So last time we covered how needing a website turned into needing shoes, today we get to actually see the shoes in action! There’s also a tale of tech woe that refused to be resolved and needed muscle power instead of brainpower.

The perfectly prepared plan

We had the perfect plan, the pinnacle of perfection! We knew we could make gorgeous photographs after all the training completed with Katelyn James, as well as practicing on many friends, colleagues, and various other subjects. This time we just needed both of us in them. Being the tech nerd I figured “this can’t be too hard, the camera connects to the phone and should allow us to use that as a remote right?” Right! To ensure I retained my title as tech wizard hero I made sure to test the setup at home first. So off I went with my trusty iPhone and our Sony A7RIII camera (a 42MP monster camera), thankfully they paired quite quickly and allowed me to use the iPhone to adjust the important settings like ISO, shutter speed & aperture. This. Was. Awesome! I told Anncilla we could head out as I’d worked out the remote connection between phone & camera.

Technology comes back to bite me

I got ready & packed the camera bag while Anncilla was putting on some makeup. As this was just a quick portrait session for the two of us, I figured we didn’t need the full 42MP of the A7RIII and chose to take Anncilla’s A7III instead (an astounding 24MP camera). Arriving at the local park it was a beautiful late afternoon, sunny with just some clouds, nice & warm yet not horribly hot, in a word – perfect. We had a quick scout for a location to try our first pictures, set the camera on a tripod, and made sure we weren’t getting anything unwanted in the background, picture perfect! I whipped out my phone, went to the connection screen in the camera, and….. connection failure. It was a classic case of “the computer says no”. Try as I might the two stubbornly refused to play nice, I even went so far as to erase network settings on my phone, still no connection! And then it dawned on me… the earlier test had been done with our A7RIII camera, and here in front of me was our A7III camera!

The reality of working around technology

The light was just too good and we weren’t about to be defeated by technology! Delayed timer to the rescue! We set the camera to a 10s delay, pressed the shutter release, and quickly ran to our designated spot in front of the camera. Not bad, but could be better. I asked Anncilla to move a little for better composition, we spoke about what pose we’d try next, practiced the pose, and I asked her to freeze in that position. I disentangled myself from the pose, ran to the camera, pressed the shutter release to start the 10s timer, ran back and got into the pose again and counted down the time, remembering to smile, laugh or seem natural when the timer expired and the photograph was taken. And that’s how the rest of the session went, set the pose, run to the camera, resume the pose and wait! I definitely received a workout and raised my step count for the day!!!

The blooper

Oh yes, and there was also the blooper. Mark thought the timer had expired (it hadn’t) and the camera had taken the picture (it didn’t). So he started walking towards the camera to press the shutter release again. And of course, that’s the exact moment the camera decided to take a photo. Of course! Yes, I confess, that is me giggling in the background, trying hard to not double over with laughter!

In the next blog post, we’ll be showing some pictures of a family photo shoot…

Until then, have fun, stay safe, and God bless!

Mark and Anncilla
xoxo