The other evening I tagged along with some close friends to Rod Stewart's Concert at the Staples Center. Before heading out, I tossed my little Canon A700 in my purse, thinking that of all my small compact cameras, at 210mm equivalent, it had the longest telephoto.
Only this morning did I realize my error. In addition to the Kodak V705, I also own a Kodak V610; bought in error when I thought I was ordering the V705. Easy mistake to make :-/ but I kept it, figuring I would find a use for it. Well, I could have used it at the concert. I just realized the V610 has a 380mm equivalent telephoto. Sigh. Next time I go to a concert or sports event, I'll toss the V610 in my bag, and report back.
Still, for run-of-the-mill spectator-in-the-seats concert snapshots, I think my collection is more or less OK (I do need to work on my "Taking Photos Of The Jumbotron Technique"):
http://www.bob-taylor.la/rodstewart/
Also, Bryce and Aaron, please note: Staples has signs posted stating "No camera lenses over 3.5 inches permitted".
In the process of uploading these, I thought maybe some Active Rain members would be interested in knowing what tools I used, a virtual peek in my toolbox, if you will, so here goes....
The camera: Canon Powershot A700, set on full auto, flash OFF. Zoomed out all the way. Note: we were seated in one of the second tier "luxury boxes".
The web photo gallery was generated with Breeze Browser Pro, "Black" template. I use Breeze for only one thing: Generating photo galleries. Breeze just does a few things, but the things it does, it does really well.
When Breeze creates a new gallery, it prompts you to place all images, thumbnails, and html pages in a new folder. As soon as Breeze finished, I FTP'ed my new concert folder to my web host using CuteFTP. In fact, a rather ancient version of CuteFTP. It's another case of just needing a program to do one thing, and do it well.
The photos are residing in my web space hosted by WebHostingBuzz. I have web space accounts at both AZC and WebHostingBuzz. AZC was my first ever host when I built http://www.bob-taylor.com back in 1996. That site still resides there. No reason to move. I signed up for additional accounts (.la and .biz) at WebHostingBuzz because you get a lot of disk space for not much money. And lots of photos take lots of disk space. All my property photo galleries are in one of my two WebHostingBuzz accounts, and my primary site at AZC links to them.
To bring this back to Photography 101 for a moment. You ever notice how many people at concerts, stage plays, sports events, etc. are snapping photos with compact digital camaras and FIRING THEIR FLASHES? There's no way in H#ll that the tiny flash will reach the stage or field from where the people are seated.
I included the EXIF data on the individual photo pages. Remember I had the little camera at full auto. It consistenly choose an aperture of f4.8 (the largest available at its longest focul length), but is it interesting to note the variations in shutter speed.
And yes, the concert was great. Us "Boomers" love to see that our beloved senior rockers can still shake it.
Cheryl, good post. I wonder though if everyone had their flash on you might get, maybe one extra stop? ;)
It's not unusual for public events like this to now attempt to limit access from professional photographers, or people with professional gear. I've run into this a few times.
The host fears that every tom and jane can pull out their 70-300mm and take some marketable shots. And they are right. Look on the back of your ticket - it may even have some legal language barring profit from images taken during the show.
Of course, they know that won't stop many folks (or they won't read it) so they discourage people at the door.
I had to charm my way past security at the Seattle motorcycle show where I was invited by one of the custom bike owners. They didn't want me in because my camera was 'too large' / professional.
So...size does matter! ;)
-B
wonder though if everyone had their flash on you might get, maybe one extra stop? ;)
They'd all have to flash at the same moment ... Ready, Aim, Fire!! :-)