Explore the world thru the lens

Explore the World thru the lens.

Photographers use the lens to explore their world. They explore the light and/or the absence of light. They explore it in color - vibrant colors, mute color, black and white - contrast and saturation. They explore it in motion, movement, or has it stands still. They explore its various shapes and size. They explore its moods, its emotions, its temperament.

Explore your world through the lens. Instead of taking your standard 'tourist' shot. Compose the image - look for shapes, color, design, light, shadows, movement, stillness, mood. If you do that you will see a whole new world. Instead of pointing and shooting, why not stop and enjoy the tulips, in other words - take your time, look, listen and feel.


Photo by Tony Locke
Visit his Flickr Site

The Excitement of photographing the Palouse

Four days, four students, and the excitement of photographing the Palouse.

Four sunsets, four sunrises and the excitement of photographing the Palouse.



Miles and Miles and the excitement of photographing the Palouse



The Excitement of Photographing in the Palouse.

What kind of photographer am I?

What kind of photographer am I? Should that be a workshop? I find that photographers tend to gravitate towards certain subjects; wildlife, people, landscapes, flowers, birds, barns. When finally I decided to pick up a camera I discovered that what I gravitated towards was lines, macro, candid photos of people and abstract images. What kind of photographer am I? This is a question I asked myself just recently when I started to notice a theme in my photographs.

What kind of photographer am I? How do we decide what it is that draws us to photograph? Is it something that just happens? Is it unconscious? Do we ask ourselves when we take up the camera - What Kind of photographer am I? Or does it just come naturally? I tell students that even if the subject is not something that interests them, they should try the workshop anyway and venture outside their comfort zone, they might find it will enhance what does interest them.

What kind of photographer am I? The kind that wants to grow and enjoy photography.

Bringing it together

In today's tough economic times, it can be somewhat of a challenge to plan a workshop. What? Where? When? Who? How much? There is also the challenge of, how to make a workshop stand out from all of the others. When I think of a workshop I try to think about; Who would take this? What do they need to learn? What would interest them? Is it the location? The subject? The instructor? How much do I need to charge? How much is too much? How much is too little? What would someone be willing to pay for it? How long should be? Do we include critique time? How in depth should we go? What is the end goal in this workshop? These are pretty standard questions, but what I really look for is; How can I make this workshop different? To me that is the most critical. What will make this workshop stand out and how can I make it a fun experience, as well as, a learning experience? Sometimes you just need to listen - so what do you think would make a fun workshop? Where would you like to go? What do you want to learn? All you need to do is suggest.......

A Visual Journey - A road to find our creative self

As artists, much of our creativeness comes from within. It is then somewhat influenced by external flashes of inspiration.

We take many paths during our Visual Journey. Some paths take us on a high road leading us to places that allow our creative energy to flow and taking our work to some of the highest peaks. Other paths take us in a downward spiral, zapping us of our creative energy and we may sink into some abyss.

These past few years, so many of us have been on that downward spiral,traveling downhill either emotionally, spiritually, financially and/or creatively. For a period of time (thankfully a short one) I found my creative spirit gone. There was nothing within me. Not only did I not feel creative, I couldn’t be creative.

To find the path leading back up the hill, I surrounded myself with creative people that I admire. This sort of energy helped pull me from the abyss and showed me the way to starting a new journey. I can now feel the creative energy starting to swirl around me again, increasing the creative juices from within. Once in awhile our creative energy needs to be inspired, to get that creative blood pumping again. I look forward to my next Visual Journey.

Ultimately we have to look within, but a little outside influence doesn’t hurt. Sometimes it may just be what we need to give us that nudge towards a new Visual Journey.

Landscape workshop turns wild....

Not all things go according to plan, and our San Juan workshop was no exception. We planned (planned being the operative word) a 2 day workshop on the beautiful island of San Juan (Washington State). The workshop's focus was wide-angle photography. Some of the landscapes and areas we planned on photographing was; American Camp, English/British Camp, the poppy fields, sculpture park, sunset at Lime Kiln and some others.

