Category : The Learning Center

I was having an very interesting conversation with a photographer several days ago and something he said has continued to ring in my ears. He said, ” I see so much good work, I just wonder why bother, I will never be that good!”  I know how he feels, but I’ve got and answer to “why bother!”  First let me set the stage by saying that he is certainly right about the wealth of great work today.  I have favorite photographers just like everyone else, let me share the work of some of my “photographic” heroes and then let me continue this train of thought.

 

You’ve just been exposed to the work of  five photographers whose work I love and try to emulate.  Will I ever be as good as any of them at these kinds of work?  Truthfully, that is not the relevant question.  The relevant question is, “am I enjoying working hard to get better?”  If your hobby or passion makes you miserable, stop doing it, pick a new hobby!  Let me share five ways to get better at photography and enjoy it more in the process!

 

(1.)  Remember this is a journey, not a destination.  Instead of worrying about how good others are, think about what you can learn from them and how you can work to improve your own images.  Take full advantage of the people, places and conditions you can enjoy.  Soak in the joy of just holding a camera in your hand, and attempting capturing all the beauty God has made!

 

(2.)  Celebrate the success of others.  It does not make you any better to down grade them or their work..  Nothing kills creativity and vision worse than being blinded by envy for what others have accomplished.  True joy is when you appreciate what others have done, and aspire to do so well yourself!  Be thankful for those that inspire you.  In all honesty, they have probably earned it with hard work, are you following that example?

 

(3.)  Find your passion and then work it.  If you love flowers, shoot flowers, if you love airplanes, photograph airplanes!  You will never find real photographic succes trying to photograph things that simply do not interest you.  An understanding of your subject will open your eyes to see  much more deeply, and find the most creative ways to capture your subjects. 

 

(4.)  Don’t be afraid to experiment!  The great advantage to the digital age is we can shoot, look at what we’ve captured, and still have the chance to try it again in a different way, all while standing right in front of the subject!   That’s a luxury we never had with film.  We learn by trying, observing, and trying again. Keep working the scene!  There are no short cuts to experience!

 

(5.)  Have fun!  I’ve reached and age that if it’s not fun, I’m not all that interested in it!  The love of photography should be a time of great joy for you.  The people and places, the experiences, and the joy of learning should make you happy, if it doesn’t, maybe this is not the hobby for you.

 

I’m celebrating my 44th year of being a working photographer, and at this point in my life,  I have only one photographic goal; “to be better tomorrow than I am today, and love every minute of the journey!”  If I can do that it won’t matter how many great photographers there are in the world!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

P.S.  Did you notice how many times I used the word “work”,  that might be a tip!

Scott Kelby has “It’s Free Stuff Thursday!”, so I thought I might institute, (occasionally), Fun Fridays!  I’ve  often said that I’ve never been more excited about photography than I am today. What excites me the most is how much we an do to “improve” our photographs, post capture.  Now before I get into this, some of you may not be very enthusiastic about making these kinds of changes to an image, if so, you are welcome to leave now and come back on another day.  I certainly don’t want to upset you, If manipulating images with Photoshop, or Nik filters or Topaz is not a part of what you would do, good for you, stick by your convictions, just don’t tell the rest of us that we shouldn’t!  Photography is an art form determined by each individual artist. So if you are into this, or even curious read on!!

 

While shooting in New Orleans I came upon this young man cleaning the side walk with a hose and water. I was shooting with one of my favorite point and shoot compact cameras.  I’ve found that you an do great street shooting when the camera doesn’t look imposing.  As far as your subjects know, you’re just another tourist snapping pictures!!  So below is the original image before I cleaned it up in Photoshop with Content Aware.

 

As you can see the image is a little messy and doesn’t have much pop!  The shot at the top is the same image cleaned up, and then with some added saturation, and then with Nik Color Efex 3.0 Tonal Contrast filter applied.  Since, to me, the shot is timeless, what if we created an old photograph with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.0? The shot below is with the Sepia filter.

 

 

O.K. let’s take it even further by making an Old Photo with the Nik Color Efex 3.0 “Old Photo” filter!

