Photography Tips: Shutter Speed on Waterfalls (Images)

The speed of your camera's shutter plays a big role in how you capture an image of a waterfall.

In today's photography tips, I am posting some examples to show how you can use shutter speed to control the appearance of flowing water in your photos.  This picture was taken at 1/6th of a second.

With the camera mounted on a tripod, as all waterfall photography should be done,  another shot was taken at 1/ 160 sec. Notice, higher shutter speeds will do what's called, freezing the motion.

This photo was taken using a 0.6sec shutter speed.

1/8sec was used as shutter speed on this vertical shot.

Then, 1/320 on the next photo.

And, 1/5sec on the final image.

Try using different shutter speed settings on waterfalls, or any scene where you want to capture an image of moving water.  It will have an impact on the appearance of the water in your final photo.  Some people prefer the veil, or soft effect, others go for the crisp look of motion freeze in their waterfall photography.  Whenever I shoot waterfalls,  I take several shots each way.

HERE'S AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE ON WATERFALL PHOTOGRAPHY


MORE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS HERE

Photography Tips: How to Shoot the Guinness Tug-O-War

It doesn't have to be the Guinness World Record Tug-O-War, you can use these photography tips as a how-to for any festival or event where a few hundred thousand people decide to gather in the street for your photographic pleasure.

This photo was taken at the 2010 Great Naha Tug-O-War with a 250mm zoom.  Call it a far-away close-up.  The focal length you have available on your camera determines how much distance you and your camera can be away from the crowd. Before zoom lenses were invented the cameraman's method of zooming-in was HIS FEET !

The trick I used here to bring you up close, without having to get into the crowd, was get some elevation, high above them.

To catch a shot of the monsterous rope without a crowd bumping into the tripod or popping up ruining my attempts at Auto Focus, I shot this photo early in the morning.

Climbing tall buildings is one way to avoid the crowds and squeeze as much of them into the photo frame as your lens will permit.  I have no idea what it cost for the TV station to put their cameraman up in that crane.  But, I figured as long as I was going for a climb, I might as well get higher than him.  My elevation was FREE.

This year I plan on letting some one younger do the rooftop climbing and let them use the SIGMA 50-500mm.  All the photos above were taken with an 18-250mm lens.

Not to worry, somebody like, RyukyuRusty's Mom, we'll bring along a safety leash so nobody falls and hurts my lens.

Taking some photos at ground level, among the crowd is always fun.  You may have to use manual focus, or get the camera off continuous auto focus and just lock your focus on a selected subject.

The only way to capture a close up like this, is fight your way through the mob, bump a few shoulders, forget using a tripod, step on toes, or get yours stepped on and go for a quick handheld shot.  This photo was taken in 2009.  Last year, by the time I got off the rooftop to get my souvenir from the Guinness Record monster rope, they were done hacking strands to give away and kicked me off the street.  Everybody wants a chunk of the rope because it's supposed to bring you good luck, if you take a strand home.

For a big event like the Naha Tug-O-War what you really need is cameramen operating from several different angles, if you plan on photographing all the activities taking place.

If you happen to be in Naha Okinawa for the 41st Guinness World Record Tug-O-War this Sunday afternoon you are liable to run across any number of Ryukyu Cameramen, except maybe, not RyukyuRusty.  He'll be tied to a water tower on top of a tall building.

Say "Hi" if you want but, please don't step on my toes.  I'll be in the thick of it trying to grab some of that rope.

Now, you could use my photography tips for the Guiness Tug-O-War anyplace on earth with a bit of imagination.  Like, THE WALL STREET PROTESTS, comes to my mind.

Somebody ought to get a team together, go out there and getterdun.  Dontcha think ?

Photography Tips: Checklist for Overnight at a Festival

Packing up the camera gear for overnight at a festival is not something I do very often but when I do it's serious business.  This photo is a shot taken just before unpacking from my last excursion.

