Photography Ought To Be Fun

From an early e.Newsletter I sent out in June 2006. The photos are from my first digital camera--Nikon D100.

“Brain research has now proven conclusively that play is essential. It actually restores our intellectual capacities and renews our spirits. It’s essential to good mental health and physical health and to the reductions of tension.”

--Joined at the Heart: The Transformation of the American Family 

Deer antlers are among the fastest growing tissues known to man.

My family has always taken pictures. One of my earliest experiences is playing with an old camera that used flash bulbs and making photos. I would run around pretending to make photos.

My father had a darkroom where he would develop his black and white photos. It was so much fun to watch the photos appear on the paper in the trays of chemicals.

Nature and wildlife are probably two of my favorite subjects when I make photos for myself.

This past week I took a few days and met my uncle who is also a professional photographer and who taught me a great deal through the years. He has been widely published as a nature and wild life photographer.

The white tailed deer’s high degree of sensitivity of the smell, which us humans can’t even begin to understand, is used for protection as well as mating.

We decided to meet and camp at Cades Cove in The Great Smoky National Park which is located near Townsend, Tennessee.

We would get up really early before the park opened and be one of the first through the gate each morning and one of the last the leave the park at night. The animals like white tailed deer, turkeys, and coyote typically are more active in the morning and early evening.

The black bear is more unpredictable and could be active at any time. We hoped to see black bear and did. However they seldom would stay around once they spotted us and turned for the woods more than once.

We also noticed that when we used our binoculars more than one of the many bears we spotted turned into a tree stump. Sometimes when we were in the park you would hardly see any wildlife. We believed the heat kept many of the animals relaxing in the shade longer before venturing out to the meadows.

Before we would go into the park we would get a camera ready to go. I would use my Nikon digital camera with a 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 with a 1.4X teleconverter with a 2 gig flash card ready beside me. The lens was mounted on a monopod and the tripod was near by if the scene allowed for it.

Both my uncle and I commented how much more fun this was with digital over shooting film in the past. We shot more than we may have shot in the past, but there were many reasons we liked the digital.

The things we both commented about shooting digital was the pockets on our camera bags where we kept film were now empty or full of something useful. We also enjoyed being able to change the ISO as either it was getting darker due to us going into the woods or the time of day. We also enjoyed playing with the white balance. We experimented with different settings seeing what
we liked best.

In the campground at night I could download my images onto my laptop and see the results from the day. So the next day, we were picky about what we would stop to photograph.

The minute we saw a great lighting situation or black bear, we stopped. For these types of trips you choose a long lens like a 300mm to get close enough to photograph a black bear. Any other lens if you fill the frame with the bear—well you will have more problems with a bear than your photographing abilities.

A teleconverter like a 1.4X or 2X can easily make the 300mm into a 420mm or even a 600mm and add very little weight to the bag.

A moderate wide angle zoom will help you enjoy those scenic scenes with barns. I love using my Nikon 24-120mm lens for this.

There were not as many wildflowers this time of year as earlier in the spring, but I always have a macro 60mm lens for close-up pictures of flowers.

Stream near Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont in the Great Smoky
National Park.

While I have a flash I use this as a last resort. But when inside an old farm house this can really help. I still prefer using a tripod, but there is always a possibility you might need one. Some of the cameras like my Nikon D100 have a pop up flash built into the camera and for just about anything they can help when you need a flash.

After shooting early morning, we would drive into Townsend, Tennessee for a good country breakfast. During the hotter time of the day was a great time to explore inside the woods the streams and water falls of the park.

For the really hot day we drove up to Clingmans Dome which is 20° cooler than the rest of the park.

Just seeing if you are paying attention. I photographed this Kangaroo and her Joey at the Kangaroo Conservation Center located in Dawsonville, Georgia June 17, 2006.

Our goal was to make photos and have fun—we exceeded our goal. Remember to just take photos for the fun of it.

Carter Shields Cabin--George Washington "Carter" Shields (1844-1924) bought this land and cabin from John Sparks in 1910. The cabin dates to 1830-40s. Shields lived in the cove until 1921.

Outside photography: Best Time of Year

There are a few things that affect the outcome of a photograph outside.

