Dan Trommater - Newsletter Archive

Thinking Like a Magician

"Chance" - August 07

I haven’t always been a magician. My college training (4 years) was as a photographer and I then worked in the field, both as a shooter and as a college educator (7 years). I mention this to give some context to the following story.

I was recently in Northern Michigan for a wedding and we stayed at a beautiful rural bed and breakfast, complete with horses, kittens and lots of dragonflies. After the wedding festivities had come to a close, a group of family gathered around the fire next to the riverbank. I was the last to approach the group and the fire was already crackling away and casting a warm glow on everyone and the trees above. Since we were miles from any major streetlights, the night sky was particularly beautiful. From my perspective across the horse coral, the Big Dipper was directly above the fire, so I got my camera and composed the shot by resting the camera on the fence post. I’ve had lots of experience photographing the night sky, so I was fairly quickly able to arrive at an exposure that properly exposed both the fire and the stars. Since I was shooting digitally, I was able to immediately see the results. I shot and shot and shot, tweaking the composition and the exposure. Here's one of my early attempts...

Then ‘Chance’ stepped in.

Right in the middle of a 30-second exposure, a huge shooting star blazed across the sky, right through the Big Dipper. It was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down! When I saw the resulting photograph, I knew I had something special. Here it is...

That shooting star was a fluke. It could have happened later in the night. It could have been in a different part of the sky. It could have occurred in between my many shots. I got lucky. But what is luck? I was in the right place at the right time, armed with the necessary knowledge and tools to take advantage of the situation at hand. I think the Boy Scout motto is a real secret to success – “Be Prepared!” The more you know - about anything, everything- the better prepared you'll be when Chance steps in.

Trick of the Month - A Game of Chance

Please be patient as the video loads - it may take up to 60 seconds. Once it loads, click the little triangle at the left to play. If you can't see the video, try clicking here for the Windows Media Version.

"It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared."
- Whitney M. Young

You can see the archive of past issues of Thinking Like A Magician here www.trommater.com/totmarchive



		Thinking Like a Magician "Chance" - August 07 I haven’t always been a magician. My college training (4 years) was as a photographer and I then worked in the field, both as a shooter and as a college educator (7 years). I mention this to give some context to the following story. I was recently in Northern Michigan for a wedding and we stayed at a beautiful rural bed and breakfast, complete with horses, kittens and lots of dragonflies. After the wedding festivities had come to a close, a group of family gathered around the fire next to the riverbank. I was the last to approach the group and the fire was already crackling away and casting a warm glow on everyone and the trees above. Since we were miles from any major streetlights, the night sky was particularly beautiful. From my perspective across the horse coral, the Big Dipper was directly above the fire, so I got my camera and composed the shot by resting the camera on the fence post. I’ve had lots of experience photographing the night sky, so I was fairly quickly able to arrive at an exposure that properly exposed both the fire and the stars. Since I was shooting digitally, I was able to immediately see the results. I shot and shot and shot, tweaking the composition and the exposure. Here's one of my early attempts... Then ‘Chance’ stepped in. Right in the middle of a 30-second exposure, a huge shooting star blazed across the sky, right through the Big Dipper. It was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down! When I saw the resulting photograph, I knew I had something special. Here it is... That shooting star was a fluke. It could have happened later in the night. It could have been in a different part of the sky. It could have occurred in between my many shots. I got lucky. But what is luck? I was in the right place at the right time, armed with the necessary knowledge and tools to take advantage of the situation at hand. I think the Boy Scout motto is a real secret to success – “Be Prepared!” The more you know - about anything, everything- the better prepared you'll be when Chance steps in. Trick of the Month - A Game of Chance Please be patient as the video loads - it may take up to 60 seconds. Once it loads, click the little triangle at the left to play. If you can't see the video, try clicking here for the Windows Media Version. "It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared." - Whitney M. Young You can see the archive of past issues of Thinking Like A Magician here www.trommater.com/totmarchive