I’ve never been able to touch my toes in the traditional gym class kind of way.  My spine just doesn’t cooperate.  To paint a more vivid picture for you, it’s not like I just can’t bridge the last couple of centimeters or so with the tips of my fingers oh-so-close to brushing the ends of my feet.  I don’t even come remotely close.  We’re talking at least a half a foot or more between the floor and the end of my upper extremities.

Embarrassing elementary gym stories aside (and I didn’t even get to the tale about Jason Atkinson pulling my gym shorts down in front of Lucy Chipeleski), what does any of this have to do with photography?

In amateur photography, as it was in Mr. Watohovich’s phys-ed curriculum, flexibility is pretty important.

Our local photography group recently had a photowalk at the Lititz Fire & Ice Festival.  The titular ice represented by frozen sculptures carved and placed in front of local downtown businesses.    We all thought the ice carvings would make for some interesting photo opportunities.  What we didn’t count on was the Fire in the Fire & Ice becoming a more appropriate moniker for the freakish 72 degree February weather instead of the chili cook-off it was intended to describe.  Those unseasonably warm temps  on the day prior to our walk left most of the sculptures in a slushy non-recognizable state, much like Meg Ryan’s face after her most recent plastic surgery.

This is where flexibility comes in.  As an amateur photographer with a limited amount of time to dedicate towards your craft you can’t always pick and choose the optimal times and locations to capture the subjects you’re interested in.  You have to make the best of whatever situation you find yourself thrust into.  Even if you’re able to plan ahead and get in the right places at the right time, other factors can always play the saboteur.

If, for whatever reason, you can’t shoot what you you had in mind, look for subjects that are more amenable to the conditions and environment you find yourself in.   I didn’t shoot one single ice sculpture on our photowalk, but I still came home with a wide variety of shots that I was happy with.

Don’t set your eyes so firmly on what you can’t shoot that you miss what you should shoot.

I love rust crust and decay.  Who doesn’t?  I guess when you spot a bit of it creeping up the side panels of your 1984 Honda Accord you’re not too enamored with it, but otherwise it’s fantastic, especially in the realm of photography.  Peeling paint, rusty fixtures and crumbling structures provide fantastic little nooks and crannies for light to dart in and out of creating compelling textures.

Because of my love of all things decaying, I felt compelled to take a trip down to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.  Eastern State Pen is a former prison which operated from 1829 until 1971, at which time it fell into severe disrepair.  Partially because it was considered the world’s first penitentiary, it was designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1966.  After years of neglect, the Pen was reopened for tours in the late 1980’s much to the amateur photographer’s benefit.

For an admission fee plus an equipment license for your tripod (which is good for the whole year in which you purchased it) you can wander the grounds and halls of the former prison and capture all of its decaying glory.  Most of the 7 spoke-style wings of the Pen are open so you have plenty of access to shoot abandoned cells, crumbling walls, and even an accurate recreation of Al Capone’s cell, who famously had an eight month stay at the prison.

I used my time at the prison to test out some HDR photography, taking bracketed exposures to capture all the detail I possibly could.  Eastern State Pen is mostly lit with natural light streaming in through a bevy of skylights.   During my short visit, which lasted about 2 hours, the lighting and subsequent shooting opportunities changed dramatically for both the better and worse depending on where I was in the prison.  Some of the cells even had blue gel-like plastic over their skylights which added an interesting eerie look to their contents which, maybe purposefully, made for some creative and dramatic photo opportunities.

I easily could have spent all day setting up my tripod, waiting for a change in light, and capturing another contrasty nook and cranny on patch of peeling paint, but real life beckoned.  In the end, I was pretty pleased with the results.  So if your photography buddies are itching for something different to shoot, why not suggest a day in the clink.  Eastern State Pen, will give em’ all they can handle.

