Reflections

A whirlwind of a week. I recently returned from a week in Disney on what I would call a pseudo vacation > Yes, It was time off, time away from home but we were there for a purpose. My daughters dance team qualified for the National finals held at the Coronado Springs Resort. We ended up having a very successful 4 days of competition. By the time the weekend arrived we were exhausted, but still managed to get in some park time.

I always take LOTS of pictures of the dances, trying to get that perfect action shot. This time around though  I wanted to concentrate on the emotions of the dancers during their routines as well as the compositions and lines of the dancers.  This is not the easiest thing to do when you are half way back in the hall even with a 200mm lens. iso’s of 1600, f2, f2.8, while trying to maintain a shutter speed of 1/400 or more. I seem to be having a problem getting the face crisp, but the rest of the shots are good. I will be experimenting with a monopod come regional time next year to see if that makes a difference.  Even though the wireless was very spotty I did manage to post a “photo of the day” for each of the days we were dancing. This one is from day two.

Naturally I took many shots of the surroundings, the parks and Britt meeting the Disney characters. Our resort had a large lake which provided me with some outstanding opportunities since there were ample amounts of large trees surrounding it.

I have been toying with HDR imaging over the past month and debating on trying a few photos using that process. Other than cropping and straightening I am currently not a believer in post editing and while I do own a couple of software editing programs I have no idea how to use them yet. I am sure the time will come when I must but for now the purist in me wins. HDR is just another tool, combining different exposures into one image, it provides a more artsy feel. Notice – I did not say artistic. Artistic is in the composition, artsy is in the manipulation. If my first result is any indication, I may have to explore this HDR outlet a bit more. All for now.