DSLR Photography Lesson with Kathleen & her Canon 5D Mark II

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Kathleen wields her full frame Canon 5D Mark II during our DSLR photography lesson in St Petersburg

My DSLR Photography Lesson with Kathleen was the first time a student had a full frame DSLR.  Her Canon 5D Mark II did not look that much different than past students' Canon 7D DSLRs to my surprise.  I thought it would have more buttons, etc.  Despite having such a powerful camera, Kathleen was still shooting in auto mode! (I was also surprised the 5D Mark II even had an auto mode.)  So we definitely had to remedy that right away to help her start getting the most of her full frame DSLR.

Kathleen also had a very nice L series Canon f/4 17-40mm lens.  No limits with gear!  To get Kathleen off auto mode I explained how to shoot in aperture priority mode, set ISO and white balance, and choose the correct focus modes for a variety of shooting situations.  She had accidentally produced shots with bokeh in the past, but I taught her how to do it on purpose.  

We ended the lesson with flash portrait practice.  I look forward to seeing the improvements in Kathleen's shots, as well as to our next lesson. 

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    • Free Desktop Calendar Wallpaper: Florida Fern Waterfall June 2010

    Free desktop calendar wallpaper for June 2010 - Rainbow Springs fern waterfall

    Jason Collin Photography is offering the image "Rainbow Springs Fern Waterfall" as a free* desktop wallpaper calendar. If you use it as your desktop wallpaper, please let me know in the comments.

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    This image was made yesterday on a Memorial Day day trip to beautiful Rainbow Springs near Ocala, Florida.  I had been wanting to make a "cotton candy" waterfall image for awhile, but lacked both the opportunity and the gear (stable tripod) until yesterday.    

    * All desktop wallpapers are provided without any technical support.  All images are Copyright Jason Collin Photography, All Rights Reserved.  Removing the watermark by digital alteration or cropping is prohibited.  You are granted a single use, non-exclusive, perpetual license to install this wallpaper on any personal computer personally owned by you. This license grants you the right to use the wallpaper for non-commercial/personal use only. You may not re-sell, distribute, print or otherwise publish the image without the express written consent of the Copyright owner: Jason Collin Photography

    Organic Blueberry Picking at Big Bear Farms

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    Nikon D300 Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G @ f/11 ISO 200 1/160th SB-600 hotshoe mounted in TTL mode

    I had no idea blueberries had an opening in them at one end.  This is the kind of thing you can learn when you get out and obtain your own food.  Big Bear Farms in Plant City, Florida is not what I expected.  No silo, no big red barn, just a lot of plants in large blue tubs.  The blueberry bushes were not even planted in the ground!  This was a bit upsetting to me at first.  Even though Big Bear is a certified organic farm, it seemed a bit artificial to not even have the bushes in the ground, but maybe that is the only way to obtain organic certification in that area?  

    Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 9-bracket HDR tripod mountedOnce you obtain your bucket from the main office, you are entirely left to your own devices and no doubt the honor system for picking your blueberries.  The farmer said you can eat some to test them out.  I ate about 15 or so right off the bush.  My picking method at first was very methodical and zen like.  I searched carefully and without haste.  I also had ten pounds of camera, lens and speedlight hanging off my neck in full on Florida afternoon heat, so such circumstances do not lend toward fast movement anyway!  

    Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/250th SB-600 on light stand to left in TTL mode, camera on tripod

    The current rate for blueberries was $11 a pound.  We took home $20 worth and they were all eaten right from the bag in just a couple of days.  It was a very good experience.  I liked spending time in the countryside harvesting, and the photography opportunities were pretty good too, from insect macros, to HDR landscapes to fruit macros.

    Be sure and call ahead as blueberries are only available in certain seasons.  The farm has other berries as well.  

    DSLR Photography Lesson #6 with Rosa at Westshore Mall!

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    Rosa wanted to practice indoor shooting, so we met in Westshore Mall

    Rosa is the second student now to take six DSLR Photography Lessons with me (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th).  She had some trouble photographing friends and family indoors, despite getting a very nice new lens, a Tamron 17-50mm VC f/2.8, the successor to a lens I use myself.  So to simulate indoor shooting conditions we came up with the idea of shooting in a mall.  I was a little concerned about breaking out DSLR cameras in a mall, but early in the lesson a security guard walked right by us and paid us no attention at all, which was a relief.  

    We started out trying to get the best results from the new fast lens she bought by shooting at f/2.8 with no flash and a somewhat high ISO of 800.  These settings, combined with firm camera holding technique, allowed Rosa and I to get acceptable sharpness in our shots, like the one featured above.