Photos from my trip to Eastern State Penitentiary

Having grown up in Northeastern Pennsylvania, I’ve been hiking in Ricketts Glen State Park since well before my college years.  Not long after I took up photography, it became one of my favorite places to make photos as well.  Next to bright vibrant colors, water is probably my

second favorite photography subject. During most parts of the year Ricketts Glen State Park provides, as good ol’ Maverick would say, “a target-rich environment” for all things falling H2O.

If you’ve never been to Ricketts Glen you really owe it to yourself to schedule a day to hike around the falls trail.  It’s not just that there’s 22 waterfalls within such close proximity, it’s the beauty and power of each one of the falls.  After my first eye-opening trip to see the frozen falls this past winter, I can now say I’ve seen the Glen in each of the 4 seasons we fully experience here in the Northeast.  There’s just something about the roar of the water continually pounding the rocks and the little nooks and crannies with beautiful runs in between each set of falls that keeps me coming back year after year.

That’s not to say that some days aren’t better than others to be at the Glen from a photography standpoint.  Ideally, you’re looking for a moist, overcast day with maybe just the hint of rain in the air.  When it’s raining, everything in the park glistens, from the round-off rocks smoothed from eons of water flow to the heavy green canopy surrounding you on all sides.

Unfortunately, the weekend I was able to get up this spring the aforementioned canopy wasn’t quite as green as I had hoped.  I had forgotten that Northeast PA is about 2 weeks behind in terms of leaf budding than where I live 2 hours South.  So that would be strike one.  Strike two manifested itself as a beautiful, cool, cloudless day.  For everyone else NOT taking pictures of waterfalls, it was idyllic weather.

My hiking partner for the day was Rob, a fellow photo enthusiast from Lancaster County.  Rob and I got up about and hour and a half before the crack of dawn so we could drive up to Red Rock and get into the park and headed toward the first set of falls before sunrise.  Given that we had consumed an unhealthy amount of some of the best Mexican food in coal country the night before, I will consider this journey one of my greatest lifetime achievements.

You generally want to get into the park fairly early on days where there’s going to be direct sunlight.  Once the sun gets over the mountain ridge and above the tree canopy your ability to get long exposures on the falls without getting blinding white spots pretty much disappears.

We were able to shoot a fair amount of falls before the point in the trail called “Waters Meet” where, not surprisingly, two forks of falls trails converge.  After that point, the sun was bright enough and had risen high enough in the sky to render our “photo” hike into just a “regular” hike.  There were still some neat wildflowers along the path (Lots of Red Trillium) that provided some nice macro opportunities, and it’s always nice to sit and reflect at Adams Falls near the parking areas at the end of your journey.

We were down in the count, but a day spent hiking, talking, and grabbing what photos we could here and there is better than a day spent mulching my flower beds (much to my neighbor’s chagrin).  There were no strikeouts on this trip.

As I was returning from my hike in Tucquan Glen this morning, I was stopped by a man who was a part of  a larger group who had camped near the stream overnight.  He asked me for directions on how to get to “The Pinnacle,” which I assumed was further up the trail in the direction from which I had just come.  I told him since I  didn’t know other parts of the park very well, I didn’t want to steer him the wrong way.  I had only just been down towards the end of the trail where the small sets of falls are located.  He looked a little puzzled then asked me, “So where exactly did you come from?”

I guess he thought 9 am was awfully early for a hiker to be returning from this direction.  I told him I had passed his camp and its sleeping-bag-encased inhabitants at about 6 am, prior to sunrise.

Yep, we photographers are a strange breed.  Then again, I think sleeping overnight, in April, in the woods, with only a hammock tied up between two trees separating you from the wet cold leaves on the ground is crazy.  So who am I to say what is and is not strange?

In preparation for my upcoming trip to Ricketts Glen State Park and its bevy of waterfalls, I decided to purchase a few neutral density filters for my standard walk-around zoom lens.  I wanted to hedge against getting too much sunlight during my trip to the falls, plus I want to play around with some really long exposures when I’m down at the shore, or anywhere else I get near water.

