Friday's Featured Resource- Digital Photography School

Darren Rowse of Problogger fame has got one awesome photo resource blog out there called Digital Photography School. I’m sure many of you already know all about the site as it is choc full of everything a photographer (or budding photographer) wants to know. Personally, I subscribe to the weekly newsletter because it recaps the week’s features for me in a handy email so I can click over at what sparks my creative interest.

Dig through the archives to find info on almost anything photo related from cleaning your lens to understanding white balance to Photoshop shortcuts. And if you're ooking for insights on how to photograph waterfalls, fireworks or mushrooms(pictured above) DPS has got tips for all of these things and more.

What caught my eye this week was Darren’s take on curiosity as one of the traits of a good photographer. I loved his follow up post too- How to be a Curious Photographer.

I love that he encourages us to play and break the rules (a photographer after my own heart) but many of his tips also encourage asking questions, working with a buddy and learning from each other. I'm pretty hip to the community thing so I really appreciate his ideas.

Curious? I thought so. Now click on over and see for yourself why Digital Photography School is our very first* Friday’s Featured Resource.

Feel free to share any of your own curious captures with us today and we'll see if we can figure them out.

*Yes, that means that we will be featuring more fantastic photo resources on Fridays. Got a website, blog or any other photo resource you can’t live without? Shoot an email to click at Shutter Sisters dot com and tell us about it!

in need of practice

Photographing kids is simply a matter of rapidfire optimism. I’m fine with kids, not self-conscious as a photographer because they’re not self-conscious of themselves. I don’t have to tell kids what to do with their hands.
 
But when it comes to adults—here I am, and you may take my picture, and please don’t make me regret it, and where do you want me to stand?—I’d rather shoot incognito from behind a bush. Pervy, I know. But otherwise, I clam up.

The gorgeously ripening Bon asked me to take maternity portraits of her at nearly 29 weeks (given her moody diva of a cervix, this is a fabulous accomplishment achieved thanks to many months of strict bedrest) and when she did, I balked a little.

Inside I was thinking GOD yes! I’d LOVE to! Every time I’m with you my trigger finger’s twitching for want of my camera, but I’m too shy to ask.

When the day came I knew what I wanted—more her than the belly, notsomuch the typical, something un-contrived and non-cutesy—but was amazed at how much it felt like juggling.

I’ve got to go all-manual instead of aperture priority because I need to trick the camera into over and underexposing because that’s what I want, but how do you do that again? I need to hold down the +/- button and click the clicker at the same time, then hang on, now that’s going to be too much, let me check… <click>

She says Oh, have we started? I think I blinked  and I stammer sorry, just checking my settings, you can sit for a bit… and then it occurs to me: adults need guidance, reassurance, chit-chat. When you look through your lens and think to yourself that’s perfect!  you need to say it, tell her how lovely she looks by the windowlight.

All that and I hadn't yet considered composition. So busy thinking of rapport and focus and exposure, I cut off her arm for fifty frames in a row—visually speaking—and the angle of it draws energy straight off the edge. Her face, expression? The light? Dreamy. But the damn arm, the arm! GAH! How could I have not seen that? Even drastic cropping can’t seem to reinvent this creative stumble.

Fascinating, though, and I want to do more, much more.

Sisters, I need your help. What are your principles for taking great portraits—intentional ones, not candid—of adults? How do you keep all the balls in the air?

Sunday School: Shooting From the Hip

When I got my first digital SLR a little over a year ago, I did something kind of sily.  I called Nikon's technical assistance and asked the gentleman how to get my LCD screen to display the digital viewfinder.  I had been using a digial point-and-shoot  for over 5 years and had forgotten how to take photos looking through that tiny little peephole.  I can't tell you how embarrassed I was when the Nikon techie gently broke the news to me that as far as he knew, there was no digital SLR that had this feature*.  I was crestfallen.  To be unable to take photos from all kinds of crazy angles and perspectives and still be able to see what I was capturing before I clicked on the shutter?  I thought my photog days were surely over.

Well, I did get used to putting my eyeball to the peephole like the good old days with my film SLR but I still toyed with the idea of getting one of these really expensive puppies.  I'm glad I didn't, though, because I soon learned the joys of what folks call Shooting From the Hip.  That's when you shoot photos without looking through the viewfinder or composing the shot on the LCD.  I personally don't consider it shooting blind, however, and it's not the same as Just Shoot It when you click click click that shutter button without aiming or thinking. 

Shooting From the Hip is a skill that takes patience and practice.  You have to try it a LOT to learn how to angle the camera to aim it at what you actually want to shoot.  The more you try it, however, the easier it will get, and you'll love the freedom of being able to shoot without always having an eyeball glued to the tiny viewfinder or constantly looking down at the LCD.

One tip I have for Shooting More Accurately From the Hip is to use the focus-lock feature that most cameras have.  You can focus on what you want to shoot while looking through the viewfinder and then keeping the focus locked on it, reposition the camera and shoot.  In the photo above, I locked the focus on the pizza through the viewfinder, and then I positioned the camera at my chest level and pressed the shutter.  Another tip is to use the autofocus assist light (if your camera has one) to give you an idea of where your camera is pinpointing.  That should give you a clue as to whether you're aiming the camera at what you actually want to focus on. 

Whether your viewfinder is a tiny peephole or a digital LCD that twists and turns and does somersaults, Shooting From the Hip may become one of your favorite pastimes.  No matter how good your aim is, you never know exactly what you'll get, and THAT is the fun part.

Ready?  Aim.  Shoot!  And don't forget to share your Shooting From the Hip images and tips.

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*Edited to Add:  Actually, there are now dSLRs that come with a live view LCD.  Thanks to Laura of Dolce Pics for the heads up!

Perfect Recipe for Something New

As anyone with a long term love of photography knows, it's easy to find yourself taking the same kinds of pictures over and over again.   Glance over your last 1000 pictures and you might see what I mean.  Overrun in flowers?  Same style portraits?  Bricks and mortar?   While there's no harm in going on a kick now and then to master your craft, you'll know it's time for a change when your images start to look the same and you can no longer recognize the gem in that one picture that represents a departure from your tried and true subjects.  May I shyly submit the photo above as a case in point.

What subjects do you tend towards when you pick up the camera?   Ready to cook up something fresh and unexpected by widening your repertoire?  Comments are open for your confessions and links to the images where you strayed from the same ole, same ole with delicious results.

sweet mystery

I’ve noticed that I can no longer look at the world around me without a photographer’s eye. So much so that I don’t realize I’m doing it until someone reminds me. Like when I comment about the way something simple looks so complex or the mundane looks somehow illuminated, I will often get either a blank stare – huh? or someone’s light bulb moment—wow! I would have never noticed that but now that you mention it…

For the most part when I turn my lens to the subject at hand I like to think that I am choosing or even controlling how I capture it; the point of focus, the compositional framing, the direction or intensity of the light. But the flipside and perhaps the balance is that I gladly and willingly rely on the help of the mystery of the medium itself. For me, this magic is what breaths life into my work, not me.

And sometimes even when I think I know what I am creating in a photograph, the subject, the light, the alchemy of all of it mixed together in some kind of creative stew brings tastes and smells that I could have never concocted on my own. Maybe that’s why I’m always hungry for more. It’s always one succulent visual feast after the next.

My favorite photographs are usually those that surprise me. The ones I didn’t see coming. When something extraordinary has developed from the ordinary. An image that draws me in and questions what it is I’m really seeing. Something refreshingly stimulating and curious.

What about you? Do you have images that have brought their own magic? Share with us the shots that challenge your senses and tickle your pallet with mystery and intrigue.