We did Christmas in Vermont this weekend, and just as I learned at Thanksgiving to take more pictures and turn up the ISO on my camera – this time I learned to take *MORE* more pictures and turn up all the lights in the house. I have the blurriest baby of them all. Seriously, EVERY shot of Paulo is an action shot.
These problems would be so much easier if I could just use a flash, but I can’t – I have epilepsy and taking flashes with a camera set on “burst mode” in which 3 photos are taken per second is a recipe for disaster. It makes portraits of people who will sit still challenging – taking pictures of a moving Whuffle is a serious challenge!
Anyhow. We got a few good ones – though none of the joy of wrapping paper as those were all blurr-tastic. There was, in general, a lot of joy. He only got a few things – but they were all big hits. (From mom & dad – a dump truck, a stuffed Elmo, a Skwish ball, and a set of Eric Carle board books. From Oma & Opa – a book of Nordic ABCs [such as "F is for fjörd"], a farm shape sorter, some little animal board books, a train engineer teddy bear, an ornament for the tree and the world’s tiniest Dala horse, and some fleecy jammies.)
Nuno and I also exchanged our gifts as I gave him a breadmaker and didn’t feel like trying to haul it to Portugal. He gave me some expansion packs for The Sims and… a book about things stuck up people’s butts. I’m still wondering what thought process went on his head to see that book and then think “My wife wants that!” because no, no she did not.
You may consider a hot flash. It doesn’t blink- it is literally a little light you mount on your camera that you turn on and off when you want. I use one fairly often and it lets me cast a continuous light on something. It’s overly annoying for situations like weddings or parties but in a single environment it works well. The nice thing is you can attach flash attachments- like tiny softboxes- to it just like a blinking flash.
I feel like I should start a small blog series – “Photography for Epileptics.”
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/819616-REG/Sunpak_VL_LED_09_VL_LED_09_Compact_Video_Light.html I have one of these. You will need an adapter for the hot shoe because Sony is whack; I got mine for a whole $3 on Ebay. (Or I could send you a spare because I have about 5 of them)
You totally SHOULD write a series on Photography for Epileptics. I would be all over that!
(Also: Photography For The Sleep-Deprived. Photographing Your Land Squid. Perhaps you wouldn’t be the ideal tutor, but these are courses I would happily subscribe to.)
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