One of the assignments in the NYIP unit one is to show motion in a photograph. I decided to practice with a ceiling fan. More reliable results since it moves at the same speed during the whole shoot and all I have to do is set up on a tripod and then adjust the camera from one frame to the next until I get what I want. Here is what I learned today.
For this frame, I had all the windows open and all the lights in the room on except for those in the ceiling fan. This was shot with an ISO of 400 and an aperture of 5.6. It froze the action too much for what I was trying to accomplish so I switched gears and moved to the next shot.
For this one, I closed all the blinds, turned off all the lights and got my camera to let me shoot with an aperture of 4.0. The lowest this lens will go is 3.5 but there was still too much light in the room for the camera to let me shoot any lower than 4.0. My ISO was set at 200 and it still didn’t give me enough motion for what I hoped to achieve. So, I made one more change.
This frame is exactly like the last except that I changed my ISO to 100. If I’m reading this correctly, it changed the shutter speed to 1/15 of a second from 1/30 which is what it reads for the middle frame. I would still like the motion to look a little more fluid but I think this is the best I can get with the equipment that I have on hand. Overall, I’m pleased with what I learned here today.
The lens used for this is a 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens.
The other night I decided to pick up my stack of photography books I’ve collected over the years instead of hitting the NYIP books like I’d promised. The book I decided to start with is called Photography Your Way by Chuck DeLaney. Ironically, he is the Dean to the NYIP and the very person that "Don" admonishes in the segment I referred to the other day. I’m not sure where I bought this book but I’m sure I didn’t pay more than $5 or $6 for it and it is worth every penny. Even if I’d paid retail, it would be worth it. Despite the fact that it was published in 2000, I found it to be full of sound advice. I actually put the book down at one point to go hunt down a highlighter! I suspect that I will revisit this book several more times in the future.
There were a few spots that were out of date – like the chapter on digital technology. There were a few spots that didn’t strike me as being useful – like the chapter called "Inspiration – Show Me". I was surprised at the curse words in the book. Although they were only in a few spots and not grossly out of place, they still caught me off guard. Still, Part One of the book is something that will inspire you if you are an aspiring photographer. It was so good that I couldn’t put the rest of the book down. I’ve been stealing every moment I could over the past three days to read this book!
Despite the few parts that are out of date, the majority of this book has some solid advice to give about starting a business, ideas for pricing your work, portfolio tips that will likely not go out of style and, my particular favorite, naming your business. I love, love, love that he tells it straight when he suggests that a dumb name is a bad idea. However clever you think it is at the time, it will haunt you.
If you are thinking about taking some pictures for some people and charging them a fee for your service, you need to read this book first. If you are already an established photographer who is in a lull, I think reading Part One of this book would help you find your drive again too. I thought it was super and I highly recommend it.
Do you remember what it was like when you fell in love? You couldn’t stop thinking about the new love. You couldn’t sleep deeply because your new love was on your mind. You didn’t want to go to class. You didn’t even want to go out with your old friends! Life had changed in an instant.
That is exactly how I feel. My house is a disaster. I need to do laundry, clean my kitchen, fix myself lunch. I had a date on the calendar to go to a rubber stamping class last night and I didn’t want to go! I’ve been invited out with friends one night this week and I don’t even want to do that! All I want to do is spend my time reading and learning about photography. Playing with my camera and getting to know it better. I want to know and absorb everything I can about the subject. Every spare moment (and those are rare when you have three children toddler and preschool ages) is spent devouring my photography material.
I found a book in my collection that I’m currently enjoying a lot. I’ll share that with you tomorrow but right now I need to go eat something.
I just want to shout it to the world… I’m in love!
I did something big today. Big for me, anyway. I wrote a proposal to a magazine suggesting that they let me write for them about the things I’m learning. I’m hoping that they will either let me write a monthly article in their magazine or they’ll let me do video tips on their website. Having subscribed to the magazine for about eight years now, I think this would be useful to their readers. I would like to learn different techniques to make my pictures better. I’d like to learn to make my own backdrops. I’d like to create ideas for using your camera to make memorable gifts. As I learn all this, I’d like to share it with their readers. I’d like it to be something that any person sitting at home could duplicate and they would not be required to spend big bucks to do it.
