Highlighting your cause with Photography

We all have a cause. It’s usually something near and dear to us, something that rouses an emotion, holds relevance to our own particular cultural, spiritual or just ‘that’s my opinion’ belief.

That’s in fact, exactly how that phrase most of us know off by heart, “Take only photographs, leave only footprints” came about being. Derived to save our wildness, slices of our environment across the globe where now unfortunately there are few places completely devoid of any sign of man. For many photographers it has become a slogan.

Photography is a powerful medium. Through it we inspire others and I could debate heavily on the topic of ‘does it do it more than words can’, or other mediums for that matter, but that’s not for today.

Today is for looking at how we can use our photography for the cause of conservation, an issue very near and dear to me.

1. Be a show off! Show everyone your images. They may just be family and friends but they are someone and by showing someone your highlight it is telling them you care.

2. Offer images to local conservation groups. They may wish to use them on their website or be happy to hang prints on their office walls (of course with a commission for the sale). Always make sure your images have all the necessary copyright info embedded and have an agreement in writing. Committees change and things can be ‘handed on’ often with ignorance the only blame. It needs to be written clearly and simply.

3. Use your cause to give. Design up calendars, gift cards, a DVD to music and give as a gift.

4. Get into print. Contact a magazine to gauge if the topic is of interest. There’s outdoor, wildlife, holiday, driving – let’s be honest they all use images so there’s a chance you can find a niche. Remember, most magazines require editorial to go with images. You have to at least supply captions (relevant to the style of the magazine) and most these days require the full copy for an article. Writing skills are important.

5. Enter competitions. Join the local camera group, send them in to magazines, however you do it remember each time you enter a competition your image could be displayed to an audience you may never meet.

This image by Danielle Lancaster ©
of a lava flow at Dalrymple National Park, Queensland featured on the cover of Go Camping Australia and highlighted this amazing landscape.

Mr Google Lends a Hand for Photographers

Last night at the Brisbane Camera Group (BCG) meet up I learnt a handy tool for photographers on Google Earth: the sun timer slider. 

This tool allows you to view the sun and sunlight falling across a landscape. 

Find your place you wish to be for the example here we have chosen Burleigh Heads National Park on the Gold Coast, a terrific place for both sunrise and sunset photography. 

The seventh icon across the top is the sun timer slide. This is what it looks like.

 

When you activate this the slider appears in the top left of your view. 

Move the slider to the day and time you wish to view and it shows the movement of the sun across the landscape so you can identify if it will be in shadow, bright sunlight etc at that time of course depending on weather conditions.

You can also activate it by click View > Sun and to hide either click the icon or View > Sun again. 
To display an animation of sunlight across the landscape, click the ‘time slider play button’. 

What a great tool especially when venturing into mountainous terrain and with Google continuing to upgrade this service our areas to view in detail will only get better and better. 

Thanks Mr Google, whatever did we do before you came along? And thanks Bernard for sharing this with us last night.

Burleigh Heads on the 17th November 2009  at 6.14am
The darker areas show what is still in shadow

Tips for Flower Photography

As the blood red hippeastrums that line our drive wilt and the white agapanthus flowers slowly open, I am reminded that spring is drawing to a close here in the southern hemisphere.

Here’s a couple of photography tips for capturing those later spring blooms:

• The ideal lighting for photographing flowers is soft, diffused light. Look at your bloom at different times of the day to see how the light changes it. Walk around your subject to see how it looks with light coming from different directions.
  
  
• Experiment with back lighting and try to highlight the transparency of the petal/s.
  
  
• Use flash very carefully. It can lend some stunning effects, especially at night, however be careful it can also kill the mood.
  
  
• Look for colour, contrast, texture, line, shape, pattern, framing, balance when composing your flower image.
  
  
• Make your flower image come alive. Fortunately for us here in Australia most of our flowers, especially wildflowers are filled with nectar thus attracting a range of animals from fruit bats to possums, bees to vibrant butterflies and honey eaters and parrots. Wait until something adds life to the flower - for example, a bee lands, or a spider crawls into it or a bird pays a visit. It takes patience, but it pays off if!
  
  
  
  
  
• Blur the background to get unattractive backgrounds out of view and to emphasise the subject.
  
  
• Know your seasons. No use getting disappointed, you are working with Mother Nature and she has her own timetable – get a copy!
  
  
• Use a spray water bottle to provide water droplets sparingly. While you may wish to depict a rainy day or a dewy morning the effect could either be splendid or look too artificial.

There are many different ways you can experiment when photographing flowers!

Enjoy your time with nature and always remember to take the time to smell the roses.

 All images by and (c) Danielle & Nick Lancaster

Clicking Like a Rolling Stone

Following in a parent’s footstep career wise is out and it has been for a while for  many of ‘today’s children’. Georgia May Jagger, daughter of Mick Jagger and the stunning Jerry Hall has it would seem it all; her mother’s long legs and fathers lips. Yet this young lady aspires to be a photographer and so has embarked on a modelling career to help her on her way.

It’s an interesting scenario as many photographers don’t like being in front of the lens however it does help enormously when you have to direct people into poses. Sometimes a factor overlooked by photographers.
Check out some of the latest images by Norman Jean Roy for Vanity Fair:
http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2009/10/georgia-jagger-outtakes200910#slide=7

Halloween Photography Tips

It’s Halloween Time! Dust off the costumes and get the trick-or-treats ready. There’s loads of prospective opportunities for eerie and dramatic images.

