I’ve been seeing a lot of tips floating around about photographing fireworks. Many make it seem difficult and mysterious. Time to get back to basics.
- More light = shorter exposure. Less light = longer exposure.
- Capturing fast action = shorter exposure. Blurring long motion = longer exposure.
… where “exposure” is a combination of aperture and shutter speed.
With fireworks, the action is relatively fast, and the light is bright. For this reason, in most cases, you don’t want super-long exposures! Keeping your shutter open for 30 seconds will leave you disappointed. (The exception would be if you have opened the shutter onto a black sky and are waiting for the fireworks to go… in this case, a black sky will register little or no light onto the exposure, so having the shutter open is fine while intermittent flares are going off.)
But when the bombs really start glaring, you need faster exposures to capture them. Otherwise, you will end up with a blurry mess of overexposed shots.
With that in mind, here are my tips for shooting fireworks, using a digital SLR: Read more…
During the month of July, my photography will be featured in a group exhibition of nature photographers at Gallery NRC in Denver. I am showing black and white images of America’s desert southwest, all produced during the past few years. Several of these prints are being viewed publicly for the first time. The opening reception for the show is Friday, July 3, in conjunction with Denver’s First Friday Art Walk. Hope to see you there! For info and directions visit
http://www.gallerynrc.com/
There is a lot of information floating around about how to be successful [in business] as a photographer. Whether you are just starting photography as a hobby or shooting every day for clients, you need to adopt some basic practices to secure yourself and your work against catastrophe. Here is some info about protecting your most valuable assets:
1. Equipment Insurance
You’ve absolutely gotta have your gear covered. Ask your insurance agent or check out Hill & Usher.
2. File Backups
After every work session, synchronize two or three hard drives so you have mirror copies of all your files. If you don’t use RAID (I don’t), there are software utilities that make this easy; On Mac I use ChronoSync; on Windows I use RoboCopy. Read more…
Last night I made a Lightroom presentation to one of the more established photo clubs in the Denver area. It was a blast! Great turnout, lots of good questions and interaction and we all had a good time exploring the advantages of Lightroom in a digital photography workflow.
I brought all the remaining copies of my book that I had; unfortunately several people didn’t get one… I ran out. (You can get them on Amazon.com)
Dick York founded Denver Digital Photo Club 6 years ago – a long time in terms of digital photography – and of clubs. They’ve been holding a monthly meeting every month all these years, and it showed… lots’ of camaraderie.
My thanks to Dick and the club members for a warm welcome and a nice evening. Cheers!
A question from a client: “I took this photo, obviously poor quality, in a building in KY my brother is renovating. So a camera fluke I don’t know about, or a ghost?” Read more…
A recent question from a client:
“I’m about to upgrade computers. I need something portable, so I’m going towards a laptop at the moment. I’m currently stuck on the PC vs. Mac fence. Are the benefits of going Mac still manifest or are PCs becoming as reliable?”
My response:
“Over the past 20+ years, I’ve used both Macs and PCs (and Unix workstations) in my digital imaging work. I’ve used all kinds of laptops and desktop machines, plus servers of various flavors. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Historically, Mac’s disadvantage has been cost. Windows disadvantage has been stability/reliability. Read more…
Today Adobe released Lightroom 2.4 and Adobe Camera Raw 5.4. DNG Converter has also been updated.
These updates provide support for 31 new camera models plus a few bug fixes. They can be downloaded here
If you print your photos from Lightroom, you may notice that with different papers, the color and tonal output varies, even if printing on the same printer.
This is because all different printer/paper/ink combinations result in varying range of colors and tones that can be accurately reproduced.
In other words, if you print the same photo from Lightroom (or any other program, for that matter) on glossy photo paper, cotton rag art paper and canvas, each print will look different.
So what’s a photographer to do?
The answer is simple, but the implementation is not: you need to make adjustments to the photo for each substrate prior to printing. Read more…
Renowned master photographer Chase Jarvis will be presenting at the Denver Newspaper Agency Friday, June 12. This event is presented by ASMP Colorado.
Click here for details
I just returned from a week-long trip to Oregon coast and northern California redwoods. I traveled with my good buddies Jim Talaric , Monte Trumbull and Jim Barber… and we all had a great time.
This was my first time shooting in the area; even after doing a lot of online research, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.
As is the case with most nature/landscape photography, weather is everything in coastal areas like this. Fog, clouds, sunrise/sunset times, chance of rain etc. will totally dictate what shots you can get, and where. Plan to get wet, and plan to keep shooting.
As usual I traveled with my laptop, using a temporary working Lightroom catalog for the trip. (More about this in my Lightroom book …) Everything worked great.
I came home with nearly 1,000 captures; from which (mostly during the trip) I have edited down to around 50 "keepers".
Here’s one shot, from the first night in Oregon. This is sunset at Ecola State Park, looking south toward Indian beach. A really beautiful place. We had varying light, people coming and going, and a tide that was not perfectly suited to our work. However I came away with a couple fo shots I’m happy with; this is one of them.
This image was processed [minimally] entirely in Lightroom.
Comments and critiques always appreciated!
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California
Redwood National Park, California
Redwood National Park, California
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