Photography growth

I know it's been awhile since my last post.  Stop judging me.  At least it hasn't been over a year!

So far this year has been fantastic!  I've booked a wedding, I've had two photo shoots in studios, and helped create a group of creative artists get together for monthly photo sessions.  We got models, fellow photogs, and makeup artists.  I'm very excited for the coming months.  Speaking of which, if you have checked us out yet, do so here.

I've met some great people in the past month.  I try to take each session as a learning experience.  Sometimes I learn what not to do.  I got very frustrated with myself during a natural light studio experience.  A lot of the shots I took were unusable because I forgot a basic rule in photography.  You can't really hand hold a camera at anything below 1/60 shutter speed and  get sharp pictures.  Well, I can't anyway.  Even then it's hit or miss on the sharpness of the photo.  But I try to look at it as a growth lesson.  I know from now on, I need to have the shutter at 1/60th or higher or the image will be unusable.

I'm pretty excited about the upcoming year, I've got shoots scheduled until April, my first wedding, and tentative plans through the summer.  I've also got my website almost finished.  All in all a great start to 2014.

Photoshop 2: Electric Boogaloo

I'll be the first to admit I'm not much of a school person.  Going way back to junior high I never really enjoyed school.  And to that end I never put much effort into it.  Much to my parents chagrin I basically did enough to get by.

Five years ago (almost to the day) I met my wife.  She has influenced me in ways I'll never be able to fully comprehend.  She is a high school teacher, and for ANYONE who says teachers don't work hard, should spend one night doing parent/teacher conferences.  How she doesn't inject heroin into her eyeballs during these is beyond me.  But I digress.  Within the past year and half I have changed is my attitude towards school.

I'm going back to school to learn Photoshop and become Adobe Certified.  Couple this with my photography and I'm hoping to eventually work in this field.  I actually enjoy school now, I miss it during breaks, I yearn to learn something new and have assignments to show off my knowledge and skills.  Yearn for school??!!  Who is this person?  Alas it's true.

Today I go back for my second semester of Photoshop and I'm truly excited about it.  Before last semester I didn't know anything and just thought it was a cool program.  Now I'm fairly confident in my skills and am realizing it's waaaaaay cooler than I thought.  For office types I relate it to Excel, you know you can do certain things in it, but most people don't realize HOW MUCH YOU CAN FRIGGIN' DO!

So as every blog, especially one about photography and art, should have images enjoy these from last semester.  I fully blame/credit my wife for influencing me and changing my views.  She also has gotten me into naps....I never used to nap.

New Years Resolutions

Ha!  Soooooo....Apparently it's been about a year since I last posted a blog.  So much for sticking to it.  Again I will try this year to keep up with it.  Without boring the internet with the details, I'm in a much better place than I was this time last year so hopefully I'll stick with it.

I'm not usually a fan of New Years resolutions.  My thinking is if you want to change something then do it.  Just because it's January 1st shouldn't matter.  And to somewhat justify my thinking on this, I've been thinking of my resolution for quite some time.  I'm determined to get my photography "business" to the next level....or any level for that matter.  This past year I've had two paying clients and a few friends I did shoots for.  My goals this year is to get my website up and looking official, and to become more comfortable shooting with models.  Basically to get my name out there to more than just friends and acquaintances of friends.

To this end I have created The Plan.  I intend to get my website up and fully launched by the end of the January.  I have one shoot already scheduled with a model I've never met, and intend to schedule more.  And I'm going to start networking with other photographers to help me grow my business.  Using more social media through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Google + etc.

So that's my New Years resolution, although I've been thinking about it since before New Years so don't consider it a New Years resolution...here's a picture of a cute dog to distract you.

Subject Matter

I'm sitting here trying to figure out what photography topic I should write about next.  Should it be about composition? Or flash photography? Macro photography?  All excellent subjects, but ones I'm not sure I want to tackel without learning more first.  So I ponder...what should my next subject be.  Then it hits me....how about subjects?  What to take a picture of?

When I first got my camera I wanted to take pictures of everything.  That first evening I took it with me to my sister-in-laws house who had decorated beautifully with candles and all sorts of Christmas cheer. I took a few photos of the candlelit table (without a tripod), and then a few more of people opening presents.  It wasn't until the next day when I was looking back at the photos and realized I had taken photos that could have been taken with my cell phone.  I realized then, that if I wanted to get better and actually use my camera to it's fullest potential I was going to have learn WHAT to take a picture of, as well as how to take the picture.

This is Christmas this year, tripod in hand.