Well first let me say, that photographing in western Washington state is always risky. Our weather is most uncooperative sometimes and this weekend was no exception. After what was a beautiful, sunny week, it decided to become cold, rainy and the gray skies were back, just in time for the weekend - this was not the part of the original forecast (but then they are almost never right). At American camp, we were hoping for early morning light, instead there was no light, gray skies, and rain. The sunset photograph we planned to do from Lime Kiln State Park didn't go as planned because - well there was no sunset. The poppy fields we planned on photographing was not in bloom yet - there was a total of seven poppies, not really a field of poppies. The whole weekend was this way.



So what do you do when a workshop doesn't go according to plan? You improvise and then let luck intervene. When you have a group of people who paid money to learn something and to enjoy their weekend of photography, you need to find something for them to do and hopefully quickly. Our landscape, wide-angle photography workshop turned WILD. We found wildlife to photograph; baby foxes (they were so cute and playful), deer, and lucky for us a local person on the island, who at 5:00 pm sharp, would feed the feral cats, foxes, ravens and the most exciting of all - Eagles. There we were when all of the sudden out of the sky and trees we were surrounded by eagles. They would fly by then swoop down to pick up the goodies, that the good Samaritan, left behind, then fly back up into the trees. This went on for over a half hour. It was fascinating just to watch.



Life, in general, doesn't always go according to plan, but sometimes what happens instead is just as great, if not better. So if your landscape is a little off and not quite working, turn it into something WILD, sometimes the extra little excitement that brings, shakes you up enough to get you out of your comfort zone and let's you enjoy yourself even more.

What Were You Thinking?

This is from the 'dedication page' in the new book titled, "What Were You Thinking". A collection of photographs from the students of Dick Garvey. Soon to be available on Blurb...


"What were you thinking?" was a Garveyism quote his students heard quite often. Sometimes in jest, sometimes out of curiosity, but mostly to get them thinking about 'why' they took that particular photograph. This book is dedicated to Dick Garvey - as a man we respected, a photographer we admired, and a teacher who inspired us. He taught us the basics of photography, and more importantly, how to strive to be better photographers.

Dick Garvey enjoyed teaching. He was a natural at it and had that special gift that made his students strive for more and enjoy every minute of it. He was awed and inspired by their dedication and determination to constantly imporove.

His passion for photography was evident in his photographs, his passion for teaching was evident in his students’ photographs. This book is a collection of their passion and his.

We dedicate this book in memory of all that you have taught us, in photography and in life. We will miss you greatly, but we will carry with us always what you taught us. Whenever we set up our cameras and start to capture that photograph, we will hear you saying, "What were you thinking?". We were thinking about you and all that we learned from you.

Thank you!

In the Zone

Producing photography classes, owning a business that specializes in photography services and being part of a large camera club, I am always surrounded by photographers. Until recently I wasn't really 'one of them'. They always talked about how much they enjoy photography because while they are out there shooting the whole world seems to slip away - stress, worries, aches and pains, their whole focus is on that moment and nothing else - They are in the ZONE.

Now not being one of them (an actual "photographer") I didn't have any practical experience to refer to. What they said made sense and I did not doubt them, I just had not experienced anything like it, until recently. About 9 months ago I decided I really should "join the crowd" and take up photography. A friend gave me her camera (she moved up the line in cameras) and off to practicing I went.

Whenever we get a chance, my friend Anne and I, take a day and go shooting together. Last weekend we spent the afternoon in La Conner, photographing whatever struck our fancy. We stopped in a store in town where a friend works to say hi. This wonderful store has a vast array of colorful objects they import from other countries. Anne and I, passed some time photographing things in the store. It wasn't until later that I realized, that while in the store photographing, I was in the ZONE! I totally forgot where I was, or that the store was full of people. I was so focused on my photography that all else slipped away. As I thought about it later, I wondered how many people were paying attention to Anne and I, wondering what we were doing and why. It was then that I realized I was not paying attention to them.



