Photography Lessons

Nikon D7000 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida at The Pier with Mari

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Mari photographing a pelican during our 1-on-1 DSLR photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaI had not seen Mari (as a photography student, though I see her every week at the dog park) since Halloween so today we just got our fourth of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons in before Christmas.  We started the lesson answering a lot of her questions she accumulated since we last met, especially about shooting around dawn.  In particular there were issues with getting a focus lock in such low light and also being able to get enough exposure given that she handholds these shots.  The focus tips I gave her should remedy those issues and I reminded her how to gradually increase the ISO as needed to be able to handhold shots even in very low light.

After this we once again headed out to The Pier to photograph somoe of our favorite subjects, pelicans!  The sun was blazing even on this afternoon just two days from winter, but we made best use of the harsh light as we could by positioning ourselves in at least side lit conditions.  We got as close to the pelicans as we dared, who were mostly obliging though one did snap at me a bit.  I cannot blame him though.

I look forward to seeing how Mari puts together all we have learned as she continues to photograph the beauty of St. Petersburg, Florida.

1-on-1 Canon 7D 50mm DSLR Photography Lesson with Julianna in St. Petersburg Florida

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Showing Julianna how a 50mm lens is good for shallow DoF portraits with natural light during our 2nd photography lesson in St. Petersburg, FloridaI met Julianna this morning for our second of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.  Our first lesson last week was a general overview of how to use her Canon 7D with 18-55mm lens in manual mode and which settings needed to be changed when.  Today we swapped lenses and used her 50mm f/1.8 lens the whole morning.

I am a big fan of 50mm lenses and how they can "create something out of nothing" because of their great ability to make very shallow DoF shots.  When you can make the entire background become bokeh with ease, you can be very selective in how you portray your subject in frame.  In the above shot Julianna modeled for a demonstration of using natural light and shallow DoF to make a fun portrait right on a plain city sidewalk.  

Julianna also learned to be careful when creating such shallow DoF shots and that framing the shot first and then moving the single focus point on to the subject is safer than the usual set the focus point in the center on your subject, then recompose.  

1-on-1 Canon 7D DSLR Photography Lesson with Julianna in St. Petersburg Florida

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Julianna with her Canon 7D absorbing 2-hours of photography knowledge in St. Petersburg FloridaFinally, a cold front has passed through Florida again banishing the humidity allowing for a decent enough Florida winter morning for my first of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons with Julianna and her Canon 7D in downtown St. Petersburg.  Thank you to Kristin for referring Julianna to my photography lessons!

Julianna had a good amount of photography instruction in the past, and wanted a refresher on how to shoot in manual mode in particular.  I began the lesson though by showing her around her Canon 7D a bit so she can quickly and easily change the five settings necessary for making a well exposed and sharp shot in any shooting conditions, as well as confirming in the field the results of a shot.  The biggest piece of advice I perhaps gave her is that she should always (basically) use the lowest ISO possible until hitting the limits of aperture and shutter speed for the subject she is trying to make a photo of.  Thus, when shooting on a bright and sunny day like it was during our lesson, there was no reason at all to use anything but ISO 100, the lowest and thus cleanest ISO available on the Canon 7D.

For our next lesson we will focus on making creative and skilled shots with a 50mm lens.

1-on-1 Nikon D3000 DSLR Photography Lesson #2 with Georgia in St. Petersburg Florida

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Georgia showing good form with her Nikon D3000 out at The Pier during our second photography lesson in St. Petersburg, FloridaI met Georgia on a too humid for December even for Florida morning for our second of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons.  Since our first lesson last week, she had the opportunity to photograph a friend's family and their great classic Cadillac convertible.  She learned that making photographs with just a little bit of pressure is a whole different thing than just walking around shooting for yourself.  I was pleased though that in difficult conditions for the most part she used appropriate settings, especially keeping her ISO at the minimum.  

We set off for The Pier to concentrate on shooting at 200mm and see what the pelicans were up to, which unfortunately was mostly lazing about turning their throats inside out.  Still, I gave Georgia some tips on how to turn a pretty good pelican shot into one that stands out just a bit more, but that little more makes all the difference.  We also covered some landscape photography composition tips.  

1-on-1 Nikon D5100 DSLR 50mm Lens Photography Lesson with Quincy in St. Petersburg Florida

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Quincy sizes up a shot of a colorful bike with his 50mm lens during a 1-on-1 photography lesson in St. Petersburg, FloridaFor our second 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson I met Quincy in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida on an overcast afternoon.  This weather was very welcome as we were set to use only 50mm f/1.8 lenses during the lesson.  The overcast skies made available light scarce even hours before sunset was to arrive.  We took a route through the skyscrapers of downtown passing by a few favorite spots with a small fountain, a grimey alley and different kinds of lights that can be used to make a great background bokeh.

More than the first lesson, I gave composition advice and how to find a shot with a 50mm lens.  With its large aperture of f/1.8, a 50mm lens can often make a shot out of nothing, which is of course much harder to see than shooting a landscape that is right there in front of you.  Using a 50mm lens requires being able to see how a shallow depth of field shot is going to look with your naked eye.  Background is often the key, though that is often the key for any type of photograph if you think about it!

1-on-1 Nikon D5100 DSLR Photography Lesson with Quincy in St. Petersburg Florida

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Quincy with his Nikon D5100 keeping a very close eye on his expired parking meter during our photography lessonQuincy came over the bridge from Tampa with his Nikon D5100 for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson on a too warm to believe it is December afteroon.  As he talked to me about how he currently shoots, using aperture priority mode and what I call "gaming the system" by metering off of brighter or darker objects and then recomposing to get the exposure he wants, I told him using manual mode will greatly simplify your life and avoid having to trick the camera into doing what you want!  Since he did have this understanding about how exposure works though, in a rough sense, teaching him my 5-step manual mode shooting process organized what he already knew and eliminated things he no longer needed to worry about.

Thus, as we walked around the downtown St. Petersburg area I answered his many questions and explained to him why such and such settings would not be logical to use and explained that certain parameters dictate when to change certain settings, like there is not really any reason (in 90% of shooting situations) to increase ISO until the limits of aperture and shutter speed are hit first.  With a few key pieces of knowledge like that, one can more easily shoot in manual mode and get consistent results in any given shooting conditions.

1-on-1 Nikon D3000 DSLR Photography Lesson with Georgia in St. Petersburg Florida

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Georgia getting to know her Nikon D3000 during our photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaTaking a break from her normal Monday morning, Georgia met me in downtown St. Peterburg with her Nikon D3000 for our first of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons.  We started the lesson by going over how to use her DSLR and adjust the settings that need to be adjusted for making well exposed and sharp images in any given shooting conditions.  I believe strongly in knowing your camera well.  If you do not know how to adjust your ISO then how can you fix an underexposed image.  Of course you need to know what ISO is in the first place and exactly when you should start to increase it.  Thus, 99% of the first lessons I teach start with such explanations and camera overviews.

After giving Georgia a crash course in how to use her DSLR in general, we started to get a little more specific ending with some natural light portraits like the one I made of her (above) using a huge Christmas tree as the festive background.  Each of our next three lessons will be even more specific as we build on the general photography skills from this first lesson, which was an information packed one!