Some dissapointments

I am off for a couple of days and will begin my regular rotation, a Thursday through Monday schedule, this week. I had plans of uploading some more images but I left my Powerbooks power cord in Midland so all I have is the last stuff I shot Monday that just happened to be on my microdrive. As far as work goes, things have been great, although I am happy to not have any more high school graduations to shoot. Monday I began work at about 1 p.m. at the Commemorative Air Force museum between Odessa and Midland. I enjoyed the event and really tried to get something unique. The paper only needed a few photos for the day and the other shooter had gotten some really good stuff but I wanted to try and get something memorable myself. At one point I saw a few kids playing in the fuselage of an old airplane that had been cut open so visitors could get an inside look at it. I tried everything I could think of, using the 14mm lens in the cramped interior, putting my camera on a timed release one the dashboard of the plane in front of the kids (who were mostly oblivious to me) and hanging off of the side of the plane to try and shoot through and open window into the cockpit, and I got nothing I liked. It was very disheartening to see the kids playing around and having a good time but not being able to capture a good image. The lighting was poor and even on 1600 ISO I had to shoot at under a 30th of a second, which is fine when you are standing still trying to be still but another thing altogether when you are holding the camera with one hand while using the other to hang out of a doorway. I still should have gotten something I liked though, so I was dissapointed by this experience. That evening I did better, but still missed one shot that would have made the whole day a great success. I was at a memorial service by the VFW and saw an opportunity to get a low angle shot looking straight up while two veterans and a soldier were folding the flag. I thought I should put my camera on aperture priority mode (which i never do) so that I wouldn't mess up the exposure. But witha backlit situation like that the camera is almost never right, I should have known that and kept my original settings. I ended up with some silhouetted figures holding a very dark flag. Now, if the light behind the flag would have illuminated it some more, it would have been a very good mistake, one that I would have been proud of. What I got was a great composition that was totally underexposed. By the time I switched back to my manual setting and snapped off two more frames the flag was almost totally folded and the composition just fell apart. I guess situations like that are why I am here to learn, but I should have gotten the shots I wanted on both assignments. I did come back with some good shots, two of which are below, but I didn't get the shots.


This is Sal Guerrero, VFW member, who was part of the honor guard at the service. Image © Odessa American


This one is of Cheryl Haas, who presented a wreath in honor of those who have served to keep our country safe during the service. Image © Odessa American.


This is a closer look at Sal who I thought had an interesting face and eyes.