Get Creative!

"You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well you might find. You get what you need"

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Read more after the jump!

Thank you Rolling Stones for that advice, because that is exactly what happened on my shoot with Christie and Jon. Ideally, I would have liked to shoot with my 70-200mm f/4, super sharp, and constant aperture- but you cant always get what you want. The close confines of the trail down Elora Gorge left little working distance between the beautiful couple and myself, meaning I had to get creative! Out came the wide angle 10-20mm f/4-5.6, a lens that normally stays in the bag in shots with people because of it's tendency to distort near the edges, an effect that is pretty ubiquitous among wide angle lenses.But- with a little creative framing it can make a wonderful portrait lens! The point here is.... break the "rules" and get creative. Try to force yourself to use certain lenses out of their normal contexts. Wide-angle for people, telephoto for landscapes, macro for portraits, you'd be surprised at how creative you are forced to be! This often leads to perspectives that are atypical, and thus makes your images much more unique. Try it out!

The above image was captured with the lovely couple sitting up on a out-cropping in a cave. The shoreline of the river that flows down the gorge was right behind me. Without the wide-angle lens, I may very well have been quite wet... and cold in order to get this shot.

See fullsize image here

See fullsize image here

See fullsize image here

The above image was captured using a slightly different lighting technique. In most of the other shots, the flash was used just to illuminate the couple slightly more than the ambient conditions and help separate them from the background. The above image was captured by placing a CTO gel over the flash and setting the camera's White Balance to "Tungsten". I will most likely be making a post about gels and how they can help you in the future. But if you just cant wait, try it yourself!

Again, using a wide-angle lens forces you to take a different perspective. The shot below takes advantage of the distortion to give a cool effect that draw your eyes to the couples hands, and the engagement ring.

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As Mrs. Frizzle always said: "Take chances, make mistakes, GET MESSY!"