1-on-1 Canon 7D DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Alison

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Alison learning how to use her Canon 7D so she can make great photos of her baby during our 1-on-1 photography lesson in downtown St. PetersburgI met Alison on a sunny spring Friday morning in downtown St. Petersburg for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with her Canon 7D.  Exactly one week earlier I met her friend Loni for the same type of photography lesson.  Now that I have spent 2-hours with Alison as well, they can pool their knowledge and help each other continue what I taught them.  

Alison had an 18-135mm lens for her Canon 7D which I suggested she think of as two lenses, an 18-50mm and a 50mm-135mm because when changing from one focal range to the other, the typical subject matter changes, and thus the aperture one would want to use likely would change also.  For 18-50mm I recommended by default starting with f/11 and for 50mm-135mm to default to an aperture of f/5.6.

Alison will be having a baby soon (see photo above!) and wanted to learn how to use her Canon 7D for what I would estimate to be quite a few baby photos!  Years from now having DSLR quality photos of her baby from the time of the baby's birth all through growing up will be of great value.  Digital photography will revolutionize the personal human visual record of every day life.  I often tell my students the story of how I have only one photograph of my first car, a 1979 Ford Mustang, something I loved more than pretty much anything.  For a high school student today, it would be unimaginable to have only one photograph of their favorite thing.  Such is the revolution of digital photography, and the culture of taking photos on a daily basis.

Photography Tip -- shoot gritty

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Just a coincidence in the name of this dumpster or a sly joke?It seems a majority of photographs are about beautiful subjects, like sunset landscapes, Aston Martins, flowers, etc.  Where you mostly get to see other types of photographs are in press photos.  When I lived in Tokyo, I used to always go to the World Press Photo exhibit and there I was able to see gritty photos.  

So the next time you go out shooting, try not to look for only beautiful subjects.  Go out with the purpose of photographing something gritty, something less than beautiful, something that will force the viewer to think.  

St. Petersburg Grand Prix Gala 2014 featuring Maserati Ghibli & Ferrari

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The 2014 St. Petersburg Grand Prix Gala featuring a Ferrari F430 and a Ferrari 458 Italia - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDRLast Friday evening was my second year in a row receiving a media pass to the 2014 St. Petersburg Grand Prix Gala.  I got to see a number of interesting cars last year, including Lexus LFA #406.  This year, there was only one car I had not seen before, the Maserati Ghibli.  

Mingling among supercars at the 2014 St. Pete Grand Prix Gala - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDRMaybe it was because I got there just as the event started at 7pm, but it seemed to be a bit of a low key affair this time.  Then again I only go to be able to see supercars, so having not that many people around when I was shooting is a plus.  

Guests of the 2014 St. Petersburg Grand Prix Gala with a racecar - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDRWhen photographing the same event as years past, I try to find shots I did not before.  This year I went up to the open second floor to make photographs from a bird's eye view of the gala.  I am not sure why this never occurred to me last year.  

I have seen this Ferrari 458 Spider many times before - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDRContributing to the smaller feel to the gala this year also was that there were only three cars outside.  Last year I got to make one of my favorite images of the year, framing a row of cars with the open scissor door of a Ford GT supercar.  At least the lack of cars let me photograph the above Ferrari 458 Spider from a couple of angles, which I will feature in a future post.  However, I already saw this particular Ferrari last year and actually see it regularly driving around my neighborhood.  Is it possible for a Ferrari to become commonplace in my mind??

The stunning Maserati Ghibli at the 2014 St. Pete Grand Prix - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDRThe best part of this year's gala for me, by far, was getting to see the Maserati Ghibli in person.  Immediately I thought this is a stunning car and the best looking sedan I have ever seen.  The Ghiblie previous to this was not a car I thought about much or daydreamed about.  That all changed after seeing this beautiful metallic gray Ghibli seemingly waiting for me to just come and photograph it, if not drive home with it!

1-on-1 Canon T2i DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Loni

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Loni with her Canon T2i in North Straub Park during our 1-on-1 DSLR photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaWith the sound of racecars in the background, I met Loni for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. Petersburg.  The reason for the engine noise was that the Grand Prix was going to be raced a few days later.  Fortunately the noise came and went and I was able teach my 5-step process for shooting in manual mode on a DSLR to Loni without having to talk over racecars the entire time.  Like many people that take my photography lessons, this was her first DSLR and to this point had pretty much only been shooting in auto-mode.  It is commonly thought that manual mode means changing ten or more settings to make a photograph each and every time.  Even I thought that long ago.  However, there really is no large complexity with shooting in manual mode, especially if you have the benefit of learning my tried and true step-by-step methodology.

