Photography Lessons

5th DSLR Photography Lesson with Rosa - Architecture

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Rosa using her Canon T1i to photograph some of the modern architecture in downtown St Petersburg

My longest tenured DSLR Photography Lesson student, Rosa, just took her 5th lesson on Sunday (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th).  Thank you Rosa for your continued interest in photography lessons!  We have already covered many topics, including using external flash for portraits, photographing your children playing sports, as well as shooting in low light.  For our 5th lesson we focused on architecture, and briefly on macro, one of the most challenging forms of photography.  As is often the case, downtown St. Petersburg served as the backdrop.  

I like to have foreground objects when photographing architecture whenever possible.

Of course, as with most forms of outdoor photography, the best time to photography architecture is during the golden hours around sunrise and sunset.  Given that our lesson was from 10am to 12pm, we focused more on what I think is the other key to architecture photography besides the light, that is, angles.  The angles you can find in any given structure of interest are what I usually focus on first, then the next angle is the angle I will compose my photograph from.  

Rosa started to find her own interesting angles as our lesson went on, which to me is the goal of these lessons - to point the student in the right direction then let them go where their own creativity takes them.  

Thanks again to Rosa and I look forward to even more lessons on into 2010.

DSLR Photography Lesson with Melanie around St. Petersburg History Museum

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A smiling new Nikon D90 user, Melanie was eager to learn during our first lesson.

Melanie was a referral from another DSLR Photography student (Danielle, thanks!).  We actually had to reschedule two times because of the unusually bad Florida winter weather.  So we were both happy to finally have a lesson, and on a nice sunny day to boot.  Like many of my students, she just very recently purchased her DSLR, a Nikon D90.  

We covered the basic range of must know settings to get started making photographs with any DSLR, including aperture, ISO and shutter speed.  We then applied these to making photographs with a shallow depth of focus (DoF) in order to make an image with nice bokeh.  Getting the settings dialed in to freeze moving objects was another topic we covered, the key to that being putting your camera into its continuous focus mode, which on Nikon is AF-C and on Canon is AI-servo.  

We ended with a brief introduction on using flash to create well exposed portraits.  Melanie just used her on camera flash, then I showed her the portrait I made of her (see above) using off camera flash, and I think she may soon be the owner of a new Nikon SB-600 Speelight!

I look forward to our next lesson and helping Melanie build on the photography topics we touched on in our first lesson.

DSLR Photography Lesson with Chris at St. Petersburg Saturday Market

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Chris (Topaz Adjusted) photographing some crafts at the St. Petersburg Saturday Market

The return of sunshine to Saint Petersburg brought with it a first DSLR Photography Lesson with Chris, a new Nikon D90 owner, as well as Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm f/2.8 lens owner, and even a new Nikon Speedlight SB-600 owner.  Does some of this gear sound familiar?  That might be because I also use the same Tamron lens and Nikon Speedlight for a majority of my professional photography work.  Chris took my advice to buy the D90 body only, eschewing the kit lens package, and going right for a very quality, and affordable lens in the Tamron 17-50mm.  

Chris had some photography knowledge and was fairly well practiced with adjusting settings on his D90, he even asked for homework before our first lesson!  I can tell you teachers really love to give homework, so I was happy to oblige.  So our lesson got off to a fairly in-depth discussion of photography techniques and theory.  

Taking a break from the Saturday Market crowds to photograph some sun thirsty flowers hiding behind some bushes.

The time passed by very quickly and we had just a little time left to practice off camera flash portraits.  This is something we will practice more in our next lesson for sure.  Chris is already well on his way to making photography a regular creative outlet and pursuit.  I look forward to assigning him some more homework!

An eventful 2nd DSLR Photography Lesson with Kelley in downtown Saint Petersburg

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As we were setting up to practice off camera flash, this woman offered to be our model!My second DSLR Photography Lesson with Kelley was most unusual, which made it most enjoyable.  We covered a wide range of photography skills, from manual focus of a staged action, to fast moving action, to street photography, to actual model shooting!  The latter happened while we were setting up near Central Avenue to practice some more off camera flash portrait shooting techniques.  A group of three people walked by, including the above woman, and she offered to be a model for us!  This saved me from having to do all the posing for Kelley's practice so I was very thankful.  We both liked this so much, that are already booked third lesson will focus on seeing how many of these "street models" we can get!

Behold, Kelley brought with him the new Canon 100mm f/2.8 L macro lens!

The big news was Kelley's purchase of two new lenses, both Canon L series lenses, the 100mm macro IS lens, and the 35mm f/1.4 prime lens!  Such investment in high quality lenses will secure at least ten years of great images produced using them.  There was rather a dearth of pleasing macro subjects, but we did stumble upon a few scraggly blossoms to get a tiny bit of macro practice on.  