In no particular order here is what I'm preparing to stuff in the trunk of the car for this week's festival shoot:

CAMERAS: All I can muster, clean  lenses, batteries fully charged with SD cards formatted.

CLEANING KIT: Lens solvent, brush, air bulb, lens cloth and lens tissues.

SPARE BATTERIES AND CHARGERS FOR EACH CAMERA.

LENSES: Every lens available. The lens you leave behind will be the one you wish you had.

TRIPODS:  Sometimes it's nice to be able to set up and use more than one tripod.  Make sure the quick releases are with you before packing away the tripods.

SHUTTER RELEASE CABLES: A camera's timer is pretty much useless for festival shooting.

SD  CARDS: As many as you can get your hands on.  Again, make sure they are formatted.

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE: Download cameras so you're ready for day two.

LAPTOP WITH EDITING PROGRAM: This gives you a chance to review photos off camera.

EXTENSION CORD, ELECTRICAL OUTLET ADAPTORS, MULTIPORT SURGE PROTECTOR: Use to power laptop, hard drive and recharge batteries.

BACKPACK, CAMERA HOLSTERS, LENS CASES, AND COVERS.

COMFORTABLE HIKING SHOES AND A TOWEL WIPE YOUR BROW.


A change of clothes, health and comfort items, food and drink, prayer beads, insect repellent, sunscreen and all that jazz is up to you. This is just my photography tips for an overnight festival in Okinawa, Japan, not a packing list for THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY.

Photography Tips: Shoot The Moon 5 Tips from RyukyuMike

This photo of a Full Moon was taken 28SEP2010 at 5:09AM using an 18-250mm lens at a focal length of 250mm. The camera was my Pentax K10D mounted on a tripod and a cable release was used to activate the shutter. Specs:  f/16   1/30   ISO 100

The Crescent Moon photo was snapped on 25JUL2009 at 8:37PM using the same equipment as in the photo above. In this case, I was at a festival and had to snap the shot in a hurry.  The tripod legs were folded, creating a monopod.  With the lens at 250mm, using the cable release the shot was taken with these Specs:  f/11  1/13  ISO 1600.

FIVE TIPS FOR SHOOTING THE MOON:

1.  A sturdy tripod and Cable Release are the ideal camera accessories to use.  However, anything to steady the shot, along with using your camera shutter timer, will do the trick as long as the camera doesn't move.

2.  If possible, get away from people, city lights, traffic, telephone wires and wind.  I have climbed towers, used rooftops and even propped my camera up with rocks on a secluded beach to take moon shots.

3.  The slightest breeze will ruin a shot of the moon, even when you are using a tripod.  The lower the the tripod is, the less effect wind will have on it. Do not raise the center post if you can avoid it. Most quality tripods will have something you can attach weight to at the bottom of the center post. This helps steady the camera.  Remove your camera strap when it's windy outside, or it will shake the camera, even with the best of tripods.

4.  When you shoot the moon, you are creating a high contrast photo.  For high contrast photos, you'll want to stop-down on camera settings. You'll want to deliberately "UNDEREXPOSE" the shots.  I experiment and take plenty.  Underexpose by a full 1, 2, or 3 Exposure Values (EV).

5.  Generally, the lowest ISO setting and an aperture of f/11 is where you'd want to start for taking moon shots.  It doesn't matter if you're looking at a Full, Half, or Crescent Moon. I won't tell you shutter speeds because depending upon clouds, humidity, dust and whatever gets between you and the moon, shutter speeds can be tricky. Just read your lightmeter and underexpose, underexpose, underexpose and before you know it, you'll be shooting the moon like a Pro ! 

Photography Tips: Exposure Value (EV) Expose Yourself !

This photo shows you the light meter on one of my cameras when it is in Manual Mode.  The scale of Exposure Values (EV) reads from -2 to +2.  What you're looking at is an exposure of -2/3.
So, if I took a photo at the shutterspeed and aperture I'm using, it would be underexposed by -2/3 EV.

