Photography Tip - watch out for horizon intruders

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When the horizon is contained in the composition of your photograph, a lot of attention has to be paid to it.  The first thing is to make sure it is straight.  Then where it is positioned in the vertical part of the frame is another thing to be mindful of (read about that photo tip here).  Add to your horizon checklist the search for intruders at the edges of the frame.  In the above photograph, only part of the condos on the left are shown.  This makes them intruders to me.  Either have the condos completely in the frame, or not at all.  Now, on the right of the horizon are some trees.  These are part of the natural landscape and I do not view them as intruders.  The trees do not breakup the natural flow of the horizon when looking at the photograph, but the condos at the edge do.  Buildings are what you need to look out most for at the edges of the horizon.  Overall, always pay close attention to the horizon when composing a photograph for the best results.

Nikon D40 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with Jennifer in St. Petersburg Florida

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Jennifer with her Nikon D40 in North Straub Park during our 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida

Jennifer received a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson as a gift from her husband upon getting a Nikon D40 DSLR.  I can think of no better gift to give a new DSLR owner than a 2-hour lesson that will jump start her/his practical photography knowledge!  That is just what I started teaching Jennifer, how to go about in a very practical manner making a well exposed and sharp photograph with her DSLR.  It is not that difficult of a process to learn, but it is one that needs to be learned as you cannot just simply pick up a DSLR and use it in auto-mode.  Well you can, but there is not much point in that as a DSLR likes to be told what to do, i.e. used in manual exposure mode. 

Jennifer, like many people that take their first photography lesson with me, claimed to know "nothing" when we met in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida for our photography lesson.  Of course that was not entirely true as she knew what shutter speed was to a degree, and aperture too, plus other things.  What most people do not know is the very exact five steps you can take for getting a good shot with a DSLR every single time.  Once you know those five things, you can then really focus on the creative aspects of photography and not think about the tech stuff so much.  

For supposedly not knowing anything, Jennifer caught on well to the five step process for shooting in manual exposure mode and I am confident she will be able to use it on her own after just a single 2-hour lesson.  

Photography Tip - Change all your DSLR settings in under 10 seconds

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Photograph opportunities often are not available for an infinite amount of time.  In fact, most are very, very finite and there are many times you have just one shot at making a photograph.  How can you insure you will always give yourself the best chance at making a great photograph even if you have just one shot at it?  By being able to change the settings on your DSLR very quickly.  

How quick?  

It depends on your particular DSLR and what dedicated buttons you have available.  No matter what DSLR you have, even if you have an entry level one, you should be able to change all five necessary settings for making a well exposed and sharp shot in ten seconds or less.  If you have a fully functional DSLR, i.e. two dials for changing settings, a top LCD display and dedicated buttons for all five things, then your goal should be five seconds or less.  Very rarely are all five things needed to be changed, but you should practice changing all five at home so that when you are out shooting you will be prepared.

Of course you have to know within fractions of seconds what to change your aperture to, or your shutter speed to, etc.  That knowledge combined with knowing your DSLR camera body with your eyes closed (seriously, if you have dedicated buttons you should be able to operate them eyes closed) results in giving yourself the best chance every time a sudden photograph opportunity comes up.

I offer 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons that can help you learn both how to use your camera quickly and what to change the necessary settings to.  Reserve a lesson today!

1-on-1 Nikon D3100 DSLR Photography Lesson with Margaret in St. Petersburg Florida

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Margaret using her Nikon D3100 during our 1-on-1 DSLR photography lesson in downtown St. Petersburg FloridaYesterday evening I met Margaret in downtown St. Petersburg for our first 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson.  There were dark clouds all around, but all they provided was a nice somewhat less hot cover for our lesson time and no rain at all.  The best of both worlds!  Margaret was not a first time DSLR owner as a majority of my photography students are.  She owned a Nikon D40 before recently buying a Nikon D3100, but all that time she had just been using auto-mode.  Now with the new DSLR, she finally was ready to learn to take control of her camera.

