Two Photobooks to kick your DSLR but.

Yes indeed, there is a unique opportunity to supercharge your photographic knowledge and craft. Put your camerra down for a little while and curl up with these two books, I know, I know, the world is full of photographers and photography books. What is a photographer to do? Cross train! Just like the concept has been applied to athletes to combine workouts to build strength working muscles in one program and then promote flexibility with stretching in another, I encourage you to consider this conceptual camera cardio.

The moment it Clicks

The Moment if Clicks, by Joe McNally and The Elements of Photography, by Angela Faris-Belt are two engaging and easy to read photography books from radically different points of view. We all know that in making photographs perspective is important, and these two will rock your boat just enough to shake your creative waves for a good soaking.

The Moment it Clicks gives you an in depth visit to the life of Mr. McNally –one of the worlds best editorial photographers. The photographs are keenly visioned with impeccable technique. Combined with McNally’s natural and blunt gift for storytelling, this book impossible to put down. Joe’s humor, passion for photography and enthusiasm for sharing his methods is inspiring to anyone who wants more out of their camera.

The Elements of Photography

The Elements of Photography is a thorough and captivating journey into the current state of Fine Art photography from a fresh academic point of view. This overdue book, created as a text, promotes the elements of photograph as a visual grammar. Helpful because the vernacular and literacy of our visual world is well, non verbal. Faris-Belt finds the Elements as The frame, Lenswork, Exposure Time, and the Physical Material manifestation of the image as her key components to the craft of serious image making. The careful illumination of these elements supports Faris-Belt’s mission to push us all to create more soulful and sophisticated images. To support this there are good images from other practitioners of the craft of Fine Art photography. Easy on the eyes, the book is easy to read, there are exercises even civilian workaday photographers can do and learn from.

Faris-Belt’s patrician and formal presentation sets up an invigorating cadence with McNally’s baptism by fire accounts of pleasing big time magazine editors. We can see deep into the formal  fundamentals of an evolved craft, and we can visit the world where photographs are service and commodity in the modern world we now call home. During a life where we admittedly love making photographs, we find we can make images with time and thought and there will be times we work in a frenzy of inspiration or abject fear. This serious postulation of Faris-Belt’s tome resonates very well with McNally’s Devil-May-Care go with your gut methods. Reading these books together can help you find your time and place in terms of what you like to shoot, this will help you develop your voice and style.

©Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos

This man’s work has inspired me from the age of 10. A master of the human photograph, the Decisive Moment, what one can do with a camera a thought, and a little tongue in cheek.

In support of getting you all to practice  your dSLR chops,  look at his work here , and set your ISO to 400 for the rest of the week. It will be a good one!

TEU

The cutest photo ever taken

This June headline in the Huffington Post –The cutest photo ever taken,  sure got a lot of attention. It was the cutest photograph ever made for about 15 to 20 seconds when someone took another photograph just as cute. Nevertheless, for the suspended time being, this photograph has a lot going for it, especially the purity of youth. Technically we could make noises regarding the sharpness, the busy background and so forth but this is simply not important. The key here is the Garfield Moment we get from the kitten’s eyes. It is all there. Words are not necessary.

The lesson here is that photographs do not need to be perfect to be great. Everyone with a camera gets to make a shot like this now and then, so get out your camera, crank up the ISO have at it. Every 20 seconds, you might be next! Do however make an effort to watermark or mark ownership of your image in some way; we searched and searched and were unable to find the creator of this photo. What a shame!
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PhotoTrainer

Rock your soul...

Practice, practice, practice!

A Google search on the words “How to Practice” yields 188 million links. Million. I read them all. The three top groups in the results are

• 1) Musical practice methods,
• 2) Meditation techniques, and finally
• 3) the many ways one can practice evidenced-based Psychiatry.

Practice holds the promise of a better result, a  and improved ability. Before I take a run at the dart board with my 16 year old son, I want a few practice throws. We are always learning, we all know that we can do better if we take time to concentrate, apply mindful attention, and…focus.

Well well well! It is interesting that musicians, yogis, and psychiatrists  regularly borrow this refined concept from photography, – the magic of the lens to clarify vision. The ability to focus is an enduring metaphor for the power of the mind. But we often give the lens too much credit.

One would think practicing photography is easy. No need to drill through odd time signatures with a metronome, No need to battle against the mind’s background noise , and no need for Board Certification. We get to wake up in the morning and grab the new lens and play, hell, We even have auto focus.

But it is not that easy is it?

We still have to quiet the mind, put in the time, and certify the images we want to keep. No one can sneak away. Here are some techniques I have used in the past.

