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Our Focus - from your editors.
Welcome to our many new Images Newsletter subscribers, we hope you enjoy this rendition! Previous issues are here. Its been a busy time with 2 major lengthy trips on either side of the Holiday season so this is our first newsletter since last September.
We just returned home from travels in South America to the opening of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Oh my gosh where did all the Canadian flags come from? Our last trip highlights were visits to the primitive Embera village in the interior jungle of Panama, the bountiful wildlife of sea lions, penguins, boobies, pelicans and intense guana odors at Isla Ballastras ("the Galapagos of Peru) off Pisco, Peru and partying with dear friends in locals only Panama City and Lima, Peru venues.
Last Fall we visited Central America where we zip-lined in Costa Rica, toured Cartagena, Colombia (by our next door neighbour!), visited Florida's amazing Kennedy Space Center and biked funky Charleston, SC. Nonstop excitement and travel adventure for us is an understatement. We have been visiting places that should have been on our 'bucket list" and weren't.
Villagers in the jungles of Panama and Wildife in Islas Ballastras, Peru
Photography Classes & Workshops. David's digital photography March 2010 schedule of classes, camera workshops and public speaking engagements for the Vancouver, BC area have been posted here. Class locations are West Vancouver's Ferry Building Gallery (2 x evening sessions) and the Surrey Art Centre (Sunday full day sessions). All classes have been updated:
- Using Your Point & Shoot Digital Cameras
- Using your Digital SLR
- Editing Images
- Multimedia Slide Show Production/Sharing Images.
Each class will cover more details and with a more hands-on approach. Comprehensive handouts are supplied. Private tutoring available. More info and how to register: click here
Unable to attend the classes and workshops? Order our Digital & Travel Photography Explained Tutorial CD online here
Photography Tips See below for our Photography Tips on What to Ask Before Pressing the Shutter and 5 new features on SLR Cameras.
Where are we?
Thanks to the readers of our last newsletter who tried to guess where Anna and I were. We were on top of the Spanish San Felipe Castle in Cartagena, Colombia. Congrats to Carol Anne for researching our travel adventures and being the only one of many to guