Legs & Millie

Saturday was the debut for two members of my photography team: Legs (my tripod) and Millie (my wireless controller). Due to the extra bulk of carrying a tripod on public transit, I came very close to leaving it home - but I'm glad I didn't.

My first stop was Freedom Clothing Collective for Robin Angell's appearance at Designer Saturdays. I was expecting it to be similar to Jane Haselgrove's shoot in that I'd photograph her, a few of her items and the clerk in attendance (*still moving*'s Amy Jill Snook). On this night, however, they started hamming it up for my camera and modelling different pieces. It's not what I asked for, but I wasn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth.

While shooting the photos with the help of Legs and Millie, I noticed a few weaknesses about using this setup. First, due to the fact that I was using a tripod for the first time, precious seconds were sometimes spent in figuring out which handle controlled the desired direction I wanted to move in. That weakness will be less keenly felt with time and practice. Second, after a few minutes of downtime or turning the camera off, it reverted to the single exposure option instead of staying on remote control mode. This made for more than a few embarrasing moments; if my models weren't so patient, I might have lost this gig. Third, having only three focus points makes for a lot of difficulty with manually focusing and recomposing photographs. Having said that, the obliteration of camera shake is definitely worth the trouble.

After this shoot was done, I headed to Yonge-Dundas Square thinking that I'd at least take a few pictures of the Christmas tree. I did that, but as I was packing up, this thought hit me: since I finally have a tripod and wireless controller, why not go fully manual and try shots with long exposures?

To make a long story short, a brief detour turned into an hour-long passionate experience. After Saturday, the sky is not the limit anymore - it's the bare minimum.