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Tag Archives: photography
Photo Quick Tips – Backup
Here’s a photo quick tip with some easy suggestions for backing up your images. All hard drives fail in time; it’s a fact. And you can pay a little up front to protect your images, or you can pay a LOT to someone like DriveSavers to recover your data. How much? The last quote I got from DriveSavers was around $3000 for a relatively small hard drive. When you have something as important as people’s precious memories on your computer, you can’t afford NOT to back them up. Watch and learn!
Camera Camp – 3 spots still open!
We still have three spots open for Winter Camera Camp this coming weekend. Click here for information, and to sign up!
Winter Camera Camp Registration is now open!
Watch the video, then visit this page for information and registration!
Winter Camera Camp!
Are you giving someone a shiny new digital SLR camera for Christmas? Plan to receive one? Still not sure how to use the one you were given last Christmas? Well, we’ve got you covered.
Now announcing the return of our ever-popular Winter Camera Camp!
If you have a digital SLR camera (Nikon D-3000, a Canon Digital Rebel, etc.), this class is for you. It’s focused on using your camera and unlocking it to allow you to make the super-awesome pictures that you see in your mind. We’ll teach you what your camera can and can’t do. (Hint: It can’t wash dishes OR make your bed.)
We’ll spend both direct instruction time and shooting time, with breaks for snacks along the way. This is a small-group intensive session, and we’re only allowing 8 people to maximize the individual attention each person gets. *Note, we’re taking reservations on a first come, first-served basis.
Who: 9 people with digital cameras
What: Making friends with your camera
When: February 2 and 3, 6:30 to 9:30 pm
February 4 from 10am to 12 pm
Cost: $240 (snacks and drinks provided)
Reservations: To register, fill out the form below, then make payment arrangements.
Options for payment:
- Call (559) 643-2072 to pay with a credit card over the phone
- Make out a check to Shinn Photography and mail it to 1015 G Street, Reedley, CA, 93654.
- Use the Paypal link farther down the page
More information:
- Want to see how previous Camera Camps went down? Here are a few wrapups: Summer Camera Camp, Winter Camera Camp 2011.
- Want to see what Camera Camp has done for another photographer? Check out Mariah Betancourt’s review of Camera Camp.
- Want some good general information about how to improve as a photographer? Check out this post.
Reflections on my first camera | California photo geek
I remember her so well – the big, square-ish body and the slightly scuffed rubber grips. She was a Nikon D1h, and she was my first camera.
I was issued this beauty at the Defense Information School. The year was 2002, and I was there for the Basic Journalist Course (BJC). I didn’t expect to learn anything about photography – I thought I was learning to be a writer. I guess I should have known better, since some of the Marines I lived and trained with were attached to Combat Camera units. Despite this, being handed a camera was still an unexpected development.
I had never been interested in photography. Before coming to this course, I took a weekend photography class at the Coast Guard base in Astoria, Oregon. I brought my Minolta Explorer point-and-shoot film camera to the weekend class, and I was laughed at because I didn’t bring an SLR. I hadn’t even heard of SLR cameras before, and the rest of the weekend I swam in a winter storm of unfamiliar acronyms and terms. I thought I was finished with photography for good. Until I met the D1h.
She was a chunk of magnesium and rubber based on Nikon’s old F5 film camera design, and I didn’t know the first thing about how to operate her. I learned some of the basics (like how to change lenses) quickly. But other functions that we all take for granted now, like white balance controls, took me a few years to learn. Weighing in at a hefty 2.7 megapixels, the D1h made reasonably decent prints. More importantly, though, she allowed journalists to quickly move pictures out over the major wire services to be published worldwide. The Nikon D1h, like the D1 before her, was the journalist’s weapon of choice.
Who needs more than 2.7 megapixels, people would ask, when you’re shooting news photos destined to be printed in black and white on toilet paper? Resolution doesn’t matter when you’re shooting for some fish-wrapper. Fish-wrapper or not, the D1h was a great camera with which to learn. The immediate feedback, even on the tiny little screen, was a gold mine for photographic knowledge.
I remember learning about concepts like depth of field and not being able to execute them like I envisioned. Even with a nice camera, I still had a long way to go.