So my advice, whenever life seems too much, pick up your camera and go find THE ZONE and let the world slip away, even if only for a moment.

Dedication to someone who taught us so much.

On March 2nd, we lost our instructor, Dick Garvey, to cancer.
Besides loosing a good man and a good friend, we lost an very valuable instructor. Photography was Dick's greatest passion, and teaching photography was very important to him. He didn't just do it for the money (that was just an added bonus), he did it because he loved to teach others and to watch them grow as photographers.

His student's loved him for his unique approach to teaching photography.
It wasn't just about the technical with Dick, it was about reaching inside and discovering why you want to take this photograph, did you feel that you accomplished and conveyed what you were trying to say with your photography, what was your vision. His 'critiquing' style was his forte. This was where you would really learn about photography. Just watching him and listening to him would give you what you needed to become a better photographer. His wit and his charm made the classes fun and exciting.

Dick had quite the following, he had students that would take just about every class we did. One of the classes we did for awhile, was a Portfolio class. It ran monthly and students were encouraged to think about how they would like to portray their work. We talked about different options available today and what would best suit them. This class was to help them continue to move forward, even if all they wanted to do was share their work with friends and family. It was discussed that your 'portfolio' would always be changing, as well, as your work. One of his students completed her first 'portfolio'. She did it as a book and dedicated it to Dick. Here is a link to Anne's new book, 'A Trip Around the Edges', one of Dick's many sayings.

He will be missed by all of us

A Fun Little Workshop with John Holtman

We recently had a class on macro and creative fun photography at Christianson's Nursery. We started the day with a discussion where our instructor, John Holtman, shared techniques and took us on a visual exploration of images that he has photographed. Then our hostess, Margie Hart at La Conner Flats, served us a delicious lunch of homemade vegetable soup and sandwiches. It was a chilly and sunny day in the middle of February, as we descended upon the grounds of Christianson's Nursery to practice all that John taught us. Everyone took to the task with a seriousness and dedication that shows in their photography. We ended the day with a group shot.

To see some of the images from this wonderful day visit our Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/thatphotoshoppe.

As a bonus - Christianson's was sponsoring a photography contest and one of our students won second place. Congrats to Anne - to see more of Anne's work read her blog.

Here is the image that won second place.

What I learned at our 'To Blog or not to Blog class'.

I recently produced a class on, 'To Blog or not to Blog?", I think I was channeling Shakespeare or something? Anyway it was a pretty full house. This was not a class on how to make a career out of blogging, it was simply a class on how to set up a blog and what you could do with it, a very beginner's basics.

The students were comprised of adults, most of which are retired. Some wanted to learn to blog about their hobbies or art, others had a small business and some wanted to blog about life. The instructor uses Wordpress, so we based the class around that (sorry blogger!).

Here was the challenges, some expected, some not.

First was preparing a handout for the class (the middle to older generation still likes handouts). It was hard to come up with a step-by-step of even the basics, in Wordpress. Since there is so much to learn about Wordpress, I wanted something to give as a guideline . I was surprised though that even Wordpress didn't have anything online, no PDF's, nothing to download. I ended up just doing a document listing resources and some links on how to get started with Wordpress.

Second challenge (and this was a big one), keeping everyone on the same page, or at least the same chapter. Each student brought a computer, and what should have been done was have them log in using one site, one theme and then just walk them through it. Instead each student started their own project, used a different theme (which caused it own set of challenges) and was at different levels of doing their own thing and learning.

Usually when we teach a Photoshop class we have everyone working on the same project. We still have the issue of different learning levels but by having everyone working on the same project it makes it more manageable. When you have everyone working on different projects, especially beginners, you loose control quickly and it is harder to maintain and stay on the subject's course. Which is sort of what happened here.

