REI promoted their OptOutside on Black Friday this year, and we ended up with seasonally high temperatures in the low to mid-60-degree range (F) in upstate NY. This made it really enjoyable to get out to hike and take some photos. There are some short trails nearby at the Rogers Environmental Center, in Sherburne NY, and I spent some time there with my camera and my family, enjoying the outdoors.
Photography is something you need to keep doing, or you get rusty. I haven’t been out shooting much lately. I’ve been busy with web sites and other projects, and the time I get with my camera has suffered. And the photos I took Friday reflected that. I had a lot of throwaways. Part of the issue was due to some experimenting I was doing with the custom settings on my camera. I learned some things there, which I’ll expand on in another article. So besides not having shot, I was spending more time than I should have been messing around with camera settings. But that’s what this shoot was all about, to try out those things.
But all in all, I had some issues with depth of field, some with composition, and some with the exposure that were things that shouldn’t have happened. But I also got some nice shots, and that too was what the afternoon was all about. Getting outside, enjoying some weather that was unexpectedly nice, getting some nice images, and most importantly spending some time with my wife and my son outside, that was NOT spent fighting the Black Friday crowds.
Don’t forget to spend an afternoon, or a whole day like that once in a while. Make some time to be with friends and family, and make some time to spend with your camera!