 

O.K. this is fun, got it, Fun Friday!!  I couldn’t possibly do this without trying Glamour Glow, one of my favorite digital filters from Nik Color Efex 3.0.  The saturation is increased and it exhibits a nice glow that only Glamour Glow can produce, at least for me!

 

 

I love this one and the Tonal Contrast, but since we’ve gone this far why not go into Topaz and see what the gritty filter, Spicify does for us!

 

I could go on, but I hope I’ve made my point.  You can take a simply, o.k. image that has potential and give it new life with some of these great filters.  Give it a try, you might like it!

 

Before we go off for the weekend let me share this morning’s devotional on the In Touch Website by Dr. Charles Stanley, this is really good, be blessed!

 

the pilgrim

 

 

Set Apart for God

 

Romans 12:1-3

 

 

When a person places his faith in Jesus Christ, he becomes a new believer, and he is sanctified–that is, set apart for God’s purpose. Unlike salvation, which takes place in a single moment, sanctification is a lifelong process. We who are followers of the Savior should be letting the Holy Spirit control our lives. If that is the case, we are currently being sanctified, regardless of what we may feel or how our actions appear to others. In other words, we are progressively maturing in our faith.

 

 

And if we are progressing, we must be working our way toward something. The apostle Paul explained the Christian’s mission: “For those whom [God] foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). A believer’s character, conduct, and conversation should be reflections of Jesus, who lives within. On our own, we’d place too much emphasis on behavior and get caught up with following rules and rituals that look Christian without truly reflecting Christ. But God has given each believer His Spirit as a teacher and guide. The Spirit works to transform our minds and hearts so that we are markedly different from our unsaved peers. When we allow the Spirit to control us, we speak and act in accordance with our true identity: God’s sons and daughters.

 

 

Our Father wants His children to be living examples of who He is. He doesn’t expect perfection–He knows we can’t be totally sinless in our human body. But He shows us how to think and act so we may “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [we] have been called” (Eph. 4:1).

 

 

* Before I get into today’s post, let me take  moment to thank Scott Kelby and Brad Moore for allowing me to share some thoughts this morning on Scott’s blog.  Scott certainly gets a lot of hits every day and I am honored that he would let me use his fantastic out reach to share these thoughts, and get the word out about His Light Workshops, please drop by his blog today and check it out!!!   http://scottkelby.com/

 

Now, after the two recent posts on mega pixles I got a lot of questions by email and it led to further thoughts.  I am sure the people that wrote won’t mind me sharing their questions and my answers with you!

 

Tyler wrote;  “I have a D90 and plan to replace it and don’t know if I should get the more affordable D7000 or spring for a D800?  I do mostly nature, close-ups and travel photography.  I own the 10-24 and a 18-200 lens.”

 

Tyler, the D7000 would be perfect for you, it is a big step up from the D90, which was already a great camera, which-by the-way, I would keep as a back up camera!    If you go the D8oo route, you will have to start over buying new FX lenses, while your DX lenses would work they would not take advantage of the D800’s full frame sensor.  For now, for what you do, the D7000 is a great choice!  I was recently asked how good the D7000 was at high ISO.  To my shock while reviewing some old shots from Old Car City, I mistakenly had left the camera on ISO 4000 !!!!  I’ll let you judge the results in the HDR shot below! 

 

 

Shaun wrote; “I’ve really enjoyed your posts on mega-pixels, I have a question, if I bought a D800 or D4 and the 24-120 AF-s Vr f4 lens that I see you use a lot,  before I make the jump, how would  it compare to my D7000 and my 16-85 AF-S VR lens?  The cost difference is significant!?”

 

Shaun the difference is a matter of degrees, and the use you will put it to.  If you plan to make very large prints, (over 24X36), and shoot in low light and must often shoot wide open, the edge will go to the D800 and 24-120.  If you usually stop down a stop or two and don’t do a great deal of available light work, you already have a great combination now!

 

Ellen wrote, ” I see that Nikon just released a new 24-85 and I had been considering the 24-70 f 2.8 how do they compare?

 

Ellen I have not had the chance to shoot the new lens extensively, just a few quick snaps, which was enough to see it is very sharp.  The 24-70 f 2.8 is legendarily sharp but costs three times as much, I think the decision would come down to budget, I suspect you would be thrilled with either one.

