Entries in The Pier (33)
Model Portfolio Shoot in Vinoy Park St. Petersburg at Sunset with Shane
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 3:35PM Jason Collin 
Featuring The Pier in the background of this model portfolio shot - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 @1/2 power with diffuser cap to frame left & SB-600 @ 1/4 power with diffuser cap to frame rightI met Shane through Model Mahem and we soon setup a model portfolio shoot deciding on Vinoy Park in downtown St. Petersburg as the location and I suggested having the main shot idea to feature The Pier in the background, since in its current form it will only be around another two years or so. That is the photograph featured above with me shooting from flat on my stomach to get the composition I wanted. In the fading dusk light I thought that black & white suited the image better than the minimal color left in the original.
The setting sun blazes the sky yellow in this model portfolio shot - - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/250th Strobist: SB-600 @1/4 power with diffuser cap to frame left & SB-800 @ 1/4 power with diffuser cap to frame rightScheduling our model portofolio shoot just in time to catch the last bit of the sunset, I was able to make the above shot featuring a vivid yellow sky as the background from our vantage point in Vinoy Park and still include some of the local features in the background to put the photograph in a specific setting context, instead of a generic sunset that could have been anywhere. Once again I was lying flat on my stomach to make the above shot.
The lights of The Pier provide the bokeh in this night shot - - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 @1/2 power with diffuser cap to frame left & SB-600 @ 1/4 power with diffuser cap to frame rightThis was the final shot I took of the model portfolio session. I always like to end on an image that I know I will actually use, whenever possible. In my model portfolio shoots quantity is not the goal, but rather producing a select few images that neither I nor the model already have in their portfolios, unless a model approaches me to recreate one of my shots. I knew even before scheduling the shoot I wanted to make a shot like this featuring the lights of The Pier as bokeh in the background.
Shane was a great model and expressed the exact right emotions I was looking for in order to make these photographs.
- Contact Shane for modeling jobs via his Model Mahem page.
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Nikon D5100 DSLR Photography Lesson with Debbie in St. Petersburg Florida
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 3:44PM Jason Collin 
Debbie with her new Nikon D5100 during our photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaIt was on a crisp and sunny President's Day I met Debbie with her new Nikon D5100 for our first DSLR Photography Lesson together in downtown St. Petersburg. Debbie had a Fuji bridge camera before that she had extensive experience with photographing people. However, she was mostly using it on auto-mode, and likewise, when she got the D5100 she was staying in auto-mode. DSLRs do not work well at all in auto-mode, they like to be told what to do. The very first goal during my 1-on-1 photography lessons is to get people off auto-mode and to start taking more control over their photographs.
Even though Debbie already had photography knowledge, I added some organization to that with my 4-step method of getting the settings right for any given shot and also helping her just get familiar with changing those four things on her D5100. We started out using aperture priority mode, but it did not take long to find the limits of using it in the harsh mid-day Florida sunlight. Aperture priority mode was a good starting point for making a landscape shot of The Pier and Tampa Bay, but it was choosing too slow of a shutter speed. By switching to manual mode and doubling the speed from 1/100th to 1/200th the results were much deeper blues in the sky, more details in the clouds and just an overall more dynamic image. That is the power of taking control of your DSLR.
Debbie gets to travel often for her work, giving her lots of different photography opportunities. I look forward to seeing her images taken in aperture and manual modes!
Light Painting & Night Photography DSLR Photography Lesson with Julie
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 11:49PM Jason Collin 
Light painting during Julie's DSLR Photography Lesson out at The Pier in St. Petersburg FloridaFor our third of four DSLR Photography Lessons I met Julie on a chilly St. Petersburg evening to practice long exposure and night photography. This type of shooting most definitely requires a tripod, and we pushed the legacy tripod Julie borrowed from her husband to its limits. We took the trolley out to The Pier, but first had a quick practice of on how to shoot abstract bokeh with her new 50mm lens.
Being a Monday night we basically had the entire Pier to ourselves, and especially so at my favorite water level spot upon a decaying concrete platform. Besides showing Julie how to make the usual long exposure shots of the St. Petersburg downtown skyline, we entered a kind of special effects world with light painting. For the above shot, I set my DSLR on my tripod with a 10 second shutter time. Using the LED light on the back of my iPhone 4 I "painted" from the tip of Julie's finger down onto the concrete. I did not astral project myself, I just moved quickly enough not to be fully exposed in the image.
We went on to practice light trail shots and a number of other things too. It was an action packed lesson for sure and Julie was great managing with an unfamiliar tripod and getting adept at changing the settings on her Canon 60D in the dark.
Canon XS DSLR Photography Lesson Birds in Flight with Suzanne St. Petersburg Florida
Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 4:33PM Jason Collin 
Suzanne impressively was not afraid to get eye level to her subject even on surfaces of questionable cleanliness.Suzanne (see her photos made during this lesson) and I were back at The Pier for our third of four DSLR Photography Lessons. Our goal this time was to capture birds in flight, one of the most challenging things to do in photography. In particular, I wanted us to be able to make a shot of a pelican right before it breaks the surface of the water in a dive. On our walk out to The Pier I advised Suzanne on the best settings we could use, namely:
- shutter priority mode @ 1/1000th of a sec
- ISO set to lowest possible
- WB sunny
- focus mode: AF-C (Ai-servo)
- multiple focus points (since the birds would fill the frame from our location)
Thankfully, the pelicans at The Pier were in a near feeding frenzy with birds regularly diving all around us. It is really something to witness this act of nature up close. It is also really something to try and photograph the act as there is at most one second between dive and water entry.
I showed Suzanne my technique of using the lens as a scope to track the bird at distance, rather than keeping one's eye behind the viewfinder when trying to locate the bird. Then once in shooting range, quickly dip your eye behind the viewfinder and the bird will be in frame, more easily ready to be photographed.
The weather was great and the bright sunshine felt welcome, as was the breeze, pretty much ideal DSLR Photography Lesson conditions.
Canon XS DSLR Photography Lesson at The Pier St. Petersburg Florida with Suzanne
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 11:53PM Jason Collin 
Suzanne at The Pier in St. Petersburg chooses pelican or egret for her next shot on our second DSLR photography lesson.It seems Suzanne and I only meet for DSLR Photography Lessons on holidays! Our first lesson together was right on Halloween evening, and today's second of four was on Christmas Eve, Eve. By this reckoning I predict our next lesson might be on Groundhog's Day perhaps! It was another exceptionally warm December day in Florida, some 10F above what is "normal" for this time of year. Suzanne wisely wore her hat, I should of as well.
For this second DSLR Photography Lesson Suzanne said she wanted to practice making scenic shots. Meeting at our usual spot on Beach Drive in downtown St. Petersburg, we made our way out to The Pier for that purpose. We began by reviewing the four basic settings that need to be correct in order to make a properly exposed and in focus shot as we walked out to The Pier. She showed me some of her recent San Francisco trip photos that did not come out as well as she would have liked, so the first order of business was to show her how using different settings would have helped those shots.
We ended with some bird photography which cannot be helped on any trip to The Pier as all the sea birds there are practically posing to be photographed. For our third lesson, we will try to capture the birds in flight, a challenging photography skill.
