FOMATIK // Issue 007

Back in October, the family went out to California. Last month I took you up the Palm Springs Tramway, shooting familiar places with a new eye. This month? Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.

I've shot the D90 at these parks dozens of times. But this trip, I threw on the Tokina 12-24 and stopped looking through the viewfinder. Most shots were aimed and fired from the hip. Sure, there were the mandatory family pictures. But mostly? Just glimpses of what was happening around me.

The first ride of course is the tram from the parking lot. Nothing says "Disneyland" trip without hopping on a shuttle miles away from the park. This was the Toy Story parking lot. Make sure you get that right. Because you don't want to get on the wrong shuttle at night when it's time to go home and the shuttles are winding down their service.

When shooting from the hip, I committed to manual ISO adjustments. I'm not entirely sure that was the right call.

You might be thinking: What does the International Organization of Standards have to do with my photography? Not much, honestly. ISO as a film speed rating came together in the mid-70s when two competing standards merged. When you see ISO 100, 400, 6400—that's the third leg of the exposure triangle. Aperture and shutter speed control light entering the camera. ISO controls how sensitive your film or sensor is to that light.

Higher numbers = more sensitivity = less light needed. Most digital cameras set their base ISO at 100 or 200. The D90 lets you adjust on the fly. Here's the trade: higher ISO means more visible grain in film, more noise in digital.

I started experimenting with manual ISO when I was entertaining a career in real estate photography. All the guides said the same thing: ISO 800, f/8, have fun on the tripod. It works—decent depth of field, manageable grain, enough sensitivity to handle dark corners even in well-lit rooms.

Over the summer I stuck with manual adjustments for night shots around the campfire. Higher ISO, stable sharp images handheld. It felt like control. Like I was making deliberate choices instead of letting the camera think for me.

That's what brought me to Disneyland shooting from the hip in full manual. And that's where the assignment fell apart.

Bright California sun to dark ride queues to indoor attractions. I had to check and adjust for every lighting situation. Sometimes I nailed it—clean exposures, good detail. Other times? Blown highlights or muddy shadows. The keeper rate dropped. The post-processing pile grew.

With film, you're locked in for 24-36 frames at whatever speed you loaded. You can push or pull in development—essentially over or underexposing the entire roll and compensating in the lab—but that's a project for another newsletter. Digital gives you per-shot ISO flexibility, which sounds like freedom until you're shooting from the hip at Disneyland and the light changes every thirty seconds.

The D90 sits in that prosumer sweet spot. A little better than a bare bones entry but not quite there as a pro camera. Can be used at a pro level with very little issue. It has options aplenty. Making all manual decisions—including ISO—creates a level of control that can sometimes overwhelm.

Which I think is what happened at Disneyland. I was constantly fiddling with the settings to match the scenario. This took me out of the moment of the assignment. Which was to not think beyond pointing the camera and firing the shutter.

Maybe auto-ISO is the smarter play here. One less thing to think about when you're just trying to grab the moment before it's gone. Sometimes the best technical decision is the one that gets out of your way.

I think there would have been more keepers and I probably would have taken more snaps if I wasn't always worried about the ISO. Manual control isn't the same as intentional photography. Sometimes the most intentional choice is trusting your tools to handle the technical details while you focus on the frame.

That's not lazy. That's strategic.

Digital toy cameras give you almost nothing: maybe an f-stop, maybe a close-up/wide toggle (usually just one step), and if you're lucky, a flash. What you don't get is ISO control. Most are locked around ISO 100 with a shutter speed fast enough for handheld shooting—maybe 1/60. That means daylight or well-lit rooms. Some are set up like disposable cameras with ISO 400 equivalent for more range, but don't count on it.

Film toys work the same way—locked aperture, fixed shutter speed—except your ISO is decided when you buy the film. Loading ISO 200 or 400 gives you more versatility across different scenarios but that's it. One choice, then you're committed for the whole roll.

No adjustments. No compensation. Just composition and timing. The limitations force you to think about light and moment instead of settings—which is exactly what manual ISO at Disneyland should have taught me before I learned it the hard way.

Last month I issued a challenge to shoot familiar spaces with a new eye. I am sad to say that I did not get any entries. We soldier ahead.

Bob Ross knew something photographers sometimes forget - mistakes can become features. My example comes from inside Space Mountain, looking down at the ride exit. Still running manual ISO, unable to get stable in the dark. What I captured was a shaky, underexposed mess.

But with some work in Lightroom and Photoshop, that failure became this:

The blur and shake that ruined the technical execution? They became the style. The underexposure? Pushed the neon colors even harder.

So that's your challenge: While lugging that camera around on vacation, when you go to cull those shots, find something you think is a loss. Then give it new life.

Deadline: January 6
Entry: Post to the pinned thread on r/fomatik
Rules: Same as last month - one entry, your work, any format (digital, film, toy camera), details are in the megathread.

Let's see what you can recover from the reject pile.

I would love to hear from you. Just hit reply and tell me:
💭 If you worked for a client what was the biggest recovery you ever had to pull off?

Holiday lights after dark—slow shutter speeds, moving targets, and the kind of chaos that separates intentional shooting from just hoping something works. I'm taking the challenge with gear that wasn't built for low light perfection, because that's where you learn what actually matters.

🎄 Colored lights.

🌙 Limited control.

📸 Real lessons about when to trust your instincts and when to trust your tools.

Does shooting in the dark teach you more than shooting in daylight? We'll find out together—and you might get a challenge to try it yourself.

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