I got the chance to do this with a 100-400 telephoto lens after class this past Tuesday, since I missed the workshop due to a subject interview for another class. I spent about 45 minutes going around the IMU area looking for people and, more importantly, scenes, that I could capture. I ended up getting some pretty decent photos for such a heavy lens. (I definitely thought there would be more blur, since my hands must have been shaking the entire time.)
The hardest part, as with workshop 7, was approaching people. I had an easier time since I was coming right off of class, but it was still hard to approach people due to my naturally shy nature. Many of the people around the IMU were very receptive, though, and that meant that my new challenge was with lighting. Outside it was very bright, right at midday, while inside the IMU was very dark, and a lot of my images from inside turned out grainy.
Of the two images of Marissa, the first one is my “extra.” I liked this one because of the fire and how the heated air warps the chair in the background. I also thought it was a nice departure from some of the other photos I’ve taken lately. The other photo is isolation from afar. This was the hardest shot to get, and I ended up getting it by standing on the railing of the stairs going up to the rear entrance of the IMU. I was terrified the entire time that I would either fall and hurt myself or break the camera. Luckily I got up and down safely, but I wish I had beedn able to get farther to emulate the example shown in the slides.
Erika and Emma were very receptive to my meddling, and while they would laugh a little bit every time I moved around to get a different angle, I eventually got a pretty okay middle-focus shot. One of the problems I had with the lens was keeping it steady, which led to a lot of my framing being off due to my hands shaking. In the future, I will definitely keep a tripod around for a big lens like this.
My next image of Payton had a similar problem, in that she was laughing a lot when I was trying to photograph her. Another issue was the dark room with the bright lamp right by her head. This was one of the very noisy images, and I ended up just correcting it in Photoshop. It isn’t the best example, but it’s what I was able to get for compressed distance.
Finally I realized I didn’t have anything good for short distance, I had a close-up of Marissa, but I decided to enlist one more student to get that last image. Dylan ended up being that student, and while he wasn’t sitting next to anyone, I was able to isolate him from his laptop, which was better than nothing. I kind of like that image, but I wish I had moved just a bit over so he wasn’t in the middle.
Overall for this assignment I really liked playing with the massive lens. I don’t know if I would necissarily go back to the 100-400, but I would definitely look into experimenting with maybe a shorter (and lighter!) lens in the future. I still have a ways to go in terms of tightening up my compositions and being able to approach strangers, but I’m definitely improving.