Always Return Your Camera To Neutral After A Shoot!

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Sometimes irony can be as cruel as a mean, stepmother’s heart! For the last couple of weeks I have been thinking about blogging on the topic of setting the camera back to neutral after every shoot. So what do I do? Of course make exactly this mistake even though the topic is forefront in my noggin. My last photo shoot was an early sunrise, calm lake reflection affair. The photo below is an example from this shoot.

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To achieve this shot I am using long exposure, mirror up, 5 second delay, manual focus, and a neutral density filter. I also had my exposure composition all jacked up because I like to push my histogram as far to the right as I can. So after a beautiful morning of shooting I head to the car fat, dumb, and happy and leave my camera set for a long exposure type of shoot.

Fast forward a few days and I am in a high school gym using my camera to film my daughter’s band concert. I will give myself an out, because we live in a society where nobody is at fault. I will use the excuse that the only time I use the filming option on my camera is for my daughter’s concerts a few times a year. Totally not my fault right? Wrong! I am supposed to be a pro and should be a master of my camera. So I proceed to start filming and after a few minutes I begin to wonder why the young man’s LCD screen I can see a couple of rows in front of me is not similar to my LCD screen. Now I am a bit slow, but even I can figure out that something ain’t adding up. After the first piece I look at the front of the camera and realize my ND filter is still on my camera and a light bulb goes off! Crap! I am still set up for the early morning, lake reflection shoot!

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After every shoot, before the ass slapping and high fivin begins due to taking amazing clicks, set the camera back to neutral. A neutral setting may be different for everyone. Don’t use the setup for the photo below as your neutral setting. This is a long exposure shot with settings all over the place.

My neutral setting is A (Aperture priority on a Nikon), S (Single shot on a Nikon), timer off, exposure compensation to neutral, white balance to cloudy, clear filter, auto focus on/vibration reduction off, auto focus points to the highest level, and ISO 200.

It has taken multiple cussing sessions over the years, but I have finally learned this very important lesson. I have set my camera to neutral for the last two photo shoots in a row! I am sure this issue will never rear it’s ugly head again! Ya right!

Next Topic: IT IS PAINFUL, BUT YOU NEED TO READ YOUR CAMERA’S MANUAL!

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TTS Writer Wild Child

Plastic Bags! Don’t Leave Home Without One!

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Something as simple as a plastic bag can make or break a photo shoot! I am talking just the simple, free bags given with groceries and many other purchases.  A bag is easy to put in the back pocket, weighs next to nothing, and has a multitude of uses.  

Let’s examine the photo below.  I just happened to have a plastic bag in my back pocket, which was wonderful, because I spent 2 hours under the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Sydney, Australia waiting out a rainstorm.  I used the bag to sit on a damp piece of concrete keeping my bum nice and dry. It is not fun to have a wet bum!  Especially since I could see a nice cozy pub from my vantage point under the bridge. I knew if waited out the storm in the cozy pub my photo shoot dreams would go down as fast as the first four pints.

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Another great use for a plastic bag is to protect your expensive camera gear. I will tolerate a bit of rain on my camera and lens.  However, at some point it is time to protect your gear.  Sure there are many fancy pants, protective bags out there, but a free plastic bag works just fine.  Rip a hole in the end of the bag about the size or your lens and then place the bag around your gear.  I often use the bag’s handle to secure the bag to the back of the camera or tripod.  In the photo below it was raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock.  Using the technique above I was able to get the shot and my camera gear still works. If you really want to go first class use a rubber band or painter’s tape to customize your protective bag.  

If you read my last blog post. Which only my mom and drunk uncle did, you will know I always leave my knee pads in the car.  I plastic bag works great, well great might be an exaggeration, let’s say the bag will keep your knees dry. Of course the bag provides no padding, but hopefully it will keep you from walking around all day with wet, soggy pants.  In the shot below, of course my knee pads were nice and dry back in the car, so I used a plastic bag to keep my knees sand free! So I suppose your going to ask, how come I can remember a bag and not my knee pads? Read my last reason and you will understand why!

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Now I always advocate leaving nature exactly how you found it. One should never pick a flower or remove an object from it’s natural environment.  However, when a person can pick a flower, like in a garden or when no one is looking, a free plastic bag is perfect to haul the booty back to the macro studio.  In the photo below it was very windy on this particular day, which makes macro flower photography just about impossible.  I was in a garden, so I looked all directions and went ahead and placed the red hibiscus into my free plastic bag all nice and cozy right next to the water bottle that was soon going to create the fake raindrops on it’s petals!

The final reason I will offer for carrying a cheap, plastic bag and its the most important one, is that sometimes a person needs to go potty and there is not a restroom in site!  No photo to support this reason!

Next Topic: ALWAYS RETURN YOUR CAMERA TO NEUTRAL AFTER A SHOOT!

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TTS Music Winner Rah Black

Why Knee Pads Are The Photographer’s Best Friend

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When I am on the hunt for a cool shot I am always thinking about how I can present a look that hasn’t been captured one trillion times! Generally speaking any standing view is what we are used to seeing. For example, how many bloody looking down at a flower shots have you seen? Looking down at flowers is how we normally view them. So if I am going to make a flower shot interesting I have to get creative and present a new perspective. Getting low provides such a perspective. We normally don’t look at flowers from below. So to get below a flower we have to get on our knees. Trust me the ground under a flower is not going to me marshmallowy soft. Nope, its going to be rocky, wet, and/or muddy almost guaranteed.

The shot above has the lovely elements of muddy, wet, rocks. I walked away from this shot soaking wet below the knees with salt water! Could this have been avoided? Sure if I would have managed to bring my nice knee pads that were safely dry back in my car!

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I normally always have both knee pads and a foam pad in my car just for these occasions. I also normally forget the knee pads and foam pad in my car. Why? Mainly because I am an idiot and either forget my pads until I am too far from the car to return for them or I talk myself out of bringing them because I don’t think I will need them.

The photo above was taken with the rare aid of knee pads! The rocks were super rough and I would still have scars if I had forgotten my knee pads on this beautiful morning on the Oregon coast!

Why do I carry both knee pads and a foam pad? Because knee pads are required when a person has to split their legs to get a solid base. I use construction type knee pads. Any type will do. I use the foam pad when I can keep me legs together and when weight is an issue. The foam pad, normally used by gardeners, is both cheap and light weight. I normally clip the foam pad to my belt using a climbing clamp.

The photo above is a perfect example for using a foam knee pad. It was quite a hike along the beach near Cairns Australia to find this dead palm. The beach was wet, but level and a photographer could easily keep their knees together to make the shot! But of course I didn’t have my foam pad and got wet sandy legs!

So in my humble opinion knee pads are a photographers’s best friend! Plus my knee pads last a lifetime, because they are always safe and dry back in the car!

Next topic: PLASTIC BAGS! DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT ONE!

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Thrill Girl Kathryn Kinley