Nature Light Photo

5/5 Posts and Sites You Should Read for 10/29/10

Here are the posts and sites that I found that I think you as a photographer should read. Not all of them are always related to photography, but take a look at them.

POSTS

7 Rules for Writing Compelling Headlines – How to write good headlines that grab your audience’s attention.

A 24 Foot Sync Cord for Your Camera – From FlashZebra.com

Yosemite Rockfall – A great video of a rockfall in Yosemite.

Ps Blend Modes – Ever wonder what all of the blend modes do in Photoshop? Here is your answer.

25 Ways to Generate Leads for Your Photography Business – Read it, it’ll give you some ideas.

SITES

William Neill – He has a column in Outdoor Photography. Look at his site, you’ll know why.

Clarence Holmes – An east coast photographer who focuses on nature, wildlife, and landscapes.

Lens Flare 35 – A very well done podcast hosted by Dave Warner.

Gary Martin – He photographs lighthouses. You have never seen lighthouses like he photographs them. Why? Most of us would never go out in weather like that!

Markins – Makers of very good, affordable ballheads.

W.I.M.P.Y.

Yes, I said wimpy. No, I am not calling you a wimp. I am giving you my acronym for checking my camera settings before a shoot.

Last night I had the honor of shooting our school’s production of Annie. As usual, I checked my camera settings before starting the shoot. The acronym that reminds me of what I need to check is W.I.M.P.P.

W = White balance. I don’t usually change it and because I shoot RAW it doesn’t really matter, but once in a while, I do alter the WB setting. So, I check it before each shoot. Why? Because I want to spend less time during post processing and I can do that by getting the WB correct in camera.

I = ISO. I do change the ISO frequently and am doing so more and more as I learn to trust my D300‘s higher ISO settings. As a result, I always want to check that it is on the setting I want for that particular session.

M = Metering. I prefer matrix metering when using the camera most of the time. I have learned it’s capabilities and shortfalls, so I know what to expect from the camera. But sometimes there are situations that center weighted or spot metering works better. Again, I want to make sure my camera is metering in the mode I expect.

P = Priority. What priority do I want to shoot in? Manual for full control of all of the settings. I like this setting for my landscape, nature, portrait sessions because I usually have time to think about how the camera is set up before I take the picture. Aperture Priority when I care about the depth of field and want to let the camera control the shutter speed. I use it more in event and wedding situations. Shutter Priority for those times that I want to control the shutter speed to freeze or blur movement in the frame. I use it in sports or wildlife photography.

Y = Program. (Ok, program doesn’t start with Y, but if you say wimp and add the P, it becomes  wimp-p or wimpy.) The Nikon D300 has two customizable banks of program presets that you can choose. When you activate them, they put into place different presets that can set the camera up for different situations. For instance, I have one that I use as a base, where the camera is in my “normal” mode. The rest are for exposure delay, shooting JPEG, long exposures/ noise reduction, flash control, auto ISO, and a remote setting for when I want to use a remote control. Depending on the situation, I check each of these before I shoot also.

There it is. My WIMPP. There are times that I didn’t use it and got away with it and there are lots of times that I didn’t use it and found out later that my camera wasn’t set-up right for what I wanted to shoot.

Pre-flight check: WIMPP.

Feel free to leave a comment telling me your pre-shoot check list.

Eastern Sierra Fall Colors – Convict Lake

Two weekends ago I traveled to the Eastern Sierra to shoot the fall colors. Again, the Aspen trees did not disappoint. Using the Sacramento Bee’s website that has an great interactive page that highlights the fall color along that part of 395, I was able to determine the best places to visit in order to maximize my shooting.

On a quick side note about the Sacramento Bee’s website, I had the opportunity to actually meet the author of the website, David Henry, at the Morro Bay Photo Expo. He is also a Canon rep, but we can’t hold that against him. He makes the trip from Sacramento to the Eastern Sierra to visit every one of the spots he reports on and he does it every weekend. He is a very nice guy, if you get the chance to meet him, you are lucky. The photography world needs more people willing to give like Dave.

Last year, Convict Lake was the place I went and saw my first real fall colors. Just south of Mammoth, I saw a sign  saying Convict Lake was only 2 miles up a small road and decided to visit. WOW! That was the only thing I could think to say. I went back this year and once again, the mountains with the lake at the base was great, but when you add in the bright yellow colors…

Convict Lake

I spent about two hours there taking pictures along the south shore. While there you are surrounded by fishermen. I tried to use them in some of my shots to show the environment, but this is the only one that I really like.

Fishing Convict Lake

I also tried to get some details of the area. I wanted to show how the leaves look while changing and the damage done to the aspens by woodpeckers or what I assume are woodpeckers.

Changing Leaves

Apsen Holes

The holes created by the woodpeckers also attract insects that want to use the sap for energy.

Five & One

Finally, I liked the details in this image of the Aspens at the far end of the lake.

