Thankfully, I am blessed to see another year with my family. Who knows what this year will bring. I’m sure there will be challenges to overcome, but I hope there are more “ups” than “downs.” After all, life is what you make it, right? I typically bring in the New Year at home falling asleep before the big countdown, but this time, I decided to check out the first “Mule Drop” on the square in downtown Columbia, Tennessee. I figured since I captured the Christmas tree lighting event and the Christmas parade, I might as well end the Holiday season with some images of the New Year celebration. You can see the Christmas photos in my post titled “A Columbia Christmas.”
Generally speaking, you might think of a New Years celebration as an adult party. After all, it is late at night and drinking alcohol seems to be the main activity on New Years Eve. That was not the case! I apologize for the pun. Maybe I’m showing my lack of knowledge when it comes to public New Years celebrations, but as time grew closer to the countdown, family after family began showing up. The families ranged from grandparents to young couples. The kids ranged in age from teenagers all the way down to babies in strollers. It looked more like a family event. As you will see, the kids stole the show.
Before we get to the pictures, I’ll get the tech talk out of the way. After all, this is a photography blog. Once again, I employed my EM1 Mark II. I ended up shooting all of my prime lenses at some point during the night. Those lenses were the 17mm, 25mm, 45mm, and the 75mm. All of these lenses have apertures of f1.8. As a photographer or any practice for that matter, you are always working on your craft. This time I decided to incorporate my flashgun. I figure it would come in handy trying to capture fast moving people under dark conditions. It would also give me a chance to practice the technique of shooting TTL with a bounce card at night. Well, I learned a lot! Did all the images come out tack sharp, without noise and with a perfect exposure? The answer is NO! I have no doubt that more practice under these conditions will yield better results, but I’m not a stickler for the perfect technically sound image. I’m a fan of images that speak to the viewer regardless of any imperfections. In fact, the motion blur added another dimension to the images. Some of the photos where the focus was slightly off still had enough information to illustrate a moment in time. Overall, I believe this body of work along with some imperfections still does a great job in telling the human story. Ultimately, the human condition is what it’s all about.
That last shot was an impromptu capture. Had I known there were going to be fireworks, I would have setup for a different shot. Instead, I positioned myself for a shot of the crowd during the mule drop. When I heard the explosions, I immediately turned my camera to the sky. It’s an ok shot, but it would have been better with a little planning. I hope you enjoyed the images and I hope you have gotten a great start to the New Year. Subscribe to my blog or follow me on Facebook at Shuttering Thru Life to see what 2019 will bring. Thanks for reading!
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