[Iksobarg]

My family and I went to our good friend's 2yo girl's bday party. Beautiful setup, cake buffet, nice times right? Well it was and it wasn't.


My Cam-mojo was off or something.


I took the k30, the Tam17-50, my newly beloved 55/1.2 Revuenon and a external flash. All seemed well until I realized that both swapping out the lenses and adjusting exposure/flash (it was pretty mid to low light) was challenging. I spose I could have just stuck with one lens until I decided I would stay with the other to the end of the party. I must have swapped out at least six times.

The other guests, two couples with small children, were friendly and were encouraging about my pic taking (they asked about my kit and said they were glad someone was taking pics) of which some were of their children.


As all seemed well it wasn't as I was taking post-shot quick peeks and was realizing I blew some shots.

In the end I 1) overexposed a few (kinda bad flash on a lady with glasses, last pic kids cheeks are overexposed) - I was using a diffuser on the k30 flash as I decided I did not want to use the external flash for fear or repercussions from my wife from flashing too much gear; she had already given me "the look" that I was shooting too much, nobody else seemed to have a problem as I was checking for reactions) , 2) OOF'd a few subjects (liveview focusing with the 55/1.2 in dimming light was not happening).


After looking at the results (~150 shots over 2 hours) I did nail a a lot more than not, however I was nonetheless disappointed for blowing what should have been really beautiful shots of some of the kids.


Now in hindsight I think I was being hard on myself simply because a beautiful photo means so much to me. I did send pics of the respective children to their parents who were thankful despite my saying I was sorry for some issues I found.

I did also realize I have a beautiful DA*50-135 sitting here in my mothership camera bag that I further realized would have been perfect for such an occasion.


I'll keep working on my manual skills.


Photos follow, some goodies but the baddies are my "focus."
I've already deleted the super overexposed ones but left the OOF for an salvage operation.
I'll come back and add/edit pic comments further just in case that's necessary.

Thanks for condolences and any encouragement in advance!
And please, your funny anecdotes, stories are appreciated!

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Last edited by Iksobarg; 11-19-2013 at 04:21 PM. Reason: editing content

[Miguel]

This feels familiar.
Speaking as a parent and as a corporate event photographer, I learned that at family gatherings and young kid parties efficiency matters more than artful shots.Just like work. Kids squirm too much to tolerate manual focus and the changing of lenses. Your Tamron and a reliable flash (diffused light helps) with a good thyristor for "Auto" use or, if you are lucky to have PTTL working well, should get you good snapshots that will please everyone


M

[stevebrot]

Love the giant photos. So glad that I have a wall-sized monitor!

[Ex Finn.]

These are fine. Can you imagine if it had been a wedding