Photography Tips

DSLR Photography Lesson with Barbie & her Nikon D700

in

Nikon D700 DSLR Photography student Barbie in downtown St. PetersburgI was first contacted by Barbie back in December.  She sent a very enthusiastic e-mail.  However, due to various circumstances, we were unable to have our first DSLR Photography Lesson until just today.  Her enthusiasm never waned over those three months and resulted in today one of the most enjoyable lessons I have had in the nearly two years I have been offering 1-on-1 photography lessons in St. Petersburg.  Barbie was just like I expected her to be from her impassioned e-mails.  It is always nice to be around an enthusiastic person.  

Barbie was given a very generous present late last year, a Nikon D700!  The D700 is a pro-level DSLR and definitely not the usual camera one first ventures into the DSLR world with!  So it is understandable to be a little intimidated by its complete lack of auto-exposure presets, labyrinth of menu settings and just overall physical girth.  However, the ergonomics of the D700 are excellent allowing for quick changing of all the major settings:  aperture, ISO, WB and focus mode, all of which have their own dedicated button or switch in the case of focus mode.

As of right now Barbie has just one lens, the Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6G, so we mostly practiced making photographs with bokeh and photographing moving subjects, two things that lens is best suited for.  I expect Barbie will soon be putting those skills to use to make action shots of her golden retrievers.  

Barbie is already booked for three more lessons.  I am sure with her enthusiasm and strong motivation to be able to photograph everyone around her, we will continue to have fun and knowledge filled photography lessons. 

  • 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

    • Great Egret flying in St. Petersburg Florida - bird photography tips

    in ,

    Great Egret in flight - St Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/4 ISO 200 1/2500thContinuing with the bird trending blog posts, I had the opportunity to photograph a great egret up close and in flight.  As you can see I did not have to use a 600mm lens to get this tight of a shot of the great egret.  Nor was I in an airplane.  The secret to being able to get a shot like this without spending $10,000 is to . . . go to The Pier in downtown St. Petersburg!  Even the base of The Pier itself is rather high off the water often putting you at eye level to passing and even incoming birds.

    great egret - The Pier in St Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/4 ISO 200 1/2000thThis afternoon was a rare very overcast Florida day.  That meant I did not have to worry about getting my back to the sun or anything like that.  In fact, shooting a white bird like this great egret is best done on an overcast day I think, not counting sunrise or sunset time of course.  So, without having to worry about the light because the light was the same from any direction, the last location factor to be mindful of was:  background.  I often say bird shots are make or break first because of the light, and second because of the background.  Without a fantastically clean background, your shot will just not stand out from the other thousand great egret shots taken every day in Florida.  Of course one of the ways to reduce the impact of the background is to just make it all creamy bokeh.  Still, color of the bokeh does come into play.  Do you think the transition of brown at the base of the above photo works, or would it be better all blue-gray?  I thought it added another point of interest in the frame myself.  Let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree.  One last thing about the photo, looking at a bird like a great egret is strange and reminds of the rare times Beavis every looked straight ahead.  There is just something off about it!  Ah, and notice how I set the focus on the bird's eye.  Without the eye in focus, the shot would have been a fail, or I would have had to pass it off as "artistic style" of some sort!

    Great Egret beak - The Pier St Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/4 ISO 200 1/2000thOne last tip on photographing long-necked birds:  they are an awkward shaped creature, and it is often not the most flattering to include their entire body in the shot, especially when standing, and doubly especially when they are standing on a concrete wall!  Nothing takes the nature out of your shot like a human-made structure!  

    Hence, in the above shot I focused on framing only a part of the great egret.  I used the rule of thirds and placed the eye in the upper left most third.  I had the bird looking into the empty space of the frame.  I of course also made sure the background was clean and the bokeh color complementary to the white of the egret.  Plus, I just think it looks cool to see this long neck protruding from the bottom of the frame.

    Please share any of your Florida bird photography tips and links to your own shots in the comments below.

    DSLR Photography Lesson with Donnice & her Minolta 7D

    in

    First time for me to see a Minolta DSLR during this downtown St. Petersburg photography lessonI first spoke with Donnic on the phone about having a DSLR Photography Lesson where she told me she was driving up to Ohio, but wanted a lesson just two days later.  Then she clarified that she was a truck driver.  As you can see in the above photograph, she does not look like what you might typically think a truck driver would!

    Donnic bought a complete set of gear from a no longer working photographer that included a pair of Minolta DSLRs.  We used the Minolta 7D for our first lesson, which was also my first time to ever be hands on with a Minolta.  I did some online research about it before the lesson, but still, I had to hope I could find all the relevant buttons and figure out how to work the dials on the fly during the lesson.  I was pleased to find out that a Minolta is ergonomically quite similar to a Nikon (what I shoot with).  

    Donnic was basically brand new to the formal photography world so I started the lesson with a careful explanation of aperture and ended the lesson having her doing some wildlife photography (of a kind)!  I think she did a good job of absorbing all the photography knowledge I poured out during our 2-hours together in downtown St. Petersburg.  Now she has the skill set to start practicing on her own, and knowing why a photo failed, and why one was a success.  

    I look forward to our next lesson and getting to know her and her Minolta better!

  • 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

    •  

    --Professional Model DSLR Photography Lessons now available!

