Sony A57 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Jennifer

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Jennifer with her new Sony A57 DSLR camera during our first photography lesson in St. Petersburg, FloridaI met Jennifer with her new Sony A57 in downtown St. Petersburg for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson getting her prepared for an upcoming trip to Thailand!  I of course have been there twice so in between photography tips we talked a little about what it is like on that side of the world.  

I do not often get hands on with Sony DSLRs, which seem to feature newer technology than Nikons and Canons.  Jennifer's Sony A57 featured an electronic viewfinder, so when you hold the camera up to your eye, you are seeing a digital screen, not actually seeing through the lens.  This means things look underexposed in the viewfinder if your settings are not right.  It would take some getting used to for me to use a viewfinder like that.  It also does not have a moving mirror, so the camera is cable of 10 fps, which is very fast!

Jennifer will be getting an external flash to pair with her DSLR so we will meet up again once she adds to her photography gear collection!

Nikon D5000 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Joe

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Joe with his newly acquired Nikon D5000 in North Straub Park during our first DSLR photography lessonI first met Joe over a year ago at an event I was shooting for Office Depot.  I have seen him subsequently at North Shore Dog Park where he brings his dog Tux.  His dog looks rather similar to my own beloved Kiki.  They play together very roughly at the park, but they both seem to have a lot of fun doing it!  Joe told me the other day he got a Nikon D5000 and said he would like to take a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson.  

We met on a pleasant semi-winter Florida afternoon in downtown St. Petersburg where I helped Joe become familiar with his Nikon and how to change the necessary settings for making well exposed and sharp shots using the 18-55mm lens he has right now and giving him some advice on what lens he may wish to get next.  

During the lesson we went on a small tour of the downtown waterfront area starting at the Museum of Fine Arts and its kapok tree before eventually ending up in North Straub Park.  When Joe gets some new photography gear I will be seeing him again in this official capacity, and before then no doubt in the dog park too!

Large Family Group Portraits on Coffee Pot Blvd St. Petersburg Florida

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16-person family portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightJust before Christmas I had an interesting photography challenge in the form of how to make a large family portrait, 16 people in all, outdoors at a home along Coffee Pot Blvd.  I live within two miles of the location myself and drive by it often.  It is a very beautiful place and I liked having the chance to photograph a family somewhere besides the beach.  

Just the ladies in a family portrait St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightI did some research on large group portraits and it helped to have a prop of some kind that some family members could sit on, often the grandparents or grandchildren.  They said they had an outdoor sofa they could use.  I thought the sofa they had was perfect as soon as I saw it and feel it really made the images far better than they could have been without it.

Big family portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightOf course when making a large group portrait you have to really pay attention to making sure no one's head is hidden or blocked by another person, and also to make sure no shadows get cast on a person in one of the back rows or interior placement.  To help this, it is best to have people line up in straight rows and not curve at the edges.  

Family on sofa portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightAfter the big group shot I made some shots of the individual families, which were still fairly large as seen by the six person group shot above.  Again, have the sofa helped prevent making portraits with people just all standing in a straight line next to each other.  I also made a conscious effort to have an up and down composition by having taller people at the edges and a taller subject in the middle.  This also helps add balance when you have an even number of subjects, with no central person to compose around.  

Children and grandchildren portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightA variety in hand placement also helps add creativity to a mostly posed large group portrait.  Each of the boys has a different way of holding his hands together, and the same for the others in the background of the portrait too.  

Three levels large family portrait in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightThe family wanted one person to lie down on the ground for one of the portraits which was fine by me as that adds yet another element of interest to the portrait.  

Candid generational portraits in St. Petersburg FloridaThe last shots of the portrait session were much more candid with me setting up my lights and just having people walk in between them and have fun.  Giving suggestions to the subjects help get a candid reaction, as I asked the grandparents to think of the first time they met, and the grandmother as you can see moved her hand to her heart in reaction, which I was ready to capture.  The girls shared a laugh about something and the boys wanted their football in the shot.

I used the same basic strobist setup for all the shots in this blog post, two speedlights off camera on light stands, one in a 43" brolly and the other in a 42" shoot through umbrella.  I used a 17-50mm lens for the large group shots and an 80-200mm lens for the smaller group shots.  

Morean Arts Center Intro to Photography Class Winter 2013

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Practicing using the meter and reading the histogram at my winter 2013 Morean Arts Center photo classLast week I started teaching a new intro to DSLR photography class at the Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg, Florida.  For the winter class I have five students, up one from the fall class!  It is a diverse group of people though most have pretty much the same photography experience level.  In the first two classes I have spent much of the time teaching each student how to use her/his specific DSLR and getting them all setup and on the same page with being able to change all five settings necessary for making a well exposed and sharp shot in any given shooting conditions.  

