Money, Shot

I had the pleasure of photographing social media personality Crystal Gibson’s birthday party yesterday evening. It’s not easy to balance photography with eating and socializing, but it’s also not impossible. At one point, the guests started assembling for a group shot; under normal circumstances, this would be cause for excitement. However, due to my autofocus-disabled Nifty Fifty lens and an unfavourable lighting situation, my chances of shooting a good shot were slim.

Picture the situation: me, my camera gear and eleven people – including the birthday girl herself – expecting me to take the shot of my life. Since I was shooting in manual mode (as I usually do), getting the settings right was an absolute must.

After muttering what must have been the shortest prayer of my life thus far, I photographed my first attempt. The resulting shot was too dark and probably unfocused; when I let the guests know that, a few of them weren’t too pleased. Still, they were gracious enough to give me a second attempt, which was also darker than I would have liked. Fortunately, it was focused enough that TK would live to see another day; the guests also liked it.

Naturally, I still had to address the lighting situation in my outdated copy of Photoshop Elements 4.0 in order to produce this final result.



If I could do it all over again, I would have used my other lens. Then again, this little victory would not have been as sweet as it is.