The Seventh Annual Edwardian Ball was held last weekend at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Rae and I went to the show two years ago — which was held at the Cat Club — and have returned after a year’s absence. Once again, we celebrated Petrice’s birthday with Kai, Susan, and Bryan at Fina Estampa, a Mexican, Spanish, and Peruvian restaurant on nearby Van Ness Avenue.
Someone asked me recently if digital cameras sales have overtaken film camera sales. I’m not sure about worldwide sales, but it’s certainly the case in the Bay Area. There’s been an explosion of digital camera ownership over the past six years that shows no signs of slowing down. This year, I noticed many more digital SLRs in the crowd; check out others’ photos on Flickr and the Edwardian Ball website.
I recently picked up a backup Digital Rebel XTi, and my shoulders have been enjoying the fact that it’s smaller and lighter than my normal camera. Image-quality doesn’t quite rival the 1D, but it’s good enough for informal nights such as these. In hindsight, I should have brought my ST-E2 flash transmitter, as it would have helped immensely with focusing in the low-light conditions at the Music Hall. Pre-focusing with the 24/1.4 at f/2 is twice as difficult as you might think!
That said, does an image need to be sharp to be effective? I’ve been reading Henri-Cartier Bresson’s A Propos de Paris, a collection of Bresson’s photographs in Paris taken over the span of 50 years. His photographs are great not because they are tack sharp but because they are critically sharp.
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