"Elumoto" Bike Expo @ "Saku Suurhall", March 2008
Once again, I yielded to a lucrative offer
Comments:
Event - "Elumoto" bike expo. When I first got the call to become the official photographer for the expo, it felt like it'd be a rehash of a similar bike expo gallery I did back in 2005 called "Motoexotika", so I wasn't that interested. However, since the gig allowed me to take care of some other business on the side, I decided to take it anyway. Back in 2005 I was restricted to manually focusing my then-broken 50mm Canon F1.8 and comparing the two galleries, I think the gallery I did three years ago looks way better, but I guess the current pictures are passable as well. Where I failed though is that I ventured way too much into taking pictures of all the booth babes, whereas I should have taken more pictures of the bikes, but especially all the colourful guests, who are almost completely missing in the pictures.
Photography - I was going back and forth between taking and not taking the flash with me. I prefer to travel light so I only take stuff that I know I'm going to use. Expos are usually well lit and the need for a flash is minimal, but then again, since this was a paid gig, I'd have to be prepared for anything. In the end, I did bring my flash with me - but apparently not the batteries, so I ended up being without a flash anyway. The 40D does have an internal flash, which is better than nothing, but its slow recycle speed and limited reach don't lend themselves to much more than the most basic of lighting. Hence I've ended up with a bunch of pictures that would seriously have benefitted from some fill flash, but what can you do. Also I should have limited my use of the Sigma 30mm F1.4 and taken more pictures with the 50mm Canon F1.8. 30mm makes it easy to take pictures in tight quarters (I don't have to back up as much), but the pictures look nicer taken with the 50mm (a more out of focus background resulting in a better isolated subject). The 50-150mm F2.8 Sigma came in handy for some occasional stage action, but the 17-50mm F2.8 Sigma proved quite useless all-around. In fact I have yet to find a situation where the Sigma 17-50 F2.8 would prove it is worth having. Club shots are better taken with the kit lens, low-lights with primes, zooms with 50-150 and wide-angles with the Tokina 12-24mm F4. In fact I really don't see much of use for a 17-50mm F2.8. I bought it as a replacement for my trusty kit lens, but I guess I shouldn't have and I'll probably swap it out for the second generation Canon kit lens in the near future (with image stabilization, yeah baby!:).