Becoming greedy.. (Chapter 3)

After I got the A100, I started to become greedy about something I still had very limited knowledge on. I believe I had yet to begin my AS Photography course, or I had just begun it, and I didn't quite understand the power of the lenses I had.

In my naiveity and greed I wanted the biggest zoom lens I could get my father to purchase for me. A massive 70-300mm, weighing in at a gazillion tonnes and taller than Goliath himself. True story. It wasn't until very very recently, that my voila moment kicked in and I truly realised what I could be using this fantasmical lens for. Candid shots.

I could be looking through it from across the city into a little known market snapping away pictures of the unsuspecting persons picking their nose, scratching their bums or just generally being the funny, weird, terribly unhygienic human beings we all secretly are when we think no one's watching. And when did I figure out I could catch them in action?

About 3 years after I had the lens sitting away collecting dust, because I felt that I could never really be using it, since nothing needed that amount of zoom. But one day, I gathered all my kit, and went to Diwali at Trafalgar Square and screwed this baby onto my camera body.

I then scoured like an eagle for my prey, my eye glued tight to the view finder, a wince on my face, and a stabby, throbby line of pain and strain going through my arm as I struggled and fought with the immense dull PAIN. I then saw this man. And in a blink of an eye, at 135mm I clicked so hard I almost broke a nail. Almost.

He couldn't see me at all. Yes! An achievement! Something so different from my clunky, completely unstealthy ways that have gotten me into various amounts of trouble in the past, and I became enamoured with this lens.

But, I still didn't understand the point of ISO. There's grain. So what, the picture's still there. The grain's not thaaaaat apparent and it makes me take the picture at a reasonable speed with very little to no blurring. I'm all up for ISO 1,000,000,000. Focus triumphs grain. That was my motto. You can't sharpen something that's not there.

But recently I've discovered the need and the desire for the lowest possible ISO settings. And I've come to realise in an earth-shattering, morale-destroying, life-consuming manner that my ISO setting of 1600 for that photograph was a BAD idea.

I realised recently that all my pictures taken with such little regard to ISO were worthless and would amount to nothing.. oh the woe! OH THE WOE! But more on that another time. We're here discussing my greedy naivety.

The morale of the story here is that if you don't quite understand cameras yet, there's no need to pretend to be a proper photographer. Just admit you're still learning. Even now I hesitate to call myself professional, and hover on the word "freelance". Not "professional freelance", just "freelance". There's still so much to learn that can't be learnt in classrooms, or during lessons or over the internet tutorials.

I was provided with all the basic and semi-intermediate knowledge to use manual settings during my learning years on the lovely mechanisms of the camera. But I didn't truly understand how to put it all together until recently. I thought I understood it all when I was first told all the dark magical secrets about ISO's and apertures and shutter speeds and f stops and things like that, but now I realise that I knew nothing back then!

Photography is about growing up. Once you grow up, you gain wisdom... somehow.