What did I learn from all of this? 1. K.I.S.S. When I do this again, we will keep it simple, follow some basic steps, have everyone working from the same page. 2. Keep the class a little smaller. 3. Do like we do when teaching Photoshop Elements, break it down and teach in segments. We tried to cram too much into one day. 4. Maybe have a class in Blogger:-)

BTW - Here is a link to one our student's new blog (the one she started in class) - http://takenbyanne.wordpress.com. Some of the names of the blogs were very clever.

How to choose an F Stop and Why

How to Choose a Lens Aperture (F Stop)
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

One of the most important settings on any adjustable camera is the size of the hole (known as the "aperture") through which light passes on its way from the subject, through the lens, to the film. The size setting of this hole, customarily referred to as the "f/stop" in reference to a standard measurement or simply the "aperture", determines depth of field, manages the effect of certain lens imperfections, and can add certain special effects such as spiked "sunstars" around bright highlights. Here's how to choose the best one.

Steps

1. Familiarize yourself with some of the basic concepts and terminology. You'll need to know these in order to make sense of the rest of the article.
   
   • Aperture or stop. This is the adjustable hole through which light passes on its way from the subject, through the lens, to the film (or digital sensor). Like the pinhole in a pinhole camera, it blocks rays of light except those that would, even without a lens, tend to form an inverted image by passing through that central point to a corresponding point in the opposite direction on the film. With a lens, it also blocks rays of light that would pass through far from the center, where the lens glass may less closely approximate (usually with various easy-to-make spherical surfaces) the shapes that would focus it perfectly (usually much more complex aspherical surfaces), causing aberrations.
     
     • Because every camera has an aperture, usually adjustable, and if not at least has the edges of the lens as an aperture, the aperture size setting is what is normally called the "aperture".
       
     
     
   • F-stop or simply aperture. This is the ratio of the focal length of the lens to the size of the aperture. This kind of measurement is used because a given focal ratio produces the same image brightness, requiring the same shutter speed for a given ISO setting (film speed or equivalent sensor light amplification) without regard to focal length.
     
   • Iris diaphragm or simply iris. This is the device most cameras use to form and adjust the aperture. It consists of a series of overlapping thin metal blades that can swing toward the center of a hole in a flat metal ring. It forms a central hole that is perfectly round wide open, when the blades are out of the way, and constricts by pushing the blades toward the center of that hole to form a smaller polygonal hole (which may have curved edges).
     
     • Most SLR cameras only close down the iris diaphragm, making it visible from the front of the lens, during an exposure or when the depth-of-field-preview function is activated.
       
     
     
   • Stopping down means to use a smaller, or (depending on context) a relatively small aperture (large f/ number).
     
   • Opening up means to use a larger, or (depending on context), a relatively large aperture (small f/ number).
     
   • Wide open means to use the largest aperture (smallest f/number).
     
   • Depth of field is the specific front-to-back area, or (depending on context) the scope of the front-to-back area that appears fairly sharp. A smaller aperture increases depth of field and decreases the extent to which objects outside the depth of field are blurred. The precise extent of depth of field is somewhat subjective because focus drops off gradually from the precise distance of focus, and the noticeability of defocus depends on factors such as subject type, other sources of lack of sharpness, and viewing conditions.
     
     • A relatively large depth-of-field is called deep; a relatively small depth-of-field is called shallow.
       
     
     
   • Aberrations are imperfections in a lens's ability to focus light sharply. Generally speaking, less-expensive and more-exotic types of lenses (such as superwides) have more severe aberrations.
     
     • Aperture has no effect on linear distortion (straight lines appearing curved), but it often goes away toward the middle of a zoom lens's focal-length range, and pictures can be composed to avoid drawing attention to it such as by not putting prominent obviously straight lines such as on buildings or horizons close to the frame edges, and it can be corrected in software or by some digital cameras automatically.
       
