Photography Tips

Photography Tip - broken habits create new opportunities

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Snell Isle Sunset St. Petersburg Florida - f/8 ISO 200 3-bracket HDRThe most peaceful part of my entire day is when I take beloved puppy, Kiki, for our after dinner, sunset walk around the "big block."  We start out on the very path pictured above and walk along Smacks Bayou aways often spotting dolphins and manatees.  However, this evening just minutes before we were to set out on our evening stroll, a sudden heavy rain fell, then stopped, then started again.  Our walk was, sadly, washed out.

However, this break in our routine created the chance for me to photograph the above scene.  I still took Kiki out for a quick call of nature, saw the sunset, and thought to myself, "a real photographer would go back inside, grab his/her camera, then come back out and photograph this putting aside one's disappointment at not being able to go on a peaceful stroll.

So, an irritation produced an opportunity.  If your usual schedule gets sidetracked, look for new photography chances because of it.

DSLR Photography Lesson with Jeni & her new Nikon D5100

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Jeni got a Nikon D5100 for her birthday replacing her old D50If my memory is correct, this was the first instance of a same day lesson, by that I mean I received a contact form inquiry from Jeni via my website when I woke up this morning, and then by 6:20pm this evening we were having our first DSLR Photography Lesson.  She received a brand new Nikon D5100 for her birthday this week.  She had a Nikon D50 previously, so she was not entirely new to the DSLR world.  However, like a majority of my past students, she was mostly only shooting on auto-mode, or one of the other preset modes.  I of course told her she will never use any of those again!

While teaching Jeni how to produce a photograph with bokeh, we made the unfortunate discovery that her Quantaray 70-300mm lens could not be autofocused by her D5100 as that DSLR lacks an in-body focusing motor.  So we manually focused that lens to produce one example of good bokeh for her to take note of in her notebook.  The notes she took should serve as a great reminder when she next goes out to shoot by herself.  The first lesson especially covers a lot of photography settings, so I would advise any future student to take notes as well.

We finished the lesson out at Vinoy Park just as the sun was setting behind the Vinoy Hotel itself.  Jeni is very interested in portrait photography, and has even done some for her friends already.  Since I am a big believer in strobist photography, I strongly suggested that the next piece of photography gear she invest in be an external flash.  Still, just using her Nikon D5100's pop-up flash we were able to practice making sunset portraits with decent results.  

Jeni has three young daughters so she has plenty of portrait volunteers to practice on at home!  I look forward to seeing her put to use the photography knowledge from our lesson!

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    Photography Lesson with Dayna & her Canon PowerShot SX130 IS

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    A first, a non-dslr photography lesson . . . Dayna & her Canon PowerShot SX130 ISThis morning's DSLR Photography Lesson was a first, in that it was not actually a DSLR lesson.  Visiting from Pennsylvania I made an exception for Dayna who has a Canon PowerShot SX130 IS point & shoot camera.  It actually had more manual controls than I thought.  The reason I do not offer photography lessons for P&S cameras is that they do not have enough (or any) manual controls, but most of all they are all so different it is impossible for me to know how to change settings on them in any kind of timely manner.  In contrast, I am familiar with all Nikon & Canon DSLR models, and also several Pentax and Sony DSLRs too.  

    For anyone that thinks a photography lesson can begin with teaching composition or photography theory, when the student does not already know about aperture, ISO, WB and focus modes, well that cannot be done, or at least the student will get nothing out of it because they will still be hungup on what aperture they should be using, etc, not if they used the rule of thirds properly.

    This was reinforced today with Dayna's lesson.  I thought I would just be teaching her how I look for and make shots, as we discussed via e-mail before, but I could not do that without first teaching her how to properly use aperture, ISO, WB and focus modes.  I firmly believe any potential photographer must first learn how to make a properly exposed, sharp image before even thinking about trying to produce the next National Geographic cover.  

    So in this way Dayna and I largely had a typical lesson.  I taught her my settings progression (see above) and which settings to use in a variety of situations.  I also showed her the limits of her camera, so she knows if her hometown newspaper asks her to go photograph sports or any other type of moving subject, the camera they have supplied her with is not capable of it (due to 1 frame per second or slower drive speed).  More importantly, I helped her learn what her camera is capable of doing when used in manual mode, especially regarding getting that all important correct exposure.  The P&S's Av mode (aperture priority) was not good at all.  However, when we took over choosing the shutter speed it could produce solid images.

    I hope Dayna enjoys the rest of her Florida visit and goes back and impresses her editors with her new photography knowledge!

