Shooting low and on The Road is one of my favorite shots
The low angle on The Road shot is one my favorite types of photo to make. This one was made on a winding desert road south of Santa Rosa. It’s a great driving road for its lack of traffic, scenery, and numerous bends and curves. As light was starting to fade, I pulled over and got the camera out to compose this shot using the double yellow lines as a composition technique called leading lines. You can use anything to make leading lines, which catch the viewer’s eye and lead them to look into the full frame of the photo. The next time you are out with your camera, look for something you can use as leading lines in your shot.
Summerfest returns to Albuquerque with music, cars, and food
Summerfest 2022 Albuquerque returned for the first time in three years (last was in 2019, see car photos). Summerfest is a combination of multi-stage concerts, a car show, and street food. It was extremely hot this year, even after 7pm, but I managed to get a few photos before melting. I chose low angle composition for all these shots to show the viewer something you could not already just see when walking by at typical eye level. Plus using low angle with an empty foreground draws the eye of the viewer into the photo, as seen in both photos featuring cars. Add to that using leading lines, and the photos have two composition styles to show a different look at Summerfest.
Summer along the San Juan River is still freezing in the water!
Navajo Lake and Navajo Dam is one of my favorite areas of New Mexico, and having just made my tenth visit to the area, this was the first time to be there in the heart of summertime. I thought this, finally, was my chance to go for a swim in the San Juan River. The air temperature was in the low 80s. This made me totally unprepared for just how cold the river was. You could not ease your way into the water, which is not my custom anyway, so I made the plunge completely under water, only to have to immediately bounce back up and make my way out. The cold was so intense I felt something like frost bite! After warming back up, I took out my brand new lens, the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II, and made a few photos of the river mostly from a low angle. Doesn’t the water look inviting on a hot summer day??
Stories from the city, stories from the Sea in Texas
It was my first time to see the Sea, or some part of it, in over 2 years, the longest such stretch of my life, and 2 years too long. Corpus Christi, Texas offers city and sea experiences, both of which you can drive right too. I had never driven on a beach before, as it is not the custom in Florida (I don’t count Daytona). It was both convenient to go a few miles down the shoreline to your own spot and have all your gear right there, but also disconcerting because a car could drive by you while relaxing on the beach! I brought my new DJI Mavic 3 Cine drone with me, and my new Sony 24mm f/1.4 G Master lens to capture these images. I really enjoyed the results of holding my camera low, with a slow shutter speed, and letting the small waves come in and create seascape dreamscapes.
Using shallow depth of field and setting your focus point
Since I started Jason Collin Photography back in 2009, I have taught hundreds of people of all levels 1-on-1 photography lessons. In the course of that teaching I repeated some favorite photography advice. Here is one of them:
“Show me something I cannot see by just standing there.”
Another one is:
“A photographer can make something out of nothing.”
In the example photos in this blog post I had my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART lens on my Sony a7 III full frame mirrorless camera. This lens is my favorite lens for making something out of nothing because the large f/1.4 aperture means I can easily create very shallow DoF (depth of field). Making a photo with a very shallow DoF is one of the easiest ways to make something out of nothing.
Farewell, my friend . . . Nikon D300 with Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8D lens @ f/2.8 ISO 200 1/5000th natural light; lying on my stomachA horseshoe crab is perhaps the first creature of such size I ever saw dead in the wild. I think as a child though I never really thought of the ones I found on the beach as being dead. I think I probably just thought that's how these creatures exist. I mean, by all outward appearances a horseshoe crab on the beach with its solid eyes still open and unblinking, appears alive.
I came across this horseshoe crab on a hidden beach in Bradenton as it was preparing to continue the cycle of life. I got down on my stomach and laid flat on the sand to see life from its perspective. It was also the best angle to photograph the horseshoe crab from.
Photography Tip -- lie on your stomach for a unique composition and viewpoint
At my current age and in my present mindset I did not view this horseshoe crab as being dead, nor do I other of nature's creatures. I think of them as merely continuing the cycle of life. Afterall, if everything lived for ever, then there would be no meaning to life. It is a very clever system, one that requires some to die so that others may live.