     
     
   • Diffraction is a basic aspect of the behavior of waves passing through small openings which limits the maximum sharpness of all lenses at smaller apertures.[1] It becomes increasingly apparent past f/11 or so, making a great camera and lens no better than a so-so one (albeit sometimes one exactly suited for a specific need such as great depth of field or a long shutter speed where lower sensitivity or a neutral-density filter is not available).
     
   
   
2. Understand depth of field. Depth of field is, formally, the range of object distances within which objects are imaged with acceptable sharpness. There is only one distance at which objects will be in perfect focus, but sharpness drops off gradually in front of and behind that distance. For a short distance in each direction, objects will be blurred so little that the film or sensor will be too coarse to detect any blurring; for a somewhat greater distance they will still appear "pretty" sharp in the final picture.[2] The pairs of depth-of-field marks for certain apertures next to the focusing scale on a lens are good for estimating this latter measure.[3].
   
   • Roughly one-third of the depth of field is behind the focus distance, and two-thirds is behind (if not extending to infinity, since it is a phenomenon relating to the amount by which light rays from an object have to be bent to converge at a focal point and rays coming from far distances tend toward parallel.)
     
   • Depth of field drops off gradually. Backgrounds and foregrounds will appear slightly soft, if not in focus, with a small aperture, but very blurred or unrecognizable with a wide aperture. Consider whether they are important and should be in focus, relevant for context and should be a little soft, or distracting and should be blurred.
     
     • If you want great background blur but do not have quite enough depth of field for your subject, focus on the part that will draw the most attention, often the eyes.
       
     
     
   • Depth of field generally appears to depend on, in addition to aperture, focal length (longer focal length gives less), format size (smaller film or sensor size gives more, assuming the same angle of view, i.e., equivalent focal length), and distance (there is much less at close focus distances).So, if you want shallow depth of field, you can buy a super-fast lens (expensive), or zoom in (free) and set even a cheap smaller-aperture lens wide open.
     
   • The artistic purpose of depth of field is to deliberately have the entire picture sharp or to "crop depth" by diffusing distracting foreground and/or background.
     
   • A more practical purpose of depth of field is to set a small aperture and pre-focus the lens to the "hyperfocal distance" (the closest at which the depth of field extends to infinity from a given distance; see a table or the depth of field marks on the lens for the aperture chosen) or to an estimated distance, to be ready to take a picture quickly with a manual-focus camera or a subject moving too fast or unpredictably for autofocus (in which case you'll need a high shutter speed too).
     
   • Remember that you normally won't see any of this through your viewfinder (or on your screen as you're composing. Modern cameras meter with the lens at its widest aperture, and only stop down the lens to its selected aperture at the moment of exposure. The depth-of-field preview function usually allows only a dim and imprecise view. (Disregard any odd patterns in the focusing screen view; they will not appear in the final picture.) What's more, viewfinders on modern digital SLRs and other autofocus cameras don't even show the true wide-open depth of field with a lens faster than f/2.8 or so (it's shallower than it looks; rely on autofocus, not subject to this limitation, when possible). A better option on digital cameras is to simply take the picture, then play it back and zoom in on your LCD to see if the background is adequately sharp (or blurred) enough.
     
   
   
3. Understand the interaction of aperture and instantaneous lighting (flash). A flash burst is normally so short that the flash component of an exposure is affected only by aperture. (Most 35mm and digital SLRs have a maximum "flash-sync" flash-compatible shutter speed; above that only a fraction of the frame would be exposed due to the way in which their "focal-plane" shutter works. Special high-speed-sync flash modes use a rapid burst of weak flashes, each exposing a fraction of the frame; they greatly reduce flash range and so are rarely helpful.) A wide aperture increases maximum flash range. It also increases effective fill-flash range by increasing the proportionate exposure from a flash and reducing the time during which ambient light is allowed in. A small aperture may be needed to prevent overexposure in close-ups due to a minimum output below which a flash cannot be reduced (indirect flash, which is inherently less efficient, can help in this situation). Many cameras can adjust the balance of flash and ambient lighting with "flash exposure compensation". A digital camera is best for complex flash setups because the results of instantaneous bursts of light are inherently non-intuitive, even though some studio flashes have "modeling lights" and some fancy portable flashes have modeling-light-like preview modes.
   
