Embrace New Technology - Guest post by William Innes

Intro by Skip Cohen

For years I've said the best part of this industry has nothing to do with photography, but the friendships that come out of everyone's love for the craft. Well, my buddy William Innes is back with another Luminary Corner post and he makes a terrific point about trusting technology.

William currently speaks on workflow and production matters, but rumors persist that there may be a travel photography related program in the works.  To see more of William's wedding photography visit www.innesphotography.com and to see a slideshow of his photos from Morocco visit http://williaminnes.com/blog/morocco-2014/. 

You'll also find the latest from William and the other members of the LUMIX Luminary team in the LUMIX Lounge, a great place to follow their infectious creativity!

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by William Innes

As a wedding photographer my camera remains in manual mode the whole day. I feel I need to control my exposure for consistency and the only successful method I have found is to set the f-stop, shutter speed and ISO myself. This is how I have shot for the last 8 years – no matter what the subject matter.

I recently returned for a short vacation to Morocco where this mindset of always shooting in manual took a turn for the better. I decided to travel light – two Panasonic Lumix bodies – the GX7 and small GM1. I accessorized these cameras with an assortment of Lumix lenses. The whole kit easily fit into the bottom of my regular backpack. I had been experimenting with the Ai mode (Automatic Intelligent Exposure) on these cameras and decided to give it a go while on vacation.

The truth be told – I never took either camera off this setting the whole trip. I have found while traveling that it is easy to get caught up in trying to photograph your environment and really spending the day not experiencing the place and or culture. With the cameras set to Ai it was easy to spend a few seconds capturing the scene and moving on. My wife commented on how great this trip was and how we spent so much time enjoying the food, culture and people.

The lesson here is to trust new technology in these cameras. It is crazy good. Think about what you are shooting and what is the best mode to use.

One other technological advancement on these cameras I used – was the WiFi feature. Every evening I would use this feature to download images to my iPad and edit them using various apps – such as Snapseed. I then uploaded finished images to my Facebook page.

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Images copyright Willian Innes. All rights reserved.