    Photo by Rosa, editing by me.This lesson was also a first for teaching photo editing also.  Rosa brought her laptop and set it alongside my MacBook Pro on the table above and I showed her how I would go about editing some of the portraits she took.  She had Adobe Photoshop Elements.  It was my first time to use it, but since I am experienced with the full version of Photoshop, I was able to figure things out eventually.  As important as it is to learn about aperture, ISO and white balance, I think it is equally important to learn editing skills too.  I look forward to having another hybrid shooting/editing with Rosa soon. 

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    • Burrowing Owls of Cape Coral Florida

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    Nikon D300 Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8 @ f/4 ISO 200 1/3200th SB-600 hotshoe mounted in high speed sync mode

    I recently became aware that people were going all the way to my tiny hometown of Cape Coral to photograph the burrowing owls that live there.  Even Scott Bourne went!  Growing up there the owls were something to be feared, as if you got to close, they would screech at you and even take some swoops at your head!  Plus, they are super protected so even as a kid that put some fear of the law into me and I mostly just steered clear of them, never thinking them some great nature photography subject.  Then of course at that time I did not even own a camera.  However, I have visited Cape Coral several times in the past year with all my photo gear and it still never occurred to me to photograph them until I heard of others going there.

    Nikon D300 Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8 @ f/4 ISO 200 1/3200th SB-600 hotshoe mounted in high speed sync modeSo during a brief overnight visit last weekend I thought if there are some owls living near my mom's condo, then I will finally photograph them.  When I did find some it was the middle of the afternoon and the light was of course not good at all, hence the unusual choice to make the above shots some form of black and white.  Add to it that the best shooting position (with my back to the sun) was obstructed by tall grass and their cross-shaped perch presumably provided by the government, I was not going to get any National Geographic level cover shots.  Still, I wanted to get experience shooting them so I could do a nice dawn rise the next time I visit and photograph them properly.

    Nikon D300 Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8 @ f/4 ISO 200 1/2000th SB-600 hotshoe mounted in high speed sync mode

    With only a 200mm lens I did have to get a bit close, which I felt a little awkward doing because the owls definitely noticed me and one was angrily chirping.  I felt it was not cool for that to be happening so I rushed my shots also and was doubting myself the whole time, not a great thing to do while trying to make a shot!  Next time I will consider renting a 300mm or 400mm lens so as to let the owls be at ease while I photograph them.

    DSLR Photography Lesson with Indre in downtown St. Petersburg

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    One thing most students need to be reminded of is to shoot in portrait orientation too!

    Evening DSLR Photography Lessons are becoming more common as Florida's temperatures increase.  Thus I met Indre in downtown St. Petersburg at 6pm for our first lesson together.  She has owned a Nikon D40 for about six months, but had mostly been shooting in the pre-set modes, something one definitely does not want to do with a DSLR camera!  They are very poor in those auto settings.  After our two hour lesson finished, Indre had the knowledge to shoot in aperture priority mode in a number of different situations and if she is brave enough will not have to use auto modes again!

    At Vinoy Park I thought we would have a chance to photograph some dolphins feeding and intensely splashing around.  I had a feeling though that by the time we walked over the dolphins would be gone.  Of course, as soon as we got within range, the splashing stopped and the swam off into Tampa Bay.  Of course.

    Indre is a very interesting person, originally from Lithuania (I have also been having more international students lately) with family across Europe actually.  So in between photography talk I enjoyed hearing more about her life.  She is taking a trip to the Smoky Mountains soon so I look forward to seeing her landscape and others shots when she returns. 

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    • Sunny Florida at f/11 project #05 - Algiers Beach Sanibel Island

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    Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 5-bracket HDR (handheld, breaking rules yet again)

    Sanibel Island has a number of dog friendly beaches, the above Algiers Beach being one of them.  So after nearly two hours of running and swimming and skimboarding with Kiki, I just plopped down on this soft grass growing at the far edge of the beach with my Nikon D300 and relaxed a bit, and of course also made this HDR photograph to continue my summer long Sunny Florida f/11 project.  Shooting while lying on my stomach on the ground is one of my favorites ways to shoot, and one of my favorite perspectives to shoot from.  First, it is really comfortable because you are lying down.  Second, you can hold your camera really steadily with both elbows planted on the ground.  Third, not many people are willing to get down and dirty like this so you can come away with a unique view of an often photographed place/scene/subject.  

    I left some of the highlights blown out on purpose as I thought it added a bit of style to the shot.  Coincidentally, Scott Bourne wrote a blog post yesterday about it being ok to blow out highlights if it is something you wanted to do in your shot.  I will admit it made me feel better about doing so, as traditionally you can get criticized for blowing out highlights.  

    I am still not finding the shot I had long envisioned for this series.  I will not describe that vision here, as I will continue to look for it myself, holding out hope that such a scene even exists in Florida.  My Florida imagination may have become too infused with Thai beach memories.

    INFORMATION ABOUT ALGIERS BEACH: 

    • Algiers Lane, Sanibel, Florida 
    • 239-472-6477
    • dog friendly means dogs must remain on a leash