e-510 50mm 1/400 f/2.5 iso 400

over the last bunch of months i've discovered i'm a very physical photographer, especially when it comes to events, and especially, weddings. yeah, i've been shooting weddings, more on that maybe in a later post.

by physical i mean, well, i don't notice it so much at the time, but the day after, like today for instance, i'm so stiff i can hardly move, everything hurts, not like a chronic back injury or a bum leg, more like i've just spent six hours on the universal gym then run a half marathon. in a silk tie, an oxford shirt, pleated slacks and tassled loafers. tight and time-sensitive event work requires much movement, many angles, and lots and lots of walking, crouching and contorting, and often many, many flights of stairs. occasionally, i've got snarled by thorns in a rose garden. i've decided today to add a hundred dollar surcharge to each such event to cover the costs of massage therapy. man, do i need it. today i feel as though i can hardly walk, i can't help but grunt when getting in and out of the car, even lying down for a nap seems a chore. it's an all-over ache. at least at such celebrations there's pretty much always prime rib for dinner.

it's an all over ache, but then i look at the pictures i took yesterday. even though i've not waded into the results much beyond a slide show, i know already it's some of the best photographic work, of any sort, i've ever done. and that's rewarding, but it's also comforting, and frankly quite a relief; i never really know how well i've done until i get home and start popping the cards into the computer.

some of the best work i've ever done, and some of it is me and the experience i've gained at such things over the last bunch of months, and a whole bunch more of it, i have to say, is the camera i reluctantly bought last wednesday. between buying the camera and shooting it in production i had the time and energy only to do technical and test shots with it in order to familiarize myself with its capabilities and operation. and those were neat and promising, but that exercise hardly prepared me for the difference the new camera made.

and now i'm ready to write a novel about why and how much the new camera has made me a better photographer, but i'm going to save that. most of you who might be the least bit interested in such technicalities are probably already shooting a system you're thrilled with and so it's just so much noise about someone's new toy. and while two posts back i got lots of hits off google for searches about the new canon and nikon offerings, i never get any search hits about my preferred system, so there's not even the converted to preach to. suffice to relate that the e-510 has made me a better photographer, yeah, one of those quantum leaps, and it has pretty much nothing to do with the extra couple of megapixels. stellar tool, i adore it, it fits my hands and my intellect, and the photos i create with it look like my own. and i paid for it with a single day's work, and there was enough left over for breakfast and gasoline.

today's picture, from yesterday, was taken in a barn full of horses, and i mean like 30 horses. the bride and groom both love horses, while horses, i discovered, don't much like high power strobes. and so there was a search for light and then the picture above just sorta happened. now i almost like horses too.