Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days. — Doug Larson
Recently Mary was driving me home after a recent physical therapy session and we got to talking about today’s #thursdayvibes blog post—my life, as Randy Newman once sang, is good—and she suggested that I use one of the fire dancer images I made at a Panasonic press event back in the days when the PMA show was a thing and companies cared about print journalists. And that’s the genesis of today’s post…
How I Made this Photograph: I made this photograph during a press event at the 2006 PMA trade show. that was held at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. It was made using a Panasonic DMC-FZ30 super zoom cameras, which the company had originally announced in 2005. The camera used a “big” (not!) eight-megapixel sensor. On the other hand it had a Leica DC Vario-Elmarit f/2.8-3.7 zoom lens with a 12x optical range (35-420mm equiv), and featured Panasonic’s Mega Optical Image Stabilization and its Venus II imaging engine.
The camera used to make this photograph of a fire dancer was that self-same Panasonic DMC-FZ30 and I remember how I had to beg the Panasonic PR rep for a second 256MB memory card to shoot all of the equally less exciting images I made that night. The zoom lens was set at 38mm (equivalent) along with an exposure of 1/30 sec at f/2.8 and ISO 200.
You may have noticed that this image is not sharp or even a little bit in focus. All the photographs that I made at this event have similar defects—I just like the composition of this one. Even the camera’s IBIS couldn’t produce a sharp image at 1/30 sec. And ISO 200! What was I thinking? That could be the subtitle of my autobiography if anyone would ever be interested in publishing it.
Creating a Perfect Image?
Is this a great picture? Not so much technically and eight-megapixels seems puny in this day and age of 61-megapixel Sony A7R IV’s but it’s a memento of a time and place when I spent a fun night with my wife at a trade show that’s a just a far away memory. It was made during a time when companies, like Panasonic, thought it was worthwhile to lend me a camera and provide a nice, fun photo op for writers of print publications, so there’s a big dose of nostalgia there too.
And does a photo have to be perfect to enjoy or even love it? I don’t think so. I treasure this image of my father that (I think) was made by my mother before they were married and was shot in my grandparent’s backyard. But I love the way my old man, a handsome young first-generation Italian-American is smiling at the camera and his soon-to-be bride.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($3.50), click here.
Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography with new copies are available from Amazon for $21.50 and used copies starting around five bucks.