I was fortunate to be allowed to go into and around the Scottish Maritime Museum for an evening location shoot when normally it is closed.  With photographers from various local camera clubs present and the light fading fast, this shoot presented many problems to think about, plan for and overcome.

 A New Location - always a challenge but there’s always something of interest wherever you go so its just good to be open to all eventualities and see what presents itself.  I did however do some search before setting off and looked at other photos of the place so had a rough idea of what was there.

The Light - For various reasons I was slow getting there and so arrived as the light was vanishing.  So did all my outdoor work fast and efficiently before heading inside.  Luckily it had been sunny so the light was workable until fairly late.

Working Outside Your Comfort Zone - I’m not used to photographing static objects in low light where shutter speed becomes an issue and the technicalities of photography force me to move outside of my comfort zone.  Normally I shoot on one lens, a 80mm to 200mm zoom lens and I know its limitations well and how to get the best out of it.  But being an f4 lens, I know that in low light it just was not going to be up to the job.  I have other lenses but decided to just take one lens, a nifty 50 (50mm prime lens) as it can stop down to f1.4, good in low light, close to a human field of vision, so lacking any zoom.  What does this do to your creativity, well for me, being restricted in some way forces me to see things differently, work within a different set of boundaries and it actually helps my creativity rather than hinder it.  At least I knew it could cope with low light which was a major concern, although my camera is also good at higher ISO’s.  I guess part of the problem with working outside of your normal limitations is confidence which leads me to the next challenge.

Other Photographers - Its a personal thing, but this was the first time I had been out with these photographers and I know they weren’t watching me but even still, photographers in general are always interested in what others are doing.  If I had been in a field, up to my knees in mud, working with a horse I would have been more comfortable, but with all the issues above to contend with as well as my new friends……. In the end I needn’t have worried.

My iPhone

I always have my phone on me and it is great for capturing wide angles and a I often use it as a sketch pad for work, so in setting like this I take a number of more candid photos.  These are shown below:

All in all it was a fantastic evening, I leant a lot from others on the night, I learnt more about how my camera works, shot on MANUAL all night long which I don’t always do with fast moving animals and I ended up with some images I’m really happy with.  Creativity and confidence in what you are doing are things you always have to work at and due to moving I hadn’t been on a shoot for a while so this was a good way to get back out there.