• Write down your ideas. Resolve to turn off the phone, tell the family goodbye, and get away. Same time each day, or week. If it happens once a month consider yourself lucky.

• Set the camera on P and FORGET about settings for a half hour. OK 20 minutes. Move in and out instead of zooming.  Keep moving. When something captures your interest, apply the settings you know will help the shot. With a tripod if necessary.

• Keep shooting and moving. Control your breath, and keep breathing.

Later that evening…

• Back up files. Look at them in a good file browser. Rate them.

• Repeat.

TEU

I want all of you in the PhotoTrainer sphere of influence to take a good look at the San Francisco Chronicle’s web showcase for their photographer’s out-takes. This is a veritable gold mine of information as the shot data is right there.  The exposure and ISO give you a little extra glimpse into the photographer’s mind set and approach. Mind you, these pros shoot three/four assignments a day thinking story and technique the way we think about driving down the block, or getting groceries. You can see how the constant photographing makes them really good at seeing color, details, use of foreground and elements to frame or off set subjects. I could go on and on but go look at these images instead, and tell us what you think.
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Tom Upton

Pick a button, any button...

How do I know I’m not missing something?

~Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming~

There is an explosion of resources for the digital photography buff out there—books, websites, podcasts, videos, and the like. There is an avalanche of books, DVDs, and god knows what. Book learning is time consuming, intense, and takes discipline.  DVD training and webinars are just the same in my opinion. It is common complaint that weekly courses do not really connect the dots of confusion as well.  Photography is an unholy alliance of Science and Art.  (The Pope didn’t jail Galileo on a whim. And it is no accident it took the church centuries to absolve him.) This is some dynamically dense shit –light, glass and opinion. 

There is no substitute for personal contact now and then. It can be profoundly helpful if you are just getting started and are paralyzed by all of the technology. Not to mention basic photography. We have carefully designed from scratch, a unique, small, hands on workshop method for regular people who want to know all about these mysterious little boxes. Since April of 2007, I have taught over 450 people how to own a DSLR. Nurses, accountants, professors, product managers, Moms, travelers, retired firefighters, CEOs and chefs. The rest for the most part are happy enough campers to leave these reviews for PhotoTrainer.

My Jumpstart Deluxe course is six hours and you are good to go. From that day forward…the more time you spend with your camera the better. That practice makes perfect is fundamental and formative. After my class, practicing photography is just downright fun. We are in Palo Alto, California, nevertheless, we have had people come from Ireland, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and even Modesto. If you live in the Boston area, you will soon be able to take PhotoTrainer there too… ‘Nuf Said.

–TEU

Tom Upton

PhotoTrainer

www.PhotoTrainer.com

www.tomstudio.com

–Learn form a Pro!

650-325-8120

©2009 Tom Upton. All rights reserved.

blog note: Hey I am back! The Holidays kind of took over and I got waylaid. Don’t think it matters too much because the analytics tell me that nobody is reading this, and the only comments I am getting in addition to Kala’s are from some nice foreign merchants who want to sell leather iPod cases from Russia and industrial solvents from Newark. But heck, that’s a start!

The Almighty Tripod

First…take it slow with your new camera…do something different, use a tripod. The decision to use a tripod can help make a good photograph into a great photograph. The tripod will be the best least expensive lighting tool you will buy. Tripods, unlike flash, let you preserve the beauty of natural light; this is one of the “secrets” of photography…

This three legged partner will keep the Devil of Photography (unintentional blur) at bay and powerless. More likely than not, half of the photographs you will want to take will make along life’s journey take longer than a 1/60^th of a second. Furthermore you do not want to be confined to wide apertures all the time. Use a tripod or forever be cursed with amateurish looking photographs.

Tom’s Two Rules for a tripod:

1)  Buy a tripod that supports the weight of your camera properly

AND

2) holds it at eye level.

We like this one alot,  it is a great starter-pod; it won’t break the bank or your back, and has a ball head.

Take time to learn how to work with this guy. Keep it in your car! Get a remote release. Take time exposures. Shoot in the rain, at night. Pre meditate. Or as the 1970s photo-gurus used to say “previsualize”…Nah, just use the darned thing…

Make photographs, make mistakes, repeat.

Are we up to Question Ten yet?

