Photography Tips

Photography Tip - always be ready to shoot

in

My camera was at the ready, so I could photograph this streaking ska dude

When you are out walking around with your camera in hand, both you and your camera should always be ready to shoot.  I like to have a distinct mindset of either I am out to make photographs or I am not.  If I am not, that usually means I am really not and have left my camera at home, like I did last Sunday when it was just Kiki and I quietly walking the paths of Sawgrass Lake Park.  However, when I do have my camera with me, the lens cap comes off as soon as I step out of my car and only goes back on once I am back in the car.  I never turn my Nikon D300 off while it is out of its bag.  DSLR cameras use virtually no battery while in standby mode, so there is no reason to turn a DSLR off until it is back in its bag.  

I teach DSLR photography lessons.  Often when out on a first lesson with a student as we are walking to a different spot to practice something new, the student will not only have their camera off, but the lens cap on!  I will point out something interesting passing by and say I would shoot that.  However, the student will have no chance because her/his camera is not ready.  I use such a situation to show students that one should never miss chances for photographs while one's camera is out.  So I recommend that you always keep the camera on, the lens cap off, and your finger on the shutter.  

You never know what might happen or who will pass by.  Someone told me that Cameron Diaz was wondering around St. Petersburg recently.  Imagine seeing her pass by but your camera is not ready!  Or, you, yourself are not ready to take a shot because even though you have kept your camera on, you have switched your mindset away from photography.  

I was photographing something entirely different when I noticed the ska dude above streaking across the street.  He is not exactly Cameron Diaz, but if it had been her, I would have gotten the shot!

Night Tripod Photography DSLR Photography Lesson with Mohammad

in

Long exposure portrait - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1sec Nikon SB-800 Speedlight hotshoe mounted in TTL modeEach time we have another DSLR Photography lesson together, Mohammad has a new piece of gear!  After our first lesson (which before he just bought a Canon T2i) he got a Canon 430EX II Speedlite that we used during our second lesson.  Now for out third lesson last night he had bought a nice Manfrotto tripod and joystick grip head.  It was my latest lesson, from 8pm to 10pm.  This allowed us to have a little light left in the sky for ideal night time cityscape shots conditions and to be able to practice portraits outdoors under completely dark skies.

We met at the usual spot in front of the Museum of Fine Arts on Beach Drive then walked toward The Pier.  Along the way we stopped at a few spots to practice low to the ground shots.  A benefit of using a tripod is you can use the legs in their shortest length and get a very low, creative angle and turn an ordinary scene into a photograph.  No one usually lies down on the ground when out sightseeing, thus a shot made from that perspective will show the viewer something that cannot be seen by just standing at the same spot at eye level.  This to me, showing what cannot be seen by just standing somewhere at eye level, is one of the things that makes a photograph a photograph, rather than just a snapshot.

We then made our way up to the top of The Pier, a 5-story open air patio, with a great panoramic view of the St. Petersburg skyline, though marred somewhat by a very high railing forcing one to use the center column on one's tripod thereby reducing stability.  When shooting at night or dusk, manual mode is best as controlling both the aperture and the shutter speed is necessary to produce the exposure one wants.  We mostly used shutter speeds in excess of 15 seconds.  

Our final stop, after riding the trolley from The Pier to North Shore Drive and having an exciting elevator ride with a big group of European tourists, was in front of BayWalk for some long exposure shots of the traffic driving by.  However, the traffic at most consisted of three or four cars, so we did not have much chance to get those cool red and white trail lights from the cars' lights in our shots.  Still, the spot was good for long exposure portraits (see top photo), which we made by keeping our cameras tripod mounted and flashes hotshoe mounted (so they can sync with the long exposures).

I really enjoyed this night lesson as using the tripods allowed for a slower, more methodical lesson pace and of course it was not as hot outside.  Plus Mohammad is a good student asking many questions and an interesting person who travels a lot.

I wonder what piece of gear Mohammad will buy before our fourth lesson, maybe a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens?? 

  • Reserve your own 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with Jason today!
  • Learn more about the lessons
  • Browse past lessons with all of my students 

    • DSLR Photography Lesson with Kathy & her Nikon D40

    in

    Camera was not harmed for this shot - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/200th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight handheld commander mode

    We had to reschedule Kathy's first DSLR Photography Lesson once already this week due to rain, and as thunder rolled at 5pm, I was worried we would have to postpone it until next week, but the weather could not have been better.  Kathy has owned her Nikon D40 for a couple of years, but relied on auto mode and at times her Panasonic point & shoot camera.  She took photography lessons at various places, but never like the one-on-one lessons that I exclusively offer.

    As always, I got Kathy off auto mode immediately and onto aperture priority mode.  When shooting out in daylight, once the proper settings are dialed in, there really is not much to change or adjust on the camera as long as one is continuing to photograph the same general type of subject.  For her kit Nikkor 18-55mm lens, I told her the only apertures you need to worry about now are just:  f/5.6 f/8 and f/11.  This can help to take some of the mystery of aperture out of the equation.  

    Then we ended with making some fun flash portraits at Vinoy Park with The Pier in the background.  All the while we talked about many other photography topics, but also sports cars, Japanese culture and Spanish culture.  It was a fun lesson for me and I look forward to our next lesson when Kathy returns from various business trips. 

