New skills have to be learned. For me, this is always true. There are very few things I am just naturally *good at* – no complaints from this end. I just have to acknowledge this and address it. What it really means is that sometimes in order to learn a new skill I have to figure out what I want to learn and then devise a way to learn it.
Right now I am working on focusing manually while I shoot and try not to switch lenses as often. Manually focusing is a long-time battle, I am very used to autofocus however about 10 of the shows I photograph have moments where I am unable to grab focus due to lighting. Maybe its backlit, maybe it is too dark, something along those lines. I am slowly getting better at this because as I practice it I usually miss just about every shot I am trying to take… maybe I just need to sit in a spot and focus my camera all day. I think I will try that tonight.
However, for now, I will work on my other goal. Trying not to change lenses as often. I like to shoot with Prime Sigma lenses, mostly because I love the look they gave when wide open. However the downside is that sometimes I am shooting with my 20mm and I think oh this would look great on my 50mm, and I switch lenses, it takes some time and by the end of the set, I have spent a good portion of my time just looking down and not shooting.
The easiest solution to this is two camera bodies. Which I have been doing for a few years and most of the time it works, but not without a few downsides. First of all, it holds me down and limits my movement. I can’t run around as much as I would like and if I am holding both it means I don’t have a hand free. I tend to avoid wearing too much camera gear on my shoulders as it creates muscle problems for me in the long run. So the next solution is to just have one camera and switch less often, at least for now this seems like the direction I am heading in.
Here are the three lenses I shot this concert with. Two primes, and a zoom lens. The zoom lens isn’t that much zoom however when you are any more than 5 feet from your subject – so it a PMAP or pretty much a prime.
Anyway here are the images I ended up getting with Sigma Art lenses. Hope you enjoy. I also put together a time-lapse video of me editing all the images I took.
