(c) Cindy Hamilton
BetterPhoto has been really important in my life since spring of 2005. It seems hard to believe that every day I react to the Photo of the Day as I open up my computer, and I’ve taken just about every course there is to take.
A group of us took Jim’s One Year Course, and many of us are still friends today! I have just gotten back from taking a portrait workshop in Knoxville with Terri Beloit, who lives just south of Seattle. She’s been a friend since that One Year Class and we still manage to get together once a year or more. Despite the fact that the workshop was about people, we managed to get in two days of nature/landscape photography in the Smoky Mountains first! There are so many friends from that group, and we still connect either personally or through Facebook.
I have been a photographer for only about 12 years. My first “good” camera was a Nikon film camera and I still use many of my lenses from that. What really jogged me into taking photography more seriously was the advent of digital cameras combined with finding Better Photo!
As a former teacher for 42 years, married to a college professor, I love to travel, since we would mutually have summers off. We have traveled to Russia, and much of western Europe and have relished every minute of capturing those trips. I only wish I had had the skills then that I am developing now, for way better pictures. Many of my favorite classes at Better Photo have had to do with travel photography.
I am most inspired by capturing humor in my pictures whenever I can. Capturing the beauty in a child’s face is exhilarating, but it’s even better when that face shows surprise, or love, or heart-tugging emotion, and a genuine belly laugh is contagious.
Given a good mix of photographing children/families and some beautiful scenery and street scenes, I can be content for hours. I love relaxing photography when I can wait for the sunrise or sunset, but I love the rush of a fast child session, too.
If I could return to one place to take better photographs than the last time, it would be Ireland. I would take my 70-200 lens, one wide angle lens and my 50mm lens, or the new 24-120 lens, which is great for travel.
I still haven’t decided what kind of photographer I’m going to be when I grow up!
Cindy Hamilton
See more of Cindy's work in her Website
This photo of Cindy was taken by Terri Beloit
Fran Saunders
There are two things in art that move me: those that touch my heart and those that excite my senses. I am, therefore, drawn to images that show emotions and those that make me feel as if I’ve been touched. On the one hand, I love to photograph human and animal expressions that reveal something about the way the subjects are feeling or thinking. On the other, my images tend toward texture shots, those that show detail, surface patterns and depth.
(c) Fran Saunders
It has taken me a long time to discover these inclinations. Long ago, a psychology professor said I was a “touchy-feely” type person and surrounded myself with the sensations of different textures. She thought that because I was severely hearing-impaired, my other senses, particularly my eyes and sense of touch were more meaningful to me. Then, a several years ago, a visitor to my very first solo exhibition said, “Is it true to say that you see beauty in simple things?” And more recently, a fellow artist remarked on how she loved the detail in my images. They say you should listen to your viewers, and how true that seems to me now. After heading in a trillion different directions with my art, I am now settling into my personal style and hope to be doing more of this type of work in the future.
(c) Fran Saunders
(c) Fran Saunders
I was one of those baby boomers who loved her Kodak Brownie. All through my life, I've had an avid interest in taking photos. About a year before I retired in 2006, I received my first DSLR and have never looked back. I'm firmly entrenched in the Canon family, where my 24-105mm f/4 is my street lens of choice, although I usually carry two or three to particular shoots.
Just before I retired I also discovered BetterPhoto.com, and I've literally lost count of how many classes I've taken. I now have a firm grounding in photographic principles and take classes many times just for the fun of it. Of course, I need to push myself to see that the quality of my art matches my knowledge! I've particularly enjoyed working with the many wonderful instructors at BP, and believe their critiques and interest in my work have inspired me to keep learning and growing, two things I hope will last a lifetime.
(c) Fran Saunders
See more of Fran's work in her Premium Gallery
© Deborah Sandidge © Deborah Sandidge
During my review of our customer experiences, I check in with our students and read the reviews from their courses. I saw this testimonial from one of Deborah Sandidge's students. When I read Susan's words, it echoed what we hear from a lot of our photographers, "I didn't feel like an artist before"
"I have always wanted to be an artist but never felt I had the talent. This class and the skills I acquired with Deb's help, started me on the path that until now I had only dreamed of. Although I am not that well versed in Photoshop, Deb was right there offering support and assistance. I was able to accomplish even more than I hoped for. She immediately responded to emails and requests for assistance and was quick with critiques and tips. She was extremely motivating and an excellent instructor! FINALLY I feel like an artist. Thank you Deb, for teaching this class and sharing your talents. Please create a part 2!" By Susan Shingleton member since: 5/27/2009
Was there a turning point with your photography that you felt you could call yourself a photographer or artist? We'd love to hear from you.
