Tech bloopers

I rode the ferry home today from San Francisco. As we sat waiting for the boat to leave we got to see the moon rising in the East over the Bay Bridge as the sky went from pink to blue and then to dark as the lights shone out and the moonlight struck a path straight towards as in the calm waters. It was really lovely. Ahhhhh.

But it was sad watching someone with a $1000+ digital SLR camera trying to snap photos of the event and every time their flash goes off. There was no foreground, and there wasn't anything within a half mile or more it could possible have illuminated so I know it was just a mistake. I really wanted to go over and explain to them what to do - aperture to the max, increase the ISO to 400 or 800 (those high end sensors can take it without too much noise) and steady the camera on the boat - it might have been a photo to remember. But I know it would probably have either caused offense (they were just like pro - all fancy like the camera) or I would have left them with a camera in some manual mode they would never get out of again.

Of course you see that same mistake all the time at stadiums with piddly little cameras and their 20ft range flashes going off all over the place like fireflies, but you can forgive an amateur for that. But it's too bad people are lured to these prosumer models because as it proves, all those bells and whistles aren't going to save you from a dumb mistake and you've shelled out far more than the average Joe has for their $200 pocket camera.