Tag: learning

2018-09-02

It is time for Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk, again. This year, our local walk will be in Ashland’s North Mountain Park during the Bear Creek Salmon Festival. These photo walks are always a good chance to step outside of our normal or comfortable shooting environment. That is my first thought as I look through my own photos below; I was experimenting.

My hope is that this year’s photo walk will really set up a good opportunity for us to stretch ourselves in an area where so many of us struggle: people photos. This is a festival: lots of people will be out and about, cameras will be plentiful, and everybody’s guard will be down. We should have ample opportunity to catch photos of people without the awkwardness of us wondering if they mind us taking a photo. I am looking forward to the opportunities.

Enjoying each others photos after the photo walk.
Enjoying each others photos after the photo walk.
2013-05-06
2012-08-15

It is time for the Worldwide Photo Walk. It will be on October 13th, and our local group will be walking the quaint Village of Salado. Salado should provide plenty of interesting shooting, since it hosts of variety of artists itself, everything from musicians, to painters, to glass blowers. On top of that, Salado boasts quite an old and storied history for this part of the world. The buildings themselves tell a story which goes back many generations. If you are wondering what a “photo walk” is, it is really just a good excuse to get out and take some pictures. I have never taken anything earth-shattering, but I have had fun, which tells me the photo walk is more about the people than the photos themselves. You can talk gear to folks who will not roll their eyes; you can ask questions about types of photography you have not…

2011-11-11

One of the fun parts of the Worldwide Photo Walk is the contest. That is not why we go, but it seems wherever photographers gather there is sure to be a contest to follow. I always love browsing the photographs Scott Kelby picks as the winners. He also does something a little out of the ordinary with the contest, though: he posts an extra set of photos that do not technically win anything, but were just photos that left an impression on him.

Well, the winner of our Belton photo walk, Hylas Kessler, was featured in this extra set of photos, and it well deserves such recognition. In this extra set of photos, Scott Kelby picks photos in a witty set of categories, such as “Best Shot of a Bird Crying” or “Best Shot That’s So Obviously Seattle, but Still Really Good.” Among such outlandish pseudo-categories, the category for this photo was what I would consider core to the art of photography: “Best Simple Composition (and use of color).”

2011-09-11

I just love the photo walk idea: getting together with other lovers of photography, going out, and having fun doing what we love doing. It is not talking about photography; it is doing photography. It is not really meant to learn, yet we usually learn something just by watching others and thinking about a different approach to a particular shot. It is not passive, but directly active. Last year, our Temple, Belton, Killeen, Salado area photo walk was in Temple. This year, we are going to switch things up a bit and try out a new downtown, Belton. Last year was a bit difficult to organize, because initially, our location was rejected because we were too close to other walks, in Austin and (I think) Waco. They finally gave in, but we had lost a lot of time that could have been used getting the word out to interested photographers.…

2011-06-14

We are back to that recurring question: what camera should I buy? I am often asked, but having recently put some work into finding the best options for a coworker who was buying a first camera setup for her son, I thought it might be helpful to share what I found and suggested. I worked quite hard to stay within a $500 budget, though some of the options below rely on used gear, and availability certainly can change quickly.

My chief aim was to avoid the kit lens which comes with all of the entry level digital SLRs. Not that they are rubbish, necessarily, but you will constantly be fighting their limited aperture, your photos will have the same feel as everybody else’s, and more than likely you will be more satisfied with a cheap, fixed-length lens with wider aperture. So, here we go…

2011-01-25

Aperture is just funky. Well, if you sit around with friends calculating the area of a circle and talk about the next digit of π, then maybe you are just a different kind of normal and aperture is your cup of tea. For the rest of us, though, I highly suggest a time honored method to understanding your camera, though understanding why the numbers are weird will elude you: memorize.

Any of us can calculate that ISO 200 is twice as sensitive as ISO 100, and ISO 400 is twice as fast as as ISO 200. With film sensitivity, a stop of light is easy to figure. Even with the shutter speed, though they inconveniently do not use exact numbers, the key numbers are approximately exponential: 2, 4, 8, 15, 30, 60, 125, 250, 500, 1000. There is a little funny business going on in there, but basically, it is easy to figure a stop of light. Aperture, though? Not so much.

2011-01-23

An excellent portrait in my book has little to do with technical perfection, trick lighting, or a formulaic set up. An excellent portrait is a glimpse at a person, tells a story, reveals something of the subject’s character, or allows you to understand the subject better. As such, a good portrait might well be in a studio, but quite likely will not, because the subject likely will be more comfortable in a familiar setting, and just maybe, a particular setting could bring out something unexpected. There is, of course, much we can all learn, there are little tips and tricks, but much of portrait photography comes down to just doing it. Trying to make the photo happen, then just letting it happen. Emulating a popular style, then doing it the good old fashioned way. Focusing on technique, then working to capture that one expression. More than anything else, I hope…

2011-01-04

Do you see good photo ops, but just cannot seem to make the camera capture the image like you see it? Photography is half creativity and half technique, and without a firm grasp on the technical side of how our cameras capture photographs, we can only hope our cameras take the photo we want. We all struggle with this “other half of photography”, but the more we understand and know how to put into practice, the fewer ruined photographs we will have. I will be leading a class on Wednesday nights this month (January) to learn about light, how our cameras capture it, and the limitations and creative potential unique to photography. Temple Parks & Leisure is providing this class each Wednesday in January from 5:30-7:00pm for a total cost of $45. Feel free to ask any questions you might have of me below in the comments or contact Temple…

2010-12-29

I will soon have the pleasure of leading some photography classes here in Temple, Texas, and I wanted to start off with the most useful topic possible [note: I did want to start with portraits, but due to some miscommunication between me and Temple Parks, we will do the portrait workshop in February]. How many of us would not appreciate being able to take better photos of our family and friends? The vast majority of our photos are of people, yet photographing people can prove to be one of the most difficult photographic pursuits. The focus of the workshop will not be to cram technical information…as if portrait photography were as simple as learning some formulaic technique anyway. The focus is to turn simple tips into habits through doing. We will identify the problems plaguing our pictures, learn the fix, and practice that fix enough that we all but eliminate…