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
|
| Time: |
9:00am – 1:00pm
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| Location: |
Presby Memorial Iris Gardens, Upper Montclair, NJ
|
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!
Today, New Jersey was hit with a late winter storm. Schools were canceled and I did not have to work. So like any good photographer, I grabbed my equipment and went out shooting.
It was 18 degrees with a 20 mph wind. Here are a few of the photos. These are all from Verona Park.
Click on photo for a larger view.
Photographers are always concerned with people stealing their images. You hear about watermarks and copyrighting your photos. The problem is, that a great deal of photographers are not sure what the copyright does or how to copyright a photo. Well I have few web sites that will help you better understand how to protect your images.
Scott Kelby’s blog had a two part video interview with an attorney who specializes in Intellectual Property. The interviews are short and very informative. You can find this interview on Scott’s blog.
Hyperphocal.com has a nice simple web page that explains Copyrights and what you should know. Go to Hyperphocal.com.
The Professional Photographers of America have a website Copyright Defense, this site has information on Copyrights and what is happing with Copyright laws. Their web site states they “…are the imaging profession’s copyright watchdog”
And last, but not least is the US Copyright website. The site has a lot of information and you can even file for copyrighting on the web site.
I hope this all helps to address your questions on Copyrights.
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.
Like everyone with a DSLR, I had dust on the sensor. For the longest time I use the Giotto’s Rocket-air Blower. After years of dust, the blower just did not work anymore. So I needed to something else to get the dust off the sensor. After speaking with one of the major camera stores, they suggested the Arctic Butterfly. The Arctic Butterfly is a small brush that has a battery and a motor. The motor spins the brush and creates a small static charge. The theory is that the static charge and the brush are will pull the dust of the sensor. To use the brush, you turn the motor on, the brush spins and build up a charge. Turn the motor off and wipe the sensor with the brush. You repeat this process until the dust is removed. The Arctic Butterfly may work for general dust, but it did not work for the dust that was built up on my sensor.
Well, it was now time to do something I did not want to do. I needed to go to a wet cleaning system. I needed something with swabs and cleaning solutions. So what product do I use? That decision was simple to make. When I spoke to the camera store, they said there is only one chemical cleaning product that they were legally permitted to ship via UPS. That product was the VisibleDust System.
This is actually two products, the cleaning solution and the swabs. I have to admit I was a little nervous putting a swab with wet liquid on my sensor, but it was not that bad.
When the product arrived, I read the directions twice and went about cleaning the sensor.
I put a fully charged battery in the camera and switched the camera to sensor cleaning mode. I followed the directions on the VisibleDust package and went about cleaning the sensor.
Basically, you put a drop or two on the swab and wipe the sensor with the swab. Anyone with a DSL will know that this is where the uncomfortable part came in. Well after two or three passes with different swabs, I am happy to say the spots on the sensor are gone!!!
Some things you should know about the swab system:
1) You need a swab for the size of your sensor
2) The swabs should only be used for one swipe per side. Each swab has two sides.
3) The system is not cheap. The swabs are around $40 and solution is around $35.
Microsoft has developed a very nice and informative web page for photographers. The page has sections on downloads, articles, a blog and more. Check out Microsoft Professional Photography.
I was working with someone the other day that was moving from using Jpeg to using RAW. He was upset that he could not see his RAW photos in Windows Explorer.
Well you can see your RAW photos in Windows, if you download the Windows RAW Viewer.
You need to download the Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer for Windows XP. When you have this installed, you will be see your RAW files just like your Jpeg files.
For people that are new to photography, Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed confuse many people.
They are not sure what it is, and how or why you would use them. The web site Cameraporn.net has a nice article explaining Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed and how to use the.
(The web site Cameraporn.net is a strange name, but it a photography web site that has nothing to do with porn.)
You can read the article at Cameraporn.net.
I found a very helpful sight for people who what to get into Portrait Lighting.
The web site Sublime-light.com has a 12 part section on Portrait Lighting.
Each section is about two pages and it covers the general information on lighting.
Check out Portrait Lighting For Beginners.
For December I thought I would share with you my top five web sites. I visit these web sites a few times a week. They offer a broad range of photographic information that will appeal to all photographers.
1) Digital Photography School
This web site offer general tips and information on how to improve your photography.
2) Rob Galbraith
Rob’s web site offers general news on the photography industry. The site is very helpful in keeping you up to date on what is happing in the world of photography.
3) Digital Pro Talk
David Ziser who is a professional wedding and portrait photographer runs this web site. His site offers general photography information and some helpful how to videos.
4) Photoshop Killer Tips
This site is run Matt Kloskowski. Matt’s site offers quick Photoshop video tutorials that target a variety of Photoshop functions or tools. Each of the videos run about five minutes and are free.
5) Photoshop Insider
This site is run by Scott Kelby. Scott talks about everything from Photoshop to tripods and everything in between.
http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/
I hope you find these sites as informative as I do.
Recently, I did a lecture on what to do with all your photos. As part of the lecture, I created a web page with links to all kinds of cool things to do with your photos. Check out the links.
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
Lexar has a nice web page filled with Digital Photography Tips and Lessons from some well known photographers.
Lexar Digital Photography Tips and Lessons
Below is a photo I took at an abandoned hospital in Essex County, NJ.
The photo was taken at 6:30 AM with a Canon 20D and a 70 to 300 mm lens.
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