Photo Tip #6: A Man with a Chain Saw Can Shake Your Camera

My former colleague/photo chief Richard Thomason, who retired in September 2004 after 30 years of taking pictures for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, stopped by the house this past Sunday, chain saw in hand, to help me cut down a tree in my front yard. Well, I helped him cut down the tree. He roared, I clipped and stacked branches. It didn't take long. Richard worked the chain right off of the saw. Literally. He had to stop once to put it back in place.

It wasn't a large tree. As you see in the 'before' photo (moving day), there are (were) matching trees, possibly some variety of crabapple, in the front yard. I decided, after they hit a growth spurt during the great summer rains we've had, that the scraggly bushes on stumps block the view of my house. It's a cute little 107-year old Victorian. Needs a little paint, but who doesn't. The pair had been hacked instead of pruned, are encroaching on the power lines, and upon closer examination, it's obvious that they are both a bit sickly, too.

And if you take a close look at the two photos, you might notice that they are not quite in focus. It's camera shake, and it can ruin an otherwise good photo. The little point and shoot camera that I used is small enough that, if I hold it with one hand, it moves as I press the shutter release. It just doesn't hold steady when you mash the button. So watch your hand as you shoot with a small camera. If the camera moves, your shot is out of focus. Use both hands to keep it steady.

The same holds true for the larger 35mm cameras, whether it's film or digital. As well, the shutter speed that you choose is important. So watch for the shutter speed when you shoot in any program mode. The rule of thumb is, don't shoot any slower than the focal length of your lens. For example, if you have a 200mm lens on the camera, set the shutter speed to 250th of a second or faster. This will vary, of course, with the many zoom lenses that are on the market. You probably cannot hold a 35-300mm lens still at a 30th of a second when you shoot at the 35mm focal length. The longer the lens, and the heavier the lens, the harder to hold it still. Either increase the shutter speed, or use a monopod or tripod.

Here's a tip on how to properly hold your camera: as you grip the camera with your right hand, cradle the bottom of the camera body with the palm, or butt, of your left hand. It gently rests there. Your thumb and fingers now lightly cup the lens from underneath, making it easy to move the focusing rings, and zoom in and out. Don't squeeze the camera with all of your might using just your right hand, then hover your left hand over the lens to move the rings. It's awkward. Trust me. Once you become accustomed to holding your camera with both hands, not only will you look like a pro, you'll shoot more like a pro.

And a few more tips to help you stay steady, especially in low light:
** breathe slow and easy, shoot on the exhale, or lightly hold your breath, like a sharpshooter
** depress the shutter button smoothly and easily, like a sharpshooter
** hold your elbows in close to your body if you need to steady yourself
** lean against a wall, or a table top, or place your elbows on your knees if seated. The idea is to make a tripod out of your body.
** set the camera on a flat surface - you can still look through the viewfinder

HOLD THAT CAMERA STILL!!!
Robin

Photo Tip #5: Sometimes it Works to Shoot from Behind

Let's talk about where to stand when taking pictures. Actually, lets talk about when it works to shoot from a position where common sense says would be bad - from behind your subject.

More often than not, we want to see faces when we photograph people, whether or not they're looking at the camera. In fact, seriously strong images are made with subjects not looking into the lens (this is a different discussion). And to get faces, we need to be in front of our subjects. We've all seen, and made, bad photos that were taken from the back. No faces, no action, no scene, no story. Ooh.

But sometimes, behind the scene tells the story. Or an interesting piece of the story, or another perspective on the story. Like 2-year old DeMarcus Jackson walking away as he holds his mom's hand after she (Pfc. Addelia Jackson) arrives home from Iraq with the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team advance party. Or Ashley Perkins, left, and her niece Caroline Smith walking up the driveway after the tornado that hit Columbus in March 2007. There is emotion in their body language as they walk away from the camera.

Shooting from the back gave a bit of humor during a Columbus State University Sigma Kappa event in October 2007. (In the photo, Scott Couture and a female friend rub his freshly shaved head during the "Men of Kappa Sigma Shave to Save" fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.) And in yet another photo from the 2007 Habitat for Humanity Collegiate Challenge, a coed hammers away after mending her ripped britches with painters tape.

These muddy swimmers are Junior ROTC students who are maneuvering Malvesti Field, a training course at the Fort Benning Ranger Training Brigade. I took photos from in front of another group - laying on my belly and shooting straight in from down low. They make a nice combination of images.

And of course there is football. In covering a game, we shoot defense as well as offense, so we get behind the opposing quarterback to get our guys breaking through the line for the sack. And it is standard coverage to get a shot of quarterbacks making a hand off, passing from behind the line of scrimmage, or getting chased by the other bad guys. Then we have to run down field to catch up to the game action. Or maybe wait for the game action to come back to us.

Happy shooting.
Robin

Photo Tip #4 -- Focus on the Foreground

Consider this when looking for variety in compositional style - create a dominate foreground that connects and leads the eye to the photo's larger subject. You can tell a story, make a portrait, snag a detail and intentionally give the viewer a point of entry into your photograph. Here are a few examples:

In the first photo, Matt Young, director of education for the National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus, holds the 1861 sword of John Julius Guthrie, the second commander of the C.S.S. Chattahoochee. This image is a portrait of the sword, but the soldier is an integral visual element to help convey the story of the sword. I pulled the sword handle away from Matt's body, used light from the side and let his face go out of focus just a bit. This creates some separation so the sword can be seen more distinctly. If he had held it close to his body, the sword would have simply blended into his uniform. Creating this space allows the focus to be on the sword and at the same time keeps the 'soldier' present.

