Florida Fine Art Photography - Pelican Texture Composite

in

This is a composite of two images, with a texture abstract photo blended over a pelican photo.I have a folder of abstract and texture photographs I keep for when I want to make composite images like the one above.  It is fun sometimes to spice up an image by combining two (or more) photographs in a complementary way.  

A blurry photo of a bookshelf was overlayed onto the photo of the pelican in Photoshop.  I just adjusted the opacity of the book case photo down a little and set the blending mode to Overlay.  Then I layer masked a little of the bookshelf image off of the pelican to make the pelican look cleaner.  Digital Photography School has a good tutorial on how to do this if you would like to try it yourself!

Photography Tip - use repeating patterns & shallow DoF composition

in

These are hanging lights in a dark restaurant. I just popped in and asked someone if I could make a quick photograph of them.I do not often give composition tips, nor get around to teaching them so often in my 1-on-1 DSLR photography lessons because I usually focus on the practical aspects of making a well exposed and sharp image in any given shooting conditions.  Once someone knows how to do that, then the creative aspect of photography can come into play, and that is something that can only be taught to a certain extent anyway.  Either you have talent composing a photograph, or you do not.

Of course there are some composition tips that can definitely help out, or if you find yourself using the same composition style over and over, reading a few new ideas can provide some new inspiration.  

These are hoops on a rack in an accessories shop. Same situation, I asked someone inside if I could take a few photos, and they said yes!The two example photos in this blog post show a combination of two composition techniques, the first is obviously shallow depth of focus (DoF) and the other is repeating patterns.  The latter is something I am always looking for when out in the field.  I am a big fan of including repeating patterns, the more creative and abstract the better, in photographs.  Shallow DoF can be used on any subject matter, but when combined with a repeating pattern I feel has an even greater visual impact. 

Favorite Five Photographs of 2013

in

The five photographs below represent my personal favorites that I made in 2013, from various categories.  The process, as always, for selecting my favorite images of the year is based on if the photo made me feel emotion.  Another factor for choosing is if the particular photograph was a breakthrough for me in terms of technique or content.

Severe lightning strikes in St. Petersburg Florida during a powerful June 2013 storm - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 bulb mode lens covered until strike tripod mounted with cable release

1 - Lightning Strikes Downtown St. Petersburg - category: nature, long exposure

This was by far the most dangerous photograph I have ever made.  I did not purposefully go out into a lightning storm.  I was teaching a photography lesson along the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront as I had done hundreds of times before.  You may have heard the saying that a storm can come out of nowhere, well that is what happened this time.  Dark clouds could be seen rolling in that including funnel clouds dipping down!  Then the lightning started.  It was a lesson teaching how to shoot from a tripod which allowed us both to get a chane to capture lightning.  The crack from this lightning bolt was the loudest I had heard in over 20 years.  I ran to cover along with the student just after making this shot as rain began pouring down.  It was a bit scary and a little risky, but it resulted in the photograph that makes me feel the most emotion from 2013 because of it. (read the original photo story for this image)

 

Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Tampa Car Photography Shoot in Ybor City - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/320th with two speed lights behind custom ADV.1 Wheels

2 - Lamborghini Gallardo in Ybor City - category:  car, strobist, Photoshop

It was a good year for photographing cars as I got to photograph a number of special sports cars and super cars.  I ended the 2013 shooting year with this Lamborghini Gallardo shoot.  It was a mid-day shoot, but I knew I wanted to create a dark, atmospheric shot nonetheless.  Using mostly digital photo editing skills, I transformed the shady street the Lamborghini was parked on to look like a dark alley.  I also placed two speedlights under the wheels creating the glowing effect at the bottom, something I had never done before. (read the original photo story for this image) 

 

Father holds his baby girl in the air at Madeira Beach Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power beside camera & SB-600 @ 1/4 power to frame right

3 - Father Holding Up Baby Daughter - category: portrait, candid, strobist

Making portraits on the beach is always an unknown due mostly to weather.  If there is no great sunset, so be it.  If there is, then the sunset background canvas helps make any ordinary photo look special.  Then if you can add subjects willing to do something different placed in optimal lighting from two speedlights, the results can be one of the best beach portraits I have made.  This type of shot is full of pitfalls from shadows falling on the subjects face to the baby not having a happy expression.  For this particular portrait, everything fell right into place. (read the original photo story for this image) 

 

After 10 seconds, a swinging ship on a pendulum looks elliptical at St. Rafael Church Festival Snell Isle Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/16 ISO 200 10.5 sec tripod mounted with cable release

4- Carnival Ride on Snell Isle - category: night photography, long exposure

I am a nostalgic person.  It delights me greatly that a small carnival travels from who knows where each October to setup right across the way from my apartment.  One day just a grass soccer field, the next a wonderland of excitement that reminds me of going to them as a kid.  Now when I visit this carnival I do not go on any of the rides, I just observe with my eyes and then my camera capturing what the eye cannot even see.  Then I eat deep fried Oreos and go home and overnight the place returns to a quiet soccer field. (read the original photo story for this image)

 

Great Egret looking straight at the lens in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/1000th

5 - Great Egret Looks Awkward From Straight-on - category: bird, nature, perspective

This area of Florida provides close access to all kinds of large wading birds, like the Great Egret.  From most angles, they are very beautiful and elegant birds with their long slender necks and white plummage.  However, if you remove the dept of their shape and look at them from straight-on, to me, they look incredibly odd and like another creature entirely.  One is so used to seeing these birds from the side perspective, that from the front, they look almost unnatural, not unlike how Beavis should only be observed from the side. (read the original photo story for this image) 

My Favorite Five Images of 2012

My Favorite Five Images of 2011

My Favorite Five Images of 2010

My Favorite Five Images of 2009

--please post links to your own favorite photographs in the comments below

Return to Colt Creek State Park Florida

in

Kiki in the open fields of Colt Creek State Park with friends in the background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/250thFour years went by fast, which was the time span between my first and second visits to Colt Creek State Park (official website).  The park was like a wetlands during that first visit in September, but it was all dried out on this December visit.  In the wide open spaces and fire roads, it felt like being on a ranch, and I thought Kiki would make a good working farm dog.

