Henry setting up a shot using his Sony Alpha A230 and newly acquired Tamron 70-300mm lens on The Pier in St. Petersburg
Henry took his first DSLR Photography Lesson with me back in April. Then he had no telephoto lens. After the lesson he began doing research into which lens to get and last week his new Tamron 70-300mm f/4-f/5.6 lens for his Sony Alpha A230 came in. This was all just in time (lens arrival and our 2nd lesson) before his big trip to Costa Rica today. Rain was definitely threatening out ability to have a lesson out on The Pier, but in the end we were pretty lucky having plenty of time to practice using his new lens outside before the rain returned and we took cover in a very deserted Pier food court.
It was very overcast outside, so I had Henry adjust his exposure compensation to give his shots a little extra light. A number of pelicans and some trash eating birds were our practice subject matter. His new Tamron lens had a macro setting which we turned on some old screws in a forgotten section of a lower dock. Macro photography and external flash are definitely linked, and I showed Henry that how you point the light direction makes for a very different photograph. We found that bouncing the light off the white wall that was connected to the dock produced a very pleasing light fall off across our exposed screw subject matter. If there is no white wall next to what you want to shoot? Well, just have an assistant hold a reflector for you!
The last part of the lesson was a surreal off camera flash lesson inside The Pier itself, mostly in the food court area. I cannot say I had ever been in a more abandoned feeling public place in Florida before. Not a single customer in the entire food court. This was good for us as we were able to take up all the space we wanted to in practicing off camera flash with appropriate white balance in mixed/horrid lighting conditions.
I am looking forward to seeing Henry's shots of Costa Rica when he returns.