Everyone has “squirrel moments”, right? In this case, it was a real life “Mr Nutterbutter” who thought they could evade the reach of the camera lens on the iPhone to nick a nut. Oh, you silly squirrel! 🙂 There’s hardly a place on Earth where you won’t find at least one camera lens pointed at […]
Photography Tips
“Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
Sir Winston Churchill
You will find in these posts all of the tips and tricks for photography that I’ve learnt over the past few years with a photo gallery to show you some examples to help jump-start your creative juices.
Some of these come from many conversations where someone is looking at a photograph I’m particularly proud of and then they are shocked that it actually turned out to be trivially simple and something they can do without investing a metric tonne of money in kit.
Take getting a lovely shot of a lightning bolt. The simple truth that it’s a matter of sticking the camera on a tripod, adding a manual shutter release with the camera shutter speed set to “BULB” mode, and then opening the shutter waiting for the lightning bolt to appear. When you see the bolt, release the shutter!
Other than a couple of settings for the lens and the camera, it really is that simple. The hard part is getting the storm to cooperate and fling lightning bolts in your general direction!
I love photography! I always have. Part of that is being hopelessly unable to draw recognisable pictures worth a darn and my poetry royally sucks. But there has always been this compulsion to be creative and when I found a camera allowed a monkey like me to find and touch art…I was hooked!
Perhaps when you see the magic behind the smoke and mirrors, you’ll find inspiration as well and be moved to create art that touches your heart. :)
From the “This Is Why You Pack a Macro Lens!” Dept:
After getting a few pictures of Mistletoe with the sunflowers at Dix Park, it was time to unleash the D850 with the 105mm f/2.8 Micro-NIKKOR lens and get up close and personal with the sunflowers and the bees that were busily pollinating them! This is the combination I wanted to be packing when we came […]
From the “If You’re Going to Play With Sunbeams” Dept:
Julia’s birthday included an impromptu trip to the large field of sunflowers currently inhabiting Dix Park just south of downtown Raleigh. She was interested in getting some pictures of the kids with the sunflowers as a backdrop and taking advantage of the lovely lighting from the setting sun. As we were between various shots/posing/occasional grumpiness/more […]
Creative Film Scanning
I’ve loved my little PlusTek 8200i film scanner…with the exception of medium format 120 film, it’s handled just about every set of negatives and slides I’ve thrown at it. It is designed to scan 35mm (135 format) film and it does it very well…having three trays to hold the negative strips is very nice as […]
Scanning Tonnes of Slides The Fast Way
One of the treasures I discovered in my father’s garage was a huge collection of 35mm slides shot by my grandmother and a tray that my father shot whilst deployed to Vietnam during his first tour of duty (1967-1968). What was shocking was how good a condition they were in despite the heavy humidity of […]
From “Historic Yates Mill Pond Park Invaded By The Paparazzi” Dept:
Nicholas had a photo assignment for his digital design class so with all of the online schoolwork done for the day, it was a lovely opportunity to visit Yates Mill Pond Park which has a water driven mill house on site. We ended up doing the full lap round the lake and it was a […]