Gotta Be Fast!
Submitted by My Viewfinder Blog
In Billy Crystal’s imitation of Muhammad Ali, he has Ali saying, “I’m so fast, I can turn the light off and be in bed before it gets dark!” I have to be almost that fast to get a decent photo of my oldest daughter, Heather. She hates having her picture taken, and is never cooperative with my attempts to get a decent portrait of her.
To get this one required stealth, and cat-like reflexes. And a lot of luck. We were on a short hike, and we were walking over a footbridge that I thought would be a nice setting for a portrait. I was about ten paces ahead of her. I set my zoom lens to it’s shortest focal length (35mm) because I knew I wouldn’t have time to compose a tight shot. I knew I could crop for a better composition later. When I thought she would be about where I wanted her on the bridge, I whipped around, raised the camera to my eye and fired. I caught her off guard, and before she could raise her hands to block the shot, I got it. She protested, “Dad! Stop that!”, but it was too late; I had my photo. And I even got a good expression. Yeah, ol’ Dad’s still got some moves! (Click on photo to enlarge)
Because both of us were in motion when I pressed the shutter release, so there was a little motion blur. I’ve learned it’s often best not to try to correct this, but instead, soften the image slightly so the blur doesn’t look so much like blur. I used the “Pumice Golden Girl” filter in Virtual Photographer to convert the color original to a softer, toned B&W in one step. I don’t know where they come up with the crazy filter names in Virtual Photographer, but I like the results!
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