4. Test your lenses for optimal sharpness. All lenses are different and are better shot at different apertures for optimal performance. Get out and shoot something with lots of fine texture at different apertures and compare the shots to figure out how your lens behaves at various apertures. The object should be all essentially at "infinity" (30 feet or more with wide-angles to hundreds of feet with tele-lenses; a distant stand of trees is generally good) to avoid confusing defocus with aberrations. Here's some hints as to what to look for:
   
   • Nearly all lenses have lower contrast and are less sharp at their widest aperture, especially towards the corners of your image. This is especially true on point-and-shoot and cheaper lenses. Consequently, if you're going to have detail in the corners of your pictures that you want to keep sharp, then you'll want to use a smaller aperture. For flat subjects, f/8 is typically the sharpest aperture. For objects at varying distances a smaller aperture may be better for more depth of field.
     
   • Most lenses will have some noticeable amount of light fall-off wide open.good thing for many photographs, especially portraits; it draws attention towards the centre of the photograph, which is why many people add falloff in post. But it's still good to know what you're getting. Falloff is usually invisible after about f/8.
     Light fall-off is where the edges of the picture are slightly darker than the centre of the picture. This can be a
   • Zoom lenses can vary depending on how far in or out they are zoomed. Test for the above things at a few different zoom settings.
     
   • Diffraction makes almost every lens's images softer at f/16 and smaller apertures, and conspicuously softer at f/22 and smaller.
     
   • All of this is just something to think about for optimum clarity of a picture that already has as good a composition--including depth of field – as possible, and which will not be much more grossly marred by insufficient shutter speed causing camera-shake or subject blur or noise from excessive "sensitivity" (amplification).
     
   • Don't waste film investigating this – check your lenses on a digital camera, check reviews, and in a pinch assume expensive or prime (non-zoom) lenses are best at f/8, cheap simple ones such as kit lenses are best at f/11, and cheap exotic ones such as superwides or lenses with wide or tele adapters are best at f/16. (With an adapter lens on a point and shoot, stop down as much as possible, perhaps by using the camera's aperture-priority mode – look in its menus.)
     
   
   
5. Understand aperture-related special effects.
   
   • Bokeh, a Japanese word often used to refer to the appearance of out-of-focus areas, especially highlights because those appear as bright blobs. Much has been written about the details of those out-of-focus blobs, which are sometimes brighter in the middle and sometimes a little brighter at the edges, like donuts, or some combination of the two, but at least one author rarely notices it except in bokeh articles. Most importantly, out-of-focus blurs are:
     
     • Much larger and more diffuse at wider apertures.
       
     • Soft-edged at the widest aperture, due to the perfectly round hole (the edge of a lens, rather than an iris blade).
       
     • The shape of the diaphragm opening, when not at the widest aperture. This is most noticeable at wide apertures because they are large. This might be considered unattractive with a lens whose opening does not closely approximate a circle, such as a cheap lens with a five- or six-bladed diaphragm.
       
     • Sometimes half-moons rather than circular toward the sides of images at very wide apertures, probably due to one of the lens elements not being as huge as it would have to be to fully illuminate all parts of the image at that aperture, or weirdly extended due to "coma" at very wide apertures (which is pretty much only an issue when taking pictures of lights at night).
       
     • Prominently donut-like with mirror-type tele lenses, due to a central obstruction.
       
     
     
   • Diffraction spikes forming sunstars. Very bright highlights, such as light bulbs at night or small specular reflections of sunlight, will be surrounded by "diffraction spikes" making "sunstars" at small apertures (they are formed by increased diffraction at the points of the polygonal hole formed by the iris). These will either have the same number of points as your lens has aperture blades (if you have an even number of them), due to overlapping of opposite-sides' spikes, or twice as many (if you have an odd number of aperture blades). They are fainter and less noticeable with lenses with many, many aperture blades (generally odd lenses such as old Leicas).
     