    DSLR Photography Lesson with Cindy & her new Nikon D90

    in

    Cindy is now on the Nikon team during our 3rd lesson at The Pier in St. PetersburgI last had a lesson with Cindy in August 2010.  It was our second lesson with her Canon T1i.  Well, since then she has given away the Canon to her nephew and joined the Nikon team with the purchase of a Nikon D90!  I will ask Cindy to write in her own words why she made the switch from Canon to Nikon and update this post accordingly.

    Even though Cindy was already familiar with aperture, ISO, white balance and focus modes, there was a change in terminology for her to learn and how to adjust those settings physically the Nikon way.  To practice this we returned to a favorite location of ours, The Pier and all its pelican residents.  

    The main thing we paid attention to during the lesson was maintaining a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second as this summer Cindy will be taking a grand trip up to Alaska to photograph whales and eagles.  As whales breach and eagles soar, a fast shutter time is mandatory in order to be able to freeze their motion.  

    So we set her Nikon D90 to manual mode, the shutter speed to 1/500th of a second and varied her aperture according to what subject matter we were photographing at the time.  For distant subjects (i.e. whales) I had Cindy set her aperture to f/5.6 and for wider action shots f/11 keeping the shutter speed locked at 1/500th (or faster).  So sometimes, especially when using f/11, increasing the ISO was necessary to maintain a good exposure.  

    It was an interesting lesson for me as it is always nice to be able to address a specific photography need from a student with the goal of producing great nature shots in the future.  Cindy is already booked for three more lessons so there will be plenty of updates to come as I do my best to prepare her for photographing in the Alaskan wilderness!  

  • 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 

    • Strobist DSLR Photography Lesson #2 with Steve

    in

    Steve in downtown St. Petersburg in a long shot strobist setup we were practicingSteve has taken a number of DSLR Photography Lessons ranging from an intro DSLR lesson to an editing lesson, and now on to his second strobist lesson.  Since our first strobist lesson, he has gotten Yongnuo remote flash triggers of his own so this time we could practice using long lenses for strobist shots.  

    We used various downtown St. Petersburg locations that may in the future be used for Steve to photograph clients of his own.  Thus, half the time I acted as I usually do giving photography instruction, the other half I pretended to be a client letting Steve set everything up and instruct me how to pose, etc.  It is a big step to go from photographing just friends and family to photographing paying clients.  The camera will definitely feel different in your hand!

    Steve has a friendly personality and is able to connect with people easily, so I am sure he will not have a difficult time finding clients when he is ready to start shooting paying gigs.   

  • 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 

    • Photography Tip - Previsualization of bleach bypass

    in

    Previsualized for bleach bypass filter - Nikon D300 Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D @ f/11 ISO 200 1/400thOne photography tip to keep in mind as you start to progress as a photographer is previsualization.  This is the process by which you see the final photograph before you even put the camera up to your eye.  I was teaching a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson at John's Pass Village recently in very poor, harsh mid-afternoon Florida light.  This meant there was no reason for me to look for shots that would produce great color or exposure.  So I did not.  Instead, I switched my mind to looking for possible black & white or similar photo opportunities.  

    As soon as I saw all these birds sitting in a neat row on the railing of a pier this popped into my head:  use the rectangular shape to frame the shot, post-process using a bleach bypass filter (found in Color Efex Pro).  How was this able to instantly come to my mind?  Because I had already started the previsualization process when I accessed the natural light situation.  I gave myself a very specific type of shot to focus on looking for, so once a possibility was seen, I knew right away how I wanted to photograph it.

    This is what the above scene looked like to the naked eye:

    Being able to see the potential for a shot is KEY to producing consistently satisfying imagesThe next time you set out with your DSLR, try to previsualize shots before you even think about pushing the shutter.  This will not only likely help you produce better photographs, it will cut down on the number of shots you just immediately delete when you get home.

    Post a link to your previsualization results in the comments below . . .

    DSLR Photography Lesson with Lisa & her Nikon D3100 in Vinoy Park

    in

    Vinoy Park St. Petersburg - Lisa with her Nikon D3100 & Tampa Bay in the backgroundI found out during our first DSLR Photography Lesson that Lisa is a very interesting person with many unique interests.  One interest she wanted to increase her knowledge on was photography and specifically how to better use her Nikon D3100 to photograph all the details and textures that catch her eye.  We met at the usual downtown St. Petersburg spot on a great Florida spring afternoon.

    Living in Ybor City Lisa is never short of interesting places and things to go out and photograph.  I told her that my default settings for just heading out the door in usual Florida weather and walking around are:  f/5.6 ISO 200 (lowest for my DSLR) WB-sunny AF-S.  After going shooting in any type of situation it is a good practice to return your DSLR to these settings before storing it in your camera bag.  

    Lisa was a fast learner and my pop quizzes asking her to tell me from memory what her D3100 was currently set to were all passes.  Knowing without looking what your camera is set to is key for catching a shot that has only a few seconds of opportunity.  Then of course being able to change the necessary settings in under five seconds is also key.  

    Linda and I ended up in Vinoy Park where its seawall offers a chance to use S-curve composition.  Having an S-shaped line composed in your frame gives the viewer's eye something to follow throughout your image.  Most often you see roads used as S-curves.  

    I look forward to seeing what photographs Lisa produces in Ybor City and later on her trip to Costa Rica! 

  • 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