Meeting Rick Sammon - what I learned in Oldsmar Florida

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Jason & Rick Sammon - I got to meet one of my biggest photography influences - thank you Kathy for the photoI was walking down the hallway in the Hilton Garden Inn looking to make a quick restroom stop before attending a photography seminar.  I see a tall man at the end of the hallway who asks me, if I am looking for the photography seminar, that it is this way.  I do not recognize him at first from a few feet away, but the voice was very familiar.  As I get closer I realize it is the speaker for the seminar himself, Rick Sammon.  In my mind I thought wow, shook his hand and asked if he would sign my copy of his book, DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS.  He did so gladly.  This is how I got to meet Rick Sammon for the first time after listening to him for years on photography podcasts, which made his voice very familiar to me.

Rick (website) is a very famous photography traveling to dozens and dozens of countries making all kinds of photographs.  His photography talent is evident in his images.  What is perhaps even more amazing about him is his passion and enthusiasm for sharing what he knows and loves about photography with people, often for free.  This particular evening he gave two hours of his time to talk to about a hundred local photographers of all levels.  His photography podcasts I used to listen to were all for free.  I really respect how much he gives to help others love photography as much as he does.  

About thirty minutes into Rick's photography seminar I began to realize just exactly how much my own photography knowledge came from him.  Things I now tell my own photography students are nearly verbatim tips Rick espouses as key things for making great photographs.  This surprised me and made me smile.  I guess, however, this should hardly be surprising given I have listend to dozens of hours of his podcasts and read his SECRETS book containing all those tips.  

Depsite all that expsoure already to Rick's knowledge, here are things I learned during his 2-hour seminar: 

  • speedlights keep pupils wide (bedroom eyes)
  • use layer masks for combining to very different DoF's
  • horse photographs ideally show all legs off the ground (I thought just curled under before, which is probably the same actually)
  • a photographer should practice (a lot)
  • cut a slotted hole in a piece of cardboard for movie lighting (like when peeping through window blinds)
  • include shadows on a wall to add depth
  • conversely put the flash high to hide shadows on walls 

It was inspiring to meet Rick and feel his enthusiasm.  This is my photography tip for your, go and hear (famous) professional photographers speak!  I am sure you will always learn something.  This will help your photography a lot.  Each tip you can pick up adds to your skill set.  Picking up a few key skills from other photographers and lots of practice was how I taught myself DSLR photography.  I cannot emphasize enough how important it was to me randomly picking up a key piece of photography knowledge here and there because of being around other photographers via seminars like this one and even more through photography meetups.  

Thank you very much to Kathy for organizing this seminar and for making the photo of me with Rick above and for giving so much of her own time to run The Tampa Bay Strobist & Photoshop Collective on Meetup.com.  You should join her group!

So now I have had direct contact with my two favorite photographers and biggest influences, this meeting with Rick Sammon and a few years ago Scott Bourne personally critiqued one of my photos on his website.  Try and seek out and meet your own favorite photographers!  It may be easier than you think.

Light Painting & Night Photography DSLR Photography Lesson with Julie

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Light painting during Julie's DSLR Photography Lesson out at The Pier in St. Petersburg FloridaFor our third of four DSLR Photography Lessons I met Julie on a chilly St. Petersburg evening to practice long exposure and night photography.  This type of shooting most definitely requires a tripod, and we pushed the legacy tripod Julie borrowed from her husband to its limits.  We took the trolley out to The Pier, but first had a quick practice of on how to shoot abstract bokeh with her new 50mm lens.  

Being a Monday night we basically had the entire Pier to ourselves, and especially so at my favorite water level spot upon a decaying concrete platform.  Besides showing Julie how to make the usual long exposure shots of the St. Petersburg downtown skyline, we entered a kind of special effects world with light painting.  For the above shot, I set my DSLR on my tripod with a 10 second shutter time.  Using the LED light on the back of my iPhone 4 I "painted" from the tip of Julie's finger down onto the concrete.  I did not astral project myself, I just moved quickly enough not to be fully exposed in the image.  

We went on to practice light trail shots and a number of other things too.  It was an action packed lesson for sure and Julie was great managing with an unfamiliar tripod and getting adept at changing the settings on her Canon 60D in the dark.

Safety Harbor Pier HDR & Panorama Clearwater Florida

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The view from under the Safety Harbor Pier - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDR handheld

Due to a very low tide, I found myself with the opportunity to go under the Safety Harbor Pier.  I did not go to Safety Harbor with the express purpose of photographing it, but I of course did have my DSLR with me, but not my tripod.  The sun was still high in the sky and as you can see from the shadows starting to make its way toward the west.  A single exposure shot would not capture much of the detail under the pier itself.  However, since there was still quite a bit of available light I dared for a 5-exposure handheld HDR shot.  I highly recommend using a tripod for HDR no matter what the light, but as you can see, in a pinch, and with enough light, even a 5-exposure shot can be handheld and still produce a sharp image.

Click for large 2000px version - Safety Harbor Pier and Tampa Bay panorama - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/400th 5-frame panoramaLacking my tripod did not stop me from also making a 5-frame panorama of Tampa Bay and the Safety Harbor Pier.  I used the gridlines in my viewfinder to keep each shot level with the horizon as I set the exposure to f/11 in aperture priority mode and rotated to make the five shots that I would later stitch together in Photoshop CS5 using the Photomerge function.

Safety Harbor Pier HDR image - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDR handheldOnce again no tripod on hand, but I felt confident to be able to handhold this shot for five quick frames (using my Nikon D300's 6-frames per second burst mode) given the light available.  My composition choice came from putting the horizon in the lower third of the frame and having the pier form a leading line toward the center.

