“The Strip”, Las Vegas
With long shutter speeds, you can capture the passage of time in a way that your “instant snapshot eyes” can’t. Your eyes and brain are capturing a rapid series of individual images and turning them into motion, while a still camera can capture one very long image. You can create images with a camera that your unaided eyes can’t create.
When shooting portraits, turning the face upside down to change the usual perspective can give the face a dramatic new look. We are used to seeing people right side up with the eyes higher in the photo than the nose, lips and chin. Putting the eyes at the bottom of the photo changes the look of the face. Most people are surprised at the difference in how they look when photographed from this angle.
The header photo (posted Dec 27) is a Great Gray Owl photographed in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula at Whitefish Point.
UPDATE: The $3.00 off coupon from Amazon is no longer available.
Amazon has been offering a $3.00 off coupon for the last couple of days on their usual discount price for Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies. I don’t know how long this coupon offer will last. When you get to Amazon . . .
Silent Night, Moraine Park
Snow glistens in the last light of dusk.
Distant clouds glow with the fading light from the sun, long since set.
A chill fills the calm night air.
Stars twinkle in the deepening winter sky.
The crunch, crunch, crunch of footsteps on the gravel path.
Lights come on in the distance. Warm and inviting.
Home. Family. Friends. Dinner and the opening of gifts.
The voices of carolers drift across the valley:
“Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright. . . .”
Christmas!
The photo in the header of this blog (as of Dec 24) is the Spanish Peaks above the little town of LaVeta Colorado. As a small boy growing up in Colorado, a view of the Spanish Peaks greeted me every morning from our living room window.
Umbrella, flash, and flash bracket on a tripod.
Photographers are always looking for ways to soften the light when doing portraits. The light from an accessory flash can be quite harsh so there are a wide range of modifiers to soften the light for more pleasing portraits. Here are my three favorites.
Sky Dog
It’s the time of year when a jolly old elf squeezes down countless chimneys, reindeer fly, and most anything else can happen. I’m sure you believe dogs can fly!
Originally posted Nov. 14, updated Dec. 22.
Looking for the best photo gifts for a photographer? You’ve come to the right place. It is the time of year that I get asked a lot of questions from people who are buying gifts for photographers, or from photographers wanting to drop hints (“photographer†means anyone who likes to take pictures).
AlienBees Studio Lights
For the best combination of quality and price, it is hard to beat AlienBees studio lights. I’ve been using AlienBees in my studio (and on location) for 5 years, and like so many other photographers, I’ve been singing their praises. It would be hard to find the same quality for less money.
Christmas Angel
In this “found photo”, I wanted to capture the light shining on the angel, but also the light shining through the angel’s somewhat translucent right wing. The challenge was to find an exposure that wouldn’t totally burn out the left side while catching the light coming through the wing.
Golden Brook. Photo © Tony Sweet
I’ve been reading two excellent nature photography books by Tony Sweet. They are published by Stackpole Books who recruits first class photographers to write an excellent and ongoing series of photography books. I’ve been giving high praise to Stackpole’s photography books for years and I now have two more to add to the list.
Gorillapod
There are a lot of practical and inexpensive gifts for photographers. Here is a nice list in order of approximate cost from $4 to $80. All of these items can be found at my photography store (powered by Amazon.com with Amazon’s terrific ordering, shipping, guarantee, and service).
My photography book, Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies, received a great review from yet another professional photographer, Jennifer Blakeley. She is the most recent pro to give my book high praise. She wrote the following:
Window Light Portrait
There is a reason photographers like soft window light. It is great for all kinds of subjects, like the young woman above and the photo of a 2 week old infant in a prior post.
California Poppies
Flowers photos are often taken from eye level (human eye level), but flowers usually look best when taken from the flower’s eye level. But some flowers, under the right conditions, look best when the camera is right on the ground and looking up.
Window Light Portrait
Photographers take advantage of window light to create portraits, and long before photography, painters were making good use of window light. It can be beautiful light.