Truth be told, I’m not in the position to buy the best of the best in the filter department.  I knew I wanted at least two filters, so I could stack them and increase my exposure times.  I ended up getting a .6 and .9 ND filter from Tiffen.   With the ND filters in-hand,  I got up in the pre-dawn hours to head out to one of the only spots in Lancaster County with an acceptable modicum of easily accessible running water: Tucquan Glen.

After my test run today I was pretty pleased with the results.  I’m definitely not a pixel peeper, so if I lost some sharpness or the color is off I would never be able to tell you.  All I know is the filters cut the amount of light I was getting into the lens, big time.  With the lack of bright light puring into my camera,  I was free to get more creative with my exposures.

I’m pretty excited about testing them out again this weekend at Ricketts Glen.

Tags: Long Exposure, ND Filters, Tucquan Glen, Water, Waterfalls

We organized a short-notice photowalk for the Lancaster County Photography Meetup group this past weekend.  Because I’m apparently bereft of original ideas, I suggested we get together and cruise through Downtown Lancaster and more specifically, Central Market.  I wanted to get inside Central Market partly to hedge against possible chilly outdoor temperatures and partly because I wanted to pick up some of the tasty wares for sale there within.

I think Central Market offers some great opportunities for photography.  From the variety of colorful produce on sale from local vendors, to the vibrant characters behind the stands themselves, there’s no shortage of subjects if you’re really looking for them.  However, shooting in Market is not without its perils.  Even on the brightest of mornings, Market can be a little on the darker side due to the high dark ceilings and the lack of available natural light.  Towards the middle of the floor, I never find myself shooting below iso 800  at the widest aperture the lens at hand can muster.

A few of us braved the chilly streets for a half an hour or so and made our way up to another one of my favorite spots near Downtown,  St. James Episcopal Church.  The church was open for Christmas pageant rehearsals so we got to warm up inside and enjoy the beauty of the morning sun streaming through St. James’ ornate stained glass windows in the sanctuary.  There’s a compact little cemetery behind the church filled with age worn gravestones and, I’m sure, a fair share of Lancaster city history.

Considering it was colder outside than the inside of Tiger Woods’ house these days (rim shot), the turnout was decent, and I think we all got in some quality shots.  At the very least, we had some decent photo chit chat and some piping hot cups of Cocoa Joe at the Prince Street Cafe afterward.  If that’s not enough to get you up at 8 am on a Saturday morning, then there’s no helping you.

Tags: Downtown, Lancaster, Meetup, Photowalk

Good ol’ natural window light.  It’s still my favorite.

You can set up all the fancy flashes, umbrellas, soft boxes, and fill cards you like.  I’ll take light streaming in through a window seven days a week and twice on Sunday.

To me, it always represents the closest after-the-fact reproduction to what your eye is actually seeing, and it looks fantastic to boot. Oh, and did I mention it’s free, unless of course you don’t have a window. You could always ask to borrow someone else’s, so you’ve got that going for you.

Tags: Lighting, Natural Light, portraits, Window Light

A reject from my attempts at satisfying last month’s assignment for the Lancaster County Photography Meetup: DIY Lighting.  Lighting isn’t my strong suit, so this month’s photos were a bit of a stretch for me.  In my opinion, the candy doesn’t have a really strong anchor so once you get beyond the nice mix of color there’s nothing to keep your eye on the image for an extended period of time.

Despite my shortcomings, I enjoyed trying to come up with different scenarios and objects to light for the assignment, but I generally gravitated back towards illuminating small objects using a DIY light tent.  What can I say, I’m just a details guy at heart!

The second part of our monthly Meetup revolved around a discussion of RAW files and digital negatives in general.  Who knew folks could get so fired up about file formats?  There were some pretty strong opinions shared on RAW vs. JPG, RAW vs. DNG, and someone even brought up JPG2000!  No fists were bared, but let’s just say that if you thought people had entrenched opinions about Canon vs. Nikon, that discussion seems like a night at the high school debate club compared to this.

