Was doing a little scouting with cousin to see her wedding venue. It’s small and cozy, and I was a little uncomfortable with the close proximity of things but after a while I warmed towards some ideas on what I could take.

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I hardly use my big ass Nikon DSLR, but when I do, I realise how versatile it is in terms of quick adjustments and image quality. The weight is a plus and minus as it’s too heavy and bulky to carry discreetly and comfortably around. On the other hand, that hefty weight means I can jam it against my cheek bone and get sharp images as slow as 1/20s when I want to drag the shutter.

Have grown comfortable using flash in my photos, although these days I prefer to use it in manual mode, just because it gives more control. For events, I think exposure compensation is the best bet, unless it’s indoors and I’m not switching between drastically different lighting situations. Helped Vyanne take a passport photo this morning. Quickly put up the umbrella and took some sample photos of myself. There were some heavy shadows underneath my chin so I devised a quick lighting mod by getting some kitchen foil and asking her to hold it close to her just out of the frame. That helped soften the shadows a bit and the other unexpected plus was a little extra catch light in the eyes from the foil I discovered while post editing.

With learning stuff, sometimes you have to figure out the right questions to ask so that you can sort of resolve the puzzle to move on to the next level. I have some ideas on testing out lighting and I’ll probably need to try it soon to add to my arsenal of tricks.

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Been also testing out 5.1 surround sound at home after borrowing some speakers. The effects are awesome, but I probably need to let the receiver do some adjustments to get the best output from the speakers. I’m re-watching some movies and I pick up all these little details in sound that were not previously evident as they were very subtle. At times I hear things and turn around, as if I heard something else in the room before I realise it was a sound effect from the movie itself. Heh, it’s just so awe inspiring listening to a soundtrack the way it’s supposed to be heard in a movie theatre.