OK, I got the camera, now what?
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 1/60th 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
