If you haven’t heard, I have taken over the reigns as the organizer for the Facebook-based San Diego Shooting Group. We’re a group of photographers that get together every other month to learn a little about photography, photograph a model or two, and have a lot of fun! I somehow convinced Shari of Shari Barnes Photography to join me as co-organizer of the group, and I’m so glad she’s on board!

For our last get-together, we met up at Powerhouse Park in Del Mar. I spoke about using one speedlight to enhance portrait work while Shari demonstrated the use of one studio strobe. We split up for most of the shoot, then came together at the end. Since I was helping others take photographs, I typically don’t really use my camera at all. However, this evening, I took advantage of the modeling light on Shari’s B-800 while some of the group members were photographing Lena. These were taken after the sun went down, and it was DARK out there! I mean really dark! I couldn’t even see my own hands! (Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration! But just a little bit!) To combat the darkness, I bumped up my ISO and captured the following.

Pretty neat, huh? :)

Ok, time out! Skip ahead if you don’t want to nerd out about high ISO settings! All three of these shots were taken using my 50mm f/1.8 lens. The first two were taken at f/1.8 and 1/60sec. That last one was taken at 1/250sec and f/2.0! How, you ask? Well, for the first two, I was shooting at ISO 1600. For the last one, I bumped it up even higher. Anyone want to guess what ISO I had my camera set to? I’ll give you a couple of days to think about it, then reveal the answer here!

The San Diego Shooting Group is having its next event on Sunday, October 16 at a winery in Temecula! If you are interested in joining us, please find us on Facebook here! And, if you’d like a ticket to our next event, they will be going on sale this Thursday (10/6) promptly at 7:00 pm Pacific time at http://sdsg07.eventbrite.com/. I hope to see you there!

p.s. Don’t forget to leave your ISO guess in the comments below! :)

*UPDATE – October 9, 2011*

Robby’s math wins this round! He’s correct: I shot the third shot at ISO 6400. This was my first opportunity to see how far I could bump the ISO, and I was interested to see how it would turn out. :) Great job, Robby!