I’ve been through a lot of cameras since 2002, but I’ll never forget my first. What was your first camera? Leave your memories in the comments.
photo by Pat Nolan
Winter Camera Camp
We just finished Winter Camera Camp 2011. It was intense; we went through a lot of material in 3 sessions. But we had a great group, had fun getting to know each other, and we all experienced a lot of light bulb moments. In three short days, I saw people start making pictures with their cameras that they would have previously thought impossible. Check out more photos from Camera Camp on our Facebook Page.
Thanks to this session’s camera campers for a fun experience! I look forward to watching you make some great photos in the future!
Catier-Bresson and Me
At the risk of showing the exact same spot in two different pictures in two days, here’s (once again) the entrance to the Reedley MB Church with all those cool windows. I was standing there and saw a decisive moment. I had a premonition of what was coming and raised the camera to my eye as if by instinct. My settings were dialed in and I grabbed focus just before the moment disappeared around the corner with my fast-moving subject. I’m not really sure who that is, by the way. Anyone have any ideas?
The picture reminds me of one of my favorites by Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the founding fathers of photojournalism: afterimagegallery.com/bressonbehindgare.htm. I don’t claim to be anywhere near his league, but he’s certainly an inspiration to me. A print of Cartier-Bresson’s image, by the way, would run you $18,000. If you wanted to buy a print of the image below, I’d charge a bit less.
Enjoy,
Andrew
How to shoot a gun
I like guns. That’s a good thing, because I live in California’s Central Valley, and lots of my subjects like guns. I’ve had the chance to take gun pictures since my days in the Coast Guard. I have a few tips on how to successfully shoot a gun. No, I don’t mean the actual firing of a weapon. I’m just talking about the pictures, folks.
The first rule when working around guns is to be safe. Guns are meant to be dangerous, and they’re not toys. The National Safety Council estimates that 600 people were killed in the U.S. in the year 2000 in gun accidents. How do you stay safe around a gun?
- First, always assume that it’s loaded. Many guns are stored that way, either on purpose on by accident. Don’t trust anyone who TELLS you a gun is unloaded – always check for yourself. Even if you don’t know much about guns, ask the person who owns the gun to show you the chamber (where bullets sit ready for firing). make sure it’s empty. Check for clips and magazines. Remove them from the gun and do a visual inspection.
- Second, don’t play around with a gun. Always be aware of where it’s pointing. If you intend to take a picture of a gun pointed at you, DOUBLE-CHECK that it’s unloaded, then keep the gun pointed at you for as little time as possible.
- Third, ask your subject to keep his/her finger away from the trigger. Use camera angles so that the trigger finger is obscured, if that’s important to you.
- Fourth, learn as much as you can. The more you know about guns and how they operate, the more confident you can be in working safely around them.
All guns have stories. They’re used in interesting times and places, whether in a law enforcement situation, on family hunting trips, or as a hobby with family and friends. Be sure to ask about where and how a gun is used. Ask if the gun has meaning or significance to the owner, and then try to tell that story visually. Show the gun and show the owner. Give your pictures some context and meaning – just putting a gun into a picture doesn’t make it interesting any more than putting a person into a picture makes it interesting.
There are a few ways to make boring pictures around guns. One of them is to have your subject point the gun straight at you. If you’d like to simulate the feeling of being in front of a gun, have the subject aim at your belt. This allows you to show more of the gun and a bit more of the shooter’s face. The other way to make a boring gun picture is to make pictures from behind someone while they’re shooting. If you can’t see either the subject’s face or what he’s shooting at, you might miss some of the significance of the gun, the environment, or the subject’s relationship with both. If you can, position yourself as far around to the side of a shooter as you can SAFELY manage. The picture above would be a great example of a boring shooting picture, except that I captured the orange spreading ring of shotgun blast in the midst of gun smoke. Be prepared to try a few times if you want to make this kind of picture – the timing isn’t easy.
In the end, the rules of gun photography are really the rules of all good photography: stay safe, tell interesting stories, and work your angles. Post a link in the comments to your own favorite gun pictures!
Bang,
Andrew
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