Worship at Church

Going to church for most means that you go to a building that most likely has stained glass and a large auditorium looking room where the worship team is set up to play. However, that is not always the case. At this church it is much more like going to school. Actually it is going to a school. Through a contact at the Church, I was asked to portray worship at this location.
It was an interesting experience. I found myself again wanting a wider angle lens to capture the feel I was looking for. However the greater problem I encountered was that I constantly was not able to take a fast enough picture. Many good pictures were ruined because people moved.
Part of my problems is that I don't like to bump my ISO up much higher than 400 if I can. I find that picture quality starts to suffer quickly once I hit 800 or greater. I even feel that 400 is pushing the camera. I know that the picture would be fine for smaller images but I look at a picture for what it might be used for. If I always knew how the pictures would be used I could justify taking a picture that might not be noise free at full size but at this time I don't. With the limitations that I worked with I was able to take a few good ones that I sent to the church to place in a pamphlet. It was interesting walking around durring worship and taking pictures. The people had not been warned that there would be photographers so most people at first had this worried look. I find that most people when having a professional grade camera turned in their direction get camera shy. I don't know if it is because they don't want their picture posted on the wall or that they just don't know where the picture is going to end up. Well if I can be sneaky enough maybe they will look natural

Learning seems to be the key with these first events.
I'll be better equipped for next time.

Climb Grand Rapids

I get a call. The day is Thursday and I have a shoot on Sunday for my church. I am ready for the weekend so I can relax and sleep in. That is until I get this call. The message is short. An offer to shoot an event called Climb Grand Rapids on Saturday morning. I Google the event and see what it is all about. Running a race up stairs for the American Lung Association. This is a chance to get my name out there. Photography is a hard business to start because I am a nobody and everyone and their mothers(probably more the mothers than everyone else) have a "good" camera. So I call back and let the guy know I'm in for the shoot. I'm the only one who is photographing the event. Intimidating yes, I have never shot something like this. I look at the lighting situation and immediately realize that a faster lens would be great. Not only would a faster lens be nice but a wide angle also. I am using a 28-135 on my camera which with the 1.6 crop factor turns out to be not so wide. Not usually a problem but when in tight situations like the inside of a stairwell it makes it hard to get the shot that I want. But I didn't have that.....so I took what I could and made the best of it. I think that is how all photographers start. The best part of the event however was that everyone was very pleasant about getting their picture taken. This made my job must easier.

The event had teams and individuals. And as you can see some decided to be fun with it.



Each run Was timed up and down. An individual could choose to run 1 time or up to 4



This was a great event and I learned a lot from photographing it. Thanks ALA for the invite.