Finding inspiration from others

I was a newspaper photographer for about four full decades. During that time, I taught photography to journalism students at the local university. With photography film-based and camera automation in its infancy, I accented the course on the technical. I told reporters they must understand f/stops and shutters speeds, ASA/ISO and darkroom procedures or fail. Reporters might see a picture but if they didn't understand the technical side of photography, it would mean that all too often newspaper readers would not see their vision.

Today all has changed. My granddaughters all took good pictures at the age of three. Oh, the new digital cameras are not perfect, errors are still possible, but they are vastly better than the old mechanical contraptions.

I ran a photojournalism seminar for more than a decade. I featured world-famous shooters from the National Geographic, Time magazine and many big newspapers across Canada and the States. These famous, talented photographers inspired me and who attended.

Now, in retirement, I am finding it is no longer the big name shooters who inspire me. It is much lesser known talents. I follow folk from around the world who enjoy posting their images on the Net. And locally I follow a woman with whom I once worked. BT was not a photographer at the newspaper but an editor.

I  always argued that good word folk should make good shooters. If they can create a word picture, they can capture the real thing, especially with today's digital cameras. Over the years I have known a lot of professional photographers whose talents were all technical. These shooters were dependable. They would always return with an image. Always. Sadly, the images would not always be good.

BT is a bright lady. I don't for a minute question whether or not she could have survived as a photographer in the bad old days of film; she could have. No doubt. Still, she is pointing the way forward for journalists asked today to shoot pictures. Her example says: "You can do it."

I know. I looked at her images of falled honey locust leaves lying in large drifts on a black, asphalt driveway and I was inspired. The very next day after viewing her shot, I shot my own version. My version is clearly inspired by her image. Some might call my image a ripoff, a copy.

But, I like it and I'm proud to show it. And I'll proudly confess to all who will listen that I was inspired not just by the golden leaves but by a golden photographer, a fine shooter with a discerning eye with whom I once worked.

Honesty and photography

I live on a small court high on a hill overlooking London, Ontario. This means I enjoy one of the best views of sunsets in the area. If a sunset is spectacular, there is a good chance I'll see it, walk across the court and take a shot.

On the downside, my point-and-shoot has a tough time with images that have both deep shadows and bright highlights. Keeping detail in the shadows while also retaining texture in the high end values is impossible. I can see it but my camera can't.

The solution? Take two pictures and slide them together in an application like Photoshop. The problem: some folk will claim this is dishonest. The picture was created by a software app. and not simply taken.

I can see the argument and in some situations it has validity -- but not here. My wife saw the sunset last night and when she saw my image she said I had captured the moment. My sunset picture captures the wonderful colours of last night's sunset. Without the aid of Photoshop, my final image would have been pale imitations of reality -- maybe not a lie but a poor retelling of the story.

Don't let critical words get between you and a fine picture.

Think-point-continue-thinking-and-shoot

I have some visitors from Montreal staying with my wife and me this week. The other day I took them to Sifton bog. There are lots of pictures to be taken at the bog but with one very big restriction: one cannot leave the boardwalk.

Most people go for the scenic picture. That's the obvious picture of choice. I went for two image: one, a grouping of toad stools and two an image of the reflection of the shy, complete with clouds, in the pond at the end of the boardwalk.

The one image, the mushrooms, took some looking. It was a small image hidden in the overall scene. The other picture was essentially a scenic picture with a twist; I flipped the image. I thought it looked a lot cooler when viewed upside down.

The next day we all went to the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory. When one goes to a butterfly conservatory there is only one shot: butterflies.

But, if you can kick up the image with brightly coloured flowers, all the better. This takes time and effort. One must stay observant. If you do, you will be rewarded.

So, don't just point and shoot. That's too uninvolved for a good shooter. Always think about what you are shooting and try and make the strongest possible statement. 

By the way, all the images were shot with my Canon S90 point and shoot. Not a perfect camera but it will do in a financial pinch. Remember: I'm retired.

A couple of tips for shooting portaits

Shooting pleasing pictures of little kids does not have to be hard. Just stay alert and don't reward kids for making faces at the camera.

Isla, my 5-year-old granddaughter, was busy setting up her tea set in the living room. I was one of the invited guests and arrived early. I immediately noticed the lovely morning light illuminating the little girl. I grabbed my camera.

