I Am Not a Pro

Delusions of grandeur are as good as a prerequisite for achievement, shoot for the moon live among the stars and all that. But there is such a thing as the limits of my ability, and digital manual focus shooting friends at a music festival, or more accurately during SXSW, walking back up South Congress after a dinner of Torchy's Tacos, stopping by a cowboy hat shop trying on cowboy hats while a rockabilly band rocked out like nobody's business.

Look closely, the subject is out of focus and the guitarist is in focus. Exactly opposite how it should be. Because I had manual focus set to three meters instead of one. Using manual focus at night is a pro trick street shooting technique and hella difficult to keep up with, where the focus is all the time, are you shooting close or shooting far? Do you even know? So what should have been a focus distance of half a meter was more like, she's blurry and the rockabilly guitar is clear as day.

I may as well have used a cell phone. Except for the extra color depth and contrast I was able to use to turn a slightly out of focus picture into a more artistic soft focus.

From now on I'll use autofocus like a normal person, with the full-press snap option, itself a neat semi-pro trick.

Ricoh GR Zone Focusing Tips for Street Photography

Camera Straps

If your camera has a wrist strap, always put it around your wrist before taking a picture. Yes, you may drop the camera, but you might also do this.

Notice the rainbow? No, of course not, because a big blurry camera strap is in the way!

Found My Pot o' Gold

There's a treasure in every book.

The one time I don't bring a real camera, this beautiful full rainbow appears, and at the end of the rainbow, a bookstore. Each book a treasure, and a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Sure, a smartphone can record it, but a smartphone just doesn't have the dynamic range or color depth needed for challenging lighting conditions, or the subtlety of a rainbow's colors. There simply aren't enough photons hitting that tiny camera sensor.

Not as vibrant as it could have been. But it'll have to do.