Kelley proved to not be shy in asking a second woman to be a street model for us.  I was impressed.  Once we get the kinks ironed out of the off camera flash situation with his kit, we will be right back into the street model genre for our third lesson next week.  I like Kelley's ambition and commitment to unusual types of photography.

Andrea's 3rd DSLR Photography Lesson - Ft. Desoto with her dogs!

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Lilly & Mindy were the models for this DSLR Photography Lesson at Ft. Desoto Park in Saint Petersburg

This was my first time to teach a DSLR Photography Lesson at Ft. Desoto Park, a nice change of scenery on a finally warm, true Florida day.  This was my third lesson with Andrea (1st, 2nd).  She was not alone during this lesson as she brought her dogs, Lilly (above left, very energetic, a good kisser) and Mindy (above right, contemplative, purposeful).  During our first two lessons Andrea showed me some photos she made of her dogs, and I suggested ways to improve them, but there is nothing like actually practicing it during a lesson.  

Photographing a fast running dog in harsh Florida sunlight can be a challenge.  I stressed to Danielle that dialing in the right settings is important, but just as important is positioning yourself with your back to the sun as much as possible and trying to photograph your dog from a non-straight-coming-at-you angle since it is more of a challenge for any DSLR to get a focus lock on a subject coming directly into the lens.  To also compensate for the strong sunlight we set our exposure compensations to -0.7.  

 Making a portrait with two dogs can be quite the challenge, and you never know when someone else will pop into the shot!

In the end Andrea was able to get an especially good shot of Lilly running and a nice portrait of Mindy resting in some shade.  Our fourth lesson is already scheduled and we will focus on much easier subject matter - landscapes, with an eye on composition.

Andrea is absorbing a lot of photography knowledge well, all things considered, and it was real fun to have her dogs with us during the lesson!

DSLR Photography Lesson with Kelley in St. Petersburg

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Kelley with his brand new Canon 7D after practicing some off camera flash work.This morning Kelley and I caught a break in the weather to fit our first DSLR Photography Lesson into nicely.  The first half of the lesson was actually in warm Florida sunshine.  Clouds did roll it, but once again the rain held off until after the lesson.  Of course the wind took no rest and batted us pretty well, especially once we ventured out to the tip of Vinoy Park.  Kelley was one of the most advanced students I have taught to date, although we did brush up on some aperture, DoF and shutter speed basics first.  Soon though we were off into the exciting world of off camera flash with his Nissin speedlight and Canon 7D!

Not exactly a sitting duck, but this docile pelican was perfectly placed for nature photography practice.

Kelley works in graphic design & video, and his company bestowed upon him the title of company photographer as well.  So he wanted to learn how to produce photographs similar to ads his company used in the past.  He came to our lesson the most prepared of any student so far with a list of questions, samples of shots he wanted to learn how to make and even some printed out examples of my own photographs to ask how I made them.  I was impressed with his enthusiasm.  

By the end of the lesson Kelley was using me as his model to practice off camera flash shots with for future model & product shots.  I had him take the exact same shot without flash just to see the huge difference one small speedlight placed off camera can make.  I always like presenting these reveals to students.  I still get excited about using off camera flash myself!  

Kelley and I already booked our next lesson, and there is the possibility he will have bought new lenses by then too!  Naturally I always get really excited about new gear purchases, even if they are not for me, so I am looking forward to seeing what Kelley brings.  It was a very fun lesson.  Thanks!

Andrea's second DSLR Photography lesson at Sunken Gardens

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Solid proof of a DSLR Photography lesson in Sunken Gardens, which lately is more sunken than garden!

Andrea's schedule changed allowing us to have our second DSLR Photography Lesson this week.  After having explored downtown Saint Petersburg in our first lesson, for the second we went to Sunken Gardens.  We started out reviewing some photographs of her dogs she had made in her backyard and what camera settings could have been used to improve their sharpness.  Later we put this to practical practice with me taking on the part of running dog!  

Another focus of this lesson was finding what light helps us get the best exposure, focus lock and color saturation.  Often photographing the flower in most direct sunlight is not as good as photographing the one next to it in shade.  We also added a new setting to our photographer's toolkit -- exposure compensation.  A flamingo was standing in direct sunlight, and with the usual acceptable camera settings, there was no detail in the feathers.  So I had Andrea adjust the exposure compensation on her Nikon D3000 to -0.07 and then in the next shot we could see details in all the flamingo's feathers and more of the feathers' pink color.

We have already booked our next lesson (thank you Andrea!), and thankfully Andrea will be bringing her dogs as we will go to Ft. Desoto's Dog Park and Dog Beach, which means I do not have to do anymore running!