My idea of fun!

A couple of weeks ago, I was taking photographs in a roller rink for my goddaughter's 9th birthday.  I'm out there on the rink, (I think I must have walked around that rink at least 100 times!) with an idea of what I wanted I wanted my images to look like.  And let me tell you, it was NOT happening.

Honestly, when I left the party, I was soooooo relieved that I didn't shoot for Roller Derby magazine and frustrated with myself for not being able to figure out how to accomplish what I wanted in camera!

But when I got back to my darkroom, I realized I could create the image I was looking for with a photo composite.  Okay, so I might have thought about this while I was walking the rink ;-)  I had shot several images that were exposed specifically for the colorful lights (helllllo 80's!!) and the movement and several images exposed just for the people, some with flash and some without.  The frustrating challenging lighting situation is that it's an on and off lighting situation--the lights are flashing on and off and changing with generally very low ambient light.  But combining the two images gave me exactly what I was after: a well lit image depicting the motion of my fast moving subject in a low light situation and the colorful lighting behind without looking, well, overly flashed.

Combining the two images and voila!  Exactly what I was looking for.  And instead of being frustrated, I ended up enjoying the challenge, creating a little playtime in my darkroom.  

Has a frustration ever turned into something positive for you?  Share it with me!