Lessons from the horse track
As i mentioned in my earlier post (Lessons from the weekend – part 4) the last part of the field exercise included a visit to the local horse race track. Notes from this exercise:
- This was my first action shoot – i had never shot any fast moving things before – as such most of my shots were either (a) blurred or (b) out of focus or (c) out of frame!
- As a nature photographer, obviously the camera is always in Aperture Priority – Bad idea! if someone were to ask what mode to shoot actions, i would have easily said “Shutter Priority” – but down there in the field, this never crossed me! looks like i had a mental block. The first few shots were terrible – mostly blurred despite the fact that it was quite sunny outside and the average shutter speeds were in the 1/125 – 1/250 range.
- For Art’s sake, i even used a polarizer to shoot a few shots to get the blur effect – with an average speeds of 1/30 sec. All i have are streaks of blurred lines – where the horse jumped the frame. Read more
Color Management 101
Disclaimer: I am not the expert in this subject. Do not read this – you might be better off reading this 600 page book instead.
However, i do know what it is – and if you care for a really short explanation on what the heck it is, and why its important, continue reading….
Note: I have a few past posts on this subject and as well as an Article on this topic, so feel free to download and read about those as well.
Lessons from the weekend – Part 4
This past weekend, i attended a photo workshop by one of my favourite fine art photographers – Tony Sweet. A few notes from my experience:
- He is human after all! he makes mistakes as well….ironicically this is somewhat satisfying for me…
- He shared some of his tricks and techniques, which although seemingly small once you know them, makes a huge difference in your images (i will describe a few of these later).
- His teaching style is unique – he didnt have text in his presentations. He had only images (his images, some from his books as well) and spoke about each image; a brief story behind it and how they were made. This is very typical of how his books are written as well. This works for me, because this is exactly why i love photography – for its stories!
- He does not shoot any pictures himself when he is teaching – even on location shoots. Instead, he was walking around each student trying to see what we are seeing, and even sometimes shot with our cameras to show a specific technique or what “he is seeing”. This has not only helped us improve our technique, but also see what he sees!
- His critique style is very different; Infact he does not critique at all. He said every image from every student is “great”. He did offer a few cropping or post-processing tip for an occasional image; often demonstrating this himself by going into CS2.
- He is a tech junkie – just like most of us. He said “technology” fascinates him.
Translator
By N2H
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