JPG Magazine: Stories: How To: Old Dog, New Tricks

How To

Old Dog, New Tricks

By Dale Scherfling

4 June 2007

Based on the theory that you learn something new each day...

Ya gotta remember, I'm Old School; cut my teeth on a Nikon F back in the summer of '68 (and took a lot of crap from those REALLY OLD Speed Graphic guys in the newsroom at the time) so some of this digital stuff took awhile to sink in. But it's the "kids" I shoot with today who are always showing me new tricks.

We usually hang together on the sidelines, talking technique, cameras, girls in the crowd (well, not me - I'm usually talkin' GRANDMOTHERS in the crowd), and whatnot. That's where all the learning takes place...

"You gotta be kidding me. You're still FOCUSING that thing?"

"What'cha mean?" I say. "You like out-of-focus shots or something?"

"Naah, it's just that you paid big bucks for that camera, let it do some of the work for you. Use your auto focus in sports. Can't beat it.

"Besides," the kid (damned 42-year-old smart ass) added, "I'm getting too old and slow to focus when the action moves this fast."

The guy on my right, a thirty-something dude, threw in a word for Al Servo AF in the shooting of moving subjects. "Once you lock it on that horse's forehead, it stays right in focus, all the way to the finish line. You just can't beat the technology today. Welcome to the 21st Century, Pops."

"You guys actually USE that modern stuff? With all your experience?"

Words cannot describe the looks I got. I immediately started hen-pecking around my camera's menu. One guy pointed this thing out, the other that thing and my gear - and brain-think - was re-configured in no time.

Best new trick this Old Dog has seen in years - though you young punks of 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 have probably been using it all along - is the combined use of center-weight red-dot focus and 3.5 percent spot metering, the sport setting in the camera's automatic mode and Al Servo Al focusing. Just slap that sucker smack on the horse's forehead, or a jockey's face, or on the ball carrier, whatever - and stay right with them through the action. You keep 'em in the viewfinder and the camera does the rest. You furnish the eye and Canon furnishes the technology.

"Nice shot," my wife said later, checking out the results. "I guess you got your money's worth with that camera."

"It ain't the camera," I said indignantly. "It's the photographer!"

And the spot metering, red dot focusing, quick-follow focusing and all the rest of this wonderful new digital world.

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