“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.” - Thoreau

The solace that one finds when fishing a quiet spot on or near the water cannot be explained in so many words. It is an experience of nature where one finds their self at the top of the food chain getting the full effect of their surroundings. Regardless of the weather conditions, hot, cold, wet, dry, it is all part of the ever changing experience of life in the natural world. Most of us in the modern age are surrounded on a daily basis by the synthetic constructions of others working within buildings or very near them.  Getting out into the world and experiencing nature is like taking a deep breath of fresh air in more ways than one…

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: photo, photography, images, nature, outdoors, fishing, water, river, recreation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Technorati Tags: lowcountry, swamp, wetland, fowl, birds, beach, ocean, sunrise, vacation, tourist, touring, south carolina, south, coastal, photography, photo, images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: photos, photographs, summer, flowers, flora, plants, vegetables, fruit, landscapes, country, rural, beach, ocean, sailboats, boats, lake, scenic, insects

This Memorial Day, I tried a couple of barbeque sparerib tips passed on to me. The first tip was to remove the white membrane attached to the bottom side of the spareribs. The second tip was to apply a layer of mustard to the ribs to make the dry rub stick to the meat.  Each time I cook, something changes. I have opted to use some leftover Harry’s Pig Shop Sweet Onion Barbeque sauce with my imported Montana Bear Claw Hot Chipotle sauce and Original Sweet Baby Rays. I let the ribs smoke for about 2 hours and start painting the sides and rotating them on the grill. The other tip that I got wind of was applying apple juice on the ribs as they begin to get done. Let that cook in for a while and then place in foil, apply the apple juice again, close the foil and put back on the grill.  I used the indirect method of grilling. The method that I use is really a hybrid of smoking/grilling. I get the coals white hot while the wood chips soak in water. When the coals are ready, I drain the water off the chips, move the coals to one side, add the chips, replace the grill and put the meat on bottom side down. Depending on the temperature I turn the ribs several times during the time period, in this case about 2 hours. The sauce painting is how I finish them off. That way, the sauce is caramelized on the meat and it is really good.

Technorati Tags: barbeque, grilling, charcoal, spareribs, cooking, outdoors, holiday, recipe, preparation, meat, pork

Night shots of carnival rides like this are very easy to capture. You will need to mount your camera on a tripod. Set your  DSLR to aperture priority mode and set the f-stop to f/22. Find a good vantage point, compose your image and carefully press the shutter button or use a remote. These images took an exposure time of between 6 and 9 seconds. Someone actually asked me if the rides really go that fast. I hope they were trying to be cute…

 

Technorati Tags: photo, photgraphy, DLSR, digital camera, carnival, lights, night shots, long exposure, aperture priority

 

Once again, I headed to the botanical gardens with my Nikon D80 and Nikkor 105mm Micro lens.  I originally thought that I would use a tripod this time; however, it is just not practical, at least for me, to use. There are too many angles to use one effectively. These photos were taken with very bright, but overcast skies. This is an ideal condition as there is lots of even, bright light.  I just purchased and inexpensive LED ringlight and am anxious to see how well it works doing these kinds of shots. A steady hand and body posture is absolutely required when taking these shots. The closer you are to the subject, the harder it gets. Just a breath of movement takes the plane of focus outside of acceptable norms.

 

 

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Technorati Tags: photo, photography, macro, closeup, flowers, nature, natural, insects, bumblebee, bees, bloom, blossom

The Sunny 16 Rule:

• In bright sunlight, set the lens opening to f/16 and the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO.

With a digital camera, you may never need to use the manual mode; however, if you really want to take control of your DLSR, manual mode is the best way to take that control. To use the “sunny 16 rule”, you’ll need a sunny day. The following is a table that should give you a better idea of how ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed all work in conjunction for a good exposure:

Another way to move toward using your camera in manual mode is to note settings of photos that you are taking and the conditions in which you took them.

Technorati Tags: exposure, DLSR, manual mode, shutter speed, f-stop, sunny 16, light, camera, photo, photography

 Getting the shot is not always easy in low light (sun was setting) and fast action.  Setting the camera on continuous focus is a must. First of all, it is nearly impossible to manually focus on a fast moving object like a bird in flight. You must pan the camera with the flight pattern of the bird. To add to the complication is the fact the the camera is zoomed out to 200mm. I shot these at 160 second at f/5.6.  This was fast enough to stop the action to an extent with enough depth of field to keep most of the large birds in focus.