This portrait of Northside High basketball players James Vincent, left, and Torin Walker (both 6' 10") brings an environmental element, the basket, into the foreground that then leads the eye directly to the athletes. This also solved the problem of how to make a clean and tight shot given the basket is 10 feet high. Interestingly, this photo didn't run. I selected an image that I shot from below knee level to the young men to accentuate their height.

In this image of Muscogee County Sheriffs pallbearers carrying the casket of their colleague, Deputy Sheriff Meredith "Tag" Rhodes, I framed the photograph of the young officer in the foreground in order to bring his life into the foreground of the story. The bowed heads and their open stride add to the emotion of the moment.

The Habitat for Humanity bag photo is a nice example of how you can to tune into a small detail and use it to spice up a photo - and offer a little different perspective to the scene.

In the above photo, Clubview Elementary students Abby Fitzgerald, left, Katie Smith, and the entire fifth-grade class filled a truck bed with the dozens of boxes of books that they collected for a school in Belize this past spring. Shooting this from the front emphasizes the truckload of books and keeps the teacher's and the youngsters' faces in the picture. To take this picture from behind would have lost them both. And this keeps the entire frame filled with useful information (the crowd of kids, students carrying boxes, teacher, and truck), there is no wasted space or cluttered background.

Try these out. I hope these are ideas that help you in your photo-taking endeavors. And please write in with any questions or comments. Either click on 'comments' at the end of the blog post, or email me at rtrimarchi@ledger-enquirer.com. Thanks.

Robin

Earth and Sky

Last week I promised to find some fun astronomy sites that allow users to find the skies above Columbus and the Chattahoochee Valley. Google Earth* is a virtual globe that allows you to explore the planet from your computer, and it has a sister site called Google Sky. You can move into space from Google Earth by hitting the 'sky button' at the top of the window, or go to 'view' and click on 'switch to sky' in the drop down menu. This flips you from your earth location to the skies above. There is a quick YouTube video with an introduction at http://earth.google.com/sky/skyedu.html.

*(Google Earth is a free download - with advanced versions for purchase - so click on the on the 'Help' link for information about what your computer needs in order to support the program. Hop on the tutorial that gets you on your way. Also visit the Google Earth Blog - http://gearthblog.com/about.html - for good information).

On NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day site, (my personal favorite) scroll down the page and check out the archives, the index, the search tab, etc. The Education tab takes you to a fabulous page of astronomy and astrophysics sites (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html). And you don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand a lot of this. These are, after all, education sites!! And seriously fun to browse through.

Another space maps site is the Space/Astronomy page on About.com (http://space.about.com/library/weekly/blskymaps.htm). Type 'Sky Maps' into your search engine for an endless listing of sites.

Contact the Coca-Cola Space Science Center (part of Columbus State University) for information on their planetarium, educational programs and astronomy nights. The next two star-gazing evenings are scheduled for Sat. Sept. 6th (8 p.m.) at the Center (701 Front Avenue), and Sat. Sept. 27 (8 p.m.) at FDR State Park. Contact number (706) 649-1477

Oh, that photo at the top is an aerial of my house that I took while shooting for another assignment. How often do we get to take a picture of our house from the sky?

Robin

Science In Our Backyard

While searching for websites that have photos from space of the Columbus and Chattahoochee Valley area, I typed in the U.S. Geological Survey, which is filled with great information and a zillion links to more great information. They call it, "Your source for science you can use." It beats unending cable reruns, and your kids can run amok and dazzle their teachers with their science reports. Type 'Georgia' into the Science In Your Back Yard link, which is where this map is shown with more detail. When I find the space photos, I'll link it up. Until then, check out the Astronomy Picture of the Day site from NASA. You'll love it, and it's easy to find their archived photos and once again, a ton of cool stuff about the stars.

Robin (amateur astronomer and onetime biochemistry major)

Just Checking In ...

... my shoulder is still recovering from surgery, and the Doc has yet to give me the okay to schlep a camera around ... so I've been browsing through my archives in an ongoing attempt to organize the hard drive (never mind all of the negatives), and I came across this photo that was shot while waiting for an assignment to get rolling. These birds were watching me, honestly.

This is also a nice example of how cropping a photo can create a very different image, as compared with leaving it full frame. Let's talk about that in next week's Photo Tip. And I'll see what other photos catch my eye - it's an interesting exercise to look through the files.

One Month to Kickoff!!

For all of you (us) college football fans -- 31 days until the tailgate begins and the marching bands loudly declare -- bring it on!! And, our local high school teams begin practice this coming Monday, Aug. 4.

Okay -- so I'm from Nebraska, for the most part, at least enough to be a Cornhusker - GO BIG RED. But thanks to Dusty Nix, our veteran editorial page editor who bleeds blue and orange, I can be heard echoing WAR EAGLE from September to December. Unless of course, I'm hanging with my Nebraska buddies who live in Atlanta - who bleed HUSKER RED - then I tend to stutter. Like when the Tigers talked back to the Huskers 17-14 in the 2007 Cotton Bowl. But it was a 25-year payback (1982) - that's when Nebraska yawned its way past Auburn 41-7 at Jordan-Hare. It was a "train wreck," according to Dusty. "I couldn't stay for the embalming."

Now -- I'm all for the Bulldogs when they face any Florida team - and if I get to go to a bowl game.

(Insert favorite fight song here)
RT