I taught a quick iPhoneography class, earlier this month, at the Williamsburg Contemporary Art Center. Why was I teaching iPhoneography? Because photographer Chase Jarvis is right. The best camera really is the one you have with you. Whether you’re traveling or hanging around your home town, your mobile phone is usually with you, even when you’ve left your DSLR at home. So, it’s a really good idea to figure out how to use it!
One of the attendees quickly noticed that she was taking multiple photos instead of just one. She asked how to turn that feature off.
Since I’ve had the same problem in the past, I thought I’d write a quick post about Burst Mode: what it is, how to use it, how to avoid it, and what on earth to do when you find that your phone is full of multiple shots of the exact same scene.
First of all, what is Burst Mode and how do you use it?
Vervet Mama and Baby at Lake Naivasha, in the Rift Valley in Kenya, taken with intention and my Canon 5D Mark IV, just before she decided to enter my room and have a look around… Can you guess what f/stop number I chose to blur the background. Click on the photo to see a larger version. (Photo details at the end of the blog post.)
I love my iPhone camera! Ever since Apple introduced the iPhone 4s in 2011, with it’s improved camera and technology, I’ve been hooked on the convenience and quality. Before that, when I traveled, I carried a small digital Canon Elph point-and-shoot camera, set to auto mode, to grab photos quickly. Now, I didn’t need to carry an extra camera. I had the perfect tool to feed my “shoot and run” habit. Read more →
A photo of me in a Masai village in Tanzania this winter, taken by my friend, Dan Longacre. I was holding three cameras…
Sometimes, it’s what you carry. Sometimes, it’s what you do. Either way, if you’re a photographer, you need to team to support you.
Skip and I were grabbing a bite to eat between golf lessons on Sunday and talking about what we’d learned from the first lesson. I noted that I needed to move my left shoulder more, but it really didn’t want to move… Then, I said, “But that’s not a problem. I’ll just tell Darin, and he’ll help me correct that. After all, I have a great team!” Read more →
Slide to the left to see the difference between a photo shot in JPG and one shot in RAW and edited in Lightroom CC. Scenes like this are what Slow Travel is all about.
Click here to see a larger version of the finished photo.
Sometimes, your iPhone can be your DSLR’s best friend. And, better yet, it can make your travel easier, too!
Skip and I like to indulge in something we call Slow Travel. When we’re going on a trip that has no time contract, we like to pad the dates and slow down a bit.
In July, we were invited to a party in Cleveland, Ohio. We had nothing planned for the days just before or after the party, so we decided to drive there from Virginia, instead of flying. Then, Skip set about designing a road trip that would spend most of the time on state and U.S. highways, rather than interstates.
Back in the old days… before the 1950s… these were the roads you drove to go places in the United States. They could be slow, Read more →
7 Quick Tips for Keeping Your Camera Safe
It’s National Safety Month, here in the USA. What better time to share 7 quick tips to keep your camera safe! If you’d like to see larger versions of the photos, just click on them.
Capturing your dog’s expression is lots of fun, but you might get nose prints, or, worse yet, scratches, on your lens!
1. Use a UV or Protector Lens Filter on all of your lenses: Cameras today are really computers, and, just like your laptop, sooner or later, they will become obsolete. Your lenses, on the other hand, should last for many years! A good place to start protecting your lens is with a UV or Protector filter. (Be sure to buy the correct size for your lens’ diameter.) Either type of filter will work. You screw it onto your lens and leave it there. Its purpose is simply to protect the glass from scratches, dirt and nose prints… If it does get scratched, it’s a lot cheaper to replace than the lens would be! The one time you will want to remove it is when you are going to be adding additional filters, like Neutral Density Filters. Leaving on too many filters can lead to vignetting.
It’s Christmas Eve, and all around the world, people and searching through their homes, trying to remember where they stored their camera bags.
When they finally find the bag, the next thought is… “How do I set this thing?”
Of course, you’re much more organized than that. You know exactly where your DSLR camera is and how to use it. But, just in case you need a little refresher, here are five quick tips to get you started. Read more →
This photo of Mont Saint Michel was shot after sunset, using an 8 second exposure.
When you get a group of photographers together and mention tripods, you’ll hear a lot of opinions on when to use them. Some photographers won’t take a photo without one. Others, like me, use them only for specific shots. But, no matter the opinion, they all can agree that there are tricks to using tripods. In fact, if you don’t know them, your photo may be worse than if you had just shot hand-held! So here are some tricks that will really improve your tripod shots.
Setting Up Your Tripod:
1) If at all possible, do not extend the center column of the tripod. Huh??? Then why is it there? I carry a small Gitzo Tripod (Amazon affiliate link)because I’m small and try to reduce the weight I carry as much as possible. Depending on the shooting situation, I might have to extend it, to get the camera to a height I want. But, the steadiest place to put your camera is right at the apex of the tripod. That is where the three legs come together.
Read more →
This week is Buddha’s Birthday in Seoul, South Korea, so it’s time for the annual Lotus Lantern Festival. Seoul also holds another lantern festival in the fall, so there are plenty of opportunities to practice your photography skills. Here are some ideas to make your photos really shine.
You may encounter lanterns that are moving and ones that are still. Let’s deal with the still ones first.
Tips for photographing still lanterns:
Three lanterns of men in traditional costumes on the Cheonggye Stream in Seoul, South Korea.
In Seoul, the still lanterns are built on platforms in the Cheonggye Stream. If the crowds are not too great, you may be able to use a tripod. Otherwise, you’ll have to be sure to choose settings with a fast enough shutter speed. I shoot in Aperture mode because I like to play around with my depth of field. Here’s what I do when I’m shooting without a tripod:
First I decide my aperture setting, depending on the composition. Do I want the entire lantern to be in focus or not? For this photo, I chose f/4 to separate the front lantern from the others.
Next I focus. I always shoot with just one focus point selected. And that focus point is on the eye that is closest to me. (Just like shooting a portrait!) Read more →
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