Photocamp Utah 2010

Photocamp Utah 2010 was an awesome event this year, if you live in Utah and have an interest in photography, you really should have been there. For me the highlight of the event was hearing from Zack Arias. The man is real, easy going and completely down to earth.

He was the afternoon keynote speaker. What did he speak about? Well if I were to sum it up as a single phase: “How to succeed” of course from a photographers view point. Pretty simple topic, but really difficult to cover. I was able to watch over Zack’s shoulder for a bit as he prepared his speech and spoke with him while he worked. Here is the thing I came away with, Zack totally practices what he teaches, and tells you exactly how he got where he is, and how he plans on getting where he is going. He is totally humble willing to learn and to share what he knows.

You can watch a stream of his presentation here. One of the first things he talked about in his presentation is how we should know our gear as photographers. I mean really know our gear. Now this comes from a guy who shoots two systems, Canon and Nikon. As an example, while I was looking over his shoulder I commented on a picture he has up. He tells me exactly how he shot it, using a feature that I was unaware of in my camera. The thing is I felt like I knew all the features of my camera, but here I am learning a feature previously unknown to me.

What was the feature? Nikon cameras have a “Multiple Exposure” mode. Now Zack had a couple of really cool pictures using that feature. One I asked Zack about you can see here. So now I have a new shooting mode to play with and have decided to dig out the manual and see what else my camera can do that I have been ignorant of! I tried it out at photocamp while Zack was talking.

Now my result really sucks to say it mildly but the look was done in camera! I toned the image afterward in lightroom, but nothing else. I can see all sorts of cool effects I could get from this mode! Moral of the story, is back to square one for me! I need to learn my tools better!

Could I change settings on my camera blindfolded?

Need to work on that one a little bit (mostly there).

Do I know everything my camera can do?

Nope need to work on that one too!

Make sure you come to photocamp next year!

My tips, hints and thoughts on photography

This is where I will collect all of the how to articles created by me. These are my thoughts and things I wanted to share about photography. I've moved the incomplete list that was located at the sidebar, and replaced it with a single link. I will update the list as I continue to share.

Thinking about wedding photography? Here somethings I learned shooting with a Pro Wedding photographer: Second Shooter for Scott Jarvie

Want to get better looking skies? Here is what I do to get better looking skies: Better looking skies

This tip is a quick tool to help see how other people took their photos: Exif viewer

I get occasional e-mails about my gear, what I use and how I use it. Learn more about what I use here: My Gear and how I use it

A tutorial I wrote after a month of taking self portraits. Here is what I learned with some great looking photos of me: Better Self Portraits.

Cameras are getting better, but there are still times when the cameras built in meter will get it wrong. Watching a few of the built in tools of your camera can help get better exposure. This is the way I watch my exposure.

Short on money, well you’re not alone. Instead of buying a macro studio try out an old milk container. Macro studio on zero budget

This photo generated a lot of interest, and here I explain exactly what I did to get the star trails and share a short story of a camping adventure at the same time. Natures Independence Day show.

I missed the Utahphotowalking group in June. So I had a chance to explore a little. Plus I talk about a little about some light painting I did. Photowalking June at the Great Salt Lake.

A video clip from Dove about true beauty and how digital photography may have distorted our view of beauty. The drastic makeover

One way to quickly figure out how a portrait was lit. Reverse engineer light

A quick little discussion on my photographic state of mind and what I did to get over a photo rut I was going through.Creativity boost

Very basic explanation of soft versus hard light, and how to find the light. lighting quality

A very basic explanation of the things like shutter speed, aperture, ISO (sensitivity) and how it all works in setting exposure and the look of the photo. More about taking better pictures

Early example of me trying to create better portraits by simply changing my perspective. How to take better portraits

A vision change

It has been a bit over a year since I began to take an interest in photography. I have noticed a gradual change in the way I see things around me. One of the biggest changes is that I find beauty, and interesting things to look at everywhere. Before the viewfinder I wouldn’t think twice about a beautiful sunset, the contour of the hills, the way the light hits an open field, the twist of a tree, or the awesomeness of a cloud moving overhead.



