I see far too many outdoor shots where the ISO is inappropriate because I neglected to change it after shooting indoors.  And snow during the day just overexposes everything so it wasn’t necessary.

To counteract that I think I’m going to shoot manual for a while and get back into the check settings, compose, and shoot workflow that I had when I didn’t worry about focal lengths.

So out I go, not out of panic or snow related emergency, but just because it’s time to pick up toilet paper.  It happens from time to time.

Checklist.  Snow boots, jeans, parka, hat, empty backpack, camera.

I take a lot of pictures this errand.  Most unusual for picking up toilet paper at the CVS down the street.  Usually I don’t take any.  But today is different.  Today the district is still digging out from two to three feet of snow in some places.  And tomorrow, there will be more snow.  I will bring my camera and take pictures of whatever catches my eye.

There are a few things.  Icicles three feet long hanging from the eaves of the retirement home.  Plowed snow taller than I am.  Cars still entombed in snow.  Improvised snowmen on the corners.

But I need toilet paper, so I get in line at the drugstore and get it.  Then I walk home.

It doesn’t feel like history.  But I guess it never does.

His clothes were from a more civilized era.  H’s wearing a waistcoat, tie, a proper hat and an overcoat.  Also, galoshes.

I’m wearing a pair of North Face snow boots and jeans, my “comrade” hat and a parka.

What catches my eye is what he’s cradling in his arms.

A film camera, wrapped in leather, hanging directly from a small thin strap.

My hand subconsciously drops to my DSLR, hung to the side of my waist by a strap that goes across my chest.

I take a few more steps then turn around.  He’s turned to look at me as well.  I wave and he waves back.

“Enjoy!”  I say.

He nods.  “I will.”

There was a bit of time when I did go shooting though.  Lots and lots of nearly overexposed pictures.  Hoping that tomorrow is a warmer, more accessible experience.

With the 75mm, what I’m capturing is a lot smaller.  I know exactly how much of what I can see is going to be recorded to the sensor.  In this case, if I extend my arms directly in front of my shoulders and make a frame with my thumb and forefinger on each hand, that’s how much the D70 is going to capture.

It’s kind of amusing.  All this time I thought people were just being pretentious when they did that.  Now I know they were just seeing how much they could get with an 80mm lens.

Specifically, with my D70 I’ve learned a couple of things.

1. My filter tends to create green ghosts of light on the frame directly opposite the location of the light source.  If I remove the filter for indoor shooting, the ghosts do not show up.
2. At 1600 ISO all of my low light shots tend to look like I’ve shot them and then post processed them as sepia toned images.  (Too “warm.”)  Correcting the white balance in post can sometimes fix this.
3. The battery I have can keep the camera on for an average of eight hours a day for about three weeks, shooting an average of six or seven shots a day.
4. I’ve used the on camera flash to illuminate a subject a total of zero times.  On the other hand, I’ve used it as a flash commander for the self portrait juggling shots indoors.
5. The remote timer setting only lasts five seconds, regardless of whether or not I’ve set it to twenty seconds in the menu.
6. Walking creates the opportunities I need to take photographs.  Staying at home and working in my office do not.
7. No pictures of people, surprisingly.

It’s a heavy thing, a black polycarbonate brick that one hefts to eye level.  I both appreciate and curse that weight, depending on the situation.  The solid feel of the camera lends a credence to its existence in the real world, that it can somehow interact with light and make it permanent.  It can’t though.

All it does is take measurements and shift bits.  A lot of them.  In thousandths of a second.

There’s no chemical process that results in a physical object.  No negative, no paper, no developer, no fixative, no finished product.  Just more bits that get displayed on a screen, dependent on that screen’s size, and color depth and brightness to try to convey the moment through electric impulses.

It’s all an ephemeral stream of data.  Like the very moment it’s trying to capture.

In fact, the data is so ephemeral that it can’t even last a day on the compact flash card.  I am well aware of the fact that there are adult mayflies that have longer lives than some of the image data I’ve tried to acquire recently.  Looking up some open source tools, I guess that hope springs eternal in the human breast.

I guess that’s the whole point of the exercise though.   I’m getting a little bit better at looking at the lighting conditions and then making a judgment about aperture and shutter speed.  Ideally, I’d have the laptop out there connected to the camera so that I could see results right away, but that’s too much equipment so I eyeball it most of the time on the small screen.

I guess juggling isn’t really a good summary type activity for self portraits, although it does give me a chance to look like I’m focusing on not dropping things.

Full disclosure: These were taken with a construction site in the background.  It’s American University, in the tiny clump of cherry trees just to the side of the School of International Service.  I had to get creative with the framing, but if you look carefully, you can see Nebraska Avenue in the background and the trailers for the construction company.

This photo shoot just makes me want to get a second SB-600.  I’ll have to cruise the Ritz Camera closings and see if one shows up for a decent price.

I got some great pictures of people in their kimono as well as some street action.  I enjoy working with people to get portrait although I’m still working on my framing.  I really want a second flash now, I think I’m at the point where I could really use another one for creative lighting.  I did get some great shots during the magic minute yesterday and they look great.

While I have other hobbies, I have a special love for photography because it’s rewarding.

Hearing, “Oh wow,” after I show someone their picture always makes me smile.

That’s why there’s nothing so unnerving to me as the thought of losing pictures, the tiny slices of time and light that I worked so hard to get.  Or alternately, paid zero attention to craftsmanship and took anyway.  Either way they’re still important.

Which reminds me it’s time to do a backup of this machine.

And everyone, please do a back up of your computer.