• Time of Day
• Weather
• Time of Year

Time of Day

There are 7 time periods during a day when there is light to make photographs outside

Dawn -- this is the 20 to 30 minutes before sunrise. The light at this time of day has a blue color cast to them. Also, there are really no shadows to contend with in the photos.

Sunrise -- There are two "Golden Hours" in the day. The Golden Hour the first and last hour of sunlight during the day. The sun's angle will produce long shadows at this time of day. Where the sunlight illuminates appears as gold in color. The contrast is less during the golden hour, shadows are less dark, and highlights are less likely to be overexposed. The dynamic range is less than midday and therefore you can record more of the scene than other parts of the day.

Morning -- The light can still be pretty good at this time of day. The sun is up and can still shine on a person's face so that you can still see their eyes and the color is more neutral.

Midday -- This is when the sun is directly overhead. The dyanamic range is great and therefore your photos are more contrasty. You either expose for the highlights and the shadows are black or you expose for the shadows and the highlights are blown out. It is very difficult to find a middle exposure to hold it all together. Since the light is directly overhead more often people's eyes are in the shadows and you often loose the detail of the eyes. You need fill flash to show people's faces at this time of day.

Afternoon -- Very similar light to the morning, but a little warmer due to the atmosphere being warmed up through the day.

Sunset -- You need to know the time of sunset to maximize the Golden Hour before the sun disappears below the horizon. The reason you see a lot of silhouettes of people and sunsets verses sunrises has more to do with people being awake.

Dusk -- I like to shoot architecture at this time of day, because you can put your camera on a tripod

Weather

Time of Year


There really isn't a "best" time of year to photograph. However, my favorite time of year is the fall.  I love the cool weather and all the color in the leaves. I also like the fall since there are more high pressure days, which translates into less stuff in the air making it where you can see further on clear days.


Fall

Spring

Summer

No matter the time, as long as you have light you can make photographs.  Sometimes shooting at the time of day many avoid will make your photos different. My suggestion is to always try and shoot the Golden Hour when you can outside and then look for other opportune moments to capture people and places in the best light for them.

Photographing birds at a feeder in the rain

We just love watching the birds at a feeder on our deck each day.  Of course we have to chase away some of the squirrels. 

I was wanting to shoot some photos and it was raining--then I thought let me show you how to do this in the rain.

We enjoy our bird feeder and the birds that visit us.

By using a flash I can somewhat capture the bird in flight.  Actually I startled the bird with the flashes.

Here is the simple setup.  I did this while it was raining and so I covered the flashes with zip lock bags to keep them dry.

Since it was raining it was darker than normal and the flashes helped light up the birds but the background disappears.

I decided to put one flash pointing to the background (see setup below) to help keep the background from disappearing.  However the birds had stopped for a while visiting when I was doing this.

The Nikon SB900 flash to the far right is set on 200mm zoom.  This helps put the light on the distant trees.  The light to the right is lighting the bird feeder and any birds.

Off Camera Flash – Blog post 3 of 3

You can see the blur in the volleyball even with strobes being used due to the 1/250 sync limitation.

TTL Flash offers some advantages over manual flash. I use the Nikon speedlight system that has helped me have an edge over many other photographers not using the system.

There are three things that make me choose my Nikon Speedlights over the manual flash: 1) I have no sync speed limitations, 2) quick—I don’t have to pause to take readings and then set the camera, and 3) I can shoot at very wide opening f/stops.

You can see the blur of the basketball due to slow shutter speed with the strobes.

Unlimited sync speeds

When you can shoot at any shutter speed then you open the possibilities for so many things.

 
1. You can shoot at high shutter speed like 1/2000 or 1/8000 of second to stop the action.  You see when the shutter is open at 1/250 sec for manual flash there is enough movement is sports to have some motion blur.  You see this is hockey and basketball.
 
2. You can control the background—outside! You can crank that shutter speed up and underexpose the background by say 2 or 3 stops and then up you flash output 2 or 3 stops to properly expose a subject, yet underexpose the background.  Great to get those dark blue skies behind a subject.

The TTL flash easily figured the correct amount of fill flash on the fly here.

