I went for a walk yesterday afternoon, under the I-44 bridge. For the … what? … one hundredth and first time? I felt like I was covering ground I’ve already covered. A lot. Because, let’s face it, I was.
On the other hand, though, I’ve never gone under the I-44 bridge with this spiffy new lens, with its 18mm wide angle and wonderful sharpness.
Also, I think I’m a better photographer now than I was the last time I took pictures under the bridge.
Then, last night I tried hand-held night-time skyline shots. I learned that I can manage hand-held down to about 1/4th of a second, with reasonable results. And if I take 3-4 pictures of the same thing, I have an even better chance of getting one that I like. Shutter speeds close to a full second, though, are still rather hopeless hand-held. I’m thinking I should invest in a monopod, and see what slow I can go with one of those.
Still, it’s amazing to be able to shoot hand-held at 1/8th to 1/4th of a second. Before I had this lens, about 1/30th was the slowest I could manage with any hope of success. 1/20th if I was steadfastly lucky. So, three cheers for the march of technology. Technology will make a photographer out of me yet.
I met a friend at The Gypsy Coffeehouse in downtown Tulsa tonight. I had my camera with me because I wanted to test my new 18-200 VR lens on the lights of downtown. Little did we realize, but it was “Open Mic Night” at the Gypsy. And is, every Tuesday. So I pulled out the camera and tried a few hand held low-light shots. Overall, the “VR” (vibration reduction) part of the lens did great. Now, if I could just get the people to sit *still*. I did get a few shots of the lights from outside the Gypsy. I’m planning to give downtown Tulsa a thorough night tour soon. And I’ll probably come back for another Open Mic Night, and pick me a better seat for shooting the participants.
Because, yah, some of them need to be shot.
The lady with the mic below, though, isn’t one of those. She was the gem of the evening. I wish I could remember her name.