To move the settings on the light meter closer to "0" I have to let more light enter. You get a choice here. Either open the aperture more or slow the shutterspeed down. I slowed down the shutterspeed here and brought the readings on the scale to -1/3 EV. If I kept cranking down on the shutter, I could move it all the way to "0" and have what is known as perfect exposure, Hah !

The camera has a computer and sensors, all kinds of brainiac gadegtry in it but, it doesn't know what I want to show you in these photos. It reads the light and makes a judgement for proper exposure values (EV) based upon the whole scene showing in the frame.

What I want the person looking at my picture to see is the little orange tickmark on the EV Scale. So, the camera's judgement gets overruled. I underexposed by -2 EV to take these shots.

You can overexpose, underexpose, perfect expose or rip up all your photos, if you want to. It's your camera, you paid for it, I hope.

Even if you don't have a fancy DSLR, you can take control of your EV's.  If you don't have a light meter, you can still make your camera take +EV or -EV photos.

Look it up in your camera manual; there is a way. This is just a primer so, you'll have to experiment on your own. But, before long, you'll notice an improvment in your photography.

Don't let your camera decide what Exposure Value (EV) you need.  Get out there and expose yourself !

Photography Tip: Shoot a Sketch and Five Reasons Why

Here's a Photography Tip I discovered by accident and it has saved they day for me on more than one occassion. So, I'll give you five reasons why I shoot sketches and hope one of them saves your day sometime, too. Shoot a Sketch. Once you shoot a sketch, it becomes a photo. You and the sketch artist own the copyright and you treat it just the same as any other photo you've taken.

Here are three of my munchkin Grand kids doing pencil sketches of an important event for me.
They are using photos I took of someone else's photos as models for their sketches. I have no right to use those photos because I am not the original artist. Not a problem. Grand kids, hah, I have plenty of them. They need stuff to keep their little hands out of the cookie jar. Sketch!

Here's an old US ARMY photo taken during the Battle of Okinawa. I needed it for a magazine article. The ARMY keeps this stuff on file somewhere in the Library of Congress,  in the USA.

I've been trying to get permission to use this photo for over a year. Congress has more important stuff to do, like raising taxes and spending more money so, they don't have time to help me do what I think is important. I don't vote for those suckers. I just work and pay their silly little taxes.

There was a deadline for this magazine back in January 2010. Well, the Grandkids got drafted for sketching, again. But, I wasn't getting the desired effect from their sketches, this time. So, I let them put the pencils down and go eat cookies. I had a better plan. Go pay a real sketch artist.

Look real close at the lower right corner. There's his copyright. He got ten bucks and I got the sketch to do with as I pleased. Now, we're both published artists at APOGEE PHOTO 2010.

One of my Grandsons got this sketch published at GO NOMAD in November of 2009.

And another Grandson hit print at MATADOR TRIPS September of 2009 with this sketch.

Five Reasons to Shoot a Sketch:
1. It gives little munchkins something to do on a rainy day besides eating all your cookies.
2. It gives sketch artists a place to get their work recognized.
3. It is a way to get around copyright violations.
4. It eliminates the need for a Model Release.
5. It can help make up for a really, really bad CAMERA DAY.

Have you ever thought of using sketches in your photography?

Visit here to see where else I have been PUBLISHED.

Photography Tips: Where to Get Published

Posting your photos on the social networks will get them noticed by friends and family. Maybe, hundreds of people will view them.

But, having your best photography posted in an online magazine or popular blog will get them seen by millions of viewers, around the globe. Today’s Photography Tip: GET PUBLISHED ONLINE and here are Five of My Favorite Sites for having my photo essays shown:

1. ApogeePhotoMag     http://www.apogeephoto.com/

2. BootsNall    http://www.bootsnall.com/

3. Go Backpacking   http://www.gobackpacking.com/

4. Go Nomad   http://www.gonomad.com/

5. Matador Network    http://matadornetwork.com/

What inspired this post was the photo I’ve posted above. I was looking for it in one of my galleries today (quite disorganized) and couldn’t find it. I knew it had been published recently at Apogee Photo so I went there to see if I had posted camera specs showing the date it had been taken. I was blown away by the number of views on the article.

