Purple Sky View of Downtown St. Petersburg Florida

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Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm tripod mounted with cable release @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/5th secYesterday a large cold front passed through stealthily in the night.  The whole day following was blustery, chilled . . . and clear.  There is nothing like the time after a storm passes to get the clearest shots possible.  Despite having The Pier nearby that provides spectacular, panoramic views of the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront, I have almost never gone there to shoot on my own.  The majority of times I have been there at sunset time was while teaching a DSLR Photography Lesson, as was the case this time again.

Maybe I do not go so often because I have never owned a real tripod.  The railing surrounding the roof of The Pier is tall and an average tripod cannot see over it without extending its destabilizing center column.  The view is great, but to photograph it well requires a very good tripod.  

Maybe it's because I know The Pier is dying.  It should be a more exciting place, as basically the landmark of St. Petersburg.  Yet every time I have visited there it felt like a place out of the 50s, just a structure of nostalgia that is kept around just because of that.  

The city council has voted for a new structure to be built.  My first reaction was against such a decision, since I am a very nostalgic person, and I thought The Pier, as flawed as it might be, should be preserved and maybe just needs more love.  My second reaction was it would be really exciting to have more of a destination so far out into Tampa Bay just a short drive from my house.  My final reaction was, "oh, not even demolished until maybe 2014 at the earliest?"  That time frame is far too far in the future for me.

Photography Tip - keep your DSLR batteries warm in cold weather

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Using an interior jacket pocket works best to keep your spare battery warm & chargedFor many reasons, I do not like cold weather.  That is why I live in Florida.  One photography related reason to not like cold weather is the effect is has on your DSLR's batteries.  Cold weather drains batteries much faster than warm weather.  If you live in a cold area, or live in a supposedly warm area (like Florida) but receive an unwelcome arctic cold front from Canada, this is a real problem for extended outdoor shooting.  Even if you have spare batteries, if they are still exposed to the cold they will drain before you even put then into your DSLR.  Is the inside of your camera bag warm enough?  No!  I recommend putting your spare batteries into a zip lock plastic bag and putting them into a jacket pocket that presses against your body.  An interior chest pocket works best.  Your body heat will help to keep the spare battery warm and greatly help its ability to hold onto its charge.

Use hand heat for the battery in your DSLRWhat about the battery in your DSLR?  For that I would just try and keep my hand tightly covering the battery compartment area in between shots, preferably with two hands, though in the photo above I had to keep my right hand for using another camera to make take the shot.  Try holding the camera close to your body as well.  

Using these practices will help you keep shooting in cold weather longer.

DSLR Photography Night Lesson with Patti & her tripod

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Long exposure portrait - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm tripod mounted @ f/4 ISO 400 1.6 sec

For Patti's second DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. Petersburg she wanted to learn how to use her tripod for making great dusk, twilight and night shots.  It turns out she has the same Pro Line tripod as I do!  The weather in St. Petersburg went overnight from summer-like to arctic.  As we made our way out to The Pier, I was glad I was wearing my Mountain Hard Wear softshell rendering the blustery wind harmless.

We stopped at the approach to The Pier for a tip on using leading lines to add interest to a shot's composition.  I also stressed one of my axiom's of photography -- avoid shooting at eye level whenever possible.  I had Patti fully shorten her tripod's legs for a nice long angle shot of The Pier, that she remarked after she took it was different than any other shot of The Pier she had taken before.  That is exactly the kind of results I strive for in my own photography and something I try to instill in anyone I teach photography to from the beginning -- if I can see it by standing at eye level, why in the world would I want to look at a photograph of the exact same thing?  I wouldn't.  So show me something I cannot see by standing at eye level.  I am glad to pass on this practice to Patti as she photographed The Pier during our lesson.

