What really intrigues and amazes me about these two shots is actually not the intensity of the pyro blasting off all around Cinderella Castle (Magic Kingdom Park / Walt Disney World) or the coloration therein the shot. Rather, it’s the fact that I shot both of these handheld (no tripod) with a 35mm fixed focus / prime lens and a shutter speed of 125/sec, aperture set at 1.8 and ISO at 800. I was sort of testing out what I call a ‘street photography lens’ – or sometimes called a ‘walk around’ or ‘normal’ lens.
When you get in the approximate vicinity of a 35mm to a 50mm (fixed focal length) lens, the camera is then seeing pretty much what the human eye would see if you took away the camera and the lens. I like this type of shooting because it makes the photographer work a bit harder at composing the picture with more care, thought, detail etc… Zoom lenses are great – same goes for super wide-angle lenses. I use them both all the time respectively for obvious reasons. But when you think back to the old days of photography, zoom lenses weren’t around. And when they did finally come into being, they were nowhere near as sophisticated and high quality as what’s out there today. So to sum up, this is a nice retro style of photography. I’m not one that loves a challenge per se’. I’m a low stress, peaceful kinda guy (or at least try to be LOL). But shooting like I described above with a fixed focal point / prime lens, it does something that’s becoming rarer and rarer: it makes you THINK and be CREATIVE in your minds’ eye before you ever press that shutter release. Go figure – what a concept, huh?
More like this coming – stay tuned.
Peace – Mike T
Magic And Memories 