Convict Lake with Sierra Details

You can view all of the images of the Sierra Nevada from my trip by clicking here: Sierra Nevada

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Morro Bay Photo Expo – A Quick Summary

I spent the weekend in Morro Bay along the central coast of California. There are worse places to spend a weekend.

The reason I was there was to participate in the Morro Bay Photo Expo. I went last year and enjoyed it, but this year passed my expectations by far.

There was a raffle to benefit the Morro Bay High School Photography Club. I put in my $20 for my five tickets and figured it was donation to a good cause. I ended up winning the top two prizes; a Tamarac Aero Speed 75 photo backpack AND I won a signed print from George Lepp. To top it off, I was wait-listed to get into the George Lepp master class. I got in.

If that wasn’t enough, the workshops were much better done than last year. Dean Sullivan talked about shooting as a pro. Mike Baird had a great tour on the water in and out of Morro Bay.  Saturday afternoon/evening Howard Ignatius and crew treated us to a sunset shoot on the Morro Strand State Beach. Ok, the sunset wasn’t that good, but they brought in four horses and riders to photograph on the beach. It was a great opportunity.

One of the lessons I learned was to check your camera between shooting different types of shots. I started Saturday evening shooting five shot bracket for HDR. Then I went to shoot the horses and forgot to take the camera off of bracket mode. The result? I got one good shot, two decent shots, and two unusable shots for every five I took. I couldn’t figure out why my flash wasn’t giving me consistent results and of course blamed the equipment. It wasn’t until later that I realized that, as usual, the equipment was great, but the operator was faulty. Scott Bourne put it best; 99% of the equipment is better than 98% of the photographers.

George Lepp gave a brand new five hour presentation on Saturday and followed it up on Sunday with a phenomenal master class for us lucky 15. We had six hours to pick one of the best photographic minds and discuss a wide variety of subjects including HDR, pano, pano-HDR (or HDR panos), use of a histogram, composition, and lots of other subjects. It was AWESOME!!!

Morro Bay Photo Expo on the Water Shooting

As usual, please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Photo of the Week – Golden Canyon in Death Valley

This week’s image is a detail shot of the rock in Golden Canyon in Death Valley NP.

Death Valley Rock Detail

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.

5/5 Posts and Sites You Should Read for 10/22/10

This was supposed to publish Friday, but somehow the scheduler got screwed up. I apologize.

Here are the posts and sites that I found that I think you as a photographer should read. Not all of them are always related to photography, but take a look at them.

POSTS

Hacking Your Canon – Interested in changing how you use you Canon camera? Here is how to hack the software.

Using Twitter to Get Business – How to use Twitter as a prospecting tool

Calculate Your Water Usage – National Geographic will calculate your water footprint.

An Interview with John Cornforth – John Cornforth is a professional nature/landscape photographer.

Seven Excuses For Not Using Flash – Syl Arena answers those excuses in this post.

SITES

Joe McNally – The MASTER of the Nikon Creative Lighting System.

Gadget Infinity – I know, it’s a geek site. But it has all kinds of cool gadgets for photography if you do a search.

Camera Dojo – Kerry Garrison has a great podcast and a good site.

David M. Cobb Photography – He has a lot of good images that should inspire you.

Induro Tripods – The site for Induro products, makers of great tripods at a reasonable price.

Morro Bay Photo Expo

This weekend, I’m headed up to Morro Bay to participate in the Morro Bay Photo Expo. I went last year and had a good time and learned a lot.

Whenever I go to a photo workshop type of activity, I try to maximize my learning by signing up for session that I either have never experienced or that I am weak in. I sign-up for one session that I like, allowing me to make sure that I have fun, but my goal is to take myself out of my comfort zone and get me to learn more about how to improve my photography.

I’ll let you know how it goes next week.

Fossil Falls, CA – The Details

Revisiting my trip to Fossil Falls last weekend, one of the things I tried to do was to capture the small details that a large, landscape/panoramic picture can’t show.

Here are some of those shots.

Grass in Fossil Falls Lava

Water Warn Lava

Clinging to Life

Window Rock

Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Fossil Falls, CA

I took a trip last weekend to the Eastern Sierra Nevada to shoot the fall colors. My first night was spent in the Fossil Falls campground on 395, just south of Olancha.

Fossil Falls is a lave flow that used to have a river flowing through it. The result is some beautiful, worn lava formations that can be very photogenic.

The only issue with shooting there is that there are huge dynamic range possiblities or problems. The black lava against the blue sky or against clouds can create some metering concerns. Most of the problems, if you have exposed correctly, can be taken care of in post processing by recovering the highlights or adding some fill light.

Fossil Falls Lava Flows

Fossil Falls

Fossil Falls with the Sierra Nevada in the Background

Photo of the Week – California Gull at Mono Lake

This weeks image is from a recent trip to Mono Lake I took in August. Taken at the South Tufas, I liked the gull leaving the V in the water, but also the V from the unseen gull in the front.

California Gull at Mono Lake

Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.