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Wow, Christmas can be soo busy! I've been asked to photograph about half a dozen different events, and only been able to do a few.  Our stations' "Breakfast with Santa" was the big one.   Santa Claus flies in on the helicopter, and comes to meet with the kids (all ~500 of them) and take pictures with them, just like in the malls.   Guess who had to be on their toes for two hours straight doing nothing but shooting pictures and listening to grumpy Santa because there was soo many kids!!!  Haha, it was a blast though.  So many friends laughing at the faces their kids made when caught by the camera.



Alright, so lets move on,  I'd like to start throwing in a photography tip in every journal, something that paid off for me to know, and something that I'm sure will help you in the future. My first tip this journal played an important role when I was shooting the formation shots of our helicopter.  When clarity and sharpness is a big factor in the success of your shoot, shoot with the fastest shutter speed available to you.   Turn your ISO up to get at least 1/2000th in available light.  Its usually not hard to achieve, but when you consider I was trying to get shots with 'rotor whir' in them by slowing down the shutter, I was never able to achieve a sharp photograph.  This is partially due to my environment, the helicopter, which was very rough and not helpful considering I was working with another photographer at the same time out the same window with the same 300mm lens.  So keep this all in mind the next time you're worried about getting The Shot.

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