   
   
6. Get out and shoot. Most importantly (in terms of aperture at least), Control your depth of field. It's as simple as this: a smaller aperture means more depth of field, a larger aperture means less. A larger aperture also means more background blur. Here's some examples:
   
   • Use a small aperture to force more depth of field.
     
   • Remember that depth of field becomes shallower the closer you get.If you're doing macro photography, for example, you might want to stop down far more than you would for a landscape. Insect photographers often go way down to f/16 or smaller, and have to nuke their subjects with lots of artificial lighting.
     
   • Use a large aperture to force a shallow depth of field. This is great for portraits (much better than the silly automatic portrait scene modes), for example; use the largest aperture you have, lock your focus on the eyes, recompose and you'll find the background is thrown out of focus and is, consequently, made less distracting.Remember that opening the aperture like this will cause faster shutter speeds to be chosen. In bright daylight, make sure you aren't causing your camera to max out its fastest shutter speed (typically 1/4000 on digital SLRs). Keep your ISO low to avoid this.
     
   
   
7. Shoot for special effects. If you're photographing lights at night, have adequate camera support, and want sunstars, use a small aperture. If you want large, perfectly rounded bokeh spots (albeit with some incomplete circles), use a wide-open aperture.
   
8. Shoot for fill-flash. Use a relatively large aperture and fast shutter speed if necessary to mix flash with daylight so the flash isn't overwhelmed.
   
9. Shoot for optimum technical image quality. If depth of field is not of primary importance (which would generally be the case when pretty much everything in the picture is relatively far from the lens and will be in focus anyway), the shutter speed will be high enough to avoid blur from camera shake and the ISO setting will be low enough to avoid severe noise or other quality loss (which would generally be the case in daytime), you don't need any aperture-related gimmicks, and any flash is powerful enough to balance with ambient light adequately, set the aperture that gives the best detail with the particular lens being used.
   
10. Once you've chosen the lens aperture, try making the most of it with aperture-priority mode.
    

Tips

• If careful aperture selection will be very important to your picture and you have an automated camera, aperture-priority mode or program-shift (scrolling through the combinations of apertures and shutter speeds automatically determined to give proper exposure) are convenient ways to set it.
  
• Sometimes you have to compromise your choice of aperture to allow an adequate shutter speed or acceptable film speed or "sensitivity" (amplification) setting, or just let your camera choose something for you to get the shot. Do it.
  
• There's plenty of wisdom embodied in the old saying: f/8 and don't be late. f/8 typically gives sufficient depth of field for most still subjects and it's where 35mm and digital SLR lenses are typically at their sharpest (or close to it). Don't be afraid to use it – or program mode (a good mode to leave your camera on for whatever might pop up) – for interesting subjects that won't necessarily stand still for you to adjust your camera.
  
• Softness from diffraction and, to a lesser extent, defocus (which can create odd patterns rather than softness alone) can sometimes be mitigated by processing such as the "unsharp mask" function in the GIMP and Photoshop. This will strengthen soft edges though it cannot create fine detail that was not captured, and creates harsh erroneous detail if overused.
  

Warnings

• Make "sunstars" with bright points of light not so bright as the sun.
  
  • Don't point a tele-lens, especially a very fast or long tele-lens, at the sun attempting to make "sunstars" or for any other reason. You may damage your eye, or the camera.
    
  • Don't point a cloth-shutter non-SLR camera, such as a Leica, toward the sun except perhaps briefly to take a picture handheld, and even then only with a small aperture set. You may burn a hole in the shutter, which would require a somewhat expensive repair.
    
  
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Choose a Lens Aperture (F Stop). All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

February's Classes

We have some exciting classes in February.

Feb. 5th - To blog or not to blog.

Feb. 15 or 16th - A Photoshop Elements (Photoshop) class on the dodge and burn tool.

