Dangit. It was one of the best moments in about 12 mins of shooting and I missed it.
Nothing is in focus. Nada. Zilch. Not Austin. Not the house. Not Victoria or Christine.
So what could I have done differently? Perhaps I could have ditched the 14-150mm. For most family action-shots, it is usually my go-to lens due to it’s flexibility and (in this instance) it’s weather-sealing. I could have gotten it soaked and not worried about the lens or camera body. Then again, witht he length of the lens, it was able to stay drive. But what if I had chosen a different lens?
As I review all the keepers from that afternoon, I realize that early in the session, I was shooting some images at 25mm; the above image that I missed was at the same.
Christine is sharp in the above image, purposefully so. I hit focus-target and the camera delivered, but I wasn’t thinking enough. Wisely, I had switched to shutter priority and had selected 1/1600 to freeze the action. But now I am thinking about what might have been.
What if I was using my 17mm with the manual clutch?
What if I nudged the aperture to f/8 and moved my feet, just using the camera as an old film camera like when I was a kid, before auto-focus was a thing.
What if I set my near focus point at 5 feet, leaving everything 30-40 feet (minimum) to keep anything that was 30 feet from me (at minimum) to remain acceptably sharp.
What if I was willing to go down to 1/800? Or – if not – to bump up the ISO to 400?
I would have been able to capture this image, but would I have liked the others as much? Would I have even known that there was a difference?
Of course, I don’t know if one way is better than another. Even the best of photographers miss focus. But still, I am going to experiment for a while.
For the next few weeks, my camera is going to be married to the 17mm and it will most often have the manual clutch activated and the aperture at f/8. For indoor photography, I’ll keep the shutter at 1/60 at minimum and fire an always mounted flash as needed. I’ll move the ISO as needed from 200-800. I’m going to shoot like I used to with my old low-maintenance point and shoot film camera.
I’ll give it a try, for now, just for those family snapshots.
And while I do that, I’ll wonder too: if I am going to be shooting that wide with hopes of a large depth of field anyway, would I be better off just using my cell phone?