Fast forward to 2021. I’ve had two major back surgeries, lost my clientele to Covid and made a major life change to Oregon to a small beach town with one of the famous Haystack Rocks offshore. With my change in lifestyle I will be blogging more to catch up on life in general. My approach will be helter skelter but at some point will make sense. The bottom line will be about the images and the art.
Equipment: Nikon Z6II, 14mm, 28-300 and an Apple iPhone 11
Summer for a lot of parents mean a lot of time spent at the ballpark practicing and on the weekend All-Star tournaments. Payton, one of my granddaughters fits into that category. But this isn’t about her story. As they used to say these are “Kodak Moments”. If you spend all that time you need good memories. And not just the team or posed photo. So I’m going to share a couple tips to improve your chance to get good photos.
This is not the big leagues. Every where you look there are fences you have to shoot through. Most of the photos above were taken through fences. If you have a dslr first put your shutter speed on a high setting, 1/320 or higher. The longer your lens the faster your shutter should be to minimize vibration and movement in the photos. Your aperture (f4.0, 5.6, 8.0) on the lens should be at the smallest setting. The ASA should be set as low as possible to get a quality image. But if you need go up to asa 400 or 640 to get the proper settings. These combinations when shooting through the fence will start to give you good results. To improve on that go to the side of the fence where the sun is behind you or totally in the shade. Move the lens as close to the fence as possible. What you want to do is avoid the sun bouncing off the fence into your lens. Remember your pictures that look foggy? That’s what happened. The light bounced into the lens creating flare (photo term). This won’t work all the time but most.
What if you have a iPhone or Android? Same concept. Get close to the fence. Make sure you know where the lens is and carefully place it in-between the wire so you have a clear shot. And don’t forget to use the zoom. As our editors always said, “fill the frame”. Lastly, do you use one hand when holding your smartphone? Unless you’re blessed with ultra steady hands don’t. Two hands will make you steadier and your photos sharper. Below are a couple tips that will give you your “Kodak Moment”.
• Move around. Don’t always shoot from the same place.
• Don’t just shoot the action. Look for reactions. Sports is about emotion, the kids having fun.
• If you have a long (large 200 or longer) lens go to the end of the fence to get different looks. Even if they look small in the frame you can crop in. If your camera has a lot of megapixels use it.
• Learn your camera. Don’t wait till you get to the ballpark to figure out how to use it. You don’t want to miss the action.
• Have fun. Capture the action but always remember, it about the kids. They won’t always be young.
ALOHA:
Everyone should have their own special place. Even though Patti and I have done a fair amount of traveling Kauai is ours. It is where we go to refresh our bodies, physically and mentally. During the year we get caught up in the rat race, the day to day reality. Pressure to perform, meet goals and expectations slowly build up and affect who we are. Time for a break. You don’t need to run off to Hawaii, but we do.
MAHALO:
Being on the island helps us refocus, relax and regain clarity. There is a feeling of the beauty that nature is sharing through the lush tropical landscape, cascading waterfalls, the myriad of hidden beaches and the power of nature as the north swell arrives increasing the waves from 1-3 feet to often over 10 feet. Kauai has been our home away from home for over twenty year. We always find or have a new experience. I return to San Diego more centered ready to share my refreshed vision. Mahalo Kauai.
techy stuff: Nikon D810 camera with a 14-24, 24-70 and a 70-200 lens with a 1.4 convertor. Images processed in Adobe Lightroom 5.
I’m no expert but it appears the economy is improving. The first two months of 2014 were the busiest I’ve ever had. I know it’s a small sample to base the year on but other photographers have told me they’re off to a good start also. If photographers are working, businesses are marketing and looking to growth. That’s what we do, we help our client market, sell and grow their business.
I spent a lot of the month on the road. Several trips to Orange County surrounded a couple San Diego projects and then I went to the Bay Area for a couple shoots up there. After a quick respite back home and starting a new local project, I went to Alaska for a quick shoot. I know, why send a San Diego photographer there, it’s because my client trusts me to get what they need. Maybe an idea for a future blog.
Well I need to wrap this up. I have another couple projects in Orange County and LA this week. I hope everyone else is busy.
About my image gallery: All images shot with my iPhone while traveling. Post was in Snapseed.
Have you? Have you been to that place more that once where you start to shoot the same photos the same way? STOP……. don’t go into autopilot. You know what works, now look for something different. Whether a different angle, different lens, different time of day or a new technique, explore it. Dare to be different, that how you become better. Don’t go home with the same or similar images. STIMULATE YOUR VISION!!!
Techy stuff: camera-Nikon D800 and Nikon D600. Lenses Nikkor 14-24 and 70-200. Processed in Adobe Lightroom 5. Locaton, Macksville, Kansas, population aprox. 500.