That particular photo, I never would have thought of submitting for publication. A writer and an editor selected it and if they hadn’t, it’d still be collecting digital dust somewhere!

All five of these sites have published my work, some several times.

Photography Tip for today: Visit these sites and get your photography published!

PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: DSLR PURCHASE

Are you ready to move up to a DSLR Camera?

If you already have a Point and Shoot Digital Camera and are getting the itch to move on up to a DSLR there are a few items I’ve listed below that you may want to master before getting into the very expensive world of lenses that go along with those puppies.

Hardly a week goes by without me running across folks toting thousands, (sometimes tens of thousands) of dollars worth of DSLRs and lenses. I shoot the breeze with them and look at their cameras and assume they’re Pros when I see $40,000 to $50,000 hanging off their camera strap. I envy them.

Then, when I get a closer look, I discover they are using their DSLRs just like a Point and Shooter. They have the damn things in AUTO Mode! They are just filthy rich, clueless, ignorant people who know nothing about cameras, film or digital. They should die and leave their cameras to me. Am I right?

 
Here's what you need to know before buying a DSLR:
 
1. Exposure: There are 3 things (Think Triangle) that affect the exposure of the photograph: Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO. You have to master them. Take a camera class, read a book, even read your camera manual, because if you’re not intimately familiar with how they all relate to each other, you are not ready to move up in the photographic world with a brand new DSLR.


2. Depth of Field (DOF): Aperture settings, the lens you’re using and the distance you are from your subject have a direct impact on how your photo turns out. Know how to make the background and foreground in sharp focus or background blurred and the subject sharp. Make sure you’ve mastered this before you buy a camera where you have to make decisions on which lens to use with it.

3. Camera Settings: Take your camera off the AUTO MODE setting and use Manual, or if it doesn’t allow that, use Aperture or Shutter Priority and shoot at different settings, changing ISO’s, Shutter speed and Aperture from the highest to lowest ranges. Know the camera’s capabilities and limitations.

4. Read the EXIF Data: What’s that? The information your camera’s computer stored on how you made the shot. If your camera software program doesn’t display it automatically, RIGHT CLICK on the photo and hit Properties when the photo is opened in a folder. The date, time, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, even whether you used manual or auto focus should appear. Study and this information for every shot you take. I do, and I’ve learned more from this data than any instructor, photography class, book or video could ever teach me. I look at every shot I make and ask myself how I could have done it better. Eventually, you photography will get better from your self critiques. You’ll remember!

5. Having thoroughly schooled yourself and mastered steps 1-4 above, you may decide, it’s high time you get yourself a DSLR; you’re ready to step up to a more professional model than what you already have. Congratulations and welcome to my world! Only you can do the research on Models and Lenses and decide what’s best for your style of photography and your size bank account. I can’t help you there.

My final words of caution: When you go to the camera store, “BEFORE BUYING A DSLR” talk to the salesclerk and tell him you don’t want the lens that comes with the camera. You want the lens you decided you need; not the kit lens that comes in the box with a brand new camera. Tell the clerk he can keep that piece of junk and give you a deal on a real lens. Kit lenses are OK, for people just buying cameras for Auto Mode, snap shooting or to give away as gifts but, they are NOT professional lenses.

Confused? Repeat steps 1-5 above until it all becomes clear or you really won’t be happy with a DSLR.  Holler at me over on Facebook anytime you have a suggestion for a new Photography Tip and I'll see what I can cook up for you.

PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: THE RULE OF THIRDS

WHEN COMPOSING A PHOTO ONE OF THE BASICS TO PRACTICE IS THE RULE OF THIRDS.

