How to become a better photographer in one day!

I take it as a compliment that people ask me how to become better photographers.  The question assumes that I know how to get a picture, which is nice.  I'm not always so confident myself.

My answer, and I see this a lot from other photogs much better than myself, is to shoot a lot of pictures and change the way you look at light and composition.

Want to get better fast?

Find a day-long event with a lot of people in a lot of situations and make pictures.  Go indoors, outdoors, bright sun, shade... all over the place.  Then think about each place you are shooting and how to make something good there.  It won't always happen, but it makes you think differently.

I shoot a lot of photos for my church.  I see my abilities and equipment as a gift from God, and something to share, so it affords me the opportunity to give back while also honing skills.  And that is good.

One caveat... If you do this with the purpose of thinking photographically, you will also not be participating as much in the event you are photographing.  Rather, you are participating, but not directly.  Two years from now, much of what people will remember from the event will be the photos that remain.

Here is a quick set of my favorites from an event we held last weekend, as an example.

The setup is an outdoor church service, a giant meal, followed by indoor and outdoor activities for all ages including sports, games, music, etc. etc.

For me.. one camera (6D) two lenses (24-70 and 70-200) and several bottles of water.

Early morning, partly cloudy, cold, set-up and practice by the band.  Layers.  Trees.  Sun. Expression... Push the button.

Good shady light?  Isolate the subject on a darker background.  Push button.


Now get closer.  Invade people's space a little bit.  Follow the advice of Robert Capa.  "If your photos aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."


And what's going on indoors?  Introduction of a new youth pastor and his family?  OK, change all of the camera settings, wait for an expression.  Push button.


Think documentary purposes... and unique angles.  Climb stairs.  Shoot wide...


Did I mention puffy clouds on blue sky?  Push button.


Lunch is served.  Giant window light, Yay!  Change camera settings.  Try to get some unique angle and an expression.  Push button.


Back outside.  Occasional bright sun followed by cloud cover.  Ride the shutter speed.  Basketball, volleyball.  Don't forget to change to continuous autofocus.  Timing.  Push the button.


Move around a lot but on purpose.  Stop dead in your tracks because one of the most wonderful old guys you know has paused for a reflective moment on the sidewalk.  Push the button.  I wish for all the world Mr. Lyons was standing out on the grass with trees in the background.


Think up a challenge like: Can I take a picture of a person flying a kite that includes the kite and the persons face?  Then wait for it...  push the button.


Back inside.  Change settings.  Dominoes going on.  Expression.  Push the button.  Don't give in to the players who want to see pictures of the other players' dominoes.


Back outside.. it's basketball.  Harsh shadows making silhouettes on the ground?  Cool.  Put them in the picture.  Or just take pictures of the silhouettes.. whatever.  Push the button.




Those shadows are good elsewhere too...


Busy backgrounds all around..  oh wait, we still have nifty clouds.  Throw horseshoe.  Push button.


Now keep doing that for a while and just wear yourself out.  That should do it.
Get permission from your significant other first.  Especially if taking all of these pictures means you won't be helping out much with a toddler or, say, eating together.

Seriously, it changes the way you look at situations and forces you to pay attention to camera settings, people's faces and everything that is going into your pictures.

All told, with a few breaks worked in throughout the day, I shot for about 10 hours in just about every situation imaginable (except studio lighting etc).  That is good practice!

Pick an event.  Let people know you will be there with a camera.  And shoot away.

A favorite for all the right reasons

Out of 1,987 photos that I brought home from Peru, it is a very unlikely one that has become one of my favorites.

We were in the middle of a tour in Lima when I saw these four musicians walking down the sidewalk. I had a flash of The Beatles crossing Abbey Road in my head and lifted the camera above the window sill of our tour guide's van.

As with much of the trip, I was carrying the 5D, this time with the 24-70mm. It was a complete grab shot, no time to frame it well as we drove by rather quickly.

The bad...
It is way out of focus, exposure was off (hence the color wackiness I created in Lightroom for this version) and the composition could be better.

The good...
Four musicians with an unlikely (at least for N. America) combination of instruments walking in unison down a street in Peru. The building makes a nice and interesting background... a hint of crosswalk stripes (a la Beatles)..

As a personal trip photo, I love it. The fact that I got a frame at all surprised me, and after playing with it, I found a color setting that fits the mood...

Go figure.

So remember, while proper composition, lighting, posing, metering, lens selection etc. etc. etc are great, the real essence of photography is capturing a moment that can be kept, inspected and remembered in detail. Sometimes the beauty is in the imperfections.

And, sometimes it really pays off to have a camera at the ready.

