Goodbye to January 2013. Because you were the first month after 2012, which was a great year other than the fact that it was the year after 2011, which was the worst year of my life.

These were my final words that year ending in a quote from the beautiful Iris Dement song; “My Life”:

…it don’t count for nuthin’
a broken September that no one will recall.

My life, it’s tangled in reason
and still I have not found my way out of this life*

*I believe that last word should have been night, but it was kind of a downer entry.

I only recently decided to play with a combination of settings in order to fray the difficulties I sometimes have fumbling with settings and missing shots that would have been simple with my camera phone. While the lack of control in those shots is problematic, the advantage of actually getting the shot means everything.

However: I’ve been reticent, disabled, extremely busy learning new things, and unmotivated to be “artistic” lately with my D800. But, as I told my daughter about learning to accept critical input for creative endeavors, I just need to accept what I still need to learn and be happy I see the path.

So, here’s my new combination on my D800.

Auto ISO. This basically is admitting that I’m almost always indoors, and that’s where the bulk of my photography is going to be this winter. It’s just that way, despite how pathetic that sounds.

Manual. I’ve too often been suckered into other settings, and I miss my sense of control. But since Auto ISO is on, it’s really not manual, because you’re not directly influencing the exposure with everything locked down. So, it’s “what I want to shoot with”. I mean, I know if I want f8 for maximum sharpness / dof, or if I want to go running to the creamy / cheesyish quality of maximum boca (I can go to 1.4 on my 50 mm, which is my indoor lens) —I can get up and move closer…). I know that my D800 is going to be much less forgiving in teeny pixels of movement that looked rock solid on my D200 at 1/80th or even 1/30th (back when I was a much bulkier man). So, I shoot for 1/125 at least now.

But something’s gotta give. That means the ISO. So, it’s important to remember that the ISO picker is in control (within the constraints that you allow in camera settings). 

So what happened to my manual control? This is where it gets important to learn a new skill. No fumbling, just make deviations from the auto-ISO provision with the exposure bias dial.

On the Nikon that’s accessible with a simple button push with your index finger that’s on your shutter (slide in to the key marked +/-) while turning the control dial with your thumb. Nikon’s reversed their directions to be market consistent, but you can override that in settings.

So, when I dial in F8 and 1/125 and the ISO is WAY up there, I can skootch the F8 down a bit and see what I’m going to loose, I can brace myself and come in from 1/125 (or go creative with blur). And if the metering isn’t giving me a good exposure, I use the +/_ override key to force the ISO down - or up + for a less or more well lit subject.

What does NOT change, and this important to remember, is my control over the settings of manual that I’ve imposed (for good or for bad).

However — I’m slower than I’d like to be, and I’m not opposed to flipping to Program if things get wacky changing and I don’t really know what I want. So there.