Hudson Valley Photographer { Artsy Stuff }


August 16th 2021
Hudson Valley Photographer { Artsy Stuff }

Hudson Valley Engagement Photographer

I took this shot while I was doing my wedding shoot with Dave and Julia.  I was actually just trying to figure out what kind of lighting I wanted to use for the couple walking down this alleyway into their reception.  As you can see this is not the exposure I ended up with because it would have been overly dark.  But just as I was playing with exposure and figuring all this stuff out, and this waitress walked passed me.

I knew I had an opportunity to get a really cool photograph of this girl completely back lit and kind of ethereal.  Problem was I was going to have to time it just right.  This is where practicing street photography reall

y helps, because you get a sense for how fast people walk and you’re able to time them in just the right place.

Now  I do want to get into another topic here.  I feel like a lot of photographers would take this as some opportunity to talk about some deeper meaning that they were going for, about how this is a shot about the struggle of humanity, or that this photograph speaks to their inner child, or some other goofy story.  Me on the other hand realize that this is just a lucky photograph.  I was in the right time at the right place.  I had my camera on settings that I had already set up by accident.  And there was nothing else to do besides pull the trigger.  For some reason photographers who talk about deeper meaning on shots that are so obviously happenstance has really been bugging me lately.

(steps down off soap box)

Exposure:

1/800 sec

Aperture:

f/3.5

Focal Length:

70 mm

ISO Speed:

640

I’m actually surprised at how fast the shutter is.  I hadn’t looked at the exif until just now.  I guess really the reason that the girl looks like there is some version of motion blur is more because she’s just so out of focus, and my 24-70 has such great bokeh that it makes her look super smooth.  See what I mean, obviously this wasn’t a planned shot.

Anyways I hope you like it.

-Dave