For what it’s worth, here’s my take on how I personally handle file formats.  I shoot exclusively in RAW, and I use the word exclusively not in a snobby “holier than thou” sense, but more in a practical “I don’t shoot anything else because I like to keep my work flow consistent” sense.  I like having as much flexibility in the post processing environment as possible, and shooting in RAW delivers the most bang for the buck in the data department for me not to consider doing otherwise.

If I make mistakes out in the field (and I do, all the time) I like having the ability to correct them after the fact.  I think even if I were 100% certain I was getting the desired exposure and white balance every single time I tripped the shutter, I still wouldn’t shoot JPG.  What if I wanted to do something creative with the exposure that didn’t jive with the original parameters of the shoot to begin with?  I like having options, and RAW gives you options.

On import, I convert all of my RAW files to DNG.  Why?  I say why not?  It doesn’t take any extra appreciable time to convert my Canon CR2 RAW files to a format that is non-proprietary and allows me to bake additional metadata inside the file itself without adding a sidecar.  When you also consider there is no degradation of quality or performance and DNG files are generally smaller than their proprietary counterparts it becomes a no-brainer for me.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Tags: candy, DIY, DNG, File Formats, food, light tent, Lighting, macro, Meetup, RAW

An example of what I like to call “Dad Photography.”  After you go to the gym, get everyone ready for school, go to work, eat dinner, help with homework, spend some quality time with the kids and collapse… you often don’t have a lot of time left for your photography much less anything else.

The shutterbug-dad-on-the-go has to get his photo opportunities while he can.

On a trip to various museums with my boys this past weekend, we passed a decaying fire hydrant that was in stark contrast to the shiny dome of the state capitol no less than 100 yards away.  While we were walking back to our van, I squeezed off a few closeups while the boys beckoned for the sugary sustenance waiting for them in the vehicle.

Could the shot be better?  I’m sure with time to work the subject I could have produced a stronger point of interest, but what’s a busy Dad to do when his boys are screaming for their Oreo Snack Packs?

Dad Photography: you get your shots when you can.

Tags: Dad Photography, decay, Fire Hydrant, Harrisburg, PA

Cleaning up Blemishes

There are two schools of thought in retouching your personal photos.  First, there are those out there who want to preserve every single detail in a shot, unflattering or not.  Let’s call these folks preservationists.  Preservationists argue that covering up scrapes, bits of food stuck to faces, and the like compromise the integrity and inherent “real-ness” of a photo.  I tend to tell preservationists that “real-ness” isn’t a word and to just lighten up a little for Pete’s sake.

That puts me squarely in the second school of thought, summed up by the philosophy that re-touching is okay… up to a point.  Anything that takes away from the story I want to remember is expendable.    So the scrape on my son’s elbow he acquired two weeks prior to the shot is fair game, but the stitches in his head he got that afternoon are not.  You can obviously come up with your own ground rules. I don’t think of myself as my family’s documentarian.   I prefer to think of myself as its visual storyteller, and like all good storytellers, there is the occasional embellishment along the way.  I think the flourishes not only add a dash of style to a tale, but also make the most important aspects of the story that much more memorable.

Sharpening/Brightening Eyes

This isn’t as much a how-to on how to sharpen and brighten eyes, as much as it is a how-not-to.  I believe pulling out the eyes with just a little bit of sharpening and brightness is a good way to make your kid’s peepers sparkle in a photo, but you have to know when to say when.  I’ve seen photos with too sharp and overly brightened eyes that made anime creators remark, “Hmmmm, that may be a little over the top.”  So be careful here, less is more.  You want your child’s eyes to pop, not look like you bought them at the state fair.

Shutterfly – The Easy Push

I’ve long been sharing my family photos on Shutterfly because they make it as easy as possible on their primary print consumers… grandparents.  Ordering prints is easy enough, plus I get 10 free prints every time a new referral orders prints from one of my albums. They’ve recently upgraded their slideshow functionality so you can now see larger versions of your shots, and Shutterfly allows you to share albums via email or you can additionally create one of their new family micro-sites.

