Photography Lessons

Canon XS DSLR Photography Lesson Birds in Flight with Suzanne St. Petersburg Florida

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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 60D DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Julie

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Julie with her great new Christmas present a Canon 60D during our first DLSR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg, FloridaMy first DSLR Photography Lesson of the new year was with Julie who just got a new Canon 60D as a Christmas present.  She chose my 4-pack of lessons so I will have the opportunity to really help her get going with her photography hobby.  Today happened to be the coldest day of the season, by far, but as always the sun was still out and shining making it a fine afternoon for a lesson.

Julie claimed to not really have any previous DSLR photography knowledge, but thanks to her great memory and some tips on aperture from someone she recently talked to at a wedding, she already had a working knowledge of aperture, to which I added ISO, WB and focus mode information.  I was impressed by how quickly she started to demonstrate skill in adjusting the necessary settings for the variety of types of shot we practiced.  

I often give advice to my students as they always want to know what photographer gear they should get next.  For those who already have lenses that cover from 18mm to 200mm, I suggest getting a 50mm f/1.8 lens and also an external flash as both are very useful and are in the camera bags of pretty much every serious photographer in the world.  

I am looking forward to the next three lessons with Julie and helping her get the most out of her Canon 60D.

Canon XS DSLR Photography Lesson at The Pier St. Petersburg Florida with Suzanne

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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.

Nikon D3100 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Kyle

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Kyle with his Nikon D3100 in Straub Park with Proline tripod product placementI had been in e-mail contact with Kyle for awhile, giving him tripod buying advice, etc.  This morning I met him for a DSLR Photography Lesson in the usual downtown St. Petersburg spot.  Even though the calendar said December 22nd, it felt more like May 22nd as the Florida sun continued to shine on full force.  

As usual during a first lesson, we covered a wide range of photography topics starting out with my 4-step process for getting the settings right for any given type of shot followed by simply how to best hold a DSLR for maximum stability and efficiency.  Kyle kept his Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8G lens on his D3100 as we went from making shots with bokeh, to controling DoF for group shots, to how to compose and take shots using a tripod, before ending with some flash portrait practice.  

I hope Kyle can put all we covered today to use to produce his best holiday photographs ever.  He already had two of his photographs published in a local credit union's calendar, maybe next year he can go national!

Off Camera Flash Strobist Beach Portrait Photography Lesson Florida

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Jasmina practicing off camera flash with a single strobe on Sunset Beach, Treasure Island, FloridaIt was bright and sunny an hour before my lesson with new DSLR Photography Lesson student, Jasmina.  She called me to see if the lesson was still on because it was raining where she was to the south.  I said it's all sunshine here and it was so right up to the start of our lesson.  Then the clouds began rolling in, but no rain at all so it was just a bit chilly on the beach as I began showing Jasmina my off camera flash and strobist techniques for making beach portraits.

She brought a willing model with her which was great news for me because this meant I did not have to be both model and teacher!  Actually, I did have one role in addition to teacaher, and that was human light stand.  We used Jasmina's Nikon SB-900 Speedlight for single strobe technique at first, but added one of my own strobes to show the benefit having two lights sources has.  

It was a fun and intereting lesson for me as I do not often get to teach strobist stuff, which is one of my favorite types of photography.  I look forward to seeing Jasmina's future off camera flash portraits on the beach and off.

Nikon D7000 DSLR Photography Lesson with Naomi in St. Petersburg Florida

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Naomi with her Nikon D7000 in Straub Park St. PetersburgNaomi first contacted me way back in December of 2010 about the DSLR Photography Lessons I offer.  I would have to say it was the longest first contact to first lesson, but I am glad to have done so as I really like helping people to get started using their DSLRs.  It was also my first time to get hands on with the Nikon D7000, which explains why it took me a bit of time to figure out how to change the focus mode on it.  It seems Nikon got too clever with its switch design not bothering to even label it!

It was a very crisp 1st of December morning, with the usual brillian Florida sunshine.  It was actually nice to be in the sun, which I was as we practiced using AF-C focus mode.  Naomi is into kite boarding, so we AF-C is the focus mode for moving subjects, although this time the target was me, not a kite boarder.  

I look forward to seeing Naomi's actual kite boarder shots.  I came across a few people doing this before and it seems like a great subject for producing exciting action shots.  

Nikon SB-600 Speedlight DSLR Photography Lesson St. Petersburg Florida

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Sunil with very useful kneepad after practicing using his Nikon SB-600 Speedlight during our photography lesson in St. PetersburgFriday wrapped up a crash course in DSLR Photography with Sunil as he took his fourth lesson and seventh and eighth hours of 1-on-1 instruction.  Our first DSLR Photography Lesson on Monday covered the typical topics I do with any person on a first lesson.  The second was on night photography.  The third was exclusively using a 50mm lens.  This final lesson was all about how to best use his Nikon SB-600 Speedlight for portrait photography.

We met at the same spot as all the other lessons, in front of the Museum of Fine Art in downtown St. Petersburg, although on a Friday afternoon the area is much, much more lively than on any other week day.  I had Sunil mount his SB-600 to the hotshoe of his Nikon D50 and using two lenses, an 18-55mm and a 70-300mm, we practiced how to get the most out of on camera external flash.  We used the banyan trees on Beach Drive, then the covered walkway by the Ovation Building before ending up by the St. Pete waterfront.  

It was a good week with Sunil who I got to know a little bit as I shared a lot of my photography knowledge with him.  I look forward to seeing how his photography grows.