Happy Shooting

don j.

It's Been a Zoo Around Here

I hope everyone had an great Memorial Weekend. Please visit the Big Picture blog for some great photos to help you remember why we have a Memorial Day.

What have I been up to? Well, it has been a bit of a zoo around here...












More fun stuff to come, thanks for stopping by.

Happy Shooting,

Don J.

Random Fun Shoot: Team Impact at FBCK

OK, two random fun shoot posts in a row... I will try to get back to some how-to's soon. Yes, I've been too busy having fun with the camera, which is not a bad thing!

Sooooo...
Three members of Team Impact, a group of very strong guys who excel at breaking things, visited my church for five nights of last week. For those of you who are not Christians, it may seem odd to have giants come to break things in church, but dont' worry, it is a bit odd to me also. Break things and tell people about Jesus? Yes indeed... If you want some deeper spiritual aspects of this sort of thing, head over this blog by one of the church leaders for some thoughts.

Naturally, when you combine modern-day giants, fire, and feats of strength, there are photos to be had. Of course, we don't want snapshots, do we?! I spent three nights trying to get some photos that I liked, and had a blast watching Chris, Marc and Greg do what they do.

Friday...
One thing I already knew... the church is not very bright inside. Of course, I wanted to set up lights. My first attempt was to put one strobe (Canon 430ex 1/4 power) on a column to audience right, about 5' back from the stage. (how does this work? Go to Strobist.com!) This was supplementing another strobe on the camera with a bounce card. Results... fair.


As you can see, the background is really busy, and the flashes are lighting it up, a lot. I was pretty happy with the timing anyway.


Using only ambient light, the Team Impact logo showed up as a nice background element, but there was no way to stop action that way.... here Marc talks to the crowd


You can see there also how the ambient stage lighting causes dark shadow areas in the eyes... not attractive.

Using only the remote flash gave dramatic results, and I got my favorite shot of the evening when Marc was crushing diet 7-up cans...


I knew I would have to work on that in the coming nights.

Finally on Friday, I saw that the single flash was making a nice silhouette on the opposite wall... so I waited for a gesture, thanks Greg


I was completely unprepared for fire.. this is the best I could do, even with a lot of correction in the computer afterwards.



Saturday
Friday night was a great learning experience to see how these guys operated, and to be prepared for the quick pace as they moved from one thing to the next...

I was ready for Saturday, putting a flash on each side of the stage, barely at the front edge firing directly across the room. Wherever the sprite would fly, I would be ready. It made for dramatic lighting...


It was also awards night for the church's Upward Basketball League so the place was packed for two performances. It is always good to get a perspective that most people don't get to see. Of course, you risk embarrassing yourself in front of a crowd too. Unfortunately, the flash was catching the chandelier, so the attention goes to that instead of the bent-around steel bar.


The kids really enjoyed the can crushing extravaganza..


Sunday

Sunday night was the big finale, so what to do photographically speaking?

First up I wanted to try a lot of things so I started with a 14mm Sigma on the Canon 5D. Very Wide, unique angle, no flashes, and very dark.



Unfortunately, with the flashes on, the wide angle almost always had a flash in the field of view causing lots of flare.

I went with two remote flashes again, on each side of the stage but further back. I also set them on different channels of the remote (Elinchrom Skyports) so that I could fire them individually or both at the same time.

Together, they lit the stage nicely, although I should have worked on getting less light on the background


Even getting in close the background is busy, but the fire makes it OK, right? Shortly after this i was cleaning fire extinguisher residue off of the camera.


The camera cleaning was a bit pointless, as bursting soda cans was coming soon.... and I wanted to get close.


That was a little too close!

As the program wrapped up, it was time for the promised attempt at snapping an aluminum bat. As you might expect, this took a bit longer than breaking a standard wooden bat... and gave me time to play with using only one flash.

With both, the light was OK..


With only one flash, the light was much more dramatic, and there was less light hitting the ceiling for a cleaner background. I was in the right spot to "frame" Chris' face with the bent bat as he made the final pull.



While their approach may be unorthodox, these guys did a great job of both entertaining and sharing the message of Jesus.

Happy Shooting,

don j.

Random Fun Shoot - BMX Racing

My Brother-in-Law and Nephew wanted to check out some BMX racing, which sounded like a fun photo opportunity to me...

In the Dallas area, Metroplex BMX seems to be the place to go for such a thing. Racing was on a Friday night, and other than the website photos, I had no idea what to expect...

