THE PATH IS SOMETIMES LONG: PART XI: Start Experimenting – Who Knows Where It Could Lead
To this point, I was less that a year into my photography journey. As you can see even in this brief amount of time, I had experienced both highs and lows. My advice: expect them! When you allow yourself to realize everything is not always going to go the way you would like or the way you have planned, it disarms the impact of the disappointments. You will recover much quicker.
In that recovery, you may make discoveries that could only come through the experience of disappointment. Such was my case. I don’t sell my art at the weekend street fairs anymore. I tend to be a quick learner when it comes to work. I soon realized that unless I sell hundreds of dollars of my art, it just wasn’t worth the time and effort. Seriously folks, they may be called “Easy Ups” but there is really nothing easy about it if you’re by yourself!
Now, I am not saying other people haven’t been successful at the weekend art fairs. But for me, I was lucky to break even after my expenses. So, after a few months of this weekly routine, I decided to start experimenting.
I started working on my portrait skills. I began to experiment with different effects. For instance, the image below was accomplished with a few simple camera adjustments:
By simply changing to Manual Mode on my camera, setting my aperture to f/5.6, and then firing a couple of test shots to find the perfect shutter exposure for what I wanted, I captured this amazing image. Now there are a few of you that may be saying, “Wouldn’t it be easier to simply expose for the lighted area, which would give you a similar silhouette?” In doing that, I lost the fine detail of her facial features. When I exposed for the lighted area, the model was completely black. In making my adjustments manually, I have retained just enough of the facial detail to add the expression I desired. Look at that face!! This image is nothing without that detail. The shutter speed I landed on was 1/10 second.
This image was captured at a birthday party where everyone was snapping pictures with their flash and coming up with the typical indoor images you’ve seen a thousand times before. Be different. Experiment. It may pay huge dividends!
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