Best Shot Monday – July 30

It appears that the original blog inspiration for Best Shot Monday might not be doing it anymore.  Bummer because I enjoy it so I’m still going to post my favorite shot from the previous week here on Mondays. 

This is a shot that I love because a) I’m in it for once.  b) I’m holding two of my three biological children {hubby says the camera doesn’t count as a child but I say it does} c) I got to use my new Canon wireless remote and d) I got to use my new Canon 50mm lens with no flash.  Ah.  It’s a keeper.

1/25, ISO 400, F3.2

Continuous Shooting

Are you familiar with the continuous shooting button on your camera?  Do you even know if your camera has one?  Let me tell you why you should use this feature.

Basically, when you have this feature selected, you can push the shutter button down and if you hold it there, your camera will continue to take pictures as fast as it can.  My camera will take up to 3 shots per second depending on the shutter speed selected.  People will also sometimes refer to this as burst mode. 

Now, other than in great light for a sporting event, why would you want to use this mode?  If you are a fan of no-flash photography, you have probably encountered camera shake.  You know… you push the shutter button as gently as you can yet the entire image is still a bit blurry because that simple push shook the camera ever so slightly.  If you use burst mode, you push the shutter once, get one or two blurry shots but your hand steadies itself by the third or fourth picture.  This produces a low light, no flash shot that is as clear as you can get it while hand holding your camera.  This is also valuable if you are shooting children who are moving.  Why?  Because sooner or later, they will be still for a fraction of a second and you will already have your camera capturing that moment.  Here is an example from my life.  Last night my eldest son decided to "read" a story to his little brother.  I popped off about 60 shots.  Because they were moving ever so slightly, I didn’t expect to get a fantastic, one-shot photo in little light while holding my camera in my hand.  I was afraid that a flash would make them look at me and distract from the moment and I was afraid the moment would be gone before I set up a tripod (also a distraction).  Eventually, they did look at me anyway, but in the meantime with this method, I got about 5 pictures that are worth having printed for the scrapbook.  The other 55 can be deleted.

You can see a wee bit of blur on my oldest son’s hand pointing to something in the book.  I actually like that because it shows movement and activity as he is sharing the book with his brother.  Still, the faces are clear and the expressions of intensity are there for my scrapbook. 

If you have your camera set in this mode, you can still do one-shot photographs.  It does not require you to shoot a zillion frames every time you pick up the camera.  It’s like a bonus that is good to already have turned on for those once-in-a-lifetime shots that are happening before your eyes.  Try it and see if you can get something good.  FYI, if you have an older point and shoot camera that has a delay between pressing the shutter button and the actual picture being taken, this feature might still work for you but it likely will not be as effective.   

The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby

I recently enjoyed a tour of my library’s online catalog.  As I saw a title that interested me, I clicked the little "request title" button.  Boy was I surprised when I went to pick them up and found 22 books waiting for me!  I hadn’t really been keeping track of how many titles I clicked that little button for.  I have lots of inspiration to work with there.  However, after picking up all these books, another photographer friend recommended the title The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby.  The library didn’t have the title so I took a look at Amazon.  Don’t you just love Amazon?  I do.  It had 280 reviews and almost all of them ranked it as a 4 or 5 out of 5.  I received the book yesterday and it was worth it.  I think that even if the library had it, I would have bought it in order to have my own copy in my camera bag.  It is that good.  If you own a digital SLR camera and you want to learn to take pictures like the professionals do, you should start with this book.  When he tells you how to achieve the results you want, he doesn’t use a lot of technical lingo that messes with your brain cells.  He tells you to find xyz in your camera’s menu and set your camera up like this and then take the shot.  I have read about half of the book since it arrived yesterday and I’ve already learned a lot. 

Between my new purchases and my zillion library books, I’ve been absorbing all that I can on the subject.  I feel like my brain is just swimming in new information.  So much so that I’ve had a hard time this past week just picking one or two items to experiment with and post about.  That’s why I’ve been so quiet.  I’ve been spending my time doing my homework.  I hope you don’t mind too much.  Hopefully, it will result in some valuable information being posted on my blog soon. 

Have a great weekend everyone!  Remember to take some pictures. 

Frame it up!

Once upon a time, I was telling my wedding photographer that I would love to be a professional photographer.  He turned around and handed me an empty slide mount and said, "start viewing the world through this.  That is the best advice I can give you.  Learn to view things in frames." 

Since studying up on photography lately, I’ve read that advice in two books and heard it on one video.

If you prefer not to carry a slide mount or an empty frame around with you, here is another option.  You can learn the same thing by practicing your cropping. 