Architecture & Exposure DSLR Photography Lesson St. Petersburg Florida with Rebecca

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The Waterfall at Signature Place Tower in downtown St. Petersburg - Rebecca with her Canon XSiFor our second of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons I met Rebecca at the same spot in downtown St. Petersburg where we began by looking at some photographs she had taken since our first lesson with her Canon XSi.  Rebecca is following my most recommended path for anyone taking my 4-pack of lessons (or even a single lesson) by first taking a lot of notes during the content heavy first lesson, then shooting a lot between the first and second lessons.  This allowed me to see her progress and give very specific help to improve her shots.  In fact, we spent the entire second lesson practicing how to get a correct exposure given differing lighting (backlight, side light, etc) with a focus on architecture subject matter.

For this practice I had Rebecca start in Aperture priority mode (A, Nikon; Av, Canon) at f/11 which is recommended for our typical sunny Florida days.  Then depending on where the sun is relevant to the subject, we were able to find the limits of A-priority mode.  This is how I taught Rebecca to find the limit:  1.)  once the shutter speed goes below 1/60th, increase aperture  2.)  Once the aperture limit of f/5.6 is hit along with the 1/60th shutter speed limit, then increase ISO

When A-priority mode was choosing a shutter speed too fast even at f/11, then I had her switch to manual mode, staying at f/11 while manually setting a slower shutter speed and tweaking the latter to produce the desired balalnce between for example enough blueness in the sky, but also enough detail in the shadows of buildings.  

Using these real world skills for setting up a properly exposed shot, plus the architecture composition tips I passed on to her, I am sure Rebecca will be able to make some great shots when she visits New York City next week.

Photography Tip - sometimes blown out highlights are ok

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Blowing out some highlights is not always bad - Nikon D300 Nikkor 50mm @ f/2 ISO 200 1/100th handheldOne of the first things I teach to my DSLR photography students, is how to check for blown out highlights and how to correct the exposure to get rid of them.  However, blown out highlights can be ok and actually compliment how a final image looks.  In the above shot I asked the owner of a restaurant if I could photograph the pendant lights hanging over a row of tables.  I am often looking for repeating patterns as a subject for photographs.  By using my 50mm lens at a large aperture (f/2) I could making the repeating pattern shot I wanted to with bokeh while handholding my DSLR even though in a very dark interior space.

The part of the image where the bulbs are inside the pendant lights are totally blown out.  However, I liked how this looks because it produces an overall exposure that fits the mood of the shot I wanted to make.  

Go out and make your own photograph with some blown out highlights on purpose and post a link to your photo in the comments below. 

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    • Shore Acres Real Estate Photography St. Petersburg Florida pool home

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    Shore Acres Pool Home HDR Real Estate Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseNot every real estate photography assignment in Florida is for a multi-million dollar water view home.  There are plenty of other moderately priced homes on the market that need photographs made of them too, which is why I offer flexible rates for my commercial real estate photography services.  The home featured in this blog post is in Shore Acres area of St. Petersburg.  If you like it, the listing will be with Crown Realty Group.  Tell Haike I sent you.

    A new backsplash brightens things in this Shore Acres home - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/2 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseI do not normally include HDR images when photographing a job in this price range, but for the lead pool shot I did as a bonus as it just looked night and day different.  All the interiors were single exposures, like this one of the remodeled kitchen.  I usually shoot at below eye level for interiors, but for kitchens I prefer to shoot from at or above eye level to show all the counter level features.

    Huge flatscreen TV mounted in this Shore Acres living room - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1.6 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseWhen doing single exposure interiors, as you can see I keep window blinds closed and pointed up whenever possible.  I close them pointed up so that no bright spots are cast onto the interior itself, but rather bounced off the ceiling making the light from them useful.  I had the client move a large armchair from where I was standing so I could better photograph the living room.  

    Home office full of CDs in Shore Acres Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseFor small home interior rooms, I choose to shoot in portrait orientation from the door way.  This creates the largest sense of space since floor to ceiling can be seen.  I photograph bathrooms the same way since they often are not large enough to even enter and photograph, especially with a tripod.

    This pool home for sale in Shore Acres St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/50th tripod mounted with cable releaseFor the exterior shot, I try to include as little of the neighboring properties as possible, even if it means making a tighter shot like the one above.  I lowered my tripod enough so that the large live oak in the front yard framed the home rather than obscured the view of it.  

    A reddish egret at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve St. Petersburg Florida

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    Reddish Egret - Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, St. Petersburg FL - this image available for fine art print purchase & commercial license - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/11 ISO 200 1/250th tripod mounted with cable releaseI spent a recent afternoon in the peaceful Boyd Hill Nature Preserve on a macro themed shoot.  When I do personal shooting I like to give myself a focus, a theme, for that time in order to have a clear photographic goal.  My goal that afternoon was to produce macro images.  However, that did not mean I would just pass up a chance to photograph this reddish egret friend just relaxing on a small bridge to a small island.  I approached the reddish egret carefully by advancing a little, then stopping, never looking directly at the bird, advancing a little more, then stopping.  I did not move for a few moments, then casually set up the shot.  My Nikon D300 was mounted to my tripod with Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens attached, so I had to get pretty close to be able to fill the frame with the reddish egret.  

    I made sure to have calm feelings inside of me as well giving the bird nothing to pick up and feel anxious itself about.  I was able to photograph the bird as close as I wanted and then even picked up my DSLR and tripod and walked past the reddish egret without it flying off.  After I did my exploring of the small island and returned to the bridge, the bird was gone.  

    I was glad to be able to share a few moments with this creature and to also be able to photograph it.