I offer no meaning for the photograph above. I can tell you it is of an ordinary scene, seen from another dimensional reality. It all depends on how you focus. How do you focus? How does it make you see reality?
I had a chance earlier this year to attend a Rick Sammon photography lecture in person, and even meet him for a few minutes. As he was speaking, I realized just how much of his photography philosophy I had adopted myself and put into practice. One great way to begin to establish a photography philosophy of your own is by reading Rick's book, DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS. I got my own copy autographed by him at the lecture (see here)!
Each page has one of his photographs and a very useful and practical photography tip. Rick travels the world with his camera so the variety of photographs is outstanding. I highly recommend reading his book in addition to going out and shooting on your own. In fact, read one of his tips, then go out and try it yourself!
rain water droplet macro photograph - Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/4 1/60th ISO 1000 & pop-up flash on TTLDue to another of circumstances coming together, I found myself late this evening with the opportunity to finaly make a raindrop water droplet macro photograph. I did not have all the gear I would have liked with me (i.e. tripod & speedlight), but at least I had my trusty Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens on my Nikon. Since I was in very low light and had to handhold the shot, I had to crank the ISO up to 1000 to get a decent exposure and also brace myself against an adjacent column to get even close to a steady enough shot, despite having VR on as well. The result was merely a passable shot, but at least I finally got a chance to attempt the raindrop subject matter I had been long wanting to.
pastel filter on raindrop macro photo - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/4 1/60th ISO 1000 & pop-up flash on TTLI applied the Pastel filter in Color Efex Pro 3 to make the pure black less stark in the above shot. After the next Florida rain shower, I will try to purposefully go out and make a proper rain droplet macro shot.
Bayprint owner Al inspecting a special print destined for the windows of Cassis - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 at 1/1 power in 43" brolly to frame right & SB-600 @ 1/1 power in 43" shoot-through umbrella to frame leftA sudden commercial photography job came up when I saw Al at a networking event he was hosting just yesterday. Al is a past headshot client (see here) and has also referred other business to me. The project we started today involves me photographing special window display prints he is making for the downtown St. Petersburg restaurant, Cassis. The first shot he wanted was the above, showing the prints coming right out of the (large!) printer. The remaining shots will be of the installing process as well as a before and after of the Cassis window front.
As is often the case with on location commercial shooting, space is in short supply and careful placement of lighting for strobist shots is necesary. I put my 43" brolly on a light stand partially in a closet next to the printer and ultimately placed my 43" shoot-through umbrella on a light stand to camera left. I wanted to maintain good detail in the full frame of the shot, so I used a small aperture of f/7.1 causing me to have to use both speedlights at full power, something I normally do not have to do. The ambient light in the background was pretty well exposed at 1/60th, but I still did some dodging in Photoshop to make the lighting balance overall between foreground and background.
The last detail was making the shot from a higher perspective. Al is a pretty tall guy, and the print was fairly long coming out of the printer, so I used a step-stool to get the framing as seen above.
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Bayfront Tower condo for sale, St. Petersburg real estate photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable release
This morning I went to Bayfront Tower in downtown St. Petersburg to photograph an updated condo for sale. I have shot from the open air top floor of the building before, producing a panorama image that has been my best selling fine art print. This time I was on the 13th floor, which I only now realize I should have been afraid of! The condo had recently been updated and the sellers did a very good job of staging their condo.
Dining room of downtown St. Pete condo, Florida real estate photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 0.8 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseI used HDR for the top image as the inside of the condo is much darker than the direct sunlight out beyond the window. A 9-exposure HDR image allowed me to show outside the window as well as inside the condo in one evenly exposed image. HDR is not always necessary, as the above shot of the dining room did not have a high dynamic range (it helps that no windows are in the shot) so a single exposure was sufficient for producing a well exposed shot.
Great room of downtown St. Petersburg Florida condo - St. Petersburg Real Estate Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1.6 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseWhen making a shot of a room with an open doorway to another room, I always make sure that the adjoining room is also well lit, so that you can have a peak into the other room. If not, then it would appear as a dark area in the image. In the above shot I opened the blinds in the bedroom so that the light in that room matched the light in the great room.
Shooting in an urban environment with a Nikon D7000 during a 1-on-1 photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaLong-time dog park friend and current 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson student, Mari, has had two weeks to practice since our last lesson, and she certainly has been doing her homework as she is now showing a good grasp of how to shoot in manual mode on her Nikon D7000. After she read my photography tip on default daylight settings something seemed to click and now she can consistently adjust her exposure settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) to produce the exact kind of results she wants, be it a neutral, over or under exposed image. This allowed us to start to really focus more on composition and "seeing" shots as we walked around downtown St. Petersburg.
Mari will soon be getting a new telephoto lens so our next lesson will no doubt feature birds, hopefully in flight!
Photographing downtown St. Petersburg waterfall with Nikon D7000 during 1-on-1 photography lessonFor our second of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons I met Kathy in donwtown St. Petersburg and continued where we left off the other day on helping her shoot in manual mode with her Nikon D7000. This time we went into the city to practice making urban and architecture shots. It also allowed us to stay in the shade of the tall buildings and avoid the still very hot Florida October afternoon sun!
As this was our second lesson together, each time we would go to a different spot I would quiz Kathy on what settings should be changed in order to get a well exposed and sharp shot. I wanted her to get into thinking on her own how exposure works. Instead of just telling her that when her shot came out dark to change the shutter speed from 1/200th to 1/125th, I asked her what she thinks the new shutter speed should be. Thus, in this way even when I am not there she will know how to adjust her shots. The goal is not to make a perfect shot the first time, every time, but rather to be able to within one or two shots, get the exposure perfect. This allows a photographer to make a great shot in any conditions and not try to memorize which settings for which kind of shot, which would be impossible to do anyway!
Lessons resume with Kathy next week as she practices on her own over the weekend.
