Don't Forget Your Tripod

When I first started shooting serious photography, I did not subscribe to carrying a tripod everywhere.  I have outgrown my aversion to carrying that bulky piece of equipment around, because it is a valuable tool to taking spectacular photographs.  I did learn how to improvise a lot during this period and I did capture some amazing photographs.

I captured the photograph above by using a fence post in a dark barn.  The couple that is watching their son prepare their cattle for show did not see me taking the photograph and were amazed when I showed them the photograph.  I gave them a copy of the photograph, which they had printed and framed for their home.  The heifer won grand champion the next morning!

I really recommend a tripod.  However, you can use a table, post, counter and nearly any other solid object to steady your camera.  I was very lucky to have such a crystal clear shot on this frame.  Sometimes you get just one shot.  I have to many early shots ruined due to not having a tripod.

 

Christmas Time Lights

I love Christmas time!  It's not just the family time, parties, gifts and genuine Christmas fun.  It's the lights and decorations.  Be sure to take your tripod and your patients.  This is a great time to practice your long exposures and your HDR techniques.

You need to take long exposures with your camera to get the detail your human eye can see.  However your camera only captures a single frame making all the lights blur.  Don't be afraid to play with the light.  This is a single 23second f/29 exposure.  Be sure to use a setting of f/9 or higher to help get your depth of field.

This is a six frame HDR photograph.

Merry Christmas!

A New View

I have photographed crime scenes and death scene for years as a Deputy Sheriff in Glenn County.  Photographing a crime scene is not a simple task.  Learning to take a 1:1 photo of a tool mark on aluminum in bright sunlight or a boot print left in the dirt.  You learn to make light work to your advantage to make details stand out.  As a law enforcement officer, I could not wait until the light was better to take my photographs.

I recently started using my internet and social media experience to start a company, Orland Bulletin, promote local business. Photographs speak better than words, so I started taking pictures of the local events.  Event photography is different from shooting pictures of dead people. I also started looking at the town I lived in and realized there is a lot of really cool thing here, but I needed to change my photography style and thinking.  I started to look at what other people were doing.  I got excited to take pictures as I studied the work of photographers like Trey Ratcliff, Colby Brown, Stephen Candler, Lisa Bettany and many others.  I know look at things differently as I drive around an go to local events.  Exciting!

Above is a photograph I shot just a couple days ago.  The sky had a nice blue and the airliners had left it decorated with their contrails.  The photograph is a six frame HDR taken from a county road that runs along the Atwood Ranch, a large horse ranch, near Orland California.