I like Shutterfly’s family sites because they allow me to share photos with interested parties (re: grandparents) without doing all that much. Folks who want to get notified when you upload photos to the site need only “subscribe” to the family site and they get an email update automatically every time you add photos.  Voila! No more complaints from Nana and Poppy about how they never see their precious bundles of two-times-removed joy.  On the downside, Shutterfly can be a bit pokey, especially if you’re used to using something sexier like our next candidate…

Flickr – Cool, but not family-friendly

Flickr gives you the ability to share either individual photos or entire sets of shots you’ve compiled.  You can also give your photos varying levels of security clearances visible to those designated as ‘Friends’, ‘Family’, ‘Contacts’, or any combination thereof.  You can even give folks a temporary Guest Pass if they’re not part of the Flickr community. The Guest Pass gives them access only to those photos in the set you’ve designated.  Ordering prints isn’t as easy as Shutterfly, especially if you’re ordering a bunch, but you can send them to you local Target for pickup to save on shipping costs if you just want a couple pretty quickly.

While Flickr is good for sharing a set or two every once in awhile, it doesn’t work as a long term distribution solution because to be notified via email when you post new photos it requires folks you’re sharing the photos with to have a certain level of engagement (registration, etc.) with Flickr itself.  I got tired of asking folks to register just so they could get updates of when I posted new photos.  In reality, unless they’re interested in photography or uploading photos themselves, there’s little incentive (other than seeing your obviously awesome pics) to register on Flickr.  There is however lots of incentive for them to get active on…

Facebook – It’s not just for twenty-somethings anymore

If I asked you what the number one photo sharing site on the internet was, I’m sure Facebook wouldn’t jump to mind, but it is exactly that.  Granted, the majority of those photos are pics of your college girlfriend doing a keg stand, but still….

Facebook is the perfect way to passive aggressively share your family photos with whatever level of friends you choose based on your security settings.   This way your mom can see updated pics of the kids when they pop up in your stream AND post embarrassing details about her recent doctor’s appointment  on your wall because she’s, “not quite sure how all this works.”

It’s really a win/win.

Also, unlike Flickr, when you tag someone in a photo, they’re notified in their stream, so grandpap won’t miss that pic of him and little Johnny sitting in the Radio Flyer together.  Unfortunately, you can’t order prints from Facebook, so you’re still going to fall back on one of the traditional online suppliers for that (Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak, etc.)

Previously:

• Part 3 – Cooperation
• Part 2 – Composition
• Part 1 – The 50mm Lens

Tags: Children, editing, howto, sharing

Every parent with a camera and artistic ambitions has been there.   You have all the technical details down, a great setting, perfect light, and your 5-year-old decides that taking a picture isn’t something he’s willing to fit into his jam-packed schedule today.  How does next Tuesday (but in reality ‘It ain’t never-gonna-happen-pops!’) work for you?  Getting the kiddos in a more photogenic mood can be a sticky wicket, but with some of these tips you just might come out ahead in this particular battle of wills.

Get them in action

For most children, one of the worst things you can do is announce, “Hey, let’s stop what we’re doing to take a picture!” You might as well tell them you’re about to serve up a steamin’ pile of brussel sprouts followed by a rousing discussion of what you just watched on C-SPAN. Here’s the math in their eyes (You + Camera = Stoppage of Fun) is equal to (You = Bad).  I was never good at math, let alone algebra, so I try to stay away from that equation by becoming part of their fun, not stopping it.

Sometimes even a prop can't coax a smile, and even that works out okay.

You get the best shots when you’re getting in on the action and just pulling out your camera every once in awhile. If you’re afraid of over-enthusiastic tots ruining your gear, just sit on the sidelines at a distance and observe while they run around and have a blast and the shots will come.