What do I look for when I search for subjects?  When I first started I would look for anything that appealed to me.  A bird in flight, a backlight goose, a pretty sunset.  Granted a lot of these photo walks are from around the lake by my house so there wasn't too much variety.  But as my skills have grown I've changed how I look for subjects.  Even though I still walk around the lake I usually don't take a picture unless it's something very special.  Probably because I have about a thousand "duck butt" pictures.  You know the ones...where just as you press the shutter button, the duck or goose dives to get something to eat underwater and it's butt is just waving at you.

So how do I choose now?  Well, sometimes I choose a particular pattern or color.  Walking around Frederick, MD one day I decided to shoot only things that had blue in them.  Another walk was just circles.  These exercises have helped me see the world a little differently.  They are great exercises to really just learn all the ins and outs of your camera and lens.   

I just learned of a new way to choose a subject and it seems so obvious to me now that I felt pretty stupid for not thinking of it first.  After I've taken pictures of all the obvious subjects or can't find anything else of the shape or color I've chosen, I look for what can't I do.  Can I get the exposure of the dark background correct while still stopping the action of a flag blowing in the breeze?  Can I get the reflection of myself as well as the Mormon Temple behind me?  How about a shot of inside the visitor center from outside with the reflection of the temple?  These exercises have been the most frustrating and yet most informative yet.

In the end, subject matter is all relative.  What appeals to me may not appeal to you.  And that's okay because I think photography is like life...beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The need for speed

Thank you the two people who read my blog on Christmas!  I have no idea who you are, but thanks to google tracking data I know two people read my blog.  Woohoo!!

Ahem, I mean, it's time to examine the last point in our exposure triangle.  Speed...well the speed of the shutter.  This is perhaps the easiest point in our triangle to explain.  Shutter speed is exactly as it sounds...the speed of how quickly the shutter closes from the time your press the button to take a picture.  Easy.  Done.  Next.  But like all things in photography it's simple in it's fundamental aspect but, oh my, how it can affect the image you are trying to capture.  Shutter speed helps you get that silky smooth affect on water, it can capture geese in midflight, and anything in between.  

I like to think that when I take a picture I am capturing a moment in time.  A slice of life as it flows all around all of us.  When you take a picture you have the option of determining how much of the moment you want to capture.  What is the final image you have in your minds eye and how can you use the camera to get that?  That's the question I ask every time I take a picture.  Admittedly I don't succeed in getting the camera to create what is in my mind all that often, but that's the point of learning.  I know what your thinking, I'm rambling on about all this and it doesn't have much to do with shutter speed.   Don't worry, I promise a point is coming soon.  Imagine I want to take a picture of a pristine waterfall and have a silky smooth image of water flowing over the rocks.  Then to capture this longer slice of time (see I told you I was getting to a point) I would need to have a longer shutter speed.  Depending on the time of day or amount of light, probably in the area of 5 to 10 seconds.  Longer if it's early in the morning or near dusk.  The longer you keep the shutter open the smoother the water will be.

Now let's reverse that.  Say I want to get a picture of a dog running right at me, grinning ear to ear.  I want to capture that brief moment of his paws in the air and tongue wagging.  I would need to have a pretty quick shutter speed for that image.  In the neighborhood of 1/1000th of a second.  When the shutter is set that high I'm essentially stopping the action.

It really all depends on the type of image you are trying to create.  One of the things I really like about photography is when I try to figure out how to get what my mind is thinking to match what shows up on the display screen.  Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's really hard.  

Now to bring it all together.  The exposure triangle is all about capturing light to get the image you are looking for.  Light dictates everything.  If it's a bright sunny day you are not going to be able to keep the shutter open for long periods of time without overexposing your image.  If it's a cloudy day or you are shooting at night you will need to keep the shutter open longer to allow more light in.  However, you won't be able to stop action.  The amount of light you can let in allows you to get whatever image you are trying to achieve. 

Let's use the example of the water flowing over rocks.  If I want that silky smooth look I know I'm going to have to keep my shutter open for a long time.  So the first part of our triangle is set.  Long shutter time.  Now how much light is this going to let in?  You've reached the waterfall, you know you need a longer shutter speed but it's pretty sunny.  So how do we keep the image from over exposing?  Come back when it's not as bright?  Well yes, sure, but you may not be able to do that.   So you reduce your ISO setting down to the lowest number you can.  Still too much light coming in?  What is your aperture situation?  Are you wide open at f3.5 or even wider?  Remember that aperture directly controls how much light is hitting the sensor, so close that diaphragm up and set your aperture to f22 or something like that.  Now you have reduced the amount of light drastically.  You press that shutter button and viola you have an image of water flowing smoothly over rocks.  

