The Murthly Estate by the River Tay
62 years. Of which, I’ve been asleep for about 21. Seems about right, but this dormouse could always do with a little more.
I celebrated my birthday by going away fishing with a pal, his family, and his lovely Labradors, to the mighty River Tay. The photography with my wee X100V was perhaps more productive than the fishing, but I had a lovely time.
There seems to be a recent trend among YouTube photographers to recommend that we move away from manual camera settings and learn to trust automatic modes a little more. I’ve been using auto ISO on and off for some time. The problem with both of my Fujifilm cameras is that too easy to knock the exposure compensation dial accidentally, only to discover that my shots are incorrectly exposed.
Auto ISO does make sense though. I’ve often composed my shot, tuned the creative dials (aperture and shutter speed), nailed the focus and exposure, and set my two-second timer, only for a cloud to change the light just as the shutter fires. Auto ISO to the rescue. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but this one is worth learning. Just make sure your minimum shutter speed is set sufficiently high. Any noise introduced by higher ISOs can so easily be dealt with in post-processing nowadays. I use DxO PureRAW which, alongside Capture One, is one of the few bits of software that handles Fujifilm RAW files properly.
I’ve even reached the point where muscle memory now copes quite happily with switching between back-button focus on my big camera (the X-T5) and normal shutter-button focus on the X100V. These cameras are just tools. It takes time, and plenty of shots, to get them honed just right for the way you use them.
Which brings me back to my advancing years…
Experience, trial and error, and even a degree of acceptance, mean that, probably for the first time in my life, I feel comfortable and content with my lot. It’s a nice place to be, especially when I’m snuggling down under the duvet for another 40 winks. But the real trick is not to miss out on new things to discover and learn. One is never too old.