  • Reserve your own 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with Jason today!
  • Learn more about the lessons
  • Browse past lessons with all of my students

    • DSLR Photography Lesson with Rossie & his Canon 40D

    in

    Nikon D300 Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens @ f/8 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight handheld in commander mode

    I learned a little bit about Rossie's interesting career before we met for our first DSLR Photography Lesson this morning in downtown St. Petersburg.  He has worked as an illustrator for the Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times and even lived in my old hometown area of Lee County.  He showed me some of his photographs and I was really impressed with the lighting, which he said he used his serious Photoshop skills to produce.  So in our lesson he wanted to start to learn how to make photographs using more photography skills, less processing skills.  He recently bought a Canon 40D from a friend and had been shooting in auto-mode, as many of my past students used to do.

    We remedied that immediately by shooting in aperture priority mode, Av on the 40D's dial.  Rossie already had many instincts for composition, but not much experience with a DSLR itself or specific shooting techniques for specific types of photograph.  For example, I noticed that Rossie really likes to photograph people, so as I had him practice on me I said make sure to always set the focus on the eyes when making a portrait.  He had not heard that before, and it is not one of those pieces of photography knowledge that widely floats around unless you specifically look for it, and how looks for something they did not know to look for in the first place?

    Despite the above serious portrait of Rossie, he is a very jovial person and I had a great time during the lesson listening to his stories and his thoughts on photography, etc.  I like people that speak freely, with candor.  I look forward to our next lesson, which will focus on shooting with a 50mm lens. 

  • Reserve your own 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with Jason today!
  • Learn more about the lessons
  • Browse past lessons with all of my students 

    • DSLR Photography Lesson with Deb & her new 430EX II Speedlite

    in

    Deb wielding her substantial Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens - photo: Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/320th Strobist: Nikon SB-600 Speedlight held off camera triggered by commander mode

    Once again my week started off with a fun DSLR Photography Lesson with Deb (lesson #1) in downtown St. Petersburg.  In the past week she got some new photography gear in the form of a Canon 430EX II Speedlite, which I suggested to her during our first lesson as the best piece of gear to get next, as speedlights are extremely useful.  She even got a bounce cap too, also very useful.  

    We started out shooting in the shade of one of the downtown condo towers to escape the heat and also because shade is better for making portraits.  The first flash shots we took were practicing bouncing the flash off of available walls.  Ideally there would be a nice, smooth white wall everywhere you happened to decide to make a portrait, however, one often has to make due with much less.  Still, in a few quick test shots I was able to demonstrate to Deb that even bouncing the light from her 430EX II off a rough, dark creme wall was better than pointing the light straight at me.  She was able to do this because the 430EX II has a swivel head allowing her to point the light of the flash in a different direction than her lens.  On camera flash does not allow one to do this.  Hence, an external flash, even used on camera, has a great advantage over the built-in pop-up flash.

    Sometimes there are not any walls around so we even practiced for that before finishing with making a portrait in direct sunlight, perhaps the least ideal situation.  However, using my tried and true settings (see photo description) serviceable broad daylight portraits are possible, when necessary.

    Next lesson we will be getting the flash off of Deb's 7D and out on its own for off camera flash to produce even better portrait results.  Deb is learning fast!

  • Reserve your own 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with Jason today!
  • Learn more about the lessons
  • Browse past lessons with all of my students

    • Natural Light Portrait in the Golden Hour

    in ,

    Nikon D300 with Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8 lens @ f/4 ISO 200 1/1600th natural lightI am a huge believer and practitioner of off camera flash.  However, it is very freeing to be able to photograph without worry of a strobe firing, using the right power, diffusing the flash properly, etc.  Florida has mostly very, very harsh and strong sunlight, but it has golden hours just like every where else too.  

    I made this portrait using the nice soft light of about 30 minutes before sunset on this Treasure Island beach.  Note though that I still had the subject mostly face the setting sun as well as my back to the sun.  I chose an aperture that allowed me to both use the lowest ISO on my camera and also produce a shallow DoF in order to separate my subject from the background.  

    Depending on location and sky conditions, the golden hour for shooting can start from about 90-minutes before sunset and continue on a few minutes after it sets.  Of course there is another golden hour each day for early risers, about 30 minutes before sunrise.

    DSLR Photography Lesson with Cindy & her Canon T1i

    in

    Cindy holding her Canon T1i properly with the left palm under the lens

    Cindy recently joined the DSLR world and having already booked a trip to Alaska for 2011 wants to get a head start on being able to make some great shots of the vistas and wildlife in the land of the midnight sun.  So she brought her Canon T1i to downtown St. Petersburg for our first DSLR Photography Lesson to learn how to make shots with bokeh on purpose, how to photograph moving objects and basically learn which settings need to be changed when switching to a different shooting style or subject matter.  

    Cindy photographs a great egret during our DSLR photography lesson in Vinoy ParkI feel that the Canon T1i makes changing settings easier than on the Canon 7D (twice the price) because it has single, dedicated buttons for ISO, WB and focus mode (though sporadically laid out).  As I suggest to all students, I told Cindy to become obsessed with checking settings as much as possible.  Sure enough, some how one time her white balance got changed back to AWB rather than daylight.  

    Cindy says she lives near the area of St. Petersburg called the "jungle" so I look forward to seeing her shots from there and also to our next lesson. 

  • Reserve your own 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with Jason today!
  • Learn more about the lessons
  • Browse past lessons with all of my students