More of my work: http://zwink.com
One of the big stories in the business world Sunday was that Nikon’s stock took a historic fall of nearly 19%. The company is weighted so heavily in the Nikkei Stock Average that the news had a rippling effect across the market, causing most Asian shares to drop.
Businessweek writes that the price drop was the largest single day decline in Nikon’s stock since 1985. It happened after the company cut its profit forecast due to decreasing demand and plummeting prices.
For the fiscal year ending in March, Nikon now predicts that it will pull in roughly $407 million in net income, down from the ~$643 million it had previously forecast.
Just one example: the AF VR Zoom-Nikkor 80–400mm—$350 off.
There are more lenses in the sale—18 in all.
Nikon is having an unusual sale on some of its very best lenses. Nikon very seldomly offers significant discounts on its premium lenses—especially its best fast primes—when they’re not bundled in a package. This is the first such sale in a number of years. If you’re in the market for new equipment or want to expand your selection now is the time.
Nikon “buy together and save“
Image credit: Photo illustration based on Tokyo Stock Exchange by Dick Thomas Johnson
Here are some resolutions or answers I would like to see for the coming year.
1. Resolve the dreaded * asterisk. The election season is coming soon and I hope the National Board can solve this before it get blown up again. My take…… do away with it. Don’t do any thing to influence voters one way or another. Please do it sooner than later.
2. On the subject of the election I would like to see high profile photographers be more involved and run. Out of aprox. 7,000 members there has to be some fresh talent out there.
3. Experienced GM pros, pay back and get involved with the local chapters. Help strengthen the local chapters that helped when you were younger. And don’t give us the “I’m too busy excuse”. We’re all busy.
4. Look at #3. There is no reason for a non-GM to be President of a local chapter. And before you reply, talk to National, they quietly passed it to allow anyone in the chapter to be pres. now.
5. In 2013 I would like to see ASMP be more relevant to General Members. For several years a push has been made to sign up more non-GM members making GMs more of a minority in the organization. When I was joined I was given the goal to become a GM and often reminded that ASMP was founded to advance the cause of the GM in the industry. I would like ASMP to clarify their current mission statement. Are we (as a group) here to support the pros or here to support the new influx into the society who has no goal to be a GM?
6. These are some of my questions and possible resolutions for ASMP for the coming year. May you all grow in your business for 2013.
It’s not too early. Think about it. What would you like to see in ASMP for 2013?
©2012 ZWINK PHOTOGRAPHY
techy stuff: www.asmp.org local organization: www.asmp-sd.org my site: www.zwink.com
I was in SF last week on an extensive corporate photo shoot for Swinerton. When I was leaving I decided to take the Treasure Island exit on the way back to the airport. The last time I was on TI was in 1975 when it was a Navy Base and I was a naive young seaman in Electronic Warfare school. So many memories…… I first decided to do a quick photo shoot of the skyline which was etched in my memory. I first shot it with my Nikon D3 and then decided to try my iPhone on Hipstamatic mode. Ugh…… it looked as flat and hazy as the skyline. So then I opened my new favorite app. Snapseed. With a few adjustments and then a frame adjustment the above photo is what I ended up with. I know, it looks grainy and it does. But, the end result is that I’m going to print it on watercolor on my Epson inkjet printer. A few years ago I did a similar series that I printed on the watercolor paper and it looked great. Now, we’ll find out how IPhone photos hold up.
The techy stuff: camera: iPhone 4 (the 5 is on order)
Apps: Hipstamatic and Snapseed by Nik
My real work is at: http://www.zwink.com
I couldn’t sleep last night. So, I worked on another blog, decided to look at some old photos and came across these images from a day trip to China many years ago. I was not very good back then, and the slides showed it. And to make it worse when we first started scanning slides there was not a lot of info about how to do good scans, let alone to anticipate the need for larger files later. A couple years ago I would have just closed these files and put them away. But now with the advent of Adobe Lightroom and the use of some great WOW Presets I was not only able to restore colors but to also use it (LR) to see different renditions of the same files. While not advocating it as a replacement for creatively looking while shooting I do think it helps open your mind to new ideas. Now it’s time to get some shut eye……
more of my travel photography can be seen at: www.zwink.com and wwww.bigstudioz.com
What a stupid title…… This is my first post in this blog. I have another cool blog (at least I think it is) that is a little more serious look at how photography interacts with my life. I have used my Iphone regularly since they first came out.
I love to shoot, to capture life around me. Everywhere I turn I see photos ready to be shot or created (a big difference). I want to use this to showcase some of my more interesting images shot in different situations. Some I’ll explain and some will have to speak for themselves. Hope you enjoy.
My other work: website, www.zwink.com blog: poppaz.wordpress.com
