"Double Trouble"

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to photograph Haley and Gwen's B'not Mitzvah ceremony. They're twins, or as the Rabbi referred to them, "Double Trouble".

I was specifically asked to take photos during the actual ceremony, rather than doing staged photos beforehand. This presented some challenges, because the Synagogue requires the photographer to stay in the back (in one location only) and to not use a flash. Shooting indoors with a telephoto lens and no flash is tough. The long (slow) shutter speeds mean that any subject motion results in a blurry image, and the telephoto lens means any camera motion is amplified and also blurs the image. And the wide apertures needed for low light mean that the focus has to be right on the mark.

This a perfect situation for my recently acquired Nikon D300 camera, because it offers much better low-light capability than my previous Nikon D70 cameras. I also decided to take advantage of my fixed location by bracing the camera against the door frames at the entrance to the Sanctuary. This will steady a camera almost as well as using a tripod or monopod. The net result was a much higher percentage of "keepers" than I've had on the past. And that means a happy client...