Feb. 19th - A Creative Photography class with John Holtman.

To see our latest newsletter, click here.

To Blog or not to Blog? Hmmmm

I took an online class the other day called, "9 Businesses doing Blogging right and what you need to know". Presented By Michael Stelzner, Rick Calvert & Dave Cynkin.

Why Blog?

Well according to: Michael Stelzner, Rick Calvert & Dave Cynkin

• 51% of internet users read a blog at least monthly and over 60% by 2014 (Technorati)
• Companies that have a business blog attract 55% more website visitors than non-blogging companies (HubSpot)
• More than 43% of U.S. companies will marketvia a blog by 2012, up from 34% in 2010 (eMarketer)

Blogging should not only be about what your business is, but stories within your business - like behind the scenes, employee stories, etc, stories about your industry, or maybe something totally unrelated but it is important to you.

Mix up your content, invite others to speak, let your employees/coworkers add a voice to the blog, customers, suppliers, complimentary industries, well you get the picture. Collaborate with others.

What you may be trying to accomplish with this blog:

To become "the source" for people interested in what you do, the authority in your area of expertise, to create value while introducing readers to your products/services, build up your brand, to educate, discuss topics that are important to your area, to have fun - but most importantly to stay in contact.

Things that are important in a blog:

• The theme, The look/design, The name, The presentation, The idea.
• The Value it provides to the readers.
• CONTENT! CONTENT! CONTENT!
• Trust. Stay true to who you are.
  
• Keep your blog from turning into a sales message. Keep the sales/promotions subtle. Address the interests and needs of your audience, even if it has nothing to do with your product line.
  
• Invite others of expertise to write on your blog.
• Have a personal connection. Know your audience and relate to them on their level, talk about what interest them, use their language.
• Educate, Inform and keep in touch.
• Add a variety of content - videos, photos, links to others and more.
• User friendly. Make sure it is easy to share your site, your blogs. Make sure that it is easy to subscribe to.
• Make sure that there is information/history about you, or the business on the site somewhere.
• CONTACT INFORMATION. This is so important but people tend to forget it.
  
• Allow interaction. Let others have the ability to converse on your blog (post comments).

What if you are not a business? Why blog? Why not? Maybe you have a passion, a hobby, you are an authority on something and you just want to share it. One of the largest and growing areas in blogging is 'stay at home moms'. Blogging has created an outlet for them, a way to share what they do, what they know, their frustrations, their triumphs and more. And for some moms a pretty lucrative income. So blogging is not just for businesses.

So should your blog? Come to our class on blogging and find out if you even want to. Uh Oh, did I just do a faux pas and violate one of the rules by selling on my blog? Oh well, it is something I am passionate about and I feel is important to my customers. After all I am in the industry of educating others.....

Click here to find out more information about our upcoming class on blogging, February 5th.

Keep on learning.

First Attempt at a Contest

I decided to test the waters and see how much people were paying attention on the social media sites by having a contest. Apparently seven of them was paying attention.. Overall I didn't think that was too bad.

The contest was simple - tell us why you think you should learn Photoshop Elements.

The rules - even simpler - there was no rules.

Even the judging was simple. I sent it to 3 people and asked them to pick their favorite and the runner up. I tried getting people involved on Facebook by posting the submissions on there and asking people to choose one by pressing the like button, but that did not quite work the way I hoped it would. In fact it didn't work at all. Not one single 'like'.

So how did the test go? I would say it was like a 'dip-your-toe-in-the-water-and-check-the- temperature, type of test.' Hopefully the next one I can get them to wade in a little further, maybe put in all five toes:)

The winner? Here is a copy of what she submitted: I tried to learn this software in another life, but failed miserably. I did so well with your Lightroom class, that I know I will learn from this class. Winning this would allow me to make the drive to Anacortes for another great class. I would be happy to grovel, if it would help. Thanks for your consideration

Thanks to all who did participate. And thanks to our 3 judges.