Larry--these are great! Nice work! Cheers, Christine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Colen" <l...@red4est.com>
To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <pdml@pdml.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 3:16 AM
Subject: aiki photography, or "yeah, I meant to do that".
Yesterday, a friend of mine tested for second degree black belt in aikido.
As long as I was there, I took photos of the two belt tests.
It was a very challenging venue to photograph, as sunlight from the two
skylights hit the wall, and some of the mat behind the action. There was
one spot, where I could shoot from the side, and avoid the patches of
light, but then I wasn't sitting with the other students, and I was
worried the sensei wouldn't call on me to participate in my friend's test.
As it turns out, the sensei was so focused on the test, he forgot that I
was there and only called members of the dojo.
In any event, I did my best to work around shooting into the light, as
well as trying various exposures, whether it was way underexposing on the
people so as to reduce overexposure in the hot spots, or just exposing for
the people, bright background be damned.
In retrospect, when I processed the photos, I practiced the principles of
aikido and rather than trying to fight the hot spots, I went with them,
often using the dodge tool to white out large expanses of the background
to meld with the blown out sections. In one case I went for extreme
contrast, blowing out everything light, or in the background, and bringing
the people full dark. Just out of a sense of perversity, I did my best to
maintain the blue of the mat, so that the only color in the photo, is
something that's almost irrelevant to the action.
The result of my thrash to deal with the horrid lighting was the sensei
posting this comment to my facebook post of the link to the pictures:
"Your work is amazing! I love your photos of the test, including the
effects that emerged when you shot into the sunlight on the wall. These
are some of my favorite aikido photos ever, and I'm really looking forward
to posting some of them on the website."
So, it's funny how you can make the best of a bad situation, and if you
don't mention that it wasn't what you meant to do all along, rather than
being complimented for making the results not suck too bad, someone can be
really impressed and think that you're a creative genius.
I wasn't going to post the set, because with all of the technical
difficulties I had, I wasn't really please with any of the shots, but
since I was so amused by Nick's reaction....
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157626831857291/
--
Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est
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