to stumble is to learn

Last Saturday I had to do some last-minute homework assignment before going to class, so I decided to get to the train station earlier and take some photos there.  It was a nice sunny morning, so what could be better than taking some photos of the platform and the passengers, right? In my mind I could already see the images.

After taking a few shots, to my horror, I noticed that things were barely showing up on my camera's LCD screen!  Every photo was literally pitch dark.  I mean, I know I have a lot to learn and practice, but really, how could I possibly have photos that are so drastically different than what I saw in the viewfinder?!

It was too early in the morning for me to comprehend what had happened and so I took some extreme measures - switched from aperture priority mode to manual, and cranked the ISO setting all the way up to 1600.  And to my relief, photos are starting to show up.  But I still couldn't figure out why and was totally demoralized!

So as it turned out, I set my exposure compensation to -5, which means all my pictures are completely underexposed.  This of course was corrected with the help of my wonderful instructor Kate.

I guess the moral of the story is, always pay attention to the data in your viewfinder because your camera is smart enough to give you the warning signs and you better believe what it says.  Oh and also, it's inevitable that you have to stumble a few times before you know how to shoot properly.  I guess that's just part of the learning process.  The good news is, after the incident, I know I will never make the same mistake again.

Here are few of the photos taken that day.  Luckily, I managed to salvage them with some simple Lightroom adjustments.  But the reality is, some shots were impossible to recover and those picture-perfect moments - of people chatting happily before boarding the train, were lost forever...