Last night as I downloaded the day’s images, I couldn’t let go of the notion that something was wrong. I was too tired to put my finger on it at the time, but this afternoon I compared the files on the CF cards against the portable hard drive that I used to transfer images to the desktop. My last card of the evening had a corresponding file folder on the portable, but no images in it. They didn’t transfer when I downloaded the card in the field. Yikes!
I hadn’t cleared my cards yet, so the images were safe. But only because I was paranoid enough to check. I still have a problem regarding digital as real, and reality is not helping to disabuse me of the notion.
The wedding was a nice small one, and short—only 6 hours on the job (I usually work double that). So many people came up to me and praised my ability to be unobtrusive and yet attentive and sociable, that I left feeling, yeah, I could do more of these. Weddings are one of the few gigs where the client gushes about the photos to my face.
I shot this one with the 1 Ds Mark II, which is overkill (16mp for photos that will be printed at 4x6), but I wanted to get familiar with using this camera on an assignment. I’ve been shooting with it daily since I got it in June (see the daily blog), but working with it for hours in a row is a different matter entirely.
I’m not in love with the Mark II, despite the stellar quality of the images it produces. It’s a heavy, ill-shaped beast of a camera (the viewfinder extends out from the rear of the camera, and pokes you in the belly), and I find it hard to handle. This is not a seamless extension-of-the-body camera like a Leica rangefinder. It’s too big for my hands and I have to work to just steady the thing. But get used to it I must.
One accessory that is essential for an all-day shoot is a Kinesis Gear X-harness. It’s a suspender-type strap with an X-cross on the back and chest and waist clips. With the camera set up with an Optechs strap (with the fastclips), I just clip the camera on and suspend it around my entire torso. There's no weight of the camera on my neck. It just feels like I’m dressed for a wedding wearing a rig that is more appropriate for rappelling off a cliff.
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