Sometimes beautiful people zoom into and out of your field of vision very, very quickly. Few things are as frustrating to a photographer as missing a good shot of a beautiful stranger. Mostly I miss things because I don't anticipate events very well. Sometimes I miss a shot because mycamera wasn't ready. It was turned off, or "asleep" or the lens was capped. Sometimes I miss shots because the camera's exposure settings aren't set right.
I was holding my camera in my right hand when I saw this beautiful person in my extreme peripheral vision. She had slowed down at the intersection to check for cars. I brought my camera to my eye while giving the shutter button a nudge. The camera sprung into action, I framed as she accelerated by, I manually focused and snapped one shot. And then she was gone.
I usually don't chimp much. This time I was anxious to see if I'd gotten anything. This was my frame (above).
When I'm out shooting I don't turn my camera off. Ever. I turn my cameras off when I get into my car to go home. That's why I usually carry an extra battery when I head out.
I never use a lens cap when I'm walking around. Why put barriers in the way of getting a good shot? I put my lens caps back onto my lenses when I get into my car to go home.
If I'm shooting in manual exposure I try to keep tabs on changing light and keep my camera operationally current. Then, if something cool happens I have a better chance of being ready.
If I'm using a manual focusing lens I tend to pre-focus the lens for the kind of work I'll anticipate doing. As I was walking I had the focus preset for around fifteen feet. When I brought the camera to my eye I only had to fine tune the focus. Not start from scratch.
I'm not that sharp and my reflexes have slowed down so I need to give myself every advantage in situations where things crop up quickly. My camera is only faster than me if I don't handcuff it with my own bad habits.
This was taken on Saturday. Shot with the Hasselblad 80mm Planar lens. Aperture f4. ISO 50. I was able to get good focus by using the focus peaking feature in my camera. Sometimes you get lucky. Most of the time you make your own luck.