We have now moved on to learning how to use the meter to get a pretty good idea of exposure before pushing the shutter, and then how to read the histogram to understand the exposure exactly after pressing the shutter.  One student volunteers to be the subject while the others practice.  The classroom has white walls and a dark gray wall making for two distinct backgrounds for portraits.  

For the third class I think we will be ready to venture outside and make some shots in the field!

Purple Hyacinth Flower Macro Photograph from Publix

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My purple hyacinth growing right in water in my living room!

I am a regular Publix (Florida grocery store franchise) Friday shopper, and have been all my adult life in Florida.  On a recent shopping trip I was thinking to finally get a new plant to replace the one that had long since died (of natural causes!) in my living room.  I was very quickly talked into getting the above purple hyacinth by the lady behind the counter.  Growing a plant right in a vase of water appealed to me, and she promised when in bloom the scent would fill the room.  She was right, it now smells great anytime I pass by the bloom!

Purple Hyacinth in bloom in my living room - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR Micro @ f/8 ISO 200 0.4 sec natural light

Having flowers right inside your house also makes for a very convenient photography subject too.  So my photography tip is if you live somewhere that is really cold, so cold it deters you from going outside with your DSLR in winter, then go out and buy some flowers and shoot from the comfort of your living room!

Canon T3i 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. Petersburg Florida with Jeannie

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Jeannie with her Canon T3i practicing photographing moving subjects in downtown St. Petersburg FloridaOn a slightly cool Saturday morning I met Jeannie for our first of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons in downtown St. Petersburg getting her started with her new Canon T3i.  Like many of my hundreds of photography students, Jeannie just got her DSLR after only shooting with small, point and shoot cameras in the past.  She did some reading in a photography book before we met though, and following a suggestion I gave her on what to do before the first lesson, she familiarized herself with how to change aperture, shutter speed, ISO, WB and focus mode on her Canon T3i.  Every first lesson I teach, pretty much for a student of any level of experience, starts with me showing that person how to change key settings on their DSLR camera body.  After all, even if you have full knowledge of the five key things to making a well exposed and sharp photograph in any situation, if you do not know how to change those settings on your camera, it does no good.

The Canon T3i has enough dedicated buttons that the menu is not needed to change any of the five key settings, which is an advantage when it comes to being able to quickly change one, two or all five of those settings as a shooting opportunity arises.  We covered a lot of things in the first lesson, concluding with some moving subject practice.  Jeannie put on her Canon 70-300mm lens and with Saturday morning being very busy in downtown St. Pete, there were plenty of cyclists, etc to practice the moving subject shooting technique on.

Jeannie has already written to me saying she has been out practicing since our first lesson, which is very good, and will help her even more when we meet for our second of four lessons.

Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens St. Petersburg Florida

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Ovation condos in St. Petersburg Florida given the miniature treatment by a tilt-shift lens - Canon 5D Mark III with Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L lens @ f/4 ISO 100 1/400thA recent client requested the use of a very specialized lens, the Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L tilt-shift lens.  As this lens costs $4,000 and I am a Nikon shooter, I used the very easy to use borrowlenses.com to rent both that lens and a Canon 5D Mark III body.  I rented them for three days so before I had to ship that gear back, I had a chance to roam the rooftops of a couple of parking garages in downtown St. Petersburg to make some of the miniature looking shots you can do with a tilt-shift lens.

Al Lang Stadium tilt-shift style St. Petersburg, Florida - Canon 5D Mark III with Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L lens @ f/4 ISO 100 1/800thA tilt-shift lens is actually a rather tricky piece of gear to use.  A couple of things to know about them:  1.) manual focus only  2.) the meter does not work while tilted or shifted

Standing in the middle of Beach Drive NE to get this shot - Canon 5D Mark III with Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L lens @ f/4 ISO 100 1/200thA tilt-shift lens allows you to photograph buildings without them looking like they are tipping over.  If you tilt the lens opposite of that purpose, however, especially when shooting from high up, then the subjects look tiny.

Unusual DoF from a tilt-shift lens in St. Petersburg Florida - Canon 5D Mark III with Canon TS-E f/4L lens @ f/4 ISO 100 1/500thThe whole lens itself rotates on the camera mounting, so you can tilt the lens not just up and down but also side-to-side.  This allows creating vertical DoF as seen in the above shot with a strip alone the lines of the seawall being the only part of the photograph in focus.