My Little Man
Happy belated Father’s Day to all you father’s out there reading this. I had a great day myself, post processed some images from Pensacola, made some killer kabobs on the grill and to top it off, my little man fell asleep on me. There is no greater feeling in the world than that. I have head plenty of babies fall asleep on me in my time, which is nice, but when it is your own little one, it is absolutely priceless. I wish I could bottle up that warmth and save it for another 15 years when he tells me he hates me for taking away his Nintendo for putting gum in his siblings hair!
As I mentioned before I was able to post process some more photos from my trip to Pensacola, FL. A friend of mine and I trekked to the top of the Light house, 273 stairs one way, thank goodness I am in shape! As much as it is physically demanding, I do love climbing to the top of lighthouses. I did it several times in California and love not only the view from above, but the feeling it gives you when you are inside. I always, no matter how old I am, get the feeling that I am a lighthouse attendant in the early 1800’s, working all by my lonesome making sure the lamp stays lit throughout the night. It doesn’t matter if the lighthouse was built in the 1950’s I still feel like I am in the 1800’s, it is my fantasy I will be in whatever time I want!
Photo Tip For The Week:
Lighting is really poor inside of lighthouses. It makes for a very tricky picture without a tripod. However, a Tripod is extremely difficult to maneuver on a winding staircase and could be a potential safety hazard. To get a good blur free image in a lighthouse, try these 5 easy steps:
- Lower your aperture. For these shots I went down to f/2.8, while the depth of field may be shallow, there really isn’t too much depth to really work with in such a confined space. A lower aperture will give you the ability to speed up the shutter a bit to avoid image blur.
- Increase your ISO. I would increase your ISO to one that leaves you with a workable image in post processing. Let’s face it, you can always remove that ISO noise later, but if you don’t increase that ISO on the scene and get the shot, you may not have a picture at all right?
- Brace yourself on a wall. Be your own tripod, no sicko, not like what you called yourself in college. Put your back against a wall, brace your arm against a pole. Most all sculptures are made with three points of contact to the ground, why? Because those three points increase stability and ensure it will not fall. By bracing your back against a wall you are turning that whole wall into your third leg, or third point of contact.
- Control your breathing. Easier said than done right? Control your breathing to a slow and steady inhale and exhale, after you are braced and on the point of exhale, take the picture. Continue to follow through with that exhale throughout the exposure, a slow steady exhale. Holding your breath will not help trust me!
- Take many exposures. Digital photography is free, instead of snapping that one shot, stick around a bit and take 3-5 of every scene that interests you, this will help you ensure that you get a noise free image. I did that with all of the interior shots of the light house and wouldn’t you know, 3 out of 5 were blurry. Thankfully, I shot more!
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
