placed 2nd, 13th, and, um, 86th), but when I saw the theme was “Capturing Melancholy,” I knew this was a challenge meant for me ;)
And you know what that means: my photo featured on the front page of dpreview.com on the same week the K7 is released, whoo-hoo!
#362 of 365: Bereft, originally uploaded by aravis121.
(Note: my laptop bit the dust for real yesterday, only two weeks after we managed to bring it back to life. Until I get a new computer, I’ll be at the mercy of whatever I can get my hands on…so there might not be regular updates this week)
I had an idea for a photo in a location I’d been to several months ago. There was a room with a mirror, and I wanted to do a shot of my reflection in that mirror (I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t inspired by Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror,” a song that really struck a chord with me back in my college days).
On the way up to the 8th floor where this room with the mirror was, I caught sight of the way the light was hitting the stairs. Needless to say, I never made it past the 6th story, where this photo was taken.
The set-up was tricky. I’d brought the tripod and remote, luckily, but even with the tripod perched precariously on the edge of the steps and with my widest rectilinear lens attached to the K200D, the composition wasn’t quite how I wanted it. What I needed was to actually tilt the camera down more…in other words, I needed to lean the camera out over a six-story abyss, with nothing but a concrete floor below to break a fall.
I’m scared of heights. Not a lot of people know it, and I like to pretend I’m tough, so I routinely do things that terrify me just to save face. But here I was alone, completely alone, so I _could_ have chickened out and no one would have been the wiser.
Instead, I ignored the long drop down and very carefully took out my neckstrap on one side. Then I wound it three times around the handrail. Then I carefully put it back in, leaning way over the railing to be able to see the tiny places the strap had to be wound through. Where the camera was placed was almost completely dark, so I had to do a lot of this with only touch. The temperature was probably easily 100°F inside this stairwell. Sweat was dripping off my nose, and I just had to make myself not look down.
After about 10 minutes, I finally had the camera attached securely to the rail and could lean it over without worrying about the fall. Then it was just a simple matter of putting it in the ´3-second remote mode, running down the stairs to this point, getting into position, and pressing the remote.
I post-processed this in about five minutes, exported the file to my external hard drive, and uploaded. Less than ten minutes later, my laptop died.
I feel truly bereft without my online world to keep me company.
#361 of 365: Echeveria, originally uploaded by aravis121.
There’s still a lot that my camera can do that I haven’t fully explored, so perhaps before I think about getting a K7, I should try to master my K200D :)
I decided to finally do catch-in focus. This is easiest to do with manual-focus lenses but can be done with auto-focus lenses if the correct contact is covered up (I haven’t tried this).
For my purposes, I used a Revuenon 55/1.2. Basically, I just put it on the camera and set the aperture to what I wanted (in this case, f/1.2). I manually focused to a point about .7 meters away. I put the camera in M mode so I could also control the shutter speed.
Next it was time to dive into the menu. On the K200D, you press “Menu” then the LEFT arrow to go to “Custom Settings.” Pressing the UP arrow three times will take you to the “Catch-In Focus” option, which is #22 on the Custom Settings menu. Next press the RIGHT arrow key. There are exactly two choices:
1 Off
2 On
For our purposes, we’re going to choose “On,” so press the DOWN arrow then “OK.” A quick half-press of the shutter, and we’re on our way!
Once you depress the shutter fully and hold the shutter button down, the mirror won’t flip until something comes into focus at that pre-specified point (in my scenario, the point exactly .7 meters away). I noticed that you cannot choose different auto-focus points even if you have that option turned on – you’re left with the center point. Also, the more slowly you can move something into the autofocus range, the better (although since I was dealing with such a huge aperture, the depth-of-field calculator tells me my range for having something in focus was only .01 meters!).
Because my photo was a self-portrait, I also used the 12-second timer and tried to keep the plant in position as I triggered the shutter with one hand and then moved into position for what I wanted the shot to be. It took me many, many tries to get everything right.
I’ll definitely be trying this technique more, particularly with macros.