If you have been following my posts you will have noticed that I have not been blogging weekly as I originally intended. There are a lot of excuses for this - there always are.
The main reason is a growing realisation that in trying to blog each week - especially providing the photos - has meant that I have been taking photos for the blogs sake rather than to take the best photos I can. They have been disappointing to me, never mind anyone viewing them. I have forced myself out to places when the weather was not the best for taking photos - which is not always bad weather but sometimes bright sunshine - and I have moved away from my aim. To get out there, improve the photography, and take the best photos I can. Instead it ended up as an East Sussex travelog. I want to take the ultimate photos, not the average.
I have to learn about the camera, composition, styles, what I can and can't do [though I learn quite quickly that something hasn't worked when I look at the screen].
I get frustrated when the image I have in my head is not what I get in the camera. Though I think [or hope] that at least when I now look at them, I realise what I could have done a little differently. I only hope I remember for the next time.
The upshot - I now realise that my statement at the beginning of this blog, to post pictures and updates weekly is not improving my photography and may be contributing to making it mundane. So a new strategy evolves. I will blog when I have something to say about my learning techniques. To post some photos when I have something special to show you or I will add to my tips page when I find out a useful titbit.
I hope I haven't disappointed you too much but this blog was started to increase my learning curve and it is certainly doing this.
In the past few weeks I have taken photos in the garden here and around the estate. On the compact flash card, which I filled on Thursday, there are photos of fields, trees, gardens and polo horses. While I have managed a quick look at the card to delete the really bad pictures at the start of the card, that is about as far as I have got. As I am sure you know, despite my best intentions, life happens. The mundane such as mowing the lawn and trimming the hedges, cleaning out the duck ponds all have to be done. Good weather brings good weather tasks.
A project I am working on is a complicated compilation of at least 3 pictures. I have one I took at Wookey Hole of some cave people - without heads. This is the one that initiated the idea. I have erased background and individualised the cave people. I am now working on the heads using pictures of people I know and hope I will be able to blend these together. Finally, I hope to arrange my cave people on a familiar background taken on Thursday. The end result, I really hope, will be an A3 sized picture to give to some people I know at the end of June when a special event takes place.
In addition, there are a couple of competitions I would like to enter if I can find a good print to put forward. So I need to think about these sooner rather than later.
Wish me luck.
and in the meantime, if you really want to see some great pictures, log onto David Noton's website. He has a picture taken at Cheddar Gorge, not long after my visit, which I would never have had the courage to take. David also has a facebook page as well as a roadshow touring the country. It would be nice to get fit enough to go on one of his work shops one day.
Have a great summer.................
TTFN
Saturday 21 May 2011
Tuesday 10 May 2011
Photography Tips
If I find some photography tips I find really useful I will post it here.
Panorama's without the camera function or the software.
If you don't want to stitch several photographs together in camera or with PC software and your camera does not have an actual panoramic option here is an idea I have found useful. I can't claim it to be my own, having read it in one of my many photography books, however it makes it easier to take a panoramic style photograph.
Try looking on your camera for the aspect ratio's. You usually have 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 and 1:1. If you choose 16:9, this changes the camera's view from the usual 4:3 to a 16:9 layout. A bit like changing from an old style TV screen to widescreen. When you look through your viewfinder you get a more useful letter box style picture frame, not as long and thin as a typical panoramic, however I find it is the next best thing. It is easier to 'see' the photo you want through the viewfinder and if you do need to crop when you get it onscreen at home, it is usually just a bit along the top and the bottom. Try it.
Stop people blinking in your group photos
When you take a picture of more than one person there is always the problem of one [or more] of your subjects becoming distracted or blinking at the point where you press the shutter button. A tip I picked up and have used when taking a friends wedding photos is that you set up your camera ready to go, ready the group as much as possible, check your camera viewfinder quickly one last time, then get everyone in the groups attention. Ask them to close their eyes [they are usually looking at you at this point], then you ask them to open their eyes on the count of three. Once you have spoken the magic number click your shutter. Job done.
The aim here is that, as everyone has their eyes closed and opens them as you say 3, there is no chance for a blink to get in the way and spoil the photo. It does work too!!
Panorama's without the camera function or the software.
If you don't want to stitch several photographs together in camera or with PC software and your camera does not have an actual panoramic option here is an idea I have found useful. I can't claim it to be my own, having read it in one of my many photography books, however it makes it easier to take a panoramic style photograph.
Try looking on your camera for the aspect ratio's. You usually have 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 and 1:1. If you choose 16:9, this changes the camera's view from the usual 4:3 to a 16:9 layout. A bit like changing from an old style TV screen to widescreen. When you look through your viewfinder you get a more useful letter box style picture frame, not as long and thin as a typical panoramic, however I find it is the next best thing. It is easier to 'see' the photo you want through the viewfinder and if you do need to crop when you get it onscreen at home, it is usually just a bit along the top and the bottom. Try it.
Stop people blinking in your group photos
When you take a picture of more than one person there is always the problem of one [or more] of your subjects becoming distracted or blinking at the point where you press the shutter button. A tip I picked up and have used when taking a friends wedding photos is that you set up your camera ready to go, ready the group as much as possible, check your camera viewfinder quickly one last time, then get everyone in the groups attention. Ask them to close their eyes [they are usually looking at you at this point], then you ask them to open their eyes on the count of three. Once you have spoken the magic number click your shutter. Job done.
The aim here is that, as everyone has their eyes closed and opens them as you say 3, there is no chance for a blink to get in the way and spoil the photo. It does work too!!
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