What was originally just going to be a little visit to my parents ended up turning into a chance to give my camera a little workout. When I had called to see if my parents were free last Thursday, my Mom said that she was planning on going to a meeting that afternoon, but it could easily be missed. With that, I packed up my car and made my way down for a visit. Once there, I asked what the meeting my Mom was going to be missing was about. She told me that my Uncle Paul was giving a lecture about his use of sign language in some of his travels. Why pass up the chance to see my Uncle while I was in town? I also figured this would give me the chance to practice something that I don't 
really do very often, photographing people. I hid myself in the back of the room and began snapping away while my Uncle kept the crowd captive with his tales of being a sign language translator during trips to Cambodia and Vietnam. The lighting consisted of overhead neon, which isn't really a very flattering light. I was trying to avoid using my flash since I didn't want to distract either my Uncle, who was giving the lecture, or the people who were attending. I cranked up the ISO and played with different shutter speeds in order to try and find a delicate balance between a bright enough exposure and a fast enough shutter 
speed. My Uncle is very animated with his hands while talking, which is to be expected as he not only uses sign language in his life, but also helped create the Quebec signing language, and also has a very expressive face. One of my favourite photographs in this set is the shot where you can see my Uncle's mouth through his fingers. With sign language, he uses his hands to speak and I thought it made for a clever photograph. Speaking of which, the first photograph was taken at f/3.5, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 123mm. The second photograph of the logo on the screen was taken at f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 70mm and the third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm. Here are a few more photographs that I took of the lecture.
really do very often, photographing people. I hid myself in the back of the room and began snapping away while my Uncle kept the crowd captive with his tales of being a sign language translator during trips to Cambodia and Vietnam. The lighting consisted of overhead neon, which isn't really a very flattering light. I was trying to avoid using my flash since I didn't want to distract either my Uncle, who was giving the lecture, or the people who were attending. I cranked up the ISO and played with different shutter speeds in order to try and find a delicate balance between a bright enough exposure and a fast enough shutter 
speed. My Uncle is very animated with his hands while talking, which is to be expected as he not only uses sign language in his life, but also helped create the Quebec signing language, and also has a very expressive face. One of my favourite photographs in this set is the shot where you can see my Uncle's mouth through his fingers. With sign language, he uses his hands to speak and I thought it made for a clever photograph. Speaking of which, the first photograph was taken at f/3.5, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 123mm. The second photograph of the logo on the screen was taken at f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 70mm and the third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 115mm. Here are a few more photographs that I took of the lecture.
f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 1600 at 85mm
f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 70mm
f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 70mm
f/2.8, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 120mm
As I mentioned at the very beginning, this was a bit of a learning experience. Not doing many lectures, I thought that it was important to not get any heads of those attending in the crowd. Upon doing some research, I found that some photographers do include heads in their shots. I'd also like to try and maybe get more of the images from the screen in my shots. Some things to keep in mind if ever there is a next time. Thanks to the Bedford United Church and their Women Fellowship for allowing me to attend, and thanks to my Uncle Paul for the storytelling and being a willing model.
No comments:
Post a Comment