What better place to go to capture the feel of the holidays in downtown Phoenix than CitySkate?
I had been there a few days before with my friends and had a blast — but the entire time I was wishing I had my camera. There were so many sweet moments that I wish I could have captured, everything from friends falling on each other and cracking up to a man helping his daughter stay on her feet. I even had the privilege of witnessing a proposal. When she said yes, everyone started cheering.
This assignment was the perfect excuse to go back there and get some of those sweet moments on camera. However, on arrival, I decided that to capture the feel of the holidays in a large city, a small personal moment would not cut it. Instead, I decided to capture the unending movement that is the city. The ice rink was lit well enough that I could use a long exposure to get a good amount of motion in my shots.
I thought that having a longer exposure would allow me to capture more movement, but I soon found that people were moving too quickly for them to even show up in my photos. I ended up shooting with my shutter speed set at one second. I turned my ISO to 800 to allow for the long exposure and set my aperture to f/22.
I originally was not sure how to tackle an assignment as big as capturing the entire holiday season in one of the largest cities in the U.S., but I found that if you just put the work in, you’ll always be able to walk away a little more experienced, and if you’re lucky (or determined enough), you’ll also come away with a shot that you’re proud of.
Contact the photographer at Johanna.Huckeba@asu.edu. Contact the columnist at Courtney.Pedroza@asu.edu.
