Thursday 17 July 2014

Brain Melt

Since I'm not taking my newest camera (a Nikon) to Burning Man this year (because I'm going, right?  Right.) I'm going to take my Canon.

I had this Canon last year but took my slightly older one, and I guess I'm doing the same this year.  Just means I have a slightly better camera this year than I did last year, but my "really good" camera and lens are staying home.

I decided I should probably try shooting with the Canon again before I head out to Burning Man, especially since I really didn't shoot in anything other than Auto with the thing.

So I went out yesterday with my Canon in hand and flipped it over to Manual mode.

And... I couldn't figure out how to change my settings!

It's so weird being used to one camera and its dials and such and then switching to another and finding nothing's where it should be.

And with these two cameras, the Nikon has two dials I use to change aperture and f stop, but the Canon has only one dial!

I felt like I was in a foreign country for the first while.  I stood there staring at the camera and trying to remember how it worked and trying to figure out what each little button did and nope, nope, nope, argh!

It was amusing, because I wasn't in a rush, wasn't worried, knew I'd figure it out either eventually by myself, by asking Jason, googling online, or finding my camera manual.

So I gave up for a while and just shot on auto, and I think I fell into working with the camera and lens again pretty easily.  Feels natural I guess.  Had a Canon for years after all.  Haven't had the Nikon even half a year. 

After a while my brain kind of got over the hump and I remembered the button I could press and so now I can run in Manual mode on the Canon.

I'm not sure if I will at Burning Man or if I'll just set it on Auto and worry about the shot I'm taking rather than the light.  Not sure.  May talk to Jason about it and see what he thinks I should try/do.

Taking photos at Burning Man this year may be another entire post as I'm not sure how much of it I want to do... maybe a lot more than last year, maybe about the same amount, I don't know.  First of all I have to figure out the details of actually for sure getting there and back before I figure out the smaller things like how much do I want to have my camera on me this time...

I just wanted to share how weird it felt to be going from one brand to another and how I felt like I had no idea what I was doing and it all felt weird and unnatural.

It's funny what we get used to, eh?

4 comments:

Jason Langlois said...

I have the same dissonance when someone hands me their Nikon. Or when I go to use a Canon that isn't mine, because they shift things around between versions.

Do you have the option to go semi-manual? Aperture Priority is one I make use of a lot when I'm out and about just taking snaps. You get to pick the f-stop, but the camera worries about the rest. It's a bit less stressful than working all the manual dials.

Victoria said...

Yeah, that's not a bad idea.

Oh, and it's the same weirdness when someone stops and asks me to take a photo of them with their camera and I'm like... where's the viewfinder? ;)

Jason Langlois said...

Hah! I find when someone asks me to take a shot with their camera, I'll end up taking way too long composing the shot. Or be "No, wait, I didn't like that one. Can we try it again, only can you take a step to the left, and can you angle your head... oh, sorry, never mind, here you go."

Victoria said...

I'm usually like, what will not look TOO bad and will give them a photo they like AND not take up their time!

But, yeah, I should be learning how to make people look even awesomer :)