The rule was developed by the Masters, way before cameras were even invented.  All kinds of studies and theories have been done and conclusions drawn by brain scientists as to how our eyes are drawn to the thirds of a picture.

Others say the Rule of Thirds creates energy and exciting tension and that’s why it was developed (Thank you, Mr. Wikipedia have a baloney sandwich on my tab, sometime).

I wish the Masters were here today.

They’d probably tell all the knuckleheads analyzing and theorizing to go do something important like, “ Go pick up all the plastic water bottles and bags ruining the scenery on the beach and quit trying to pick our dead brains."

They would tell us the reason for developing the Rule of Thirds was something as simple as:

" IT MAKES YOUR PICTURES LOOK GREAT" !

If your camera has a display that places a Tick-Tack-Toe symbol over the scene while composing, that’s a big plus.  Just try and line the scene so that the subject is in one of the thirds of the photo.  When you have a scene with horizontal lines, like a beach, ocean and sky, try to compose along the lines going across your scene.  If the subject is vertical, use those lines.

One of my cameras doesn’t have the Tick-Tack-Toe feature so, I have to estimate.  It takes a little practice but, isn’t that difficult. 

The Statue of Liberty I posted here was taken with my camera without a Rule of Thirds display.  I just took another shot of it on my monitor, where I could show you the imaginary lines I use to take the picture. 

Why did I choose to place the subject in the left third of the picture rather than the right?
  
Energy, tension, excitement, I guess. 

Next, I’m going to grab a baloney sandwich and head to the beach, see if anybody’s down there picking up trash. 

The Masters are watching over me. I hope they're watching you, too.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND !

Photography Tips for Foreign Festivals

Showing up at a Festival in a foreign country with a notepad and camera could be a recipe for disaster. If you want to leave a remote village with a great story and photos to document it these tips may be helpful:

1. RESEARCH
Months in advance I start my research. Check as many sources on and offline as you can. You will find differences and sometimes come away with more questions than answers; that's good. You want to document the truth.

2. TRANSLATOR
Even if you speak the language a translator comes in handy. The best documentation may be written in a foreign language and in many cases, just as in the spoken word, local dialects and ancient scripts may make your college language skills useless.


3. VISIT THE LOCATION
On-site visits, months in advance, if possible, are a big bonus. Study the terrain, position of the sun, find the village office, determine the dates, times and locations where events will take place. Plan ahead, look for stores, water supplies and a place to sleep.

4. MAKE FRIENDS
Starting with the village office clerk or groundskeeper, smile, let them know what your intentions are and be respectful. Tell them you want to learn and document their culture, if it's permissible. Most places I've been people go out of their way to assist me. Usually, I'm introduced to VIPs like the Village Chief, Elders, Historian, Mayor or the author of a book on the topic I'm documenting.

Don't limit yourself to just the City Office entourage, the farmer in the field, fisherman, an old couple sitting in a park, children playing and even, the town drunk, all have stories to tell about the festival.
Introduce yourself, get people used to you being around with a camera. They will be more comfortable around you the day of the big event. You may be able to get some photos where participants pose for you in perfect lighting, without them being self conscious, as they would be around a total stranger.

5. SPEND A LITTLE MONEY
Shopkeepers, markets and vendors are all great sources of infomation and more likely than not, related in some way to the folks you met in #4 above. Have a meal or two, buy some local produce, get some snacks and drinks at the little Mom and Pop Stores. Ask about local lodging if you're not planning on pitching a tent. Learn the customs. It may be appropriate to bring gifts. You won't know until you ask.

The photo above was taken in the Village Office at Shioya Bay, Ogimi in Okinawa, Japan. It is of a photo taken at a previous  UNJAMI FESTIVAL. The Festival takes place August 29th this year.

Wikipedia Dude says the festival takes place in July and the guys in the boat are priestesses. I've only made three visits to Ogimi and will attempt two more so when I'm done with my Photo Essay it will resemble a true story!