Hello Reader !

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The year was 2022 and I panicked in the heat of the moment.

The sun was about to rise, and my fingers were flying across my camera.

ISO. Aperture. Shutter speed.

Everything felt rushed. Nothing felt right.

And in that moment, a strange thought hit me...

This feels familiar.

It Felt Like 1995 All Over Again

Back then, as the sun was getting ready to settle below the horizon, I was scrambling with my camera settings.

ISO? Didn’t have to dial that in since digital was still a good 4 to 6 years away.

So, I brought my favorite (slide) film for landscapes: Fuji Velvia 100.
Loaded thirty minutes prior to sunset.

Now what?

What aperture should I use?
Was it f/4 or f/11 for rendering more of the scene in focus?
Shutter speed? Does it matter?

All the while, the sun was setting fast. And I started to panic.

I dialed in my settings, raised my camera, and click...

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Nailed it… or so I thought. No way to know until the prints came back a few days later.

To my surprise I didn’t nail it!

Let’s forget about the composition. Which is really bad.

But, it doesn’t matter… even if it was the most spectacular composition of all time… it doesn’t matter.

The light… the color of light in particular… also doesn’t matter.

Even if Mother Nature provided the most amazing colors of all eternity… it doesn’t matter.

I failed to use what would later become my first key to creating amazing photos… using the right camera settings (regardless of the type of camera you have).

If I had, the image would have been properly exposed and sharp.

Then the light... followed by composition would have mattered.

But, the shutter speed was all wrong.

I couldn’t tell you what it was since the metadata wasn’t saved to the contact sheet.

There's my dry humor bubbling up once again.

Anyway, I know it was wrong… 30 years later… because the image is blurry.

Most likely due to camera-shake… the shutter speed was too slow.

27 Years Later

Now, let’s go back and finish the original story.

Which I’ve told before.

So, I’ll make it quick to get to the point of my mistake and how to avoid it.

One morning...

...I found myself standing in front of the Archery Field Overlook in Letchworth State Park.

Patiently waiting for the sun to rise.

Which is a boring fact.

I came to this position because, two hours earlier, my wife hurled a pillow at me for snoring… allegedly.

Banished from bed, I wandered our cabin like a restless ghost.

And then the unthinkable thought hit me…

"…what if I went out and photographed my first EVER sunrise in my 33 years of photography?"

Me. The guy who treats mornings like vampires treat garlic.

How's that for storytelling?

Anyway, there I was.

60 minutes before sunrise.

And it felt like 1995 all over again.

What aperture should I use?

Shutter Speed?

ISO?

You’d think after all those years I’d know what to do in the moment.

But, I felt like a beginner all over again.

So I set up the tripod, framed the scene, dialed in my settings... click...

My very first Blue Hour photo. Not bad. Not great.

14 minutes later, I could feel the sun stretching toward the horizon, ready to rise...

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With 60-seconds left before show time... I began to panic.

The sun is coming... "the sun is coming" I screamed like a little girl (not really, or did I - I'll never tell)!

...

The scene is getting brighter… so, I lowered the ISO. Check.

Next, let’s make the foreground to background in sharp focus this time… change the Aperture. Check.

Wait, now my exposure is off. Re-adjust ISO. Check.

Wait, is my shutter speed fast enough to freeze the rolling fog? No. So, let's double the shutter speed. Check.

Wait, my exposure is off again…. Oh, s**t, there's the sun!!!!

...quickly double the ISO... and click…

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Whew… nailed it!

My very first sunrise!

Not bad, eh?

Dumb luck? Skill? Intuition?

I’d say a little bit of all three.

33 years of practice meant I was able to perfectly dial in the camera settings for my creative vision… even under the stress of FOMO.

Notice I didn't include "gear" as a contributor to these images?

The camera... a Nikon d500 I purchased six years prior! Ancient in digital years.

Frustrated, and You Don't Have 33 Years?

Frustrated that your images don’t either match your creative vision and/or they’re exposed wrong, subject is blurry, etc...

And… you don’t have 33 years to practice your craft you say?

Well, you don’t need 33 years of practice to nail the shot.

All you need instead is…

…know before you go.

• Know your subject before you go (leave home).
• Know your creative vision before you go.
• Know and dial in your settings before you go!

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{If you don’t know what camera settings to use - before you go… then, there's no sense going out to shoot! Instead, watch my free photography course for beginners before you go.}

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It doesn’t matter your niche; wildlife, landscapes, portraits, weddings, street, macro, flowers, or any other genre.

Know before you go and you won’t panic in the moment!

And, more importantly, you'll create images you had imagined, avoid unnecessary frustration, and boost your confidence!

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Have an awesome day!

Chris Parker

Parker Photographic

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P.S. In next weeks newsletter... we'll get back to another composition tutorial! And you'll be surprised that I didn't use my "know before you go" advice. Well, sort of!

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P.P.P.S. For those wondering... Aperture was the most important setting for my creative vision (for all three images); f/11, initially for the second image.

However, between that photo and the next 12 minutes (before the sun made an appearance) I decided that I wanted to create a starburst.

f/11 would have worked. However, I went with f/22 instead. Why? Well, that's a story for another day.

After settling on the aperture, I had to battle with ISO and Shutter. I settled on ISO 800 and 1/125 for the shutter.

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