Sometimes your schedule just works out right. Last month, while I was visiting my parents, I made my way out to the Bedford United Church where my Uncle Paul was giving a lecture about his use of sign language in some of his travels. My Mom was planning on skipping the meeting due to my visit, but I've always liked listening to my Uncle's stories so instead of making my Mom miss the lecture, I ended up inviting myself and my camera to the meeting as well. The meeting ended up going a little bit longer than planned, so much so that a second date would need to be scheduled to finish the story. As luck would have it, that second date also coincided with a 
planned week off that I had. After a quick clean-up at the dentist, I hit the road to see my parents once again, and took my Mom and one of her friends back to Bedford to listen to the second part of my Uncle's lecture. As I mentioned last time, I wasn't really used to photographing lectures, so I pretty much just focused on taking photographs of my Uncle while he was speaking. I wanted to try and change that up a little bit. Obviously, I needed to get more shots of my Uncle, but I also wanted to get some of the people attending, some shots of the video and photograph display that was part of the presentation and, if I could pull it off, a shot of my Uncle with 
his hands blurred. I know that sounds like an odd choice for a photograph, but as my Uncle uses sign language as an instructor and interpreter, it means that even in every day life he is very demonstrative with his hands when he speaks. Blurring his hands would be an effective way of showing how they are always in motion. With that checklist in mind, I put my gear together and headed to the back of the room. After a few moments, I ended up getting thrown a curveball when my Uncle closed the lights in the hall so that everyone could better see the images that were being projected up on the screen. A very nice gesture for those who were attending,
but a little bit of a headache for the guy holding the camera. Since the people were there to see his presentation, I didn't make any kind of a fuss and rather saw it as a chance to see if I could work my way out of an unexpected situation. Neon lighting is very bad to begin with, but it is still better than no lighting. With the lights turned off, the ISO went as high as I could get it on my camera. That meant there would be lots of grain in my images. I got rid of some of it in Photoshop, which is no mean feat considering the ancient version of the program that I use. On occasion, the sun would peak through the windows to add a little natural light, but all in all, I was 
happy with the end results and how I had dealt with the issues. The first and second photographs were taken at f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm. The third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm. The fourth photograph was taken at f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm and the fifth photograph, which if memory serves is of my Uncle using the sign for his name, was taken at f2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 68mm. Here are several more photographs that I took during the lecture.
planned week off that I had. After a quick clean-up at the dentist, I hit the road to see my parents once again, and took my Mom and one of her friends back to Bedford to listen to the second part of my Uncle's lecture. As I mentioned last time, I wasn't really used to photographing lectures, so I pretty much just focused on taking photographs of my Uncle while he was speaking. I wanted to try and change that up a little bit. Obviously, I needed to get more shots of my Uncle, but I also wanted to get some of the people attending, some shots of the video and photograph display that was part of the presentation and, if I could pull it off, a shot of my Uncle with 
his hands blurred. I know that sounds like an odd choice for a photograph, but as my Uncle uses sign language as an instructor and interpreter, it means that even in every day life he is very demonstrative with his hands when he speaks. Blurring his hands would be an effective way of showing how they are always in motion. With that checklist in mind, I put my gear together and headed to the back of the room. After a few moments, I ended up getting thrown a curveball when my Uncle closed the lights in the hall so that everyone could better see the images that were being projected up on the screen. A very nice gesture for those who were attending,
but a little bit of a headache for the guy holding the camera. Since the people were there to see his presentation, I didn't make any kind of a fuss and rather saw it as a chance to see if I could work my way out of an unexpected situation. Neon lighting is very bad to begin with, but it is still better than no lighting. With the lights turned off, the ISO went as high as I could get it on my camera. That meant there would be lots of grain in my images. I got rid of some of it in Photoshop, which is no mean feat considering the ancient version of the program that I use. On occasion, the sun would peak through the windows to add a little natural light, but all in all, I was 
happy with the end results and how I had dealt with the issues. The first and second photographs were taken at f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm. The third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm. The fourth photograph was taken at f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 24mm and the fifth photograph, which if memory serves is of my Uncle using the sign for his name, was taken at f2.8, 1/640sec, ISO 3200 at 68mm. Here are several more photographs that I took during the lecture. 
f/4, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm
f/4, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm
f/4, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm
f/4.5, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm
f/3.2, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 70mm
f/4.5, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 110mm
All of that writing and those photographs, and I haven't even mentioned that the presentation dealt with how my Uncle had used his knowledge of sign language in order to help podiatrists on humanitarian trips to Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as training trips to Atlanta and Hawaii. It was very interesting to listen to the stories and adventures of the trip, and nice to know how my Uncle was using his talents to help out people in far off places.
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