I realize all this is the beginners view of our triangle.  There are many many ways to get a properly exposed image.  And to toss in a wrinkle, there are times where you want to purposefully over or under expose an image.  But this blog is an exercise in learning about photography and seeing how much knowledge I am able to retain and pass on to the two souls who read my blog on Christmas day.  

Aperture and the Exposure Triangle

In my continuing quest for knowledge of all things photography one of the basic elements is Aperture or your f-stop and how that plays in the the Exposure Triangle.  I really feel this Exposure Triangle sounds like a new reality show...."See how Amy reacts to Tim and Jane's indiscretions on the next episode of Exposure Triangle."  Sounds like something FOX would air.  Alas, I digress. 

For what I've gleamed through pages and pages of e-books.  By the way buy some ebooks from this guy and this guy.  Good stuff!  Anyhoo...aperture and the f-stop is the how you set the size of the diaphragm in the lens that light passes through.  The bigger the aperture (and smaller F- stop number, like that makes sense) the more light comes through the lens.  However, this aperture nonsense is a bit tricky.  The f-stop number also helps dictate focus.  If you want to just focus on a subject in the foreground and get that nice blurry background you need to have a lower f-stop which means a larger diaphragm.  See how it can get confusing?  And if you want to have the foreground and the background in focus, you need a larger f-stop and smaller diaphragm.

You can do all sorts of neat tricks by changing the aperture.  You can get those starry pictures where the sun is bursting, and you can focus on one guitar string and have all the others blurred out.  Most photographers set their cameras on Aperture mode and let the camera figure out the ISO and shutter speed for the image they are trying to get.  At least the ones who wrote the books I've read do.

It's going to be a short post tonight folks as it's Christmas time, I'm tired, and I have a dog that needs to be walked.  I'll pick up on shutter speed next and all the fun you can have with that.

ISO and the Exposure Triangle

In my quest for knowledge of photography one of the first things you learn is about the Exposure Triangle. This is where all those pictures you thought you took somehow vanished off of your memory card. Get it? Get it? I crack myself up.

But seriously folks, to get a properly exposed digital image you need three things to line up right. ISO setting, your F-Stop or appeture, and your shutter speed. I have a decent understanding of shutter speed and appeture, but ISO alludes me.  So for me it's the hardest point in this mysterious triangle.

Okay it doesn't allude me in the sense of I don't know what it does. From my understanding ISO is the sensitivity of, well, the sensor. Every digital camera has a sensor to record the image you are taking. This sensitivity affects how much light is able to be recorded on said sensor. The higher the ISO the less light is needed to record the image. This is particularly helpful when you are trying to take pictures of lions at the National Zoo and it's near feeding time. Which also happens to be dusk.


To get the proper exposure and to make sure everything is in focus I would need to have a shutter speed of at least 1/500 (to catch the lions moving and playing). However, I would also need to make sure the f stop is big enough to make sure everything is in focus, not just the lions head, but also the background or another lion. So I would need an f-stop of around f-8 or so. Well at dusk this doesn't allow much light onto the sensor, so would need to pump up the ISO. And that's where I run into trouble. How much is too much? Or not enough? Now my D3100 has an "okay" sensor on it. Not as nice as a new fancy D600 or even a pro level camera like the D3X. But as I don't have two grand laying around to drop on a new camera body then I'll be happy with what I have. My wife will be even happier that I haven't spent more money, and my back will be happy that I'm not sleeping on the couch.

Trial and error I'm sure is the answer, but when you can only get to the zoo twice a year it's a little tough to keep practicing. Especially when you get a little "buck fever" and want to get the images of the lions and tigers because they are just so darn cute with their rolling around and playing.

As you can see, these images are not the best, even with the wonders of post processing in Lightroom or Photoshop. I've been told ISO is the Wild West of photography. There are no hard and fast rules. I'm a hard and fast type of guy though....wait that sounded wrong. I mean I like rules. You set your f stop to X and shutter speed to Y and ISO to Z then you get awesome pictures of lions playing. People adore your skills and you get riches thrown at your feet. What's that? That doesn't happen? If it were that easy anybody could do it? Yea, yea, I know.

So I'm still learning the ins and outs of ISO and how it plays into the exposure triangle. And I'm sure 20 years from now I'll still be learning new things. But that's the point isn't it?