I will be teaching a flower photography workshop for the Essex County Parks Department at the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens. The workshop is a one hour lecture, followed by a few hours in the gardens photographing the flowers. I will work with each of the students to help them photography the iris. The session cost $35. For more info call:
(973) 239-7072 or e-mail khartwyk@parks.essexcountynj.org.
http://essexnjblooms.org/NaturePhotographyWorkshop.aspx
| Date: |
Saturday, May 22, 2010
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| Time: |
9:00am – 1:00pm
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| Location: |
Presby Memorial Iris Gardens, Upper Montclair, NJ
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So what would happen if you took a lens that was made for a cropped sensor camera and put it on a full framed sensor camera? You would get a nasty vignette! Below are two photos that I took with the Canon 5D Mark II and a lens from a third party. Click on the photo to see the full effect.
I am happy to announce that I will be teaching a photography workshop at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum. The workshop is on how to photograph flowers and gardens.
We will begin indoors discussing various techniques used to capture both flowers and gardens then we will head outdoors into the Arboretum’s gardens to spend time putting these techniques to use. I will be working with each student to help them refine their skills.
This course will be offered on Saturday, May 16th from 9AM to 12PM. $45
Call (908) 273-8787 x15 to register!
Well over the last few months I have been playing with the Lensbaby. It is an interesting lens that can add some creative elements to your photography. It takes sometime to get use to how the lens works and how to use it in you photography. I have been working with the lens on a few different projects and I have started to get use to using the lens. I have also been using the macro add-on filter. This is a lot harder to use. The macro add-on is a filter that screws onto the front of the Lensbaby. The filter requires that you be a set distances from the item in order for the subject to be in focus.
Based on what I have done so far, I think the lens gives the best effect in portrait photography.
That being said, I am interested in trying the lens out in some garden photography.
Below are a few examples of the photos that I have done with the lens. I also have a side-by-side photo of a regular photo and a Lensbaby photo.
Click on photo for a better view.
As Memorial Day weekend arrives, so does the iris at the Presby Iris Gardens, in Montclair, NJ.
Today, I visited the gardens and found some wonderful iris. I was a little surprised at how few of the irises have bloomed. It looked like only about a quarter of the flowers have bloomed. I was told by a friend that due to the cool spring, the blooming was delayed.
If you are in the Essex County, NJ area, you might want to stop by and see the gardens.
For more information on the gardens visit their web site, Presby Iris Gardens.
Here is a photo from todays shoot.
Last week I went to MARS. No, I am not crazy, and I don’t sit around with foil on my head! MARS is The Mid-Atlantic Regional School of Professional Photography. It is a one week workshop that has been held in Cape May for the last 12 years. The school brings in big name experts in the area of photography, digital images and running a photography business.
This year’s instructors included the following:
Suzette Allen & Jon Yoshinaga – The Photoshop Edge You Need
Carl Caylor – Secrets of Natural Light
Jane Conner – Painter – Fundamentals for Photographers
Hanson Fong – Mastering the Techniques – How to be a Complete Photographer
Randy McNeilly – Zen and the Art of Portrait Photography
Michael Redford – Portraiture and Marketing – A Master Class
Tony Sweet – Creative Compositions with Nature
Eddie Tapp – Empower Your Digital Workflow Skills
Each student spends the week in one of the workshops. I was not happy with the workshop that I took, but I felt the school was very well organized. The school also had some off hour lectures that were held by the various instructors. I attended a lecture by Jane Conner on “Facial Retouching with Photoshop” that was wonderful. Eddie Tapp spoke on the “Digital Workflow” and “Color Profile” that was very informative. There was also a session with Tony Sweet. If you want to push the photographic envelope and look at things different, you should look at some of the work that Tony has created.
One of the best things of the week had to do with Canon. Canon had a full line of their cameras and lenses on hand and anyone could sign out and use any equipment for 24 hours. I took out the Canon 5D and the 70 – 200mm, IS 2.8 lens. In the 24 hours that I had the camera and lens, I took over 600 photos. That was a wonderful setup and I am looking at upgrading my equipment. But that is not all Canon had to offer, they had a Canon Service Technician on had that was there to service your Canon cameras. They cleaned the sensors, update firmware and made other minor repairs. Needless to say this was VERY popular with the Canon users.
As I said before, I was disappointed with the workshop that I attended. I don’t think we covered the information that was stated in the program and we did not get any hands on photo shoots. I did speak to many of my fellow students in the other workshops and they all sounded happy with their programs.
At this point, I am not sure if I will or will not attend next year, but I do think they offer a good deal. The workshops, hotel room and most of your meals cost around $1000.
Next year the school will be held on May 3 to 9. The topics are listed below.
“Imagine” Joyce Wilson and Emily Connolly
“Mastering The Techniques” Hanson Fong
“Go Home” Fuzzy and Shirley Dunenkel
“Discover the Magic of Corel Painter” Nancy Emmerich
“Wedding and Portraits with the Documentary Approach” Paul Gero
“The Photoshop Edge” Suzette Allen and Jon Yoshinaga
“Best of Both Worlds” Jamie Hayes and Mary Fisk Taylor
To find out more about MARS check out their web site http://www.marsschool.com/
While read a few other bogs today, I came across the Canon Infobank web site.
This is an encyclopedia of information on the use and operation of Canon equipment (camera, flash and lens). The information is very informative.
Canon Infobank
What rights do you have as a photographer? Can you take photographs of a bridge, building or other public places? Can security guards confiscate your camera or film? Do you need a consent form to post a photo of a person on your web site? These are questions that are on the minds of many photographers.
This week “The Digital Photography Show”, posted a pod cast of an interview with Bert Krages.
Mr. Krages is an attorney recognized nationally, as an advocate of the right to take photographs in public places. In the interview Mr. Krages address many of the legal issues that photographers face.
The interview was very informative, but if you don’t have an hour to listen to the interview there is a simple solution. Mr. Krages had created “The Photographer’s Right, Your Rights and Remedies When Stopped or Confronted for Photography”. This is a free PDF download that covers many of the points addressed in the interview.
The “The Photographer’s Right” is something you might even want to carry in your camera bag.
Adobe announced that they will be offering a web based version of Photoshop that will be free. This will be a scaled down version of Photoshop that is going to compete with Google’s Picasa. The new software will be available in about six months.
To read more about this new offer visit Cnet.com.
I have recently started to work on portrait photography, but I was not sure on how to pose people for portraits. I made a few trips to the bookstore, but I didn’t find anything helpful. I did a few searches on Amazon and finally found a book that was helpful.
“The Portrait Photographers Posing Guide: How to pose people for portraits”, by Nigel Holmes.
Mr. Holmes provides you with the rules and tips on how to pose people. The book 117 pages and is illustrated with cartoons, which provide examples of all the rules and tips. It is an easy read that provides a basic understating of how to pose people.
This blog is under construction. I am planning to post news, websites, photos and reviews. The goal of this blog is help educate people on Digital Photography, Photoshop and computers. Check back soon!