Of course the best thing about photography and The Pier, is shooting the downtown St. Petersburg skyline from the top of The Pier itself.  This is challenging however as there is a very tall railing that needs to be shot over.  Our tripods needed significant center column extension to be able to do so, a negative because that reduced stability.  Add in a strong wind, and conditions were far from ideal.  This just made us have to be extra careful and thoughtful in the mechanics of tripod shooting.  Patti has a handy wireless remote she used to trigger her Nikon D3000 in order to eliminate camera shake even more.  

Taken in a moving elevator! Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm tripod mounted @ f/8 ISO 400 2 secBefore we entered the elevator to get back to the ground level I suggested we set up our DSLRs for long exposure shots while riding the elevator down.  Setting up our cameras before allowed us to be ready once we got into the elevator and not hold it up or have to worry about it moving before we were ready.  You can see Patti's reflection to the mid-left and mine to center-right.  To the far left is some guy who had a DSLR who I heard say, "wish I had brought my tripod."

Patti is off to Las Vegas for a family Christmas vacation.  She now has the skills to get some great night shots of that far brighter city.  I of course encouraged her to wake up before sunrise and head out to the desert for some dawn landscapes!  I look forward to seeing if she does. 

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    • High School All-Star Baseball at Al Lang Stadium

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    Seeing so many baseballs in one place fascinated me for some reason.It had been awhile since I photographed baseball, so I was excited to have the opportunity to photograph a high school all-star game in Al Lang Stadium (downtown St. Petersburg).  I had never been in that ballpark before so I did not have an idea of its size, which is of course larger than the usual public fields I have photographed other high school baseball games at.

    Have to wonder what decade the name STREAKS was chosen in?This larger park meant I had to use ever mm of my Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens in order to get as close to the action as possible, despite being able to plant my monopod at the end of either of the dugouts.  More of a challenge to deal with was the fact that the park was totally exposed to the blazing afternoon Florida sun.  I was not able to get my back to the sun from any angle, so I had to really concentrate on getting focus locks in such challenging conditions.  

    Not a scene of exhaustion, just one of stretching!After the sun, a huge shadow fell across the infield for the last few innings!  Manual settings were mandatory to try and get a decent exposure in the lower light and still freeze the action.  

    The goal of baseball photography - get the ball in the frame while the batter swingsAnd I do not have that many actions shots to show for my 3 hours of shooting.  At first I did not know it was an all-star game, but I sensed the energy and interactions between the players seemed much less than other tournaments I had photographed.  These high school players came from all around Florida and did not know each other for the most part.  So the camaraderie was just not there.  Even though there were a lot of runs scored, the black team raced out to a 10-1 lead, they were all standing runs, no big home plate confrontations at all.  

    They were not the only ones waiting for some action that afternoon.I have to admit my mind did start to wonder in the latter innings as the action really slowed down and I had already gotten all the essential batting, fielding and group shots . . . and then they decided to add a tenth inning!  

    Fighting for 3rd base - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/4 ISO 500 1/640th EV +1.33 manual exposureFinally, in one of the final innings there was a decent play made for third base right in front of me.  As you can see the shadow had fallen across the infield, causing me to use some very unusual settings, least of which was cranking the exposure compensation up to +1.33.  

    DSLR Photography Lesson with Tanya & her Canon XSi

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    Tanya and her Canon XSi not afraid of shooting from the street during our DSLR photography lesson in downtown St. Petersburg

    Tanya was one of the most experienced people to take one of my DSLR photography lessons.  Her father was a real photography starting back in the 1950s with his own studio.  He has passed on a lot of his photography gear to Tanya, but we did not use any of that during our lesson mostly focusing on getting the best out of her Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens on her Canon XSi DSLR.  She had been a strict manual focuser and manual exposure user, which is good, but it can be especially tricky manually focusing a 50mm lens.  She was not getting the results she wanted, so I showed her the wonders of aperture priority mode and auto-focus.  We were soon able to get her producing sharp shots with her 50mm lens.

    After that we tried out some simple bounce flash portraits using her Nikon (!) brand Nissin strobe.  I realized TTL mode would not work on her Canon DSLR, so we went right into manual mode and after a few test shots were able to produce some good, shadowless portraits right on the street.  I am never that good of a model, and this time in particular I was making some very strange faces!  

