Yesterday I went out for the first time since the Corona crisis with the photo club. After all, that too had been halted by the measures that had been imposed. No meetings with several people together, keep a meter and a half away, and name all the 'rules' that were intended to prevent the spread of Corona.
Because I live here in a part of the Netherlands where a lot of Corona ruled, we were in a so-called Corona hotspot, the rules were taken very seriously by the people of the photo club, which meant for the entire club that all meetings were canceled. And even though I was not that long a member of this club. Still, I missed the meetings more than I could have estimated beforehand. And the assignments we normally do for the club were also dropped, which also played a part in 'losing' the inspiration and motivation to continue to experiment and create new images.
The annual exhibition that I really looked forward to has also been canceled due to the Corona period. That was a big disappointment for all club members, but we hope to be able to organize something for that in the autumn. Otherwise it will be next spring… which is not nice, but to take a positive look, it does give everyone more chance to make beautiful images with a view to the exhibition.
But now back to yesterday. So we had a club meeting for the first time since March. This time not in the clubhouse but in the open air. This in view of the Corona rules that still apply. Even though a lot of rules have been relaxed in the meantime, there are also rules that remain intact, such as keeping a distance of 1.5 meters. For the Corona rules that the Dutch must adhere to, an emergency law is currently being developed that will replace the emergency regulations ... and which will therefore also give more power to the government. Let me disregard my opinion of that.
The evening was super fun yesterday. Of course we all had enough to talk after we hadn't seen each other since March, and it was super fun to catch up with everyone again. Hear how everyone has lived and spent this time. And I also heard a kind of feeling of 'regained freedom'. Which I could agree with a bit. It just felt good to be together with a group of people again, and to engage in a common hobby. Photography.
Because in the end that was what we came together for. We would do a workshop flash techniques. Because everything was kept outside, we were unfortunately only dependent on the weather, and let it be just this year in the Netherlands a summer with a lot of rain. Unfortunately yesterday was no exception. The chairman of the club had thought about canceling the workshop again because the weather forecast for the evening was not favorable at all. Again rain was expected. But the trade-off he made was to let it go anyway, and see how it went. In case of heavy rain it would all be cleaned up quickly enough.
Now I must say that I was very happy that this workshop was not canceled, because even though I have been shooting for years, I never actually use my external flash! Why not? With flash, there are plenty of extra options. Well, for the simple reason that after all these years I had never invested enough time to fully explore the possibilities… and maybe a bit of laziness on my own not to have to carry it all along. A bag with camera, some lenses and some accessories can be heavy enough. In addition, a flash and tripod ... it was often just TOO much trouble for me. And often I also reason that I don't need it. And there is also some truth in that. I don't really NEED it. But yesterday I saw again that it does give an extra boost to your photo. ALSO if you photograph outside under lighting conditions that do not immediately give a necessity for flashes.
I definitely have to go further with all these possibilities to find out… because yesterday evening unfortunately the rain drew a line through the evening. I have not been able to take many photos to test the different techniques, we did not get further than taking a photo with a fill-in flash.
However, what we have seen… but were unable to practice ourselves anymore was 'flashing away your background', using color filters on your flash where you are going to give the background a different color and the subject is the normal color. You have to use a gray card to measure your color temperature. It is a pity that I cannot post photos of this ... But unfortunately we did not get any further than the explanation yesterday evening and an example made by the person who gave the explanation while we were all watching his camera.
Lol… speaking of keeping a distance, we had already forgotten that within 3 minutes after the start of the workshop. And within 5 minutes we were all close together to look at the back of 1 camera. Which proves once again for me, photography is not a hobby where keeping 1.5 meters away is NORMAL. And for me it will never be. It is not that it is impossible, on the contrary! But if you get an explanation and look at a camera to see how something works, you can't stand a meter and a half away from it. If you control a model and want to change something, you cannot keep a distance of 1.5 meters. In fact, I don't even want that!
Soon after I have experimented a bit more with the flash techniques, I will try to write a tutorial about it. Because it is a nice challenge to take on. Maybe this will help for me to get my inspiration back again. After all it is something new to me … And I feel it as a step to take my photos to the next level.
