Photography is Really Hard

Today was the 20th Annual Dancing Illini Ballroom contest in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. I've never been to this contest, and since Chrysa and I haven't practiced hardly at all this semester, we definitely weren't going to compete. I decided to go and spend the day cheering everyone on and helping out in any way I can.

One thing that is always needed is for someone to take pictures, and I'm happy to oblige. I often stop when I see groups taking photos on vacation and offer to take a picture with everyone (normal camera man included) and the offer is often accepted. Today I sat with a couple of point-and-shoot cameras from other teammates, a video camera from another, and my own Fuji. The newer cameras are easy to operate, but that doesn't mean the pictures turn out well...

Theses photo have a dark band because my shoe flash wasn't properly adjusted.


This has red-eye...and you can't control what goes on in the background, so the timing is critical.


This would have been the best picture of the day, except at the last minute, Angelo's hand moved right between me and his face.


These are too 'hot'...


While these are too dark...

And remember that I have a digital camera, and I could see the photos instantly and make adjustments as I went along... I can't imagine burning a whole roll of film, sending it off to be processed (or worse, spending hours processing the negatives myself) only to see how screwed up they are....

Occasionally, though, a few good ones come out...




I burned over 225 shots today, and I'm guessing a couple dozen are worth posting. My hat is off to folks who make a living doing this such that someone wants to pay for them, and even more so to the old school folks who still use film.