Author: sylvia

Show me the manual!

Posted on by sylvia

Why is it important to read -at least once- your camera’s manual?

It’s simple: So that you know how to use your camera correctly!

Remember when we all used to have DVD players and we always had to refer back to the user’s manual to see (for the hundredth time) how to set the time, after a power cut?

Well, it’s similar with your camera. There are so many functions that they cannot all be guessed, even by an experienced user. There will always be that one thing that you don’t know how to do, or that one setting that you don’t exactly know what it does.

Reading the user’s manual and referring back to it whenever necessary isn’t something to be ashamed of. On the contrary, it shows consumer responsibility and photographic curiosity! 😉

If you are a first time user of a kind of camera (and with “kind” I’m referring to categories such as, compact, mirrorless, DSLR, bridge, analog, your grampa’s pinhole camera, etc.) I absolutely URGE you to grab that manual and become an expert user of the machine you are holding in your hands, just by reading it!

Go ahead, start at the beginning and try EVERYTHING! I promise you, it’s actually more fun than it sounds.

I recently bought a Canon 5D Mark III, and for the first 5 times or so that I went out to shoot something, I always carried that manual with me, even though I had already read it front to back twice. And sure enough, at one point, I had to refer back to one of those dog-eared pages to remember how to find a setting.

IMAG3898Right now, I have an original Lubitel 2 (made in USSR) camera hanging from my neck, smelling of old leather and years of stuffy storage, and I’m staring down at it, not being able to remember for the life of me how to take a picture!

To my defense, I haven’t picked it up in over 6 months (very bad, I know) and it’s VERY different from any and all of my other cameras.

This is the part where I reach for the manual.

But wait! I got this, I’ve done it before, I can do it again… right? Well, not exactly. I took a hint when it took me over 10 seconds to pop-up the viewfinder hood. The last thing I want to do is damage this camera, or destroy the precious 120 film that’s inside it.

So, I humbly sit down and open the manual.

Page one:

“THE ‘LUBITEL 2’ is a low-priced modern camera intended for amateurs.”

😛

lubitel2

Let it rest

Posted on by sylvia

I feel absolutely enthused and dumbfounded with the amazing capacity of the human brain and more specifically, with its ability to process information subconsciously.

On Friday I spent many hours on my laptop, trying to figure out all the different functionalities and features of the new theme I activated for this site. Having absolutely no development experience and very little knowledge of coding, whenever I came across a hurdle, I turned to the theme’s documentation and tutorials. Naturally, the solutions offered were focused on generic problems and did not offer much insight on small tweaks one might need for the absolute personalization of a page. So I experimented, I tried pushing different buttons, selecting different options on the available drop down menus, changing a whole bunch of different things that were practically irrelevant to my actual issue and almost destroying what was working. So, I gave up! I put my laptop to sleep and went out for a beer (or two… ok, three)! 🙂

I had decided that during the entire weekend I wouldn’t touch my laptop. That’s right, no email, no Facebook, no photo editing, no new theme on my website – nada! It was easy. Besides, on Saturday my mind was foggy and my brain dehydrated (I think the popular term for those symptoms is having a hangover) and on Sunday I was too tired from spring cleaning to do anything productive. To be fair, I did manage to get in plenty of sleep during the weekend, so on Monday I’d be able to start fresh!

And that’s how it happened! 🙂 I woke up on Monday morning, refreshed, rested and ready to tackle a new week! I went through my daily routine, took my dog Murgo out for a nice walk, had a quick coffee and returned to my home office to start my workday. I was waiting for my work profile to load on my PC and that’s when it came to me. It was like the memory of a dream, but not like the typical non-sensical dreams I have, more like a subconscious thought. It was related to my website and it actually made sense! I quickly opened my Mac and went directly into the site’s back office. I tried that one, simple step I had seen (or thought of) in my sleep, and… it worked! 😀 It actually worked! I was flabbergasted!

All it took was two days’ rest and my brain was able to process all the information with which I had overloaded it on Friday and offer me the solution I had been desperately searching for. Amazing, don’t you think?

Now you can check out my homepage, although it’s still under construction, it looks a lot better today than it did on Friday night. 😉

If there’s one thing I can take away from this astonishing experience, it’s that we need to give our brains time and rest. I’m not a fan of procrastination, believe me! Working under pressure is ok, because it gets things done. But there’s a limit. We all need to recognize that point of unproductivity when we reach it and just take a step back, sleep on it, let the creative juices flow freely and then come back to work.

Happy Monday!

Ok, I’ve done it

Posted on by sylvia

Ok, I’ve done it! I’ve created a Facebook page with the word “Photographer” below my name.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “photographer” as one who practices photography; especially: one who makes a business of taking photographs.
Alright, so I’ve got 50% of that down. At least. I mean… if volunteer work counts, then yeah! I’m a photographer! But in reality, I mostly “practice” and not “make a business of” photography.

 

And now that it’s out there – a page with “Photographer” stuck right under my name – I feel totally exposed to criticism and invisible, digital, scornful looks full of sarcasm and malice.

But why?

I mean, the purpose of creating a presence online, as they call it, isn’t to make money, to get hired, to compete against real -as in professional (as in those who make a living out of…)- photographers, to create a name for myself in the digital world. No, it’s more of a challenge, a personal goal to be reached, a kaizen , a reason to take MORE. BETTER. PICTURES. and then have a bunch of strangers “Like” them! 😉
Oh, and by the way, while I was at it, I set up an Instagram account as well!