A Slight Kink In My Swing

I've spent most of this last week thinking about blogging and Northern Voice, so tonight I'm going to unwind a bit in front of the TV and just relax. So, while I plan to write a Northern Voice summary, I'm going to hold off on that for a day or two.

One of the aspects of Northern Voice I enjoy is the opportunity to take a lot of different photos in various settings. I practiced doing the odd wide-angle shot in some of the rooms, and used my 70-200mm for a few close ups of speakers. For the most part, I took a lot of the same shots I always take. But for some reason, something's been really bothering me lately about the results.

When a golfer acquires a nasty shot on the golf course, despite typically being a good player, sometimes it's referred to as developing a shank. For some reason, I kind of feel like I've developed the photographic equivalent of a shank.

I've been struggling to put my finger on it, and I just can't seem to figure it out. Lately I've just been rather disappointed with almost every shot I download to my computer. I've mixed up the lenses, the lighting, the composition, pretty much everything, and yet I'm just consistently disappointed when I finally get stuff of my camera.

The composition of most shots is about where I want it, but they all seem to lack some of the punch I typically see while looking through the viewfinder. I'm really at a loss, but I have to sort it out because it's really starting to bother me. I'm going to take every lens I have and give it a major cleaning tonight. Then I'm going to tear the 40D apart and review all the custom settings. I'm also fairly certain the new iPhoto isn't working for me as well as the last one -- I think the sharpening algorithm in the new version is far uglier than the last one, and I'm having to relearn how to use it.

Like I said, I'm really not sure what's wrong. I plan to figure it out over the next few days though. I'll probably do a few photography entries while I investigate.