    We finished the 2-hour lesson with some long exposure tripod shots.  I let Tanya borrow my tripod to use along with her cable release.  She likes to photograph sailboats on water, and the small harbor in front of The Pier is home to a number of sailboats providing the ideal practice ground.  I showed her how to focus while using a tripod mounted DSLR as we experimented with 10, 20 and finally 30 second exposures.  

    We covered a lot of different photography topics during our action packed lesson.  In addition, I enjoyed listening to Tanya's thoughts on photography as art and of her dad's photography business. 

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    • DSLR Photography Lesson with Amy & Annette

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    On the left Amy with her Nikon D3100 & Annette on the right with her Olympus E-510Very rarely do I teach anything other than 1-on-1 private DSLR Photography Lessons, but Amy asked if she could take a lesson with a friend who was also at a similar photography level so I said ok let's give it a try.  It worked out pretty well I think.  It was a beautiful sunny late morning in downtown St. Petersburg and the waterfront was pretty busy, but we mostly stuck to photographing the usual things I have first time students shoot, like the big tree next to the art museum, an imaginary car hood emblem, before moving on to photographing myself as a moving object and then finally some landscape and portrait practice out in Vinoy Park.  

    Annette arrived a little be later in the lesson so I had Amy setup Annette with the settings we were about to begin shooting with.  Amy showed a very good memory in remembering them all clearly (f/5.6 ISO 100 WB SUNNY AF-S).  Annette could find her way around her Olympus E-510 pretty well so things moved quickly as we switched between different practice subjects.  

    It was also interesting to hear about Annette's motorcycle racing hobby!  I look forward to seeing her new and improved shots of her husband zooming by at 150mph and to my next lessons with Amy & Annette (or perhaps individually). 

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    • Snell Isle Series - 04 - Silk Floss Tree in full bloom

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    Silk Floss Tree on Cordova Blvd Snell Isle - Nikon D300 5-bracket HDRThe Snell Isle Series continues with a very special tree that can be seen on Cordova Blvd.  I have been fascinated by this tree since I first saw it almost two years ago.  It is a Silk Floss Tree (Ceiba speciosa) and stands out because of its thorny, green trunk which gives it a distinct fairy tale look.  When it blooms, it looks like a giant cotton candy on a stick with its dense, pink flowers.  

    Bees were swarming this Silk Floss Tree - Nikon D300 using pop-up flashThe tree has an eastern exposure, meaning sunset time is not good for photographing it.  So I woke up early and brought my HDR gear setup (Nikon D300, tripod, cable release) to catch the early morning light that just starts to pop up over the houses lining the street at 7:30am.  As I parked my car and was getting the tripod setup, I could hear an audible buzz.  There were power lines directly above, but I thought they cannot be under such a heavy load to buzz like that.  Well, the mystery was immediately cleared up when I walked up to the Silk Floss Tree.  Bees were all over the entire tree.  Every bee in a 5-mile radius must have been there, as it was 3+ bees to a flower (see above) and I was getting my tower buzzed as I stood there too, but I tried not to flinch.  An old woman passing by said she was on the other side of the street just to avoid the bees, but I felt no threat, they were in a nectar feeding frenzy, and I moved only cautiously and purposefully.

    The Silk Floss Tree on Cordova has a great canopy - Nikon D300 5-bracket HDRThe property overall has immaculate and detailed landscaping.  The owner is a kindly elderly man who I have never spoken directly to, but waved at countless time as I drove by as he is always sitting out in the driveway, though sometimes napping!  He has been gone for awhile, and I wonder if he will return.  His absence makes the neighborhood feel significantly less warm to me.

    Hug this! Nikon D300 5-bracket HDRThe Silk Floss Tree of Cordova really is the grand landmark of the area, way more so than the two-story multi-million dollar homes that are adjacent to it.  Every time I pass by, it gives me at least a second of wonder and fancy in my day.  I just hope its owner returns as well.