The Good, The Bad, The Underexposed

adetorrent (74)in #filmphotography • 5 years ago

This is no ordinary cup of coffee, it represents good and bad news. Let's start with the bad.

I actually requested my coffee to be served in a take-away cup, so I could sit outdoors in the breeze without it getting cold. I also wanted the opportunity of taking it with me, because I was actually on a schedule. Nobody listens anymore! she nodded and repeated "take-away, yes", but went ahead absent-mindedly to make me one in a ceramic cup anyway. I had a camera with me that I was using for the very first time. I had no idea whether the camera worked or not, but I had to test it first with cheap film, have it developed that same day so I could carry on shooting the video I had planned for this week. This brings us to the good news.

The camera works! When I took this photo, one of the 36 in the roll, I had no idea if or not the camera's shutter was firing at the correct speed or not. To be honest, I wasn't really optimistic. It does appear to at least be close enough to the expected value, as you can see. I guess a silver lining is also that a ceramic cup is infinitely more attractive than a paper one.

Yes I took another photo of the cup. I liked the colour, and since I'd been sitting there for almost 30 minutes, I figured I'd better get on with the photography. I took the second shot at f4 while the first was at f2.8. You can see the difference in the depth of field, the former being more shallow. I prefer the f4 shot - the entire cup is in focus.

I then went on to shoot some terrible photos - out of focus, badly composed, underexposed shots. I was trying to get through the roll before the lab closed.

The overall good news though, is that I can now commence shooting a video that I've been trying to shoot for 3 years! I'm excited about it and can't wait to share it with you when it's done.