Know your camera...

How many times are we told to be sure to understand our cameras and all of the settings? Many times! Many many times!!

Well today I fell victim to unfamiliarity. On the way to Portland, Oregon from Seattle, Washington we stopped at Panther Creek Falls. A very impressive natural cascade, to capture some images. It was late afternoon of a very overcast, typical rainy Pacific Northwest day. The Falls are in a heavy forested area and the natural light was was quite poor.

I took a test shot to gauge the exposure and then set my camera on the lowest ISO 32, f/22 and 30s. Mounted in on the Gorilla pod and with the time delay, pressed the shutter.

Next thing I knew I got a message “Job nr” on the LCD. Checked everything and tried again. Same result. Powered off and back on, same thing. Thinking that there was a problem with my camera, I dejectedly took pictures with my IPhoneand hiked out of the canyon.

Once I had cell service again, I googled the “error” message. Turns out it was not an error message, but a “status message”. The camera has a long exposure noise reduction setting that was ON. It captures the image for the shutter time set and then processes it for the same length of time to minimize noise. The message let’s the photographer know that it’s happening.

Since I was shooting at ISO 32, it would have been unnecessary and I could have turned the function OFF. If I had known or remembered about it.

A missed opportunity to capture a great waterfall, but a good learning experience. Hopefully you will spend some time with your camera and learn more about how to use it properly. I wish I had spent a few more minutes with mine!