I did not want to take "too much" gear, so I packed for versatility... the Canon 40D and two zooms, 24-70, and 70-200. I was really banking on the facility having good lights. In retrospect, it would have been wise to bring at least one faster prime lens, because the lights were not very bright. High ISO is my friend, but the photos could have been much better. Most of these were underexposed in the camera and required pushing the exposure in Lightroom to look OK. Image quality isn't great, but it was a fun shoot so no worries!

First up was round after round of practice starts, then the riders would slowly make there way to the finish. Practice for me too... and looking for backgrounds.

One section of bleachers was almost empty... not bad.. can I move your trash can?

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

Looking down from the top row let the dirt of the track be the background.

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

Of course, I wanted to try some slow-shutter panning shots. The dirt was quite good for this, although my technique still needs work.

Canon 40D, 70-200, f8, 1/25, iso3200

Long range panning is harder... I was pretty happy with this one. Most of the riders were not getting any air, so that was a bonus.

Canon 40D, 70-200, f3.5, 1/30, iso500

From ground level, the tops of the jumps are quite high. I wanted to catch a rider's head peering over the top to show the size. I was surprised how hard it was to get focused and get a frame before they popped up the jump, and I never did get a good focus on a face. The helmet makes an easier target for the camera to catch.

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

From the other side of the track, you could look over and come face-to-face with riders exiting the final turn...

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

When racing finally got started, there were usually 3-5 racers per class/heat. After the start and first set of jumps, there was not a lot of tight racing action. I did like this formation of riders hitting a jump early in one race..

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

This guy would rather be racing than watching..

Canon 40D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/250, iso3200

From the finish line, you can look back down a long line of jumps that make up the final straight. I was hoping to get one rider down in the valley and another jumping.. this worked out nicely with a bonus rider in the middle.

Canon 40D, 24-70mm, f2.8, 1/250, iso3200

And another with four... this is about as close a finish as we had all night.

Canon 40D, 24-70, f2.8, 1/320, iso3200

I look forward to going back, it was a lot of fun, and there are lots of other shots I want to try now that I have had time to think about it.

Happy Shooting,

Don J.

Rayfield Wright visits FBC Kaufman

Certifiable football legend Rayfield Wright was a guest speaker at FBC Kaufman last Sunday. For me, it was a fun opportunity to capture another event at the church while working on photo ideas.

First up was a baptism, and I finally got to try putting a remote camera "backstage" for a unique view. I used a Strobist inspired 2-flash setup... 1 flash in a Lastolite EzyBox about two feet above the camera, and another on the other side of the pool firing directly back at the camera. I wanted a blast of light behind either the pastor or the boy who was being baptized...

Canon 5D, 24-70mm, f11, 1/200, iso400

Next time I will try blasting the whole back wall to white.

The remote was triggered by the camera I was using from the back of the room...

Canon 40D, 70-200mm, f2.8, 1/100, iso1000

Next up was Rayfield Wright... and he is a totally classy guy with a great message about living, faith and finding your way to a meaningful life. If you get a chance to hear him speak or meet him in person, you will be blessed.

I tried to be inconspicuous... but I had a hard time finding anything unique to shoot. There was Robert with a Tony Romo jersey, listening intently...

Canon 5D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/30, iso1600

Mr. Wright is an active and expressive speaker which is great for photos... unfortunately there are a lot of distracting things on stage that draw attention away from the subject...

Canon 5D, 70-200mm, f2.8, 1/30, iso1600

I did not want to be distracting with a flash, so even at ISO 1600/f2.8, I was still shooting at 1/25-1/60 shutter speeds. Leaning on the wall helped keep the camera steady, but I had to try to catch him with his hands still, which wasn't easy. I still like this one because the pastor is laughing and looking back toward the camera.

Canon 5D, 70-200mm, 1/25, iso1600

Finally I caught him gesturing, not blurry hands, just the red chairs in the background, and a nice bunch of attentive audience members in the foreground.

Canon 5D, 70-200, f2.8, 1/30, iso1600

With that, I was pretty happy.

This was the last of 3 services that morning, and Mr. Wright stuck around until nearly 1:30 signing autographs, selling his book and shaking hands. He put one of his SuperBowl rings and his NFL Hall of fame ring on the little kids for pictures... those rings are huge!

Canon 5D, 24-70mm, f5, 1/60, iso1250, Flash w/bounce card

Pro Football is a game for really big men..

Canon 5D, 24-70mm, f5, 1/60, iso1250, Flash w/bounce card

It was a fun morning to shoot, and great to hear a really inspiring man share his story, faith, and experience. He retired from football when I was 4 years old, but what he shares is timeless.

If I took your photo, you can find it here.

Back to photo basics next.

don j.