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Tape your View finder

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Tape your View finder

When searching for the perfect shot we tend to overlook many good opportunities right before us. This image was taken while walking my grand daughter, I had the camera with me to shoot a few images of her. The plumeria was past anything you could call full bloom, if fact most blossoms were single flowers past prime. We happened along this fine specimen, high up in a tree.

When shooting flowers I generally will use a tripod, look for the best composition selecting the perfect background and on and on. I also make it a point not to disturb the flower, I may move a blade of grass fallen leaves but do not harm the subject in any way. The challenge, I did not have a tripod with me and even if I did, the cluster of blossoms was almost seven feet off the ground, much to high to use it anyway.

Solution: shooting from experience. I set the camera to the following; manual mode, focal length 38, f stop 5.6, exposure time 1/125 and focus to auto with focus target in the center. The reach way overhead point and shoot.

The point of this is you need to have good feel of your equipment ahead of time. What I would challenge you to do is pick one day is place a piece of tape over your view finder and go shooting. Find things to shoot from the ground to well over head and at odd uncomfortable angles. Limit yourself to only two shots per subject. You will quickly learn the feel of your equipment. Then the next time an unexpected opportunity arises you will be ready and get the shot others miss.