Taking Her Down

November 11, 2006

It's funny how one can often tell how good a photo will be before the actual image appears on the LCD, or before chimping later. You see exactly what's going on before and after the photo is taken, but during the exposure the viewfinder is simply black. However, sometimes that blackout period just feels right and when you review the image the LCD will confirm that it worked out.

Composition and focus are the most critical real-time elements to achieve that are not automatically chosen by the camera*, and I think that most of the photographer's skill lay in the ability to achieve those two aspects. When the action is fast, I get these two right about 10% of the time.

* Auto-focus on a particular spot is automatic within the camera, but picking the spot isn't.