Panic!

Camera at the ready. I press the button and I wait to hear the sweet crisp noise of the shutter. Instead, I get nothing, but the camera telling me it's finding it hard to focus. Suddenly a feeling of disappointment, anger and nerves hit  me. For a brief second, I have no idea what to do, and think of calling it a night, packing my things and going home.

It's my first time photographing an event like this, and my worst fears has come true at the very beginning. I take a deep breath, and try again, and press the shutter button as hard as I can. Yet again, my camera does nothing. I check my settings, and I've made my aperture as low as it can go, and my shutter speed slow enough to let the ambient light in, but quick enough to prevent motion blur.  My ISO is at 800. I crank it up to 1600 the highest my ISO can go on my camera, then I press the shutter button again.

It clicks. I check the back of my camera to see the picture, not great, but not too bad either. I refocus, and lock my focus using manual focus and change position slightly, taking as many photos as I can before the subjects moves and I'm out of focus again. I check my images and I'm happy with them. Immediately after DJ drops a heavy beat, the crowd goes wild and hands are in the air, I quickly get my camera to capture the moment. I look at the crowd and their excited energy has me shuffling my feet to the beat. The brief panic at the beginning has all gone away.

(All photos can be viewed on Ohana Magazine's Facebook Page)

Angela xx