 

Brad wrote; “When I look at your images on the blog they all look great, even the point and shoot ones, how much does the camera and lens really matter?”

 

Brad, thanks, however the photographer makes the image, not the camera!  Having said that, for me cameras are a very personal decision, how much do you want to carry?   Is a D4 too big, is a point and shoot not big enough?  Can I afford a $6,000. dollar camera body or is a $1,200. more in line with my budget.  One thing is for sure, if you buy any good camera and lens and you work very hard learning how to get the most out of it, you can make images that will be astounding.  The bad news is that as your skill level grows you will want, and probably need, better cameras and lenses!

 

Linda wrote; ” If you had to, could you make all your images for the rest of your life with a $500. point and shoot camera?”

 

Linda, If I had to, I could,  but I’m glad I don’t have to!  The shot below is why I think I could.

 

 

John wrote; “Is it true that almost all lenses are equally sharp when stopped down to F8 or f11?”

 

John, the short answer is yes.  Of course there are exceptions and “all” is a big word, but for the most part most lenses are very sharp at the mid range aperture settings.  All of this is assuming holding the camera steady or even better working  off a tripod, if you don’t do that, no lens is going to give sharp results!

 

 

Ron wrote; “You mentioned that you carry a mini tripod, what kind??”

 

Ron, mine is a set of Kirk Mini pod legs    http://www.kirkphoto.com/Mini-Table-Top-Tripod.html and the Really Right Stuff BH-30 Compact ballhead with LR     www.reallyrightstuff.com

 

Faith quote of the day:

 

God, the sovereign ruler of this universe, is in control of your life. Don’t make the mistake of thinking He isn’t, simply because He does not operate according to your will and schedule. If you read your Bible and meditate on it, you will find genuine strength in His promises.

 

Blesssings,

 

Bill

 

As the writer of a blog, it’s easy to fall into the guilt trip!  Everyday I share thoughts with you about faith and photography, and often I fail to live up to my own advice.  We all stumble and bust our knees, and then stay on them while we make amends and try to make course corrections, that’s a given.  It feels even worse when you make statements and then have a hard time living up to them.   Time to take some action! I have shared often about how to travel light and use less sophisticated gear to make images with less hassle.  I rarely can make my self do it. I’m not saying I never do, but not as often as I should.  Over the weekend I needed to call on the O. Winston Link Museum, in Roanoke, so I drove up Friday and Sherelene and I made it a weekend trip of it.

 

Now you photographers that travel with your spouse know that often our intense desire to get the shot and dragging two bags full of gear and a tripod gets old to our better halves!!!  So partly because of my desire to make my partner happy, and part out of guilt about stretching the truth with you, I went with one small compact camera, a mini tripod and some spare batteries to Roanoke. The point is, I’m sorry and embarrassed, so I took my own advice and it worked out just like I told you it would!  I’m a stubborn old bird and I honestly would have loved to have had my D800 and bag of lenses along, but then, maybe for once I took my own advice and without meaning to, I proved my point, even if it was with egg on my face!!!

 

Now a quick word about Roanoke!   What a town, I loved it, great old buildings, terrific museums, great people, tons of wonderful painted brick walls, fabulous food, and the best waitress I’ve had this year, maybe in several years.  We went to a famous spot in Roanoke called Thelma’s Chicken and Waffles, this is real southern comfort food, and GiGi, (pictured below), was a terrific waitress, a one person floor show! This lady was funny, warm and did her job with great finesse’.  I’m always thrilled to meet people that love what they do, and do it extremely well, GiGi sure fills that bill, what a great lady, and oh my heavens what incredible chicken and waffles!!!!

 

Asking for forgiveness,

 

the pilgrim

 

The South.  The Place where….  1) Tea is sweet and accents are sweeter.   2) Summer starts in April            3) Macaroni and Cheese are a vegetable.  4)  Front porches are wide and words are long.  5) Pecan pie is a staple.  6)  Y’all is the only proper noun.  7).  Chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy.    8) Everything is Darlin’.  9)  Someone’s heart is always being blessed.  

 

Photo note, Yes all these were shot with a point and shoot!!!  Cha Ching! 

 

Just for the record thought you might like to see just how good these little cameras can capture, full size!