It’s the journey, not the destination.

It’s the journey, not the destination. I’ve said that before & it still holds true today. I genuinely believe that everything happens for a reason & it’s fair to say that I’m scared shitless & ecstatic all at the same time! Lol! Photography has been my escape, my creative outlet for the last 20 years & still is today. 

I’m constantly trying to reinvent myself with my photography. In the last four months, I’ve made three changes to my shooting style. The first thing was to ditch the flash & shoot my portraits with natural light. I gotta say that my #1 pet peeve was whenever I saw a picture with a blown-out sky, I’d cringe!!! I now have about a dozen natural light shoots tucked under my belt & feel more comfortable with that style of shooting, but to some extent, it still erks me when I have to blow out the sky! Lol! That’s definitely the seascape & flash photographer in me talking.

I’m learning to shoot in a way that just clips my highlights with the “blinkies” & pulling back with my exposure compensation. In-camera on the back of my LCD, my subject will be darker than I’d like them to be, but I know I have a lot of leeways to bump up the shadows at least three stops in post. It’s blowing out my highlights is my worst fear! The dynamic range in todays cameras is soooo good! Even with watching my clipping the highlights, I still need to compromise & have to settle with a blown-out sky, and it’s just unavoidable. It’s started to become a “normal.” & I do understand why it has to be done. The issue is not really a problem until I show my subjects the back of my camera & they’re underwhelmed! Happens all the time until they see the final edits. They don’t see what I see! LOL!!!  

Recently I’ve been shooting with a fixed lens and camera combo at 28mm. Traditionally 28mm is not a portrait lens. In fact, it’s a focal length that I’ve never considered carrying with me on any of my portrait shoots. With that said, A big Mahalo to Nicole for putting up with me to do this test photo shoot! I did this one successful portrait photo shoot with her & the 28mm & very surprisingly, it’s worked out! I did find that even with the “blinkies” just barely flashing, I still have blown-out spots inframe when looking at it on my big monitor back at the office, so I need to take this into consideration. I have two photoshoots scheduled for this coming weekend, both on the east side of Oahu, and I’m planning to pack only my newly acquired point & shoot camera rig. Going to try to incorporate an ND filter with my tiny camera rig & see how that turns out.

Another thing that I’ve been trying to work on is lightening my overall camera gear load & bag. It’s all the little things that count. On my Sony A7IV, I’ve removed my L-Bracket, granted it weighs almost nothing & replaced it with a tiny Peakdesign anchor mount, but every once counts! A lot of people don’t realize this, but the weight of an empty camera bag needs to be taken into account for weight. A good ultralight rain waterproof jacket is perfect for those passing showers in the mornings while doing a couples or engagement photo shoot. With my point & shoot camera, I don’t have any options to bring any extra lenses, which is a good thing!

On paid shoots, yes, I’ll bring my Sony A7IV with at least two other lens options & my point & shoot that’ll cover the wider shots. With all that said, I have 1 EDC sling bag coming just for my everyday carrying stuff & a 7Liter Wontencraft Pilot sling over the shoulder bag. It’s basically the smaller version of the 10-liter bag that I already have & using for work. I know, I have a bag problem, it’s sad but true! LOL!

So the images on this blog post were taken with my point & shoot with a fixed mount 28mm lens. I think it works. What do you think?

Creating memories from the heart ❤️…Aloha