Thyme-ology is going to be a photoblog

Yep, I think I finally found a purpose for this little space of mine.

Writing a photoblog probably would help me with remembering little photography lessons that I pick up along the way, all the failures and all the disappointment and frustration, to make sure I never repeat them again. Well, apart from keeping track of my photography, of course...

I recently shot a photo of my company's strategic planning group (read: top 80 people in the company), and it was a bit of a failure on my part. We shot at 11am, by the beach in an open spot with no shade. The timing was due to many things, including the problem of avoiding low tide as that made the sea very ugly to look at in the background.

I did everything I could before the day of the shoot to prepare: scouting out the location, thinking about lighting, getting my boyfriend to teach me about lighting, getting advice from more experienced photographers, borrowing speedlights. It would be my first time shooting with two, and a stepladder to boot. In fact, it would be the first time shooting seriously with a full-frame and a Nikon (I'm a Canon user, and am completely unused to Nikon's controls).

So many factors working against me, huh?

At 11am, however, the sun was so bright and so hot that I was sweating the minute I stepped out. I stood for an hour under the blazing sun, prepping and trying to get my helpful friends to not suffer too much while I tried to remove as much shadow as I could (sun was from the left, shadows were harsh; photographer nightmare).

One speedlight, bumped up all the way, still would not work.
In the end, at the last minute, I was ready to give up and give in, but then boyfriend suggested I use a second flash positioned near the same spot to help fill in further.

It worked to an extent, but the finished product in the end had decent lighting; the problem lay in something I simply was no longer capable of handling on top of technicality - arranging people to make sure that all their faces were visible.

I feel guilty about it. I feel upset, in fact.
There are bound to be complaints when the photo circulates next month (people at the top are fussy, picky, and goodness knows what. I'll probably get bashed. Sigh.).

Can't deny that my photographer ego is dented, even with the mix of good news that I'm finally a Getty contributor - something I'd wanted for a long long time ever since I joined Flickr.

Oh well. Gotta soldier on.

Guess corporate group photography is not really my thing, though..