Photography Lessons

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

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Lisa setting up her Nikon D5100 to eliminate the background (create bokeh) during our 1-on-1 photography lessonI met Lisa this very warm June morning for our first of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons in downtown St. Petersburg Florida.  Lisa has been a DSLR owner for a long time, starting with a Nikon D40x.  She now also has a Nikon D5100, but over all these years she was still just shooting on auto-mode.  This morning we started to remedy that as I began to teach her my 5-step process for shooting in manual exposure mode.  

After showing Lisa around her Nikon D5100 body and how to change aperture, shutter speed, etc my first shooting tip was to whenever possible always try and get your back to the sun and have your shadow point at the subject in order to produce the best possible exposure.  When photographing the parking meters above, Lisa has her back to the sun giving herself the best chance of getting a good exposure.  The first shot made facing the other way produced a silhouette of the meters.  There are many simple things about photography that can be done to improve your final images.

Our second lesson next week will be mostly at night learning how to make cool long exposure photographs.

1-on-1 Nikon D5200 DSLR Nikkor 35mm lens Photography Lesson with Janice in downtown St. Petersburg Florida

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Janice using her Nikkor 35mm prime lens to creatively photograph a motorcycle during our photo lesson in downtown St. Petersburg, FloridaIt was a quick turnaround time from my second 1-on-1 DSLR Photograpy Lesson with Janice just last Thursday to our third lesson this morning.  Time is an issue as this Friday she leaves for a big trip to Europe and is cramming in manual shooting photography knowledge so she can produce the best travel photographs she ever has.  We met at the usual spot in downtown St. Petersburg and started out by reviewing a few sunrise shots she took and brushing up on what we had covered previously.

After that it was off shooting some of the architecture and design details of various skyscrapers in the downtown area, mostly using her Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 lens on her Nikon D5200.  Janice had not used this lens during any of our previous two lessons, but took a quick liking to it for the lens' easily ability to create bokeh and a shallow DoF using its large aperture (mostly f/2).

We covered a lot in our 6 hours of 1-on-1 photography time together and I am confident that if Janice goes through the steps we practiced for each shooting situation she encounters in Europe, she will be very happy with the results.  Have a good trip Janice and I look forward to seeing your shots!

1-on-1 Nikon D5200 DSLR Photography Lesson with Janice in downtown St. Petersburg Florida

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Janice shoots with her Nikon D5200 in South Straub Park in St. Petersburg FloridaOn a very warm June morning I met Janice for our second 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. Petersburg Florida.  She said she had only taken just a few shots of a rainbow with her Nikon D5200 since our first lesson almost a month ago.  Janice also claimed to have forgotten most of what we talked about in that first lesson, but as I suspected that was not the case.  A little helpful hinting helped her remember a lot of what we practiced in May.

In addition to teaching Janice how to shoot in manual exposure mode, in this second lesson I started to point out more composition tips and just things in general I look for when framing a photograph.  Some of those things were, including foreground objects to help a shot, framing the entire subject with a border to put more emphasis on the subject, etc.

I will meet Janice again next week for a third lesson before she is off for a trip to Europe!

1-on-1 Nikon D5200 DSLR Photography Lesson with Janice in St. Petersburg Florida

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Janice with her brand new Nikon D5200 during our photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaOn a sunny Tuesday morning I met Janice with her brand new Nikon D5200 in downtown St. Petersburg Florida for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson.  This was my first time to get hands on with the Nikon D5200 and the most noticable upgrade to this new model is the much improved graphics on the back LCD screen.  Shutter speed, ISO and aperture are all very prominently displayed visually and numerically.  I wish my old Nikon D80 had such a menu system back when I was learning!

Janice had a Nikon D60 for many years, but only ever used it in auto-mode and she did not want to continue shooting like that with her new Nikon D5200.  For someone only ever shooting in auto-mode, Janice was one of the fastest students I have had to pick up on my 5-step system for making a well exposed and sharp shot in any given shooting situation.  She also learned her way around the camera body quickly to adjust the necessary settings as well.  I was impressed!

She has Nikon's great 17-5mm f/2.8 to pair with her D5200 body as well as the Nikkor 70-300mm lens and a 35mm f/1.8 lens too.  During our first lesson we only had time to practice with the first two lenses though.  I think Janice will be able to progress very quickly and I look forward to our next lesson.

1-on-1 Nikon D3100 DSLR Photography Lesson with Carol in St. Petersburg Florida

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Carol with her new red Nikon D3100 during our 1-on-1 photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaOn a stormy Florida evening I met Carol for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson along the waterfront of downtown St. Petersburg.  She had very recently gotten a snazzy looking red Nikon D3100.  Her reason for making the jump to the DSLR world was sparked by simply wanting to pursue photography as a hobby and be able to make great photographs.  I think that is a pretty good reason!

As we walked around the waterfront under overcast skies I taught Carol my established process for making a well exposed and sharp shot in any given shooting situation, and how to use the meter and histogram together to determine how to get better results.  Being a photographer is not a matter of getting the first shot perfect each time, it is getting that second or third attempt perfect.  Once you can get the results you want in your images, and be able to repeat that process in different shooting conditions, then you know you have gotten the hang of photography.

A few rain drops did chase after us toward the end of the lesson, but not before we had a chance to practice a little landscape portrait shooting utilizing the pop-up flash.  Even using the limited pop-up flash we were able to get pretty good results out along the waterfront.  I look forward to seeing Carol use what she learned during our lesson as she photographs dragonboat racing!

Canon DSLR Photography Lesson 1-on-1 in downtown St. Petersburg Florida with Sandy

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Sandy lining up a shot using leading line composition during our photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaIt had been nearly a month since I saw Sandy as we met this past Saturday morning for our second of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons in downtown St. Petersburg Florida.  It was a bright and sunny morning, as is typical for Florida in May, though thankfully not too hot at our 9:30am lesson start time.  

Sandy had done some practicing with her DSLR applying what we learned during the first lesson and realizing what she would like to practice and review in our second lesson.  There is nothing more important when learning photography than actually going out and shooting!  

We made our way through the Saturday Market finding some challenging lighting situations.  Normally during the day increasing ISO is not necessary, but when photographing subjects under shelters like at the market, using a 200mm+ focal length, with a max f/5.6 aperture lens, those deep shade shooting conditions do require a bump in ISO in order to maintain a safe 1-to-1 shutter speed to focal length ratio.  

Canon T3i 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Pamela

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The Pier in the background of our evening photography lesson with Pam and her Canon T3iI have not had many evening lessons yet this year, but yesterday I met Pamela in downtown St. Petersburg for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with her Canon T3i.  She has had her DSLR for over a year, but had only been using it in auto-mode.  With an upcoming trip to Alaska to photograph grizzly bears, she wanted to learn more about what her camera can do to improve her chances of getting great nature shots.  

Pamela told me at the start of the lesson that she knew nothing, and many people actually say that, but it is never really true as everyone knows at least a little about photography.  Either way, Pamela was a quick learner of my 5-step system for making a well exposed and sharp shot in any given situation, and with the fading evening light there was a wide range of settings needing to be used to get a good exposure.  The Canon T3i has buttons for all the things you need to change, though it lacks a top LCD, it is still an ok camera egonomically for setting up a shot (though suffers for reviewing shots due to the usual Canon making you hit the review button twice before you can actually properly review a shot).  

While Pamela practices she will be deciding which new lenses to invest in for her wildlife photography hobby.