A Stressful Shot…

Let me start by saying that I’m very happy with how this shot turned out, but getting it was extremely stressful. This was taken from the Mount of Olives overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem on our recent trip to Israel.

Whenever you visit the Mount of Olives, there is always a “professional” photographer waiting to take a photo of groups so they can sell them a print. I had taken my Peak Design Travel Tripod on this trip in the hopes that I would be able to use the opportunity to also get a shot of our group using the remote capabilities of my Nikon Z6ii.

If you haven’t been to the Mount of Olives, it’s hard to comprehend how chaotic it can be with buses, vendors, and tourists everywhere. In order to get the shot, I had less than five minutes to get the group together, setup my tripod, frame the shot, set the exposure, setup Bluetooth on my camera, jump back into frame, and take the photo with the SnapBridge app on my iPhone. And to add to the craziness, my camera was setup on a hill on one side of a busy street and our group was on the other side. With all of this going on, I honestly can’t believe how good it turned out.

I might have composed the shot differently had I been afforded more time and had no potential interruptions. However, given the circumstances I’m thrilled with the photo. The “professional” actually helped me keep the frame clear of obstructions long enough to get it done. I was so appreciative that I bought one of his prints just to say thank you.

While his shot had a similar composition, it was overexposed and several members of our group had their eyes closed. I’m glad I ended up getting my own shot that I can share with the group.