Photography Tips
Video features will be a new regular blog post category here on Jason Collin Photography going forward. The videos will include photography tips, like this one does, news and updates, as well as behind the scenes of how I make the photos I do. In this photography tip, I show the best and cheapest piece of gear in my camera bag, the air blower!
Read MoreWhen I go out with my camera for personal photography, I like to take just one lens with me so that I am really focused on making one type of photo. For a hike along the Tunnel Canyon trail in Tijeras, New Mexico, on my Sony a7 iii was the Sony 90mm f/2.8 G Macro lens. Before I left the house i was thinking what type of photos did I feel like taking that day, and despite possible being out in wide open space, having distant views, I was feeling getting close up, so I chose the macro lens. That said, there were not that many great macro subjects on the trail, but there were some large boulders with moss on them that caught my eye. The lighting was not the greatest, but the macro lens is about showing small details anyway and getting really shallow DoF.
Read MoreI am often out in very remote areas from late afternoon until sunset and into twilight times here in New Mexico. I love to photograph wildlife, but despite so much time out in nature, I very rarely have the opportunity to photograph large animals, like the mule deer seen here (learn about mule deer). This is in part because when I am done shooting a piece of rural land real estate, I pack up both cameras into a backpack in the back of my Jeep. So if I do happen to see a deer, or other animal, I have to stop, get out, and then get my camera ready. This always results in the animals taking off never to be seen again.
Read MoreIf you asked me, I would tell you that a tripod is a must for making long exposure photos. In fact, I have already shared some long exposure ocean photos from San Diego featuring the Ocean Beach Pier that were all shot with my Nikon mounted on a tripod. That said, if getting a tack sharp image is not needed, handholding a slightly long exposure photo, especially with a lens that has VR (vibration reduction), can produce some very cool shots. The latter was the method I used to hold my Nikon right above the incoming water at Imperial Beach, San Diego, California at sunset. Why do a long exposure? Because it makes the water look like stretched out cotton. In the above shot you might easily think it was taken from a boat in deep water, when in reality it was me in less than ankle deep water letting that few inches of water whoosh past me as the camera’s shutter stayed open for 1/6th of a second.
Read MoreI used to get to make architecture photos a lot, actually, when teaching DSLR photography lessons in Florida. I would meet my students in downtown St. Petersburg or Tampa where there are both tall office buildings and fancy skyscraper condos too. So i found myself in downtown ABQ last Friday evening and realized, I have not seen a view like this before so pointed my Nikon with 50mm lens on up toward this interesting building.
Read MoreThe Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce did it yet again with another amazingly fun, energetic and informative networking event right here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first Thursday of every month is the Get Crafty With Your Biz event where three local business owners briefly tell their own personal business story and the conclude with a piece of business advice for the attendees. It is a great format that let's one network and mingle, but also here a real local business success story.
Read More
Many of my hundreds of photography students start out always centering the subject in the frame during our first lessons. That is understandable as they are busy learning my 5-step process for making a well exposed and sharp photograph in any given shooting situation. Once the technical apsects of photography take up less of the process of making a photo, then one can begin to focus on being creative, and the first step in that is composition.
The rule of thirds is a good way to start getting more appealing composition, but I like to think in two dimensions with the rule of thirds as well. By that I mean putting a major feature of my subject in a vertical thid and a horizontal third. In the above example of a model at the Dali Museum, the upper third and left third interset right by the model's face. Then the lower third and left third intersect by her hand and the melting clock. There is still a good amount of negative space in the frame, but that is put to the far upper and left parts of the photo. I would not want a lot of negative space on both sides of the subject (as in if I had centered her with no focal points other than along the midpoint of the photograph).
So the next time you go out shooting, especially a portrait, try putting a major subject focal point at a third and a third in the frame.
The final version of the photo putting a major focal point at a third and a third
