Kostas, it was Malcolm Smith who wrote that, and not I. However... despite its seemingly simple nature, it was indeed a difficult shot to make, but probably not for reasons that Malcolm even realises. Firstly, I was on the other side of a busy highway when I shot it, with big cattle trains (semi-trailers) passing in between us. Of course, any inkling of a wedding and every truckie takes the opportunity to beep his (very loud) horn at us and to flash his very bright spotlights at us!! Made for a fun atmosphere, but they couldn't hear me and I couldn't hear them for me to give directions, so they were relying on sign language of sorts. The dirt/ground that you see in front of them is actually the dirt edging the side of the bitumen highway. They were only about 2 ft from the road.
Also, it was long after sunset. That shot is very overexposed to give the impression of light, and to increase the colour saturation, but in fact, it was almost dark. I could barely see them to focus and they most definitely couldn't see me. It was shot, handheld with my Tamron 135mm (which equates to a focal length of 203mm on the *istD), f2.5 lens @f2.5 and a speed of 1/10. It was also very windy, making it even harder to hand hold. I positioned them with what was left of the sunset (a mere glow on the horizon) behind me, and I used the AF360fgz, manually at 1/1 for a touch of fill on their faces and fronts, hence the shine on their dresses. So, yep, it was quite a difficult shot, and it is one of my favourites too, but I would be interested to hear why Malcolm, you thought that it was a difficult shot to achieve? I am guessing that your thoughts were different to mine as you couldn't have possibly known the circumstances involved in shooting it. I totally agree with the branches coming out of her head thing and I can't believe that I missed it! I taught some beginner's photography classes last year, and I stressed this point frequently to my students and then went and did the thing myself, AND didn't even notice it! How funny! tan. -----Original Message----- From: Kostas Kavoussanakis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, 13 April 2004 7:17 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: renewed faith in digital... (and a boring show and tell!) On Mon, 12 Apr 2004, Malcolm Smith wrote: > Tanya Mayer Photography wrote: > > > http://www.tanyamayer.com/weddinggalleriesprivate/bean/images/Bean0259.jpg > > > My favourite (and difficult to make). Why difficult? Honest question, Kostas