Here is the thing, it doesn’t even matter if they decide they aren’t interested. The thing I’m most excited about is that I decided to dream bigger than I did yesterday and I followed it up with action!
Reading through their magazine today, I came across this quote.
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." -Winston Churchill
This morning was the day I finally worked up the courage to start talking about my hopes and dreams relating to photography to my husband. He’s always known I love it and he’s always known that if I could be or do anything in the world, this is it. However, he had no idea that I was starting to think about it in terms of a new venture in life. Over the past week, he’s seen me "doing my homework" and even commented encouragingly about me getting my material out again. He knew I’d started a blog but he has yet to read it. So, he knew quite a bit but I was still nervous to broach the subject with him. I knew no one was reading this thing so this was safe, but when I told another living breathing human being, it was real. Then I risk failure.
So, today over our Saturday morning coffee I began to speak of it – out loud. That I was thinking of names for a business. I asked his opinion about whether men would want a certain product I hoped to pitch. That I wanted to practice on some friends and maybe build a word-of-mouth business. He didn’t have much to say. Actually, the silence was rather deafening to my ears. I took his silence to mean that he a) didn’t think I was for real or b) didn’t think I could do it or c) didn’t think I’d ever do anything about it. I was hurt that my partner in life didn’t believe in me. That he didn’t immediately offer up big doses of encouragement. I was angry that I’d just spent more attention to helping him decide what to do about a golf club that a friend might be interested in buying than he’d just spent discussing my dream. When I reached the breaking point, I stood up and left the room so that he wouldn’t see my tears. A few minutes later he came to find me and offered up an apology. He was shocked to discover that I was crying – although I was too proud to look at him and confirm it. A little while later, he asked me, "are you still mad at me?" Not quite mad but not willing to discuss it in detail, I merely said, "yes." "That’s too bad," he replied. "I was planning to go buy you a new lens for your camera. I knew you wanted one and I was trying to figure out how to get you out of my office this morning so I could pull up your wish list so that I’d know which one to go buy you. I was going to bring it home and surprise you."
You see, all along he was supporting me and encouraging me, I was just wrapped up in what I thought it should look like. Meanwhile he had his own way that he wished to express it to me. Now, you may be asking yourself, "what is the point of her writing about this in her blog?!" My point is this… just because it’s in your head and has been dancing around your brain for days, weeks or even years doesn’t mean that your spouse has had it on his/her radar all this time. When you start to talk about it, give them some time to digest what you’ve said. Don’t expect them to be dancing on the ceiling for you at the mere mention of it. It’s not fair. Give him/her the benefit of the doubt that they want to see you succeed in all things that you do and this one is no different. Then give them the space to express their support the way they want to express it.
In case you’re wondering, I got a new lens to my camera today. (Insert HUGE cheesy grin here.) He bought me the Canon EF 75-300mm zoom lens. It’s a beauty!
Yesterday, I was visiting a blog of one of my favorite photographers. Her name is Carey and she runs San Diego Barefoot Memories. http://barefoot-memories.com/news/
(If I had any idea how to do that cool thing where one word in a different color is actually a link to another blog, I’d do it. Since I’m new to blogging, I don’t so we’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.)
