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Sorry for not blogging!  I've been ridiculously busy this week.  Like, I've shot various events ALL DAY for the past four days straight.  I only have time for a couple photos.

I'm getting pretty rusty at landscape photography, so this is all I've been able to come up with lately...












My WORK, however, has been exhilarating lately.  On the shoot for the above image I think I set a new world speed record for filling up a 4-gig memory card...  I had no idea that an empty park, some grass and some trees could be such a goldmine of light and composition...  But I was shooting with two other photographers, and as soon as I decided the location and framed the shot, we were ALL just, like, wow...   (And Stephen manned the zebra-gold reflector BTW, check his blog for some equally gorgeous shots...)

Take care all,
=Matt=

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Had a great time on Saturday attending Tim's Photography 101 workshop for DSLR users.  Tim is a great guy with an incredible knack for both explaining things in simple terms and inspiring others to pursue something.  (Did I mention he's a pastor?)

Let's play what's wrong, what's right, and what did I LEARN at the workshop?







Alright, so, here's what I notice about this picture that I've learned to do "right"...

~ Timing the shot to capture a fun (but hopefully not embarrasing) expression...

~  Framing the subject, or main point of focus, a little off -center, loosely following the rule of thirds...

~  Using line and movement to enhance the "action" in a still image...

~  Tilting the camera a little to play around with those lines and see how they affect the way one views the image...

~  Maintaining a shutter speed (the denominator number, but most cameras don't list shutter speeds as 1/60th, they just say "60") ...that is better than your focal length number, or focal length equivalent.  (I shot at about 70mm, which is about equal to 100mm, so my shutter speed was about one 125th sec.; this barely gave me a sharp image cause I was a little hopped up on donuts lol...  Usually in low-light situations up to 150mm I try and shoot at 250th sec...)

~  Using spot metering to make sure a subject (face) is properly exposed while completely disregarding the rest of the frame...  (In this case, I'm letting the background blow out on purpose, and later this week for example, I'm going to use spot metering in a theater to properly expose actor's faces and let the background go to BLACK...)

~  Switching out of "auto white balance" and finding the proper custom white balance for increased control over the final image.  (I often like to err on the warm side of things when photographing people, because warmth well, adds warmth?  Haha...)


And, here's what, after attending the workshop, I am reminded to AVOID doing next time:

~  Avoid intersecting any part of people's heads with anything in the background.  This is my number one pet-peeve about MY OWN imagery, actually.  And I'm still working on it!

~  Blur the background as much as possible to enhance a sense of clarity in the subject-  I wish I had an 85mm f/1.8 lens for this shot, it would have made quite a difference...

~  Don't ALWAYS tilt your camera just because you think it's artistic.  This image would have worked perfectly fine, and maybe even looked better, if it were level.



Alright that's all I have time for at the moment, I gotta run!  Sorry I haven't blogged in so long, and I'm sorry I haven't been able to schedule any photo get-togethers!  I'm really dying to start HELPING other photographers, especially if there are some out there who are interested in the more hobby-ish things I'm interested, like landscape photography, nighttime photography, etc. etc.  But alas, each month just keep filling WAY up with new work!  I'm shooting children's theater three days this week and then a wedding this weekend.  I'd better go buy some more memory cards!!!

Take care,
=Matt=

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