Technorati Tags: low light, lighting, action, photo, photography, depth of field, sunset, wildlife, birds

Getting mobile with heavy studio lighting gear is no easy task. Studio strobes, heavy duty light stands, along with cords and other related equipment can be an unwieldy amount of gear to take on location.

However, going the “strobist” route, all of your lighting gear can fit into a single bag. You are mobile with your lighting.

The Strobist setup is the way to go. Here is what you’ll need for a one light setup:

• Hot shoe flash
• Lightweight light stand
• Umbrella swivel
• White umbrella
• Miniphone to miniphone cord
• Hot shoe universal translator
• 2- Pocket Wizard II transceivers (optional if you go “wired” and use a long miniphone to miniphone cord - your flash will have to have a female jack on it)

Here is a two light setup:

 

Here is the sort of photo you can get from this setup:

 

In addition to the strobist setup, you can obviously use the hot shoe flash with an off camera bracket for other lighting situations. The two light setup only take minutes to setup and minutes to take down. It all fits in a baseball bat, or large tripod  bag.  For more details on strobist lighting, check out the Strobist Blog.

 

You can purchase the whole kit and caboodle at Midwest Photo Exchange  if you are starting from scratch.

Technorati Tags: strobist, studio lighting, lighting, lights, photography, photos, location, portable

What is exposure? There are 2 parts involved in exposing your camer’s digital sensor to light.  The first is the intensity of the light and the second is the period of time the light is exposed to the sensor.

The calculation is Exposure= intensity x time.

The f stop or aperture is the iris in the lens that allows a measured amount of light to reach the sensor. This f stop is determined mathematically by the size of the iris opening of the lens, the lenses focal length, and the dimensions of the sensor.  Each of the f-stops either doubles or halves the amount of light allowed through the lens. Camera lenses these days are calibrated into thirds of a stop, such as 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.3, 7.1, 8. This divides each stop into thirds.  F4 means that basically the hole on the lens is ¼ the length of the lens.  F8 means the hole in the lens is 1/8 the length of the lens.  An f-stop is a factor and the divisor of a fraction.

One of the ambiguous parts of f-stops is the larger the number the smaller the opening. For instance, a hole that is 1/8th the length of the lens is smaller than a hole that is ¼ the length of the lens.

The other part of an exposure is the amount of time that the film is exposed. The longer the shutter is open, the longer the light has to reach the light sensor, the shorter the shutter is open, the less time there is to expose the sensor. The lens measures and focuses the light the camera opens and closes the shutter and stores the image.

Today’s camera shutters are now calibrated in thirds of a stop so you have shutter speeds like 1/30, 1/40, 1/50, 1/60, 1/80, 1/100, and 1/125th of a second.  Now the reason both f stops and shutter speeds are broken down into thirds of a stop is to allow for a more accurate exposure.

There is a relationship between f-stops and shutter speeds. Each full f-stop either halves or doubles the amount of light entering the camera and each full shutter speed stop either halves or doubles the amount of time of the exposure.  Modern cameras automatically do this for you.  It is possible to have the same exposure with a variety of different f stops and shutter speeds depending on what effect you want to achieve. In aperture priority, changing the f stop automatically changes the shutter speed for a proper exposure; conversly, in shutter speed priority, changing the shutter speed will automatically change the f stop for a proper exposure.  You don’t have to manually change both factors of an exposure with today’s cameras. New photographers have a hard time understanding the relationship.

If the camera automatically does automatically, why should you care what your f stop or shutter speed is? Shutter speeds stop action or blur it depending on how fast or slow of a speed you use.  Aperture controls depth of field (how much of an area in your photo is in focus). You use this to isolate subjects with a soft background or create images that are perfectly sharp near and far.  Knowledge of depth of field (f-stops) and shutter speed give you much more control over your camera. Letting the camera decide is like rolling the dice, you may or may not get what you want.

To stop action you have to use a fast shutter speed and lose some depth of field. Each time you use a faster shutter speed, which cuts the length of time the film is exposed to light, you need to open up the aperture to let more light in to get a proper exposure.  If you want everything in your photograph to be sharp you use a small aperture (high number). In these situations, you may nee4d to use a tripod because the slower shutter speed is needed for a proper exposure. This is because little light is being allowed to pass through the lens you need to slow down the shutter speed to allow the sensor in your DLSR to be exposed for a longer time period.