My evening with a model

Since I started traveling, I became more interested in photography.  Many people have far more pictures of themselves than I do, as my first thought in most situations is not "hey, I should get a picture of myself here."  I'm more interested in landscapes and architecture.  It's not that I disdain portraiture.  It's just that mountains and churches don't get nervous when you point a camera at them.  I actually loved portraiture back in college, but more of the candid kind.  Usually, as soon as you point a camera at someone, he/she instantly makes a face or strikes a pose never actually used except when being photographed.  With landscapes, you're always taking a candid.

I like constructing decent photographs, but I've never actually been shown how to do it until now.  I was browsing groups on meetup.com, and I saw a photography group saying "no experience necessary."  I matched the qualifications perfectly.  I have a basic DSLR, but I have no idea how it really works, so I decided to go be among people that do.  This group actually includes several pro and semi-pro photographers that get together to talk shop, share lenses, and share creative ideas.  The organizer is a professional with his own studio space, so he hires models, brings them in, sets up the equipment, and everyone chips in for the fees.  Basically, I got to work with a professional model, have a professional photographer set up the space and the lighting, and just shoot away under ideal conditions.  I was surrounded by people who make at least a partial living with their cameras, so they schooled me on what lenses work best for what conditions and what the different settings on my camera actually do.  One guy even let me use a couple of his lenses so I could see just what they did.  It was awesome. "Try before you buy," he said. "That's why we're here."

I didn't think I'd enjoy a modelling shoot so much, but I guess it just takes the right model.  Briony was beautiful and obviously a pro, and I took a few hundred pictures as a result.  There were three different outfits/settings with time for everyone of the 8 of us that were there to be the primary photographer twice for each outfit/setting.  I got to take some pictures, look at the results, fiddle with the settings, and take some more.  Most of my first shots were way too bright, but even that can be pretty.

This was a very bright shoot, which was apparently the problem for me.  I always associated shutter speed first with brightness, as that's what I can hear changing on my camera.  The folks around me saw what I was doing and told me shutter speed makes no difference with a flash. The f-stop (aperture size) and iso (sensor sensitivity) are the main things I had to adjust.  I found my shots making Briony slightly angelic.  At first, I was a tad shy about taking too many pictures, but that faded quickly.

This one above was really just a timing issue on my part, as I was taking pictures while not controlling the flash (the flash control is attached to whomever is primary photographer at the time).  I adjusted the brightness to accommodate, and I just happened to catch a shot when the flash was going.  It made an oddly pleasing photo.  It kinda looks like an album cover to me.

By the time Bri changed into a new outfit, I got a bit more comfortable adjusting my settings and even directing her a little bit.  I had noticed that everyone else had definite ideas about where they wanted her and what they wanted her doing.  When I suggested something, I half expected either Bri or the other photographers to say "Nah, I don't think that would work."  But, she went with whatever I said. Directing her felt like directing kids in a play.  I just went with my gut and learned as I went.  Any time I heard other people taking pictures, I thought to myself "Sweet, I thought of a good one!"

One random idea I tried was having her standing next to the bed, as above.  My new friends helped me rearrange the space to accommodate new lighting needs. They especially liked the light coming through the fabric, accentuating her form underneath.  As a result, I was in the middle of a paparazzi moment with 6 or 7 cameras all shooting at once, with one or two right by my head to get nearly the same angle I'd chosen.  That was a fun moment.

The first two shoots were extremely bright, so when Bri changed again, they put her in a very dark environment.  Since there was no flash to control, everyone just basically took shots at the same time.  They shared pose ideas, which was really fun to listen to.  I just enjoyed watching them work while I tried to figure out how to get the right settings on my camera.  Actually, everyone was, which made me feel good.  People were showing off good shots to each other and saying what settings they'd used.  This was more of a challenge to get right, but I got a couple keepers.

I don't think I quite got it right, but practice makes perfect. They were using a directional hand-held LED lamp, so getting used to that was a challenge.  They'd point it at her, then away, then at a reflector.  It changed the lighting conditions a lot, so it kept me thinking, looking at my screen after a shot, making adjustments, and trying again.  By this time, one person had lent me a nice zoom lens to try, and it allowed me to stay in one place while I played with settings.  Mostly, I tried to get balanced shots, but it was a lot to think about as conditions and poses changed.  I actually found that I liked the middle shot that shows the directional lamp pointed at her.  The shadows made it kind of fun.

Briony was a fabulous model with whom to work, and the other photographers were very helpful, so I had a great night overall.  The only downside is that I now know I'm going to want a better lens.

My social life starts with sports

It's incredible how much I miss American sports.  Watching the NFL actually makes me feel a little closer to home, and yet it also makes me miss everyone I used to watch the games with.  At least I can watch the NFL, though.  It's on early enough in the day.  I can't see the NHL or college basketball. I couldn't watch the Pirates in the playoffs. I've never considered myself a sports fanatic.  I always loved my Pittsburgh teams, but I didn't live and die by them.  Now, I realize how much a part of my social life the games were, and how relaxing it was to watch my games while pretending to do work at home.  Sports are a very cultural and local thing.  I've watched a couple Premier League soccer games here, but they don't excite me.  I appreciate the physicality of rugby, but I don't enjoy watching it.  Cricket just makes no damn sense at all. Still, I've met people that swear by each one of them, calling their preferred sport a "proper sport." I find it fascinating seeing what sports people grow up with and are passionate about, yet have no real effect on me.  Every community, every culture has a signature sport or two.  I think in America we have more than most.  It's a rare day that doesn't have some televised sporting event going on.

So many of my social gatherings involved sports.  During the fall, I'd see my friends mostly on Sunday during football games.  During the winter and spring, it was hockey.  In the summer, so many trips are scheduled that social time is difficult, but usually someone organizes a day or two to get everyone to a baseball game. The funny thing is that we don't even watch the games sometimes, but they are always the most convenient excuse for getting people together.  I normally get jittery in big groups, but not during the Super Bowl or March Madness.  Those were my two biggest social events of the year, and I never missed them.  When all my guy friends wanted to get together for a road trip, it was for basketball at Madison Square Garden.  The one surefire way of getting Tommy and Dad down to Annapolis was to see a Navy game, especially when Pitt came to town.  The most social I've ever been at work was when George organized "the soccer" after school on Fridays.  Right now, it kills me that the Super Bowl will immediately be followed by the Sochi Olympics, and I won't be watching either at the Billy Bar.

So, oddly enough, one of the most challenging parts of adjusting to a new country is getting used to new sports. Even if I'm not a fanatic nor very athletically inclined, my social life has tended to revolve around sports. As it happens, I wandered into a pub nearby advertising Sky Sports.  I asked if they showed NFL games, and that led to a nice long conversation with the bartender and the manager.  When I wandered over to the pool tables, I found myself quickly in conversation with a small group of guys that invited me to join the game.  It was the most comfortable and effortless social situation I'd found in a while, and it revolved around talking about football and playing pool.