Deborah Sandidge is the author of the book, Digital Infrared Photography, teaches two excellent online photo courses right here at BetterPhoto.com: Digital Infrared Photography and Photoshop: Enhancing Images and Creating Works of Art.
Longtime pro photographer and BetterPhoto instructor Jim Zuckerman offers lots of great tips and techniques on photography. Here are Jim's expert thoughts on using off-camera flash outdoors:
(c) Jim Zuckerman
"When I visit a place more than once," says Jim Z, "I try to come up with different ways of photographing subjects that I shot previously.
"A case in point is the stone carving (above) at the archeological site, Ephesus, in Turkey. I photographed it in the shade two years ago, so this time I used off-camera flash. This created texture and depth, and at the same time the rocks, dirt, and weeds that could be seen behind the ancient artwork became black and therefore unobtrusive.
"I triggered the flash with a Pocket Wizard and had another person hold it at about an 80-degree angle. I wanted to largely eliminate the effect of the ambient light, so I used the LCD monitor on the back of the camera to help me determine the exposure. I increased the shutter speed and reduced the size of the lens aperture until the ambient light was only contributing a small amount and the primary light source was the Canon 580 flash.
"Don’t think that professional photographers know exactly what settings to use in a situation like this. We don’t. Since we can’t know exactly what we will like until we see it, we simply use trial and error until it looks good."
NOTES:
While I occasionally use a wide-angle focal length for capturing an expanse of landscape, I most often use it to take advantage of the wide-angle's great front-to-back depth.
Moving in physically close with a wide-angle is not an intuitive thing. The wide-angle tendency is to back up in order to take it all in. But you get a very eye-catching - and very unique - perspective when you combine a super-close foreground with a far-off background.
(Note: This blog is a follow-up to Jim Zuckerman's outstanding BetterPhoto Instructor Insights article in which he covers the "Getting Close-up with Wide-Angle" subject in his own special style and with a great variety of inspiring images.)
(c) Kerry Drager
This old multi-colored boat first caught my eye one afternoon at Morro Bay on the central California coast. The harsh midday sunlight was not inspiring, so I returned just before sunset to catch it in the beautiful evening light.
Anytime there's a photogenic foreground and a good background, I'll grab my wide-angle lens. Along with pleasing light, I also wanted great front-to-back depth with a wide-angle focal length - in this case, 20mm. I set up my tripod very low to the ground and very close (less than 2 feet away) from the nearest part of the boat. That placement shows off the wide-angle's exploded perspective, in which a foreground subject appears exaggerated in relation to the background.
For this image, I chose a small aperture (f/22) to get as much depth of field (DOF) as possible - in other words, good sharpness from front to back. In addition, I also carefully selected the point of focus, since focusing is important to wide-angle DOF too. Setting the focus far into the scene, for instance, will never get a close foreground sharp. Here, I set the focusing point on the middle of the boat's red area in the low foreground. The combination of small aperture and wide-angle ensured that the area in front of that focusing point (the beach's shells and small rocks) and in back of it (all the way into the distance) would be acceptably sharp too.
I double-checked the LCD playback to verify the depth of field to make sure the all-important foreground was crisp and clear. In fact, many cameras have a function for enlarging the LCD image in order to easily check key areas for sharpness.
Along with the tripod, I used a cable shutter release (the self-timer works too) to make sure my hand didn't inadvertently jiggle the camera when clicking the shutter.
Book Alert:
OK I know we have online classes have students from all over the world and I must say as our resident Canadian, I'm a feeling a little miffed - is North Vancouver all we got?! Let's make this happen in a big way next weekend.
So my fellow Canadians - get your town on the map and let's start a friendly competitiion!
Let's cover the map everyone! Calling all shooters - who's up for making this day really fun?
Go here to put your city on the map now:
http://www.meetup.com/BetterPhoto/