Even though her Canon is an older model, it was actually more useful than many of the latest models as she pretty much had a physical button on the DSLR body for every one of the five things that need to be set for shooting in manual mode.  Many newer cameras make you go into menus to change some things.  

Loni caught on well in how to use the meter to get help in choosing a shutter speed as we practiced making shallow depth of field photographs, moving subject photographs and even natural light portraits in the shade.  It was another info packed 2-hour introductory lesson.  Loni wants to keep learing so I will be seeing her again soon.  

Tampa Litigation Department Awards 2014 Daily Business Review

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Gray Robinson Law Firm with their Editor's Choice Award - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 800 1/60th SB-800 @ 1/2 power hotshoe mountedWeaving around rush hour Tampa Bay traffic as best I could I made my way to The Westin Tampa Harbour Island ballroom to photograph the Daily Business Review Tampa Litigation Department Awards for 2014.  Four awards were handed out, including the Editor's Choice award above to the Gray Robinson firm.  I really like these kinds of events because it allows me inside a world I never would normally encounter.  

Holding hands in anticipation at 2014 Litigation Department Awards Tampa - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 800 1/60th SB-800 @ 1/2 power hotshoe mountedEven though the winners were known before the event, as you can see, there was still a bit of anticipation waiting for the formal announcement and acceptance of the awards.  

Accepting an award at 2014 Tampa Litigation Department Awards - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 800 1/60th SB-800 @ 1/2 power hotshoe mountedI had actually heard of a couple of the law firms due to their prominent TV ads.  I did not mention to anyone though that their name recognition strategy was a success to someone like me who never even needed litigation services.  

Having a laugh at the Tampa Litigation Awards 2014 - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 800 1/60th SB-800 @ 1/2 power hotshoe mountedIt was a somewhat intimate event held in a ballroom away from the other parts of the hotel so that it seemed like we were the only ones in this huge place.  I was allowed to help myself to the buffet tables and to my surprise they had quite good vegetarian choices.  I ate enough spring rolls and mac & cheese poppers to count as my dinner.  I felt a little guilty though so I did two P90X3 workouts this morning as I normally do not eat such high calorie foods!

1-on-1 Nikon D5100 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Renita

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Renita visiting from Melbourne with her Nikon D5100 for our 1-on-1 photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaOn a surprisingly chilly spring morning in downtown St. Petersburg Florida, I met Renita visiting all the way from Melbourne for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with her Nikon D5100.  In what is somewhat unusual for a photographer nowadays, Renita had several prime lenses.  Back in the old days zoom lenses were not sharp enough for pros, so they carried around bags full of prime lenses.  Renita shoots high school basketball a lot and needs the larger apertures afforded by prime lenses.  

Despite a lot of shooting experience, she had just started using aperture priority mode after only using auto-mode.  These two modes are actually the worst choices for sports photography so I began the lesson by teaching Renita my 5-step process for shooting in manual mode in order to get well exposed and sharp images shot after shot.  Like many people, she thought shooting in manual might require adjusting 10, 15 or more things as a DSLR is covered in buttons and dials.  At the most it is only five things and in reality, very rarely do you have to change all five between shots.

I think Renita will take what we practiced during the 2-hour lesson and improve her photography quickly and get better results from the very next time she goes shooting.  It was a fun time with her and she may come over to the west coast again for another photography lesson.

Photography Tip - turn your flash off sometimes when shooting indoors

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I have recommended getting a speedlight (external flash) to many of my photography students who want to make photographs indoors.  In fact, I say it is a must have piece of gear for any photographer really.  Is use my speedlights off camera for portraits, and on camera for photographing events (where quick mobility is needed).  A speedlight is useful in so many ways for all kinds of shooting.  

That said, a photography tip to add to your memory banks is to not fall in love with exclusively using flash for indoor event photography.  Using a speedlight for indoor event photography will produce very consistent results, which is a good thing of course.  If you are photographing a business conference where there is no need for creative shots, then keep that speedlight on.  However, for getting the most variety out of your event shooting, turn the speedlight off sometimes.  

In the above examples, the exact same camera settings were used.  In fact, the bottom photo was taken only 4 seconds after the first.  Everything about shooting was the same, except no flash fired in shooting the bottom photo.  As you can see, the photos are totally different.  Using the speedlight we can see all details in the artist and in the background.  The ambient light of the room is all but drowned out.  In the second shot we see only the slightest details of the artist and the ambient light provides a cool backlighting.  The impression the photos give the viewer end up being quite different.

Now I must confess the second shot was not done on purpose!  My flash could not recycle fast enough and simply did not fire.  Many the time though in my photography experience I have learned something from a happy accident like this.  So now when I photograph events that do not all require the uniform flashed look, I turn my speedlight off and use ambient light to create an entirely different photo.  Give this a try the next time you are shooting indoors.