As I showed Margaret around her Nikon D3100 I explained that it only takes at most the setting of five things on the camera to make a well exposed and sharp image in any given shooting situation.  Beyond that we also talked about the benefits of shooting in RAW and how an external flash would help her shoot indoors better.  

After that intro we walked around the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront and were treated to a mothership looking cloud formation for a little landscape photography practice.  I also instructed Margaret on how to control the background (in focus or out of focus) using aperture and focal length.  I look forward to seeing her photographs shot in manual exposure mode from now on!

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

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Rain photographing a fountain in downtown St. Petersburg during our first photography lessonI met Rain on a Monday morning for the first of our four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons together in the downtown St. Petersburg Florida area.  Like many people I meet here who have not really been to this part of St. Petersburg before, she was very impressed with its beauty.  Rain is ready to make a significant investment in her photography, of course starting with her buying a 4-pack of my DSLR Photography Lessons, and also in gear too.  We began by discussing which Nikon is best for her and we both agreed the Nikon D600 paired with the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens would be the best way to get started filling out a camera bag for her photography needs.  She will have the camera for our second lesson.  It will be my first time to get hands on with that camera as well so I am looking forward to it.

Rain already had a good amount of photography knowledge, so I helped her organize it in teaching her my 5-step process for shooting in manual exposure mode and showing her around a Nikon DSLR camera body.  I look forward to our next photography lesson after she does some shopping! 

John's Pass Madeira Beach Large 12-person Family Beach Portraits Florida

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Just the adults from a John's Pass Beach family portrait session - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThe weather was fine all day as I made my way to the beach at John's Pass to meet a 12-person family all from Canada for family beach portraits.  However, once on the beach there were storm clouds everywhere to the south, west and north, but none passed over until the shoot was finished.  Lucky again!  In this shoot I really tried to stress avoiding just having people line up side by side (the picket fence look) and asked for more hands on interaction, like in the above shot.  I placed the man in the pink shirt on the sand first, and then had everyone else stack on top of him.

Sisters having fun on Madeira Beach Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThese sisters needed no prompting to take up a more fun pose on the beach.  The challenge with them was getting them to do something not too crazy with each other!

Just the boys during this Madeira Beach family portrait session - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightOnly the guys in this shot and the best way to keep two active boys under somewhat control is to have them under wraps!

All twelve family members walking down Madeira Beach at John's Pass Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/4 ISO 800 1/500thThe whole 12-person family walking down the beach.  Overlap by someone walking too fast is a concern in these shots, so I instructed everyone to walk at the same pace and not get in front of each other.  By the second take they had gotten it down.

Cousins all stacked up on Madeira Beach family portraits Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightNothing like a small stack of cousins as the kids when on their own in front of the lens seemed to be more willing to smile and stay put.

The whole family portrait all 12 on Madeira Beach Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThis was actually the first shot of the evening, everyone together in a large group shot by the sea grass.  Even in this type of shot I encouraged some overlap getting everyone to sit as close to each other as possible to show more emotional connection between the family.

Courtyard Marriott St. Petersburg Suite Commercial Photography

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A suite in Courtyard Marriott St. Petersburg Florida - commercial photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRMy former neighbor Ryan of the Courtyard Marriott (he is the sales manager) contacted me this week about making some more commercial photographs of the hotel as it is just about finished with its renovations.  To start with, they wanted to send out a new advertisement and needed just a couple photos of a suite room.  So after we discussed the future photography to be done of the hotel, I went up to the 7th floor with my Nikon and tripod.  As I have mentioned before, photographing a room is rather challenging and not at all as simple as one might think.

Office space in a sweet at Courtyard Marriott St. Petersburg Florida - commercial photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRThe real goal of this small shoot was for the image below, a small panorama of the room showing all its features wall to wall from the flatscreen TV to the bed.  It is not made up of the two shots below of course, but from the same point just shooting one frame to the left and then panning about two thirds of a frame to the right.  I then used the Photomerge automation in Photoshop to stitch the two photos together.

Suite hotel room at Courtyard Marriott in St. Petersburg Florida - 2 HDR images stitched together in Photoshop using PhotomergeI look forward to photographing the renovated historic lobby and other areas of the hotel in September.