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    DSLR Photography Lesson with Sherri & her Canon T3

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    St. Petersburg DSLR Photography Lessons - Sherri & her brand new Canon T3For a person who is new to the DSLR world, all the possible settings and just all the buttons and dials on the DSLR itself can be overwhelming.  That is why I try to simplify the shooting process by breaking it down into four main things in this order:  aperture, ISO, WB, focus mode.  So I proceeded during my first DSLR Photography Lesson with new student Sherri.  She has the Canon T3, a DSLR I had never even heard of being released until she inquired about lessons.  It is a very light and compact camera which seems well suited for travel, which is good since Sherri will soon visit China!  However, like all Canon DSLRs, I still find the ergonomics and button designations to be nonintuitive and overly complicated.  

    Sherri said she had been trying out and using all the presets on the exposure dial.  Right away I advised her to just paint over them with a black marker as the only two you will ever need are Manual (M) and Aperture Priority (A, Av).  Sherri has some legacy knowledge from her past experience with 35mm film cameras, so I helped to refresh her memory about what is a large aperture (f/2.8) and which focus mode to use when shooting moving subjects (AF-C, Ai-Servo).  

    It was a jam-packed 2-hour lesson of photography knowledge.  I advised Sherri to now go out and shoot at least 100 photos every day before her China trip to better familiarize herself with how to change settings on her T3, what settings to change to, and to know when it is best to use her 18-55mm lens or her 70-300mm lens.  

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    DSLR Photography Lesson with Kamila & her Nikon D90

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    Kamila practices using off camera flash with her Nikon D90; her friend modeled for us during the photography lesson.North Shore Park along the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront was the location for my first DSLR Photography Lesson with Kamila, who wanted to learn off camera flash (strobist) techniques to use in her own portrait and wedding photography work.  We used the Commander Mode of her Nikon D90, part of the Nikon CLS (creative lighting system), along with her Nikon SB-600 Speedlight as our strobist setup.  To use Commander Mode on your Nikon (D80, D90, D300 and up) in the Bracketing & Flash menu you have to set the built-in flash to Commander Mode.  Then on the speedlight, for instance the SB-600, one must hold the "ZOOM" and " - " buttons simultaneously until the menu comes up to then set the speedlight to Commander Mode as well.  

    Kamila brought one of her friends to model for her during the lesson.  At first we focused on dialing in the correct settings for the best exposure and lighting of the model.  For this we had to use Manual Mode exposure, which Kamila was hesitant about starting to use, but I reassured her that Manual Mode is nothing to be afraid of and really not much more difficult than using Aperture Priority Mode.  We ended the shooting portion of the lesson with a little posing advice and flattering composition style practice.  

    The remainder of the lesson was back at Kamila's house for training on how to use Photoshop CS5, perhaps the least intuitive program in existence.  Kamila had already downloaded and printed out my list of keyboard shortcuts.  This helped her follow along as I showed her my CS5 workflow.  We even had time for a quick tutorial on how to add a texture overlay to a photograph.  It was basically a jam packed 3-hour lesson!

    It was nice to get to meet Kamila's family and dogs while at the same time sharing with her my photographing techniques and philosophies (i.e. editing gimmicks = fail). 

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    DSLR Photography Lessons with Models - St. Petersburg Tampa Clearwater

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    LEARN DSLR PHOTOGRAPHY WHILE PHOTOGRAPHING A MODEL 

    • 1-on-1 photography lesson with Jason and one model -- Nadina, Nancy
    • option to use Jason's strobist, off-camera-flash setup (extra fee required)
    • locations in & around St. Petersburg (other locations available with travel fee) 

    Photography Tip - take the camera back out of the bag

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    Madeira Beach twilight sunset - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/4 ISO 800 1/60th handheld

    • use this image on your business website or decorate your office with a print -- contact for pricing 

    I had just finished an hour-long portrait session on Madeira Beach and already packed up my camera and all photography gear.  My hand was on the back hatch of the Lexus to close it shut.  Yet I could see through the windshield a beautiful twilight sunset . . . but I was tired.  All my camera was already back in its bag.  I just had to close the hatch and get in the comfortable driver's seat and head home to shower and dinner.  Then I told myself in my mind what anyone who thinks themselves a photographer should think: 

    • Don't be lazy, a REAL photographer would make the effort to get the shot 

    I took my hand off the back hatch, pulled my camera bag to the edge, opened it, took out my Nikon D300, took the lens cap off and was now once again ready to shoot.  You may note one lingering laziness, I did not use my tripod.  I handheld the above shot, but at 1/60th a second that is not hard to do if using proper DSLR holding technique.  

    After taking about a dozen shots of various composition, I felt satisfied that I had both not been lazy and got the shot I wanted.  The portrait session was for my client and my business, the last sunset silhouette shots were just for me.  Even if you have already put your camera back in your bag, do not hesitate to take it back out and get a shot if you see one.  That's what a real photographer does.