Friday’s Photo and Update

Friday is here again and since I haven’t posted an update since Monday, I thought I would share a little about what’s been going on lately.  I have been extremely busy with work, shooting, and editing in addition to doing fun family things and spending time with my wife, my kids, and my parents – who were recently visiting from my hometown of Branson, MO.  We’ve been having a blast and this week has simply flown by.

At work, I am my ship’s photographer and the Assistant Public Affairs Officer.  We recently acquired some new equipment and so I have been busy checking it out and getting it ready to be put into service.  I haven’t had to shoot too much this week at work, which I am thankful for because it has been incredibly busy!

My youngest son and my daughter have both started a T-Ball league (that’s where the photo above came from) and so there are now practices and games to attend, which are going to be great!  I’ll be the photographer dad with the 70-200mm always taking pictures of my kids on the field.  If I had a 600mm you can bet I’d bring that too!

I’m also working on putting together a little project which I am VERY excited about, but it’s too soon to reveal the details now.  I promise that you will be the first to know about it as I will likely announce it here on the blog first.

I hope you have a great weekend and no matter what, find an excuse to get out and shoot a little this weekend.  Even if it’s only for 30 minutes, it will help you improve your craft and sharpen your skills!

All the best,

Stephen

Photo 101: Open Shade is Your Friend

When you’re shooting outdoors it can be hard to find good light. Most of the time the sun is shining overhead and that light is hard, unflattering, and casts some nasty shadows. Not to mention that you’ll be lucky to get your subject to hold their eyes open long enough to get a decent shot.

So how do you remedy this? Well, if you don’t have a ton of money to spend on a huge silk (I certainly don’t) then your best bet is to find some open shade. Remember that tree location that my wife scouted for me last week? I went out there yesterday with my family to check it out for myself. No flashes, no softboxes, just the camera. It was an overcast day in San Diego anyway but this tree location really rocked because it is like a natural canopy providing lots of open shade.

Open shade will give you a much softer, window-like kind of light that is simply awesome to shoot in. One thing to keep in mind is if you’re in a location like this and it happens to be a bright, sunny day out be sure to watch out for dappled light on your subject. Dappled light is where you have a combination of hard and soft light falling on your subject. It’s ugly! Avoid it like the plague.

I shot the image above with my D90, Nikon 16-85mm VR lens, at f 5.6, 1/30th, 85mm, ISO 200. I had VR on to help ensure that I got a sharp shot. Also, another trick I used was to set my camera to shoot in Continuous Mode and let the shutter fly a few times. When you’re hand-holding at slow shutter speeds, this will help you get a sharper shot. If you shoot five you’re much more likely to have one be sharp than you are if you’re shooting them one at a time. And with digital, the film’s free!

That’s my tutorial for this Monday. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and come back again this week for more great photo tips and news!