Rare wide open space in Florida is part of Colt Creek State Park - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/100thI like Colt Creek State Park specifically because of its wide open spaces, a rarity in a Florida park or anywhere in Florida for that matter.  It felt like being in another place, perhaps Montana or some other big sky area.  We saw no people the entire time out in the park on the trails proper.

A lonesome palm tree in Colt Creek State Park - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/80thWhen I see a single palm tree like this growing out of the grass all by itself, I wonder if it thinks how did I come to be the only one of my kind around?  Does it feel naked?  Or perhaps it likes the clear solitude from which it sprang.  

Photography Tip - go through all your DSLR menus and recheck settings

in

To start out the year, the first photography tip of 2014 is to go through each and everyone of your DSLR's menus and confirm that all the settings are what you want and to refresh your memory about where less often used settings are.  Deep in the menus are things that basically only ever need to be set once (like number of auto-focus points beyond a single point), but gremlins do exist and even though you may never remember changing any of these lesser used settings, they might have on their own somehow!  

Going through all the menus will also help you remember where things are that do occassionally need to be changed.  It's better to refresh you memory home at your desk than when out in the field already shooting.  

If you find something in your menus you are not sure of what to set at, or even what it does, leave a question in the comments and I will try and answer it for you.

Good luck shooting in 2014!

Lamborghini Gallardo in white photoshoot in Ybor City Tampa Florida Car Photography

in

Lamborghini Gallardo with Tampa skyline background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseMy last photo shoot of the year was a special one, a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 with custom black ADV.1 wheels.  The owner contacted me wanting some personal images made of his new Lamborghini with some stress on capturing the custom made ADV.1 wheels.  For the location of the shoot, there were some potential warehouse locations to use, but in the end we went to my tried and true Ybor City location.  I had previously shot there in the late afternoon and dusk, so this was my first bright daylight shoot there featuring Tampa Car Photography.

Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Tampa Car Photography Shoot in Ybor City - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/320th with two speed lights behind custom ADV.1 WheelsDespite the abundance of sunshine, I knew with the white car I wanted to make a shot that had a largely black background.  The above image was made by using a fast shutter speed in the field, then adding some vignette in editing afterwards.  The lights under the car are two speedlights I placed to show detail in the custom ADV.1 wheels.  

Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 in white on Ybor City Tampa Florida street - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseI first found this curbside composition when doing a Porsche 911 shoot in July.  To change things up this time I shot the car from the rear to show off the quad exhaust and rear diffuser.

Custom ADV.1 Wheels in black on Lamborghini Gallardo Tampa Car Photography shoot - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/125thOne of my trademark shots is to feature the center of the car's wheel, the brake rotor and then a side wall detail.  In this case you can see the ADV.1 logo on the wheel, part of the Lamborghini logo on the brake caliper and the LP 550-2 badging on the side of the car.  That means 550hp and rear wheel drive.

Stylized Lamborghini Gallardo photo shoot in Ybor City Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/4 ISO 200 1/800thMore stylizing for this shot.  When I made it I knew I would ultimately like to cut the background out, so I shot it with the background overexposed in the field, then just cut it completely out in Photoshop as well as darkening the foreground.  

Profile view of Lamborghini Gallardo warehouse background red brick wall Ybor City Tampa - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseFor further variety, I composed the Lamborghini to look small in the frame and let the background compliment the supercar.  This was all just part 1 of photographing the client's Lamborghini.  There will be another shoot coming up at night that I am really excited for!

Nikon D3100 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Pat & Jon

in

Pat & Jon showing good form with their Nikon DSLRs during our photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaIt is very rare for me to teach anything but a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson but in seven day's time when I met Pat and Jon it was my third that week!  Pat had experience with film SLRs, but found their Nikon D3100 DSLR to be a more complex camera body than she was used to.  Jon had been doing a lot of reading up on digital photography, so with their combined photography knowledge, they already had a good base to start from.  During our photography lesson I taught them my very specific and exact process for making a well exposed and sharp image in any shooting conditions.  Knowing what aperture is, and shutter speed, etc, is one thing, applying that knowledge is another and is the biggest reason why my on location, in the field shooting, photography lessons help get people actually shooting in manual mode as quickly as possible, and in a way they can repeat even after the lesson.

Pat & Jon have a business related to air shows, so being able to get shots of plans flying by is something they wanted to learn about.  Really for photographing any moving subject the technique is the same, it's just the size and speed of the subject may make things a little more tricky.  It's all a matter of using the minimum shutter speed necessary (1/500th) and the correct focus mode (AF-C; Ai-servo).  After that your technique as a photographer and skill to track the subject takes over.  

I look forward to seeing their future plane and jet photos using the skills we practiced during our photography lesson on a pleasant Saturday morning in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.