Give em’ a prop

Nothing livens up a stagnant photo session filled with forced, “can we get this over with already” grimaces more than giving a kid something to play with.  Whether it be a ball, a stuffed animal, or your $800 flash unit… no, wait a minute… scratch that last one.  Anyway, getting the kid interacting with something else and not thinking about the camera shoved in their face tends to bring out the true-to-life, natural smiles you’re looking for. Just watch out for those bats, lest you wind up on America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Trade a silly shot for a nice one

A silly one and a nice one

If your kid is truly intent on giving you nothing but silly faces to capture in all their glory, and you’re equally resolved to catch that elusive, sweet, angelic look, why not indulge them first?  I make a deal with my kids.  They get to have a series of shots making funny faces (which they of course want to review immediately on the LCD screen) and then I get to take at least 2 shots where they smile nicely for me.  It’s a win/win because with digital photography there’s no downside to taking extra shots, and a lot of times you end up liking some of the silly frames better anyway!

Always have you camera close at hand

You just never know when they're going to form their first posse.

Kids are unpredictable, sometimes in bad ways and sometimes in wonderful ways.  You never know when they’re going to do something in the latter category (like hug their brother willingly) or just do your run-of-the-mill cute kid type thing.  Having your camera prepped and close at hand is a must to catch some of these spontaneous moments.  I generally like to have my 50mm lens on the camera around the house, a ready-to-go memory card, and at least a partially charged battery at all times.  I also like to keep my camera mode on (P) on my Canon camera in these types of situations. P (or Program mode)  automatically picks the best exposure while still allowing you to override the settings if you need to.

Do pictures FIRST

Kids have grandparents.  Grandparents love kids.  Grandparents want pictures of kids.  You think something so simple would be stress-free to execute, right?  Unfortunately, after 3 hours at Grandma’s house your offspring are either:

Pay heed to all grandparental requests.

A. Too wired from all the hard candies that come flying out of grandma’s purse to sit still for two seconds.

or

B. Too cranky and tired to effectively cooperate in anything other than what appears to be a UFC main event while getting them into their car seats to hasten your way out of town.

That’s why if you know the expectation is to take family pictures at an event with kids, get them out of the way first.  Hugs, kisses, hellos, photos.  This way, not only will you give yourself the best chance at some reasonable shots, you (the photographer) can relax and maybe squeeze in a few candids throughout the day without the black cloud of ‘needed pictures’ hanging over your head.

It’s all about stealth

Giving kids the space to be kids can net you some great images.

This usually works better outside, but if you can keep your distance and blend into the background, sometimes that’s the best way to catch kids being themselves.  Usually, you’ll need a longer lens to be a passive participant in the shoot, but don’t think that you necessarily have to spend big bucks to get some great shots for your family album.  For the first few years of my photography life I shot with an old 70-210mm f/4 lens.  I’ve seen them on eBay for anywhere between 75-150 dollars.  I took some of my favorite shots of the kids with that lens.   Of course, if you have the scratch to drop, go ahead and buy the fastest sharpest piece of glass you can get. I’m not going to pretend it doesn’t make a difference, it does. But if you’re just starting out, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised what you can do a cheaper mid-range lens.

• Next up: Part 4 – I’ve taken the pictures, now what?
• Part 2 – Composition
• Part 1 – The 50mm Lens

Tags: Children, howto, portraits

Next Page →

• Search














Who?
I'm an amateur photographer with a love for all types of photography. Although it seems like I just started yesterday, photography has been a serious hobby for me for almost a decade now. "A decade" sounds impressive. Much more so than "since 2001."

I've learned so much from the people I've met during my own personal photographic journey, and I'm grateful for all the information and advice that was given to me freely and with much enthusiasm. Hopefully, through this site, I can pass on a little bit of the knowledge I've gleaned over the past few years to those who stumble across this url.

For those who live in the greater Lancaster area, I'm also the organizer of the Lancaster County Photography Meetup Group. If you live nearby (or even if you don't) and want to get out and about with other photographers, join us for a meetup!




Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph. - Matt Hardy

• Categories

  • How To
  • Just Photos
  • Lighting
  • Meetup
  • Photo Talk
  • Photowalks

• Archives

  • February 2011
  • August 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • December 2009
  • October 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009

• Links

  • Brian Evans on Flickr
  • Lancaster County Photography Meetup
  • Twitter Feed