While visiting Las Vegas last week, I was able to take over 500 pictures and really get a grasp on the camera settings available to me in full manual mode. Having never done this before, I was pleasantly surprised at the results from a little experimentation with the settings.
As you can see in this picture, the water coming down from the fountain outside of the Paris Hotel and Casino appears to be a light colored curtain of water. Just to compare, I took a picture in full auto mode and was stunned how “ugly” it would look when the flash fires and captures the water droplets in air.
I sat on the sidewalk with my back to the fence separating me from the Las Vegas Strip, put my elbows on my knees and created a rather steady position from which I took this shot. I took several pictures at different time settings until I found the ideal time exposure of one second. The shot looked good on the camera display, but even better when I got it on to the computer screen. Another setting I played with on these shots was the white balance. I believe I set it to “tungsten.” Click the picture and see the picture properties on flickr (towards the lower left of your browser window).
I have been told that I may have an eye for framing pictures. We are not talking about putting a picture inside a border for display, we are talking about looking through the lens and seeing the shot in its entirety as one would want to have it if printed.
When I was walking by this building, I looked up and saw the angles created from the balconies, the curves from the building itself, the reflections of the sky in the windows, the trees, the sky and the clouds above. I could envision all of these aspects in a picture and it was not until that point in my mind that I picked up the camera and framed the shot I wanted to capture through the lens.
I wanted to capture the height, the angles, etc. to ensure that it is more than a flat image. I also wanted to capture the depth of the shot by having the palm trees up front and the clouds over head. This was a simple shot that I really enjoyed. Now, if I could only live here and look over the ocean every morning – that would be awesome!
Some days are just much busier than others. Today was just one of those days that there was no time to do anything productive in using the camera or learning something new. Then, when I finally left my office, I was confronted with degrading weather conditions here in Miami. It was a dark sky, windy, there was a little rain coming down, and worse of all, there was lightning in the sky.
So, the next best thing to do? Look for stuff online, answer emails, and then create a badge from my most interesting Flickr photos. A badge is simply a mosaic of pictures that is shown where I put in a code on that page. Once it is pasted into a page, a small collage of pictures will appear. Every so often, the pictures will change within the badge.
Below is my “interesting” badge courtesy of Flickriver. When clicked, you will see my pictures on a black background as opposed to the typical white background on flickr. Come back every so often to see if they change!
Wondering where you could shoot pictures related to farm work, agriculture, and livestock in great weather at just about any time throughout the year? Look no further than Miami’s agricultural areas!
Southwest Miami-Dade County hosts a thriving agricultural community. During the proper season, you can find fresh strawberries, tomatoes, avocados and many other fruit and vegetables being grown in south Florida. With a little time before heading home, I stopped to take some pictures of things and places that many people don’t get to see or enjoy down here. Most Miami visitors do not know that driving west is not only to get to the Everglades, but it can afford visitors the opportunity to take some incredible pictures.
Horses, birds, plants, and other animals are plentiful in this area. In fact, I am planning on heading back out there soon to find the wild peacocks that I saw. Unfortunately, they were spooked off and I was unable to capture any of them with my camera. Most people probably didn’t think of farm or agriculture pictures when mentioning Miami, but now you can keep this in mind if you are contemplating a certain theme for a photo series. Most areas are accessible via paved and unpaved roadways which provide a great backdrop to frame your shots.
As I was driving home today, I couldn’t help but notice the light coming off of the lake near the boat ramp I drive by just about daily. With my camera in the seat next to me, I simply stopped, rolled down my window and snapped away.
Since I am still learning what to set for ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and all those fancy controls, I simply sat there and kept changing things on the manual settings until I felt I captured enough to capture the moment the right way.
To get this picture in the right balance (in my eye at least), I ended up selecting the one that looked best on my computer. It was set to 1600 ISO, f/5.0 at 1/25 with a focal length of 46mm. The flash did not fire and after tweaking the exposure slightly in iPhoto, the result is rather surprising.
Another reason that I call this “capturing the moment” is because when I took a look at my Flickr account today, I noticed that there was a picture of mine that had gotten a lot of attention. I captured that moment quite by accident and used everything in automatic mode. Since it got so much attention, I posted it to more Flickr groups and invite you to see it here. Your comments are always welcome here – I would love to hear your thoughts and what you think would make the next shot just that much better! Someone asked via Twitter what camera I was using… It is the Canon Digital Rebel XSi kit for now.
When it comes to photography, we often forget that there are millions of people out there with camera enabled cell phones. It is actually surprising to me that we haven’t heard more and more stories about people taking pictures of things that they shouldn’t be with all the cell phones that are out there!
Ever since I got my BlackBerry Storm, I started noticing all the people that are sharing their cell phone pictures on Flickr. I decided to start a group there to have people post their best cell phone pictures and have other members of the group give them “awards” for taking nice pictures. I really started this as an experiment, and so far there are 14 people that have submitted a total of over 100 pictures! Some of them are geotagged, so it is actually pretty cool to open the group map and see where all the pictures are coming from throughout the world.
If you have a cell phone camera and have a data plan, Flickr has a great way to share your pictures instantly from your phone. I take random shots and upload them directly from my phone once in a while. if you get into it too, be sure submit your best ones to my group.
And let’s not forget, some of the things that you do on your cell phone should simply NOT be done while intoxicated… For instance:
Most of the pictures that I have posted to my Flickr account have been geotagged. That is, they have information attached to them which gives the location of where the photo was taken at.
Geotagging can happen without much interaction if you use a GPS enabled phone to take pictures and upload them to a photo sharing service like the one I use. The picture of this cruise ship at sunrise was obviously taken in Miami, but what if you wanted to take a similar picture when you are in this area? By clicking on the picture and then scrolling down to the “Additional Information” on the bottom right of the photo page, you will see a link to the map for that picture.
As long as the photographer has allowed geotagging, or manually adds pictures to the Flickr map, you will get a pretty good idea of where the picture was taken from.
One caution about leaving geotagging “on” at all times… Remember that if you don’t want people to know where you live, work, or frequent, you may want to think twice about using it. Like I mentioned, MOST of my stuff is mapped, but some things just aren’t!
For the first time in a long time, I spent New Years Eve somewhere other than at home. It was nice to get out of the norm, but if you don’t enjoy crowds, fireworks, and having a good time, stay away from South Beach!
I ended up getting to the beach at about 9pm and was surprised to find light traffic (compared to a regular Friday or Saturday night’s traffic). I dropped off most of the carload which was with me and headed to 5th Street to find parking in the public garage for a $15 flat rate.
After walking back to the apartment and meeting up with friends, we enjoyed a few drinks, music, and headed to Ocean Drive for the countdown and fireworks. Didn’t get home until about 3:30am…
Having just purchased a new camera and having plenty of things to take pictures of, this was an experimental shot leaning on a fixed object and leaving the lens open for 10 seconds. The street and sidewalks are actually full of people… For more pictures, visit my Flickr set for New Years Eve 2009.