Anyway, she mentioned that her pal Me Ra Koh had just put out a DVD series starting yesterday called Documenting A Child’s Life. The DVD’s are 10% off if you preorder during March and yesterday you got free shipping too. Well, knowing how AWESOME Carey’s work is, I figured if she gave a plug like that I’d have to order it. I immediately did just that. After I paid my bill for what I’d ordered, I decided to tool around Me Ra Koh’s blog site.
http://www.merakohblog.com/
She has a section called Photography Tips for Moms that I’ve been having fun touring. SO much better and more interesting than the NYIP thing… but I digress. She has a segment about her husband and son having matching shoes and how she wanted to capture that detail for her memory. It’s her 31 January post called "Vans Tell the Story Too!" I’ve been photographing my children’s new shoes for sometime now. I find that I have a hard time parting with them once they’ve been used up and outgrown. What was a girl to do? Have an attic full of worn out shoes from three children? Nope. So, I decided that I would take pictures of them while they were new so I could get rid of them easier when they were outgrown. What can I say? I’m a sentimental mommy. Well, yesterday my middle child, Case, got new sandals. Today, he wanted to go play in the backyard so I pulled out his new sandals so he could do just that. Naturally, I decided to try to snap a photo of them before he covered them in sand and dirt but I didn’t have too much time because he was anxious to go out and PLAY! Using what I learned, I snapped a picture of them on my kitchen table with the huge sliding glass door to provide the light. I think I shot with an ISO of 400, an f stop of 4.0 and I used auto white balance. I also used auto focus – does that negate the f stop choice? I don’t know. Anyway, I tried on AV setting first and I had too much camera shake so eventually, I set the camera on the table and used auto-focus. Did I mention my 3 year old was anxious to go play? This is what I got…
That is right out of the camera – no edits beyond resizing for the blog. I’m happy to be learning good stuff!
After spending a lot of time playing at Me Ra Koh’s blog, I’m PSYCHED to get that DVD in my hands. I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve gotten it… but I am betting I’m going to LOVE it.
Sometime after I bought my wonderful little camera, I started thinking I would like to take a photography course. Being that my baby was literally 2-3 months old at the time, a real classroom setting wasn’t going to happen for me. Not to mention, I live out in the country now so there is likely not one anywhere near me anyway. So, I began to investigate on-line options. Not having a CLUE which ones are worth a bean, I didn’t want to sink $350+ into something that was going to be a waste of money – which I really couldn’t spare. I came across the NYIP course. It had mixed reviews. Since it was something that had text, tape and video that was tangible, I did what I always do when I want something… I checked Ebay. I found many copies floating around from various years past. But I happened to be looking at the right moment within 20 minutes of someone posting a 2003 copy with a Buy It Now price of $50 and most of it was still shrink wrapped! A two year old copy still in the shrink wrap?! I thought it was a deal since signing up with the company would run me from $500 – $800 depending on the payment plan I selected. I eagerly started reading the text and listening to the tapes after I put my children to bed at night. And then for some reason I set it aside, never opening even one of the items the previous owner had left in the shrink wrap. I picked it up again two nights ago… NOW I remember why… Not only do I remember, but now I know why the original owner sold it for so little without ever progressing past Unit One!
Although there is some valuable information in there, the guys who are talking are SO corny and drag out a point SO much that it is almost painful to listen to them. The other night, my foot was literally twitching as I was listening to one of them beat the dead horse they’d been talking about for 15 minutes or more. And to finish the topic off he says, "Chuck, let’s not belabor the point…." ARGGHH! I suppose it’s probably the monotony of the speakers repeating what you’ve just read along with the fact that unit one is all the boring "technical" stuff of photography that makes it so painful.
Still, if you are "green" like me… you need to make use of what you have at your disposal. So I’ll be back at it again tonight. Trying to learn something. Not all college professors are easy to listen to either, right? Sometimes school just sucks. I guess this is one of those times that I get to try to be a grown up and do what I need to do for my own good.
My girlfriend and I were talking photography the other week. She was telling me how much more she likes her pictures now that she has learned how to use the white balance options on her camera. I believe her quote was "flash is evil". LOL. Thanks, Lisa! Well, anyway, she was telling me that when she is snapping pictures of her kids around the house, she sets her camera to "tungsten" since those are the bulbs in her house and then just snaps with no flash. Since we had that conversation, I’ve been playing with this option on my camera and I am digging the results. The other day, I was snapping pictures in a bedroom of my daughter. Although I had the blinds open to let in the sunlight, I thought I should use the tungsten option since I thought she was being lit by the overhead room light. I snapped a few and on my LCD screen I thought she looked funny so I tried with the daylight option. The first picture is with the tungsten option on and the second is with the daylight option on. She looks blue in the first one don’t you think? Yet the second looks more natural.