Isla's a ham, as are most little kids in my experience. I followed some simple rules: I posed Isla with the strong window light behind her and I set my point and shoot lens to 105mm.

Backlighting hair is always a fine idea and a lens of between 85mm and 135mm is traditionally best for shooting good portraits. The longish lens gives a more pleasing look when compared to an image made by filling the frame using a wide angle lens.

In the bad old days of film this was much harder. You never knew what you had until you processed, and possibly printed, your film. Today, with digital cameras, shoot, immediately examine the result, and shoot again, if necessary.

Shooting food is easy but there are rules

There is a photog that I follow on Facebook who is possibly the best wildlife photographer in Ontario. He is amazing.

Yet, when he shoots food, his pictures wilt. The images are often dark, the food poorly presented. His food pictures are not inviting. You don't long to sample the food shown.

If you are shooting food there are some simple things to watch for and often an image enhancement program is necessary to get the most from you images.

First, do not use straight on strobe. The light is ugly. Enough said.

Position your food near a large window to take advantage of the soft, even, available light. The window glass must not be tinted. You want clean colour. If there is a shadow, make sure it falls at the bottom of a least toward the bottom. No horror movie lighting (lighting from the bottom) is used here.

My point-and-shoots do not shoot images with the same quality as the pro equipment that I used when working. My point-and-shoots blow-out highlights; the detail in the tart crust was gone (but not forgotten.)

I took this image into Photoshop and using Levels made sure the brightest tones were maxed out (255) but not to the extent that important detail was lost. I set the dark tones in a similar manner. I made sure I had a clean black somewhere in the image. This gives your image excellent contrast. Make sure you don't go too far. You don't want too much contrast.

In Curves I brightened the entire image and I burned the edges of the image as I would have done in a wet darkroom in the past. There was a hint of a green cast in the image. I removed this in Curves, as well. I saturated the colours a little, a setting of 8 as I recall, and finally I used Unsharp Mask to gently sharpen the image (16-.8-3).

Oh, I also made sure the cooling rack bars were parallel to the edge of the image using select all, transform and skew. It didn't take much. It didn't result in the tart being distorted. You don't want to make huge changes using skew but your image can be tweeked quite successfully if you are careful.

Photoshop is not the only program I've used to pull-off this magic. I've also used ACDSee and may at some point switch over to this Photoshop competitor. Photoshop is simply too expensive. When my computer will no longer run my version, I will look at ACDSee -- or maybe GIMP. It's free!

How to get a good picture? Luck and a handy camera.

We don't get a lot of red foxes in our backyard. To be at the window at the moment one is sighted in the yard takes luck.

We don't always have a camera handy but when the fox showed up, a camera was sitting right there. More luck.

I zoomed the lens on the Fuji HS10, stood still at the window and began tracking the fox. It strolled into the open. I got the picture. And that took luck.

All too often, the importance of luck is overlooked in photography. Being there, and of course, being ready, are so very important when it comes to getting a picture.

Now, if only I had better equipment. Ah, that takes money.

As one gets older, one's shooting stance changes

When shooting children, the working rule is to get down to their level.

Soon I'll be 71. Ouch. My back doesn't bend as it once did, nor do my knees. I find myself shooting pictures standing up that I once would have knelt down to shoot.

With today's point and shoot cameras, one can hold the camera at waist level or lower and view the image on the screen filling the camera back.

It is not a perfect way of working but it is damn good. And it beats shooting down on little kids and totally missing including their faces in the pictures.

If you think about what you are shooting and have formed a clear idea about what you are trying to capture, you are well on your way to getting a fine picture.

Isla, my granddaughter, is a drama queen. Everything she does, she does with flare. It was clear I had to capture the magician's pose as Isla waved her wand and created long, tubular balloons.

This was not my first shot. It took a number of tries as the camera shutter was slow to fire. It is a hurry-up-and-wait camera from Canon. Isla, being three, was quick. I had to squeeze the shutter release as she just started sweeping her hand in front of her body. As it was late afternoon, there was enough light to force the camera to choose a fast shutter speed.

I know it is no longer cool but I still like to burn my edges - sometimes I burn too much. I may have gone a little far here, but I like it. And it even though I do this electronically using Photoshop, it brings back memories of the wet darkroom and working side by side with the other photographers at the newspaper where I once worked.