TEU

–PhotoTrainer

It is as bad as golf, but it is the lenses, not clubs. DSLR users will want to buy nice lenses in focal length ranges suited to their favorite subjects. In most cases you may only need two to three zoom lenses to cover your photographic needs. If you are a flower person a fixed macro will help. If you are a Birder, a seriously large telephoto will be in your future. If you are a tree person, like me, you will want to look at wide angle zoom lenses.  In photography the “fastness” of a lens is determined by it’s largest aperture setting. I know this is a bit arcane as is much of the terminology of photography that has been grandfathered-in from early days of photography. The faster the lens the bigger the glass is on the front element and the more it will cost.  We all know that with camera lenses the sky is the limit as to what you can spend…There are three basic quality categories for lenses as you might imagine, cheapo, consumer, and professional. Remember: the larger the glass the faster and sharper the lens. There will also be a significant magic in the image you get from a nice lens –completely different than a lens of low cost. Professional lenses also will take abuse that the others will not. You will get what you pay for, and because of the cost and magic of good lenses, there is a robust market for used lenses of all kinds. Ebay and Craigslist offers great opportunities to get great gear for the methodical, wise, and patient.

Bhodisattva

Remember this foray into photography is controlled by you and driven by your interests and curiosity. The idea is to have fun, and to explore our creative side, by making photographs. Avoid getting caught up in gear frenzy by doing your homework. Test the lenses you want to buy. Rent one from Borrowlenses.com. Photography has never before been so inexpensive, so responsive, and conducive to learning and improvement. Be your own determined Bhodisattva in the abundant visual Maya of the world. Tune out the Photographic Industrial Complex; tune into your own growth path.

Buying a Camera –Question #7

How long can I expect to use this camera before it is obsolete?

For the past 10 years now we have seen in consumer technology the need to replace our new things every eighteen months. It has felt a lot like we are burning money. Or paying for health insurance. There has been a maturation in technology in the past two years or so and we have the sensor quality, processing speed, memory, bandwidth, and bigger cheaper hard drives that we need to work efficiently. Cameras are better than ever, memory and hard discs are inexpensive, and software programs to use and manage images are finally robust with features we have been asking for the last 7 years. My advice is see if you can spend $50 to $100 more and get the next level in performance or features and you will probably be able to use that new camera for at least 4 years before wanderlust settles in again. Behold the itch to switch sneaks back in no matter what.  You have to examine the conundrum of Need vs Want. We are already way past film at this point. If you buy a PnS and become an avid photographer, of course you are going to want a DSLR sooner or later. As our interest is sustained so is the possibility of the next newest camera. But heck they are cheaper than cars!

Let's see now...

6) How much money am I willing to spend on a camera?

“A picture is worth…”

My chiropractor who knows I am a photographer, was ruminating on her new digital camera. I think she was actually thinking,  “While I have him on his back I will get some information out of him…” She bought a “bridge camera” (a frakencamera crossbreed PnS/DSLR with a fixed lens). While proud of her purchase, she let it slip that what she really loved her Nikkomat in college, for the lenses. However, $500 was all she could afford and the new digital had powerful zoom. I could feel the lament, –it was in her voice. I knew at that point she was a DSLR person not a P n S person. I had to intervene.

I told her to return it and get a Canon Rebel, and the lens she wanted, and yes it would cost more, and the money from the returned camera would be put to better use. A week later she called me from the store close to tears as the total for the camera I suggested and the TWO lenses she wanted was a thousand bucks. I encouraged her nevertheless. A moment later I asked myself quietly, “What have I done do this poor woman?” A month later, she emailed from Africa and thanked me. So yeah, a DSLR camera and a couple a lenses will cost you the same as 41 rolls of color film processed and printed with double prints cost back in the day. After 948 pictures your camera is free.

In photography, as in Life, you get what you pay for. This is why I have had you go through all these previous questions, trying to find you what you really want to do with your digital camera funds. The more you pay the more you have to work with/play with. You can get a lot of fun in a Point n Shoot these days for as little as $250 to $350, but do get a nice compact leather case for your Point n Shoot, as they are delicate creatures.

A remarkably decent starter DSLR will now run you $600. In addition to the fun you can also craft serious work with a DSLR. A $100 increase in price for the next model “up” gets you a significant increase in sensor performance, larger view-screen, and added functions. Go figure. The march of technology is offering up my Canon 50D for three hundred dollars less than what I paid 11 months ago. If you can wait a year to buy this year’s model you can get a lot of camera for your money. This is what assistant’s do. Using the internet, you literally can find a used Nikon D300 driven only on weekends and kept in the garage with only 5000 shutter actuations (that’s like 10,000 camera/miles) But do be wary or bring a camera savvy friend.

Keep in mind, you will want to get a number of accessories that will make your life as a photographer easier, save time and help you have more fun. Keep your camera save in a good bag or case, be sure to get an extra battery; and have an extra memory card, and a card reader. The card reader is much faster than transferring from the camera.