Several weeks ago I went to one of our local parks with OM 2S , 75-150 Zuiko,
Carl Zeiss softar 2, t32 with slave attached, t20 on camera, a couple of
tripods and three of my favorite subjects. My daughter, son-in-law and 17
month old grandson wanted pictures for their Christmas cards and I wanted an
entry in TOPE 8. I shot 36 exposures both posed and candid. Used both
flashes on some and the single T20 for fill with others. When I went to pick
them up from the processor the guy at the processing place I use said, "You
know you could sell these" referring to the photos I was picking up. He was
right as I really did do some nice work. It always helps to have great
looking subjects with whom you are comfortable and the right Olympus OM
equipment. My biggest decision was which of the batch to enter as there were
several that were really nice. But this isn't how this TOPE thing works.
The TOPE gets the wheels turning in you head about what else would work or be
possible. So returning from a Gary Zukov (ask your wife, she will know who
he is) lecture, with 7 shots left on a roll, 45 minutes left in the shooting
period and a full moon which makes me a little crazy, I stopped and did some
shots of a building I had shot last Christmas season and wanted to work on
again this year. I was doing time exposures and using my T32 to paint some
landmarks I wanted highlighted. Don't know how these will turn out and you
guys will probably see pictures of my grandson in TOPE 8, but what I do know
is that much, if not all of this, would not have been done had I not been
participating in the TOPE. For those of you who have not participated, I
would encourage you to come play with us. I know you will enjoy it and you
may even challenge yourself to learn something new. That has been the case
for me. Bill Barber
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