Vinoy Renaissance Hotel east view - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 3-exposure HDR handheld

• More from the St. Petersburg Landmarks Series 

Through my DSLR Photography teaching I am often out with students around various St. Petersburg landmarks.  Each of the three photographs in this post were made on different days while out on a lesson in the evening time.  

The HDR image above is of the Vinoy Renaissance Hotel & Resort looking at it from the east along 5th Ave North.  At this time the setting sun was sidelighting the hotel and the tall palm trees in front of it.  The lighting is what made me stop and suggest to the student I was with that she photograph it from this angle.  I made my own shot of the hotel.  I knew HDR would produce the best results so even though I did not have my tripod with me I steadied my shooting position and fired off a 3-bracket exposure.  

Mahaffey Theater east view - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mountedThe Mahaffey Theater was not the primary subject matter during this particular photography lesson, the new Dali Museum was, but I had always liked the architecture of the Mahaffey even when it had this area all to itself.  The sky was a fantastic purple that evening.  

The Pier at twilight south view - Nikon D300 Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D @ f/8 ISO 200 1/80th handheldThe Pier is by far the most well known landmark of St. Petersburg, and perhaps the one with the least amount of life left as three new designs to replace the inverted pyramid have just been finalized by the city.  This landmark is most often photographed from the north and west, so I was glad to have a unique chance to photograph it from the south from a restricted access point at a marina I was able to get access to thanks to the photography student's mom having a boat docked there.  

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Natasha & her Canon XT DSLR on our first lesson with the Vinoy Hotel in the backgroundNew DSLR Photography Lesson student, Natasha, will be helping photograph her friend's upcoming wedding in April.  Thus, she has booked my new 4-lesson discount package in order to get up to speed as fast as she can by then, as she already previously has some photography knowledge.  In addition to learning the basic settings (aperture, ISO, WB, focus mode) that are in need of regular changing, one must also know their gear well.  Natasha's friend will be arriving at her wedding location in a horse-drawn carriage in the middle of the afternoon (tricky lighting).  So to photograph this well a fast enough shutter speed must be used to freeze the action and certain moving subject shooting skills need to be refined.

We simulated this scenario by having me walk in an arc around her while she was in AI-servo (AF-C for Nikon) and burst mode.  Through several practice rounds we found out what were the best settings to use in broad daylight, and most importantly how fast her DSLR/lens combination (Canon XT) could get a focus lock on a moving subject.  It is critical to know how many usable shots (six or two or four, etc.) one can get in a given space.  This exercise helped give Natasha some idea what she can expect when photographing the bride arriving via horse-drawn carriage for real and what can be expected of her photography gear.

We will cover more topics and scenarios like this in our next three lessons so hopefully come her friend's wedding day, she will feel as prepared as possible! 

Andy takes aim at the Vinoy Hotel - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm - f/11 ISO 200 1/200th SB-600 Speedlight held off camera to the left

I met new DSLR Photography student Andy in downtown St. Petersburg where we quickly got into an in-depth discussion about the settings on his newly bought Canon 7D.  Though there were a few settings we had some pause in finding, in the end we were able to master all the settings changes needed to shoot a wide variety of shots from landscapes, to portraits, to moving objects (including dive bombing pelicans!).

Andy was a quick and eager learner and our lesson passed by very quickly.  We really only began to cover all the things his 7D can do, along with his very nice Canon 10-24mm ultra wide angle lens, as well as the 24-135mm kit lens that came with his 7D.  We have already booked our next lesson which will have a Mac lesson bookended onto it as well!  Yes, I also teach Mac & OS X 1-on-1 lessons.  

Our first lesson was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to seeing the view from Andy's Indian Rocks Beach townhouse next week!

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