The familiar downtown St Petersburg background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/200th SB-600 Speedlight handheld off camera to the left
Had a special DSLR Photography Lesson today which was part high school reunion as well. Mark and I had not seen each other since we graduated, nearly 18 years ago! We spent a good part of the lesson catching up on what we had been up to for nearly two decades woven in between lots of photography talk. He just got a good deal on a Nikon D300, the same camera I shoot with. We had nice sunny, though as usual blustery, weather.
It was of course easy for me to show Mark his way around his D300 as I can change many of the settings on mine without even looking. We covered many of the usual settings for a first lesson (aperture, ISO, white balance, focus mode) and also dabbled a bit in exposure compensation for helping us shoot in harsh Florida sunlight.
Mark wanted to use the palm frond as a prop, here on this bench in Vinoy Park
We ended up in Vinoy Park practicing off camera flash. Mark even tried out my "quick and dirty" method of shooting. As you can see in the above shot, Mark's head does not overlap with any background object nor is any background object sprouting from his head. This is not a coincidence. I shifted my position so that neither the tree nor the sculpture was touching Mark's head. This is something to always look for when making a portrait.
I had a great time catching up with Mark and introducing him to his D300, and going for a little spin in his Jeep Wrangler. I look forward to catching up more and meeting his family in the near future.