However, did you also know that Halloween photos are some of the most challenging to get right? There’s low light, loads of movement, tricky lighting situations, contrasting brightness and darkness and maybe hyper kids. Here’s a few tips to get the best images of this night of spooks, spirits, gremlins and monsters.

Ask yourself before you click: What is the main subject, how can I simplify it, and how can I capture the spirit (of the character or scene that is)?  This means:

Get in close: You may have heard us say this before – ‘cut the crap’. Eliminate distracting backgrounds.
Try using a wide aperture: blurs backgrounds and isolates your subject.

Use dramatic Lighting: Shoot in low or dim light. Use your flash sparingly if at all and if you do use it, diffuse it and make sure there are no reflective surfaces behind your subject.

Flash is a harsh light and can kill any eerie effect you may be attempting to portray. Try using other light sources like candles, coloured LED lights and torches.

Try lighting your subject from below and using back lighting.

Have fun with glow sticks, torches, coloured LED lights, even turning your camera upside down so the flash fires from below if you don’t have an external flash.

Change the colour of your light: tinted lighting adds to the spooky feel. Particularly good colours to create eerie feeling as are red, orange, green and blue. Try using cellophane (you may need to over expose), coloured LED lights, glow sticks

Play with multiple exposures: fun, fun and fun!

Get on down: If photographing children get down to their level. Tip: try lying on the ground and having the child lean over you for a very dramatic image angle.

Play with White Balance:

For Jack O' Lanterns: A tricky lighting scenario! You want to be able to capture the candles glow inside the pumpkin and the see the outside form and texture as well. Flash will kill it so turn it off!

Place more than one candle inside the pumpkin to avoid it being too faint or even a flash light. Be careful your pumpkin does not start smoking! If you do want to use more candles you may need to cut a hole near the top at the back to act like a chimney. Try taking some images in the very last of the days light.

If you are making your own jack-o-lantern then consider that the more light they can emit out will make them appear more eerie so it’s best to maximise the size of the holes to let out as much candle light as you can (start searching for a big pumpkin!).

Angle of View: Try moving from eye level shots and create dramatically creepy images by changing your angle of view. Try shooting off centre, at extreme angles; close to the ground, above your subject – just make sure you angle is obvious. Tip: With most costumes the shoes are the part people mostly don’t match so often it’s best not to have them in the image at all – sometimes though they are great subjects. Just remember to check them out before you click.

Create a story: Take your viewer on a journey – this works great for kids making their costume, getting dressed and then heading out on their adventure (and for us big kids too). Don’t forget the candid shots too.

Use movement: Ah ghostly images with movement now that’s a shot! Use a slow shutter speed and low ISO. Yes you’ll need to experiment a bit but that’s half the fun. Try having you subject still for 2/3rds of your exposure time and then moving in the last 1/3^rd of the exposure.

Noise or no noise? Now we are talking ISO noise here. Generally you will not want noise in your images so keep that ISO low.

Don’t forget: Extra batteries, lockable cable release, tripod and plenty of memory cards!

Have fun!

Did you know? Halloween has its origins from an ancient Celtic festival known as the Samhain and more or less means ‘summer’s end’. Today, it’s a night festival of spooks and spirits, fantasy, bright and or bizarre costumes celebrated by all ages across the globe.

Using a Grey Card for Photography

Interesting enough lately I have been seeing more than one discussion on the use of a grey card for photography and if it makes a difference. The topics have been varied from photographers saying they are a waste of money to others who are misleading some on what they are actually used for and  how to use them correctly.

Recently on our Bluedog-Kingfisher Bay Fraser Island Photography Tour we revisited the use of the grey card and Judy has kindly sent in the images below that she took which demonstrates how it works perfectly. Neither of these images has been touched in Photoshop or another editing program.

What we need to understand when wanting correctly exposed images is how light works and how our cameras read light.

Reflected Light:
This is the light our cameras light meter reads. It measures the light reflecting off the subject. A dark object reflect less light than a bright subject and therefore this can trick our cameras light meter.

Incident Light:
Is the light falling on our subject. This was the light our hand held meters usually read. And therefore were not influenced by the subject's reflectance. Many hand held meters can read both incident and reflected light. Incident light meters can be identified by their white translucent dome over the light sensor.

In summing up, the grey card is one of the most useful, inexpensive tools you can have in your kit and knowing how light is read by your camera and how you can adjust your exposure means you are in control. You are the one that can get exposure right in camera – your whites white and your blacks black - which means, you are the photographer!

Tips for Using a Grey Card:

Always position the card parallel to the front surface of your lens.

Don’t tip the card towards the light as it be reflecting too much light and not give an accurate reading.

Don’t tip the card down – then there’s less light, the opposite of above.

Be careful using other grey objects just because they look ‘close enough’. Their reflectance may trick your cameras meter.

This image was taken using what the cameras meter said was the correct reading.

This image was taken using after using a grey
card to set the cameras meter reading.

Images courtesy of Judy Watts

The Photography Work of Maya Guiez

Based in New York, the Israeli born Guiez is fast becoming a name in photography. Already travelling the world shooting fashion, glamour and beauty she is renowned for playing her part in every process of the shoot: makeup, set, the shoot of course and editing.

Her first published fashion spread occurred at the tender age of seventeen and today she is in hot demand. Interesting enough she is also well known for her exotic appearance which flows into much of her work.
View more of her work here: http://www.mayaguezart.com

Enjoy!