Try this one on for size!
Before going out on any job there are a few things to check over with my equipment. In the age of technology, and I am not a technologist, things can go wrong without really knowing. The new generations of digital cameras have so many buttons and controls that it's entirely possible to inadvertently move a setting that can send a camera system into orbit. I like to avoid orbit, especially when in the midst of an assignment.
So, before leaving the office, here are a few things I like to confirm. Batteries. We now live and die by the battery. I check power levels on all batteries and carry several spares, fully charged. As these rechargeable batteries age they have less capacity. Not good to lose power as the wedding party processes or the dog takes a monumental leap for the Frisbee.
Camera settings include, ISO (in film days this was called ASA) setting, light balance to match at least the initial glimpse of the weather, file designation, jpeg, raw etc., metering, focus and importantly, “Do I have a memory card in all cameras with spares readily available?” Flash equipment fully charged with high recovery power.
Once all these things are confirmed, I go outside the office to the driveway and make a few exposures of unimportant items that help me know that all lenses are seeing what I see. There is nothing worse than downloading a day's work onto the big screen and finding that a lens camera link was faulty and undetected. Fortunately that accident has never occurred for me in a massive way, although I have had lens failure while on the job. For this reason I always carry spare equipment.
During focus check, the attached photograph resulted. One of my workhorse lenses is a 70-200 mm zoom lens. It’s just a great, versatile and accurate piece of equipment that I have used through several generations. I like to test the focus at a couple focal lengths on either end of the lens range. By that I mean, make an exposure of “normal” range and then test a more telephoto composition that is tightly focused for accuracy.
While locked onto the above flower at maximum telephoto but close focus, a hummingbird entered the frame for one nanosecond. It accidentally included itself with no warning as if to say, “How’s that for sharpness big boy?” As can be seen, the image of my little friend is not completely sharp, partly because I was startled and partly because the zone of sharpness of my lens was not properly placed for the composition.
One other note, to bore you with. Because I was so close to the flower and the bird, when enlarged to the size above, the flower looks to be about the size of a baseball and the “Hummer” the size of a crow. This is not the fault of the lens. Accidents happen. Enough said!