Take a picture that you already have uploaded on your computer.  Preferably one that has a lot going on, but you know there is a "great shot" in there somewhere.  Pull it up in your editing software and play with cropping it.  Don’t crop it just once.  Crop it several times in different areas of the photograph.  Some horizontal and some vertical.  Play.  Do this with several photographs.  The more you do this, the better you will be at "seeing" the picture when you are in the moment and you will have less editing work when you get home.  One of the mistakes people frequently make is looking through the view finder and only noticing what they are trying to photograph instead of looking at the entire frame.  Learning to "see" your picture will help you crop out those undesirable elements in the moment instead of having to do that later.

Picture a Day

Have you heard of this?  The theory is that if you take a picture a day, you will improve your photography.  It doesn’t matter what the subject matter is.  All that matters is that you take a picture, upload it and then study it to see how you can improve it.  Some people do it simply to explore things around them as photo art while some do it as a sort of on-line scrapbook of their daily lives.  I’ve been doing one for about two months now and I combine the two.  Sometimes it’s a snapshot that helps me journal my life (I’ve never been good at keeping a regular diary/journal for long) and sometimes it’s an experiment with my camera. 

You can host it anywhere you see fit.  I’ve seen them on Blogger and Typepad among others but my favorite is Photoblog.  It’s free, it’s easy, it’s reliable and it’s fun.  You can post up to 20 pictures a day (for those days when you just have too many good ones to narrow it down to just one) and you can jot a note about each one under the photo, followed by a larger box where you can type in as much detail as you wish.  When I post, I post the highlight picture(s) from the previous day.  So far, I’ve enjoyed this much more than a regular journal and I think it’s fun to go back and see the details of my life.  I’ve even met a few new friends who comment and share their pictures with me.  At the end of a year, you can go to someone like Blurb and turn your blog journal into a real book.  Isn’t that fun?!

Join me at Photoblog and start your journal.  What do you have to lose?  Nothing.  What do you have to gain?  A journal of your life and better photoskills.  Come on…  play with me!

Here is my favorite shot from this past week for Best Shot Monday.

ISO 100, F/5, 1/60 – Speedlight 430EX with Gary Fong Lightsphere with inverted dome, pointed to ceiling.  White Balance set at flash (I think).

For more Best Shot Monday pictures, visit Picture This and check the comments section.

New Inspiration

I just came across this guy and I really think you should see him.  As I was looking through his work I was really moved by his art.  I hope to see him succeed.

He has a photo blog over here at photoblog.com.  That’s where I found him.

He also has a website here.

He has such a great eye for the world around him.  I just can’t even describe him.  You need to see him yourself.  I will be watching his photoblog for daily inspiration. 

Foreground

Not long ago, I was visiting Chris Humphreys’ blog where he had a great tip about using foreground to help add depth, information and impact to your photographs.  He calls it the Sandwich Theory.  I’ve been watching the world around me for almost a month now, looking for an opportunity to practice this assignment.  While watching my son in the bath today, I thought I should take some pictures because the light was so perfect.  This was the first one I snapped.

Although I love it because of his sweet eyes peeking over the edge of the tub at me, it doesn’t really show much of anything to tell you that he’s in the tub without words.  After this picture, I thought about the sandwich theory so I set out to see if I could get one with foreground information.  This was my next shot.

I wasn’t convinced that the faucets were a compelling enough foreground to make the photograph a keeper so I kept going.

Now we have more information.  What could be better than the Johnson’s tear-free shampoo that he is about to outgrow?  I still wasn’t in love with the photo so I took one more.

This one was my favorite.  If you haven’t already clicked on the link to see Chris’ examples of the Sandwich Theory, you should do that now.  He has some fantastic examples.

Fan Mail

Can I call it that?  Does that sound vain?  I hope not.  Anyway, this is where I plan to address tips and questions that my pals in blogland leave me in the comments.

First up today – in my Faux Studio post my friend Alissa suggested that if your subject is wearing a hat, turn your camera upside down and use your pop-up flash to fill in under the brim so you can see their eyes.  Here is my experiment.

On the left, I used the flash in the normal fashion.  On the right, I turned my camera completely upside down so the flash was on the underside of my lens.  See the difference?  A handy tip to have in your bag if you need it in a pinch.

Next, in my copyright symbol post, Laurie asked where to use the alt + 0169 feature to get the symbol.  I have used that trick to make the symbol appear in my Typepad body of text, in Adobe Photoshop, in a regular email and in a Microsoft Word document.    I am under the impression that anywhere that you can type text, you can use this trick to make the symbol appear.

In my Program Mode post, Jeannette encouraged me to try to shoot in Manual mode more.  I wanted to let you all know that I do plan to go there eventually.  For some reason, I’m still struggling with remembering the details of shutter speed and aperture.  Why?  I don’t know.  My brain is old and it’s lost some of it’s glue.  Here is my plan (at least today).  I plan to shoot in TV for awhile while I get the rules of shutter speed to take root in my brain.  Then once I’ve got that mastered, I want to switch to shooting in AV mode until I get aperture cemented in my brain.  Then I hope that I’ll have enough experience on both to make the jump into pure manual mode.  I’ve tried manual mode a couple of times in no pressure settings and I can’t seem to get all my facts straight to shoot a correctly exposed photograph.  But that is where I hope to be eventually.

