Lens Hood Weirdness (and a new tour in the works)
Hi Gang: Just a really short one for today—I’m up late prepping for a new nationwide tour I’m about to launch called “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it, Live!” and today (Monday) I’m doing a test run of the tour with a small (25 people) live audience in our studios down in Florida.
We invited 25 or so NAPP members to spend the day with me for free today as I do the entire seminar, start to finish, just for them. That way I can get their one-on-one feedback, ideas, and generally test and tweak everything out before we hit the road. I’ll have the official tour dates and cities shortly, but in the meantime I wanted to share something that I’ve been seeing more and more of, and it makes me think the camera or lens manufacturers are missing something in their instruction books.
(Above: iPhone photo of lens with the lens hood attached, like normal)
We were at Disney World this weekend celebrating my daughter’s 5th birthday, and time and time again I noticed photographers with really nice DSLR cameras, with long expensive lenses attached, but with the Len Hood on backwards (like you’d put it when storing it away in your camera bag—as seen in the photo below). I must have seen a dozen like that, yet they were shooting right out in broad daylight. Of course, my natural inclination is to say, “Um, you have that on backwards” but thankfully I just kept to myself.
(Above: photo of what I see again and again—lens hood Backwards while shooting)
The one time I did say something was when I was shooting a football game at my son’s school one week. I see another parent there always shooting the games with a 70-200mm lens, and yet his lens hood is always on backwards, even in the direct Florida sun. So, he and I were already chatting on the sidelines one day, and I casually said, “Is your lens hood messed up?” And he said “I dunno. It is working, right?” I loosened it; turned it around and put it on properly, and he was stunned. He told me he had never though to try that.
So, since I see this so often now, I’m wondering if the camera and lens manufacturers shouldn’t drop a sheet in the box with a line drawing that shows the sun, and the lens hood in place properly, and then a camera bag with the lens hood shown turned around for storage. Hey, it couldn’t hurt. Keep an eye out for this next time you’re on vacation, and you’ll be amazed how many times you’ll see it.
Well, I have to hit the sack tonight. I’ve got to rock that seminar tomorrow (although it’s so late, it’s already tomorrow)! Have a great Monday everybody. :)