And just for practice, I took her to the unfinished basement at night under the fluorescent lights just to see if it would be as effective there. Here is a picture from that experiment.
I’d say this is a good thing for every mommy photographer to practice and know! It’ll make for better pictures in the family scrapbook album.
FYI – in all three of these pictures I have my ISO set to 1600. My kids can move pretty quickly sometimes so I thought that was my best bet. I should probably experiment at lower ISO just to see what happens too. I’ll let you know how that goes.
"No one commencing the study of music can, for example, sit down to the piano and play the piece of the master at the first effort. He must not conclude, however, nor does he conclude, that the piece of the master can not be played by him. Or, for that matter, by anyone. He begins to practice the piece."
-Character Building Thought Power
In the last two days, I’ve been having this little devil thought that is trying to tell me that I’ll never be as good as the great photographers who inspire me. I keep banishing the thought when it enters my head but it sneaks in. I came across this quote today and thought it was just what the doctor ordered. I’m going to keep practicing, growing and perfecting. Eventually, it’ll pay off. Wish me luck.
My theory for purchasing a camera is that you should buy the best you can afford and grow into it. At the time that I was looking for a new camera the summer before last summer, I did just that. The $1,000 it took to buy my Canon Rebel XT was quite a stretch for me at the time. In fact, I sold stuff on ebay to earn the $500 beyond what our family budget could afford just to buy it. My main purpose for wanting this one at the time was that it had very little lag time when I pressed the shutter button. With three small children, this was essential to me. Beyond that, I liked the fact that I could potentially use it to grow into the photographer I hope to be some day. Honestly, since I’ve owned it, I’ve rarely used anything but the preset basic functions it is programed with. I am such a wannabe that playing with macro and night mode were new to me! I find that even a know-not-much-of-anything photographer like me can occasionally get a great shot if you shoot enough. Getting to know the camera by playing with it often is the best way to do this. I take hundreds of shots when I do a photo shoot with my children and I usually get a couple that turn out pretty decent. What’s there to lose with a digital, right? Nothing but time and memory space. I’ve become better at hitting the delete button on those that are really not worth saving but I still have entirely too many pics saved. What can I say? They are my "creations" of my babies. Who wouldn’t be attached to that?! Well, anyway… enough rambling. I thought I’d share with you a few of my favorites.
Other than cropping one of them, resizing all of them and turning two to black and white, I haven’t done any further editing. I don’t know enough about editing to play in the so-called digital darkroom yet. Until recently, I thought that was cheating – to be honest. I thought if it wasn’t what you composed in the frame then changing it afterward was more "magic of software" than "great photography". I’m starting to change my mind on that though. Some day we’ll explore editing together… but not yet. I still think that great photography begins with learning to take a great photograph in the camera and then – perhaps – tweaking it. So, that’s where I’m going to begin. Learning to take a great photograph.
For this frame, I had all the windows open and all the lights in the room on except for those in the ceiling fan. This was shot with an ISO of 400 and an aperture of 5.6. It froze the action too much for what I was trying to accomplish so I switched gears and moved to the next shot.
For this one, I closed all the blinds, turned off all the lights and got my camera to let me shoot with an aperture of 4.0. The lowest this lens will go is 3.5 but there was still too much light in the room for the camera to let me shoot any lower than 4.0. My ISO was set at 200 and it still didn’t give me enough motion for what I hoped to achieve. So, I made one more change.
This frame is exactly like the last except that I changed my ISO to 100. If I’m reading this correctly, it changed the shutter speed to 1/15 of a second from 1/30 which is what it reads for the middle frame. I would still like the motion to look a little more fluid but I think this is the best I can get with the equipment that I have on hand. Overall, I’m pleased with what I learned here today.