I wanted to say thank you to all of you who take the time to leave me a comment.  I find them incredibly encouraging. 

While visiting other sites in my weekly Best Shot Monday game, I saw that Alissa (same Alissa as above) had a great silhouette picture on July 8 and I asked her how she did that.  Here is her answer-

"The silhouette is not so difficult once you figure out the technique.  For these I set the camera on Program Auto, and simply exposed for the sky rather than the people.  It makes all the difference in the world to let the focus point land on the sunset, and as long as the focus is set on infinity the whole thing will be sharp.  It also helps to have a strong back light, like the actual sun and not just light from a sun that’s gone below the horizon.  And it helps to be below your subject–I was lying on my stomach and they were about 15 feet in front of me.

If the foreground comes out just the tiniest bit light you can select it in photoshop and bring it down with the curves function, but I guess that’s cheating.  I didn’t need to do that with these–they were dark enough to begin with!"

So, a little while ago, my toddler was standing in a dark room looking out a bright window.  I grabbed my camera to see if I could practice the technique.  Here is what I got.  Not nearly the cool scene she had, but it was the best silhouette opportunity I’ve had since I got her note.

Thanks, Alissa!

And to end this post… here is what the mailman brought me! 

I just love Ebay.  I ordered two DVDs – one about getting to know your Canon Digital Rebel and one about getting to know your Canon Speedlite 430EX.  I am not sure how much the one on my camera will offer me because I’ve been reading the manual extensively and learning a lot from that.  However, I’ve read the manual on the Speedlite and all the bells and whistles are lost on me.  So, I’m hoping these two DVDs will offer me some deeper information than what I already know.  That thing in the middle is a  Gary Fong Lightsphere flash diffuser for my Speedlite to help correct the "flashlight" effect you sometimes get with a Speedlite.  I plan to play with all of these items and review them for you here.   

Thank you all for coming to visit my little blog.  I hope you get something out of it.  I know I’m delighted to hear from each of you when you leave me a comment or send me an email.

Best Shot Monday – Smell the Flowers

Last week at playgroup, I got this shot of a little cutie we know sniffing the flowers. 

For more pictures, check out the Best Shots offered at Picture This.  Check the links in the comments section.

House for Sale!

Remember my first gig?  Remember me telling you about someone who asked for a business card and I had nothing to give them?  Those kind people invited me into their home yesterday (in spite of my unprofessional manner of passing out contact information) to photograph it before they put it on the market.  I made it clear that I’m learning photography and that I know nothing about real estate photography, but they invited me to practice on their home anyway.  It gave me an opportunity to try a different subject matter to see if I enjoyed it.  It was also low on pressure since they have a professional coming to photograph it for the MLS database later this week.  Isn’t that generous of them?

As you approach the home, you are greeted with a beautiful iron gate.

Inside the gate you find an elegant fountain surrounded by ample parking for your guests.

The view from the front porch offers a view of the fountain and the peaceful surroundings.

As you enter the home, you find yourself in a spacious and inviting two-story foyer.

To your left is a rich formal dining room that offers elegant crown molding along with the finishing touches of a regal medallion around the beautiful crystal chandelier.

To the right of the entrance is a lovely formal room with a spacious sun porch beyond. 

 

Upstairs, the master bedroom and adjoining sitting room offer a romantic sanctuary for you with an elegant trey ceiling.

As you enter the master bath, you pass by two walk-in closets to find yourself in a private spa.  On the left of the picture below is a third walk-in closet.

On your way back downstairs, you can see the relaxation offered in the two-story family room with warm natural light.

As you enter the custom eat-in kitchen, you find yourself in a workspace that offers plenty of counter space and even more natural light. 

This kitchen has luxurious details in the cabinetry, top of the line appliances along with plentiful recessed lighting.

Enjoy your morning paper and cup of coffee in this spacious and soothing breakfast room.

Venture out on the brand new deck, perfect for entertaining, to spend some time in your private tree-lined backyard.

 

This backyard offers significant space for your family to enjoy any outdoor activity you can dream of.

What do you think?  Do these pictures make you want to see the house in person?  Better yet, do they make you want to move to Great Falls, Virginia so you can buy it?  All of these pictures are right out of the camera (except one which I lightened).  This venture made me add a wide angle lens to my ever-growing wish list.

Thank you so much to Alan and Cindy for inviting me into your home.  I hope that this experience was beneficial to you in some way.  I know I thoroughly enjoyed my time with you and my time photographing your exquisite home.