Fast

You don’t always have time in some situations to take the time to take flash readings and then set the camera.  News events are a good example where you need to be ready.  Recently I photographed the founder, president and son of the president for an article.  These folks are known to change their mind at the last second and ask you to photograph them just about anywhere—this is when having a TTL portable flash let’s you adjust on the fly.

Taking a flash into the rain forest where coffee is grown in the mountains of Mexico lets me pull it out under all the shade to make the photo look like sunlight.

Wide-open f/stops

Many photographers today are shooting with an f/1.4 lens.  If you go outside to shoot you cannot use a manual flash because shooting at f/1.4 means you will have to shoot at a very high shutter speed.  The TTL high-speed sync lets you shoot with a flash. 

To be able to shoot large groups outside you need those high f/stops that will often require the manual flash.  To be flexible and use high sync shutter speed you need the TTL system.  What I hope you now know is there are advantages to both systems.  Don’t buy both systems right away.  Buy one and learn how to use all the advantages of the system.  Once you find you cannot deliver photography to clients because the system you have is limited—buy the next system and learn all it can do. 

Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, SC

Figure 1

We are in Charleston, SC this weekend to celebrate our oldest son graduating from The Citadel.

We had some time to stop by the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens and just wanted to share with you some of my sights while here.

Which ones are your favorite?

Figure 2

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Success is in the Details

Coffee grown in El Aguila, Chiapas

The great successful men of the world have used their imagination…they think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building - steadily building.

- Robert Collier

On the left is Robusta Coffee and on the right is Arabica Coffee.

Whenever you are doing a story on a subject be sure and add some detail shots to the coverage.

Just picked coffee

I often think of these photos as eye candy to the story. Graphic designers will often use these photos to help round out a layout on a page or website. Sometimes these photos are used as a background or just an accent point.

One of the places I use these images in my work is in multimedia packages. They can help with transitions just as a writer helps the reader move from one thought to the next with transitions the visual communicator also can do this with things like detail photos.

While getting really close can create impact and even be a cool abstract, sometimes you need things in the photo to give the items a sense of scale. I often use things like hands to give a sense of size to an object.

Compare this to the first photo of coffee on the tree without the hand. 

Just remember to always try and find some detail shots to add to your coverage.

I always travel with a tripod

Gitzo GT-0531 Mountaineer 6X Carbon Fiber tripod

I always try and have a tripod with me at all times.  Finding a sturdy tripod was pretty easy to do.  However, once you start to fly and carry your tripod through airports worldwide you quickly will look for something much lighter.

Carbon fiber has high tensile strength, low weight, and low thermal expansion make it a perfect solution to make tripods strong durable and lightweight.  So a few years ago I researched and tried a few tripods before buying my Gitzo GT-0531 Mountaineer 6X Carbon Fiber tripod. 

Weighing only 1.6 lbs, 20.9” tall folded, extends to a height of 51.6" and can go as low as 10.6” with legs spread. 

Folded

When looking for a tripod the smaller it is folded and then combined with a really tall height when expanded will make a tripod cost more.  The carbon fiber cuts the weight by 1/3 as compared to a similar tripod made of metal.

Manfrotto 492 Micro Ball Head

This tripod doesn’t come with a head.  I liked ball heads and needed again something small yet strong.  I bought the Manfrotto 492 Micro Ball Head.

This combination fits in a small carry on bag and keeps my camera steady when I need it.  

Take Advantage of Spring Time

Dogwood in my front yard.

Tis the season is such a cliché for a reason.  We all understand that timing is everything when planning our vacations.  We go to the beaches in the summer and to the mountains to ski in the winter.  If you go the wrong time of year you will miss the ability to take in the best of a place.

If you Google the phrase “Tis the season” you will find more than 5,690,000 hits. 

Tis the season photographers to be getting outside in your backyards and planning those road trips to capture the spring time in full bloom.

Azalea's have started with buds in my yard.  They stay in bloom about two weeks.

If you have a business this is the time to do those photos you need on your website to show off your properties.  This is when you plan for those outdoor weddings to take advantage of the flowers and trees in bloom. 

You still have time to take advantage of the season. Be sure you put aside the time to capture the blooms in your yards and places of business.

Dogwood blooms in my front yard.

Dogwood