New Life

This photo was taken a year after a fire blew through the area. It is a fire that was responsible for the evacuation of the small town I live in. I like this photo because it is showing the desert coming back to life after such a devastating event. I took this with my Canon T3 with my 300mm lens. All and all it is a great photo except for one small detail that gets on my nerves every time I look at it. The blown out cactus in the background is pretty detracting. That aside, I love the subtle blur of the background. It isn't such that it is undecipherable; you can still tell what is in the image. Out of the 300 or so images I took on that day, this is the only one I kept. 

Product Photography

This is a product shot I took for Stealth Fidget Spinners. It is a shame that the fidget spinner craze didn't last longer. These gave me an opportunity to be a little more creative with my photography. This was taken with my Pentax IST DL. I was using my 18 - 55 mm lens at ISO 200 F 5.6 and a shutter speed of 0.3 seconds. When mounted on a tripod, as I recommend. This keeps the camera steady and when shooting at low shutter speeds. I used a slow shutter speed on this shot to give a motion blur to the moving fidget spinner. For the lighting I used natural light from an open window. I find this to be the most ideal lighting to use in many different situations. In fact, I personally feel that natural light cannot be beat. 

I have taken many product photos over the last several years. I will post more as time goes on. I am also planning on taking many more over the coming months. This is a good way to practice photography. You can easily find different items around your house, set them up in different ways and take the photo. This will give you an opportunity to play around with different ideas and see how they work for you.   

Photographing Rattlesnakes

While I don't suggest that you emulate this, I have taken many photos of rattlers in this manner. I preferred to get up close mainly because the camera I was using would lose quality if I zoomed in. This was noticeable on many of my first images. The more I zoomed the more grainy the photo would be. The camera I am using in this image is my old Kodak Z612. This was a 6 mp camera that did well in the right conditions. I had tried to shoot manual a few times with this camera, but it was a real pain to dial in the settings. For this reason, I stayed in auto for a long time. I didn't start shooting full manual until I bought my first DSLR. 

This is one of the photos that I took that day. Being up close to a rattlesnake is very dangerous and you can see I am well within striking distance. The only downside to this image is that it was shot in auto. Once I started to shoot in manual, I started becoming a snob when it came to people shooting in auto. Now however, I have changed my attitude towards the auto setting. On some occasions I will use it. 

There are times when getting the shot is more important that the camera settings. Take a street shot for example, the light changes so much that you are constantly changing your cameras settings. This slows you down a great deal and can cause you to miss the opportunity to capture a great image. In this case auto is not a bad thing. However, I still think you should learn your camera and get out of auto.  This will allow you to control the camera and it lets you decide how to take the photo. It is also a good idea to learn the other settings on your camera as well. On some occasions I will use the TV or time value or shutter priority setting. This allows you to control your shutter speed while the camera will control the rest. This is great for situations that the light is always changing. A good example of this is street photography. I will, at times use the AV setting as well. This is the aperture value or aperture priority, which allows you to control the aperture or F stop. I will use this mainly to control my depth of field in any given shot. I will get into this more in future blog posts.    

Sidewinder

This is one of the first snake photos I took. This was taken in 2007 using a Kodak Z612 of all things. This camera was the first one that I started learning with. Even my old Youtube videos were shot using that camera. The auto focus was so loud it sounded like a geiger counter. When I took this photo I did not use a zoom. You can tell by looking at the angle of the image. I am directly over the top of the snake. I was actually straddling the snake with my feet on both sides. It was after I took this photo that I really started to get serious about photography. In my area, however this was and still is the most interesting subject to capture. 

I started taking photos like this because the lack of interesting subject matter in my state. I know...I live in Arizona, what about the all the beauty like the Grand Canyon? Personally, I cannot look at another photo of the Grand Canyon or even Antelope Canyon. If it is photogenic in Arizona, you can bet it has been over shot and done to death. I understand that everyplace is like that, but I feel that Arizona is a bit more over done than most. I find it difficult to be inspired in the state I live in. I could also be bias, but I find more interesting subject matter when I travel. In the meantime, I will continue finding interesting things that most people don't look for...Or are afraid to capture.   

Raccoon in Laughlin

This was taken with my LG Stylo...I was in Laughlin a while back when I saw the raccoons playing around by the water. There was a mother raccoon with three babies running around getting into mischief. I had my other cameras with me, however I left them in the hotel room. I would have gotten a clearer photo of the raccoon, but I guess this shows that the best camera there is, is the one you have with you. 

Rattlesnake Photos

This is a photo of a western diamondback rattlesnake. This is one of my specialties...Photographing snakes. In fact, for some time I was fairly well known for my rattlesnake photos. This particular image was taken with a Canon T3 with a 70-300 F4-5.6 lens. As this blog continues, I will show more rattlesnake photos that I took up close with no zoom. For now, lets talk about this image. There are some that I will be posting later that are of the same snake. I got quite a few decent shots on this shoot. 

Why did I use the lens that I chose to use? For one...Safety. I am not as fast as I used to be. Not that I was faster than a striking rattlesnake, but I was a lot more agile 10 years ago. Being able to keep my distance I am able to get better shots. I found I wasn't getting as natural of reactions of the snake being right up on it. Being further away I am able to show more of the snake in its natural posture or behavior. 

Next reason is for the bokeh...The blurring of the background. Since I can't go off and purchase the best of the best equipment, I have to be able to take advantage of the tools I do have. My 18-55 mm kit lens will not blow the background out near as well as the 70-300 mm. By putting distance between myself and the subject I get more of a background blur. My depth of field becomes much narrower or shallow. This works the same way as placing the subject further from the background while doing portrait shots. You can manipulate the blur of the background by doing this. 

Street Photog

This has quickly become on of my favorite images. I took this in Chinatown in Seattle. I was looking for a good noodle restaurant when I took the time to notice what the things around me. Being that I was in a different place I naturally had my camera with me. I noticed the small child playing chess with, whom I assumed was a grandparent. As the game went on, I noticed that this was a regular activity that these two shared. 

For me, street photography can be difficult. I am not an in your face type of person...It is still difficult for me to film a video publicly. It is something I struggle with because I love to do things like this. For whatever reason, I am always on guard for someone to get pissed at me and I have to delete the photos I took. While I have only heard of this happening, I am not discounting the fact that it can. However, I find great enjoyment in taking the candid shots that capture those small moments in time.

As for this image, it was taken full manual. It is a little over exposed...This is apparent when you look at the white chess pieces. It was getting close to noon, which is a terrible time to be taking photos in the first place. The light during this time of day is too harsh. This has a tendency to bleach out a photo and blow your highlights. None the less, it is a great image that captures a beautiful moment.