My camera club's year is winding up. In a couple of weeks we'll have the presentation of our end of year competition. Trophies will be handed out, backs will be slapped and much food and drink will be consumed. It's a big night for the club, and it's always good to look back at the year's best work before we break for Christmas.
An almost equally important fixture on the calendar is the annual portrait workshop in the second-last meeting of the year. Our founding member, Paul, lines up a model for us to photograph, and this year it was his daughter Tessa. She was a delight to work with - very natural and comfortable in front of the camera. Professional models know how to pose and present for the camera, but with others it's important to give them some idea of what you're looking for. That makes it a great opportunity to practice not only our camera skills, but also our communication skills.
Tech Talk
Even though we had what seemed like bright studio lights in action, I was still only getting 1/80 second at f2. Makes you appreciate just how powerful real studio lights are. I was tempted to take the bug 35-100mm f2, but just couldn't be bothered with the bulk. Fortunately, the 50mm f2 macro doubles as a very handy short telephoto macro.
Olymus E-5, Zuiko Digital 50mm f2.0 macro