It is a great irony that the viewfinder which acts much like a set of blinders, has increased my awareness of how beautiful the world is. It is strange how we can overlook things that are right before our eyes that are so wonderful and beautiful.



Case in point, I was editing a photo that I had taken at a recent camping trip. My father in law looked over my shoulder and said “Wow where is that?”. I replied that it was where we had been camping, about 30 yards from where we set up our tents. His reply was that it didn’t look like what he saw.

Photo taken at camp Monte Cristo 30 yards from our tent

Now my father in law is very complimentary of my photography (he wants to make me feel good) but it does illustrate a point. While we were setting up camp I noticed the valley right away. I liked the curve of the hills and the way the valley was bracketed by the trees at either side. There were some clouds that were moving in that I really liked as well. The light was just starting to get interesting, casting longer shadows as sunset was nearing. I was watching the light and the clouds like a hawk as I prepared the camp site. I was itching to move to a better vantage point, and really wanted to be there if all the ingredients fell in to place for a “picture perfect moment” (don’t really care for that phrase but it fits). The elements never quite combined in the way that I was hoping, but it was pretty good so I went for it.



Before my interest in photography I would have sat with my back to that scene and never have thought twice about the beauty all around me. I most likely would have been in a hurry so I could get back to a good book (love to read). Looking at letters on a blank white page instead of at the beauty all around me, seems such a waste! I was camping on a mountain, a Mecca of interest and beauty!



I feel that before photography I missed so much of what was happening around me. Me and Clayton found this little guy (above) hanging out on the front porch. Clayton was fascinated and scared by the Beetle.



To some, this sharing of my inner eye may seem like, "oh oh, Nate has gone over the deep end". At first it was all about pictures of the little boy (still my favorite subject). Then I started wanting to shoot (with my camera) friends and family. Now it has become everything, from mountains to people to little crawly bugs.

Go out and shoot, the more you do, the more the way you see things will change, at least that is what happened to me.

Technical Wonder

I read this great little article by Richard Legg some time ago. It seems that there is a misperception that if you have a big fancy camera you must be a photographer. It is as if people assume that the camera does all the work...

"Wow that is a fancy pen you have there you must be a writer!"

Richard Legg a local photographer of extraordinary talent puts it this way:
I bought this expensive camera, but my pictures look blah!

The funny thing about those big fancy digital SLR cameras is that they actually require more work to give you great images. You can't treat those cameras like you do your point and shoot, in fact the more expensive cameras ussually don't have those auto modes. You are expected to have a basic understanding of F-stops, shutter speed, ISO, white-balance, exposure compensation and the list goes on and on.

In fact if you shoot a DSLR, to take the most advantage of the camera you will want to shoot RAW. What is RAW? Any digital image that your camera captures is most likely written to the camera card as a Jpeg. The amount of processing that the camera performs before it is written to the card would make your head spin. Just a few of the parameters that you can tweak in camera for Jpeg processing are:
-sharpening
-color/hue corrections
-noise reduction
-contrast
-vibrance
-compression levels etc.
This doesn't even consider all the parameters you can't tweak.

When you shoot raw you are taking the image from the camera before any of this processing has occured. You have a file you can tweak nondestructively that is optimal for archiving. An example could be likened too cakes. When you take pictures in Jpeg format you are buying a cake at the store from the bakery ready made. When you set raw it is like going to the store and buying eggs, flour, oil, salt, water, sugar etc and baking the cake in your oven at home. One takes more work but gives you a lot more options on the final product.

This is what I love about the digital SLR. All the changes that you can make the tweaks and little things that just make an image better. Here are two images of my beautiful wife. The first is nearly straight from the camera.



The second is a processed image with canges that include selective sharpening, selective blurring and a little bit of color changes. I think unless you look hard you won't see the changes. Of course I will admitt that I am getting better at getting my image closer to what I want as a final image straight from the camera.



It is funny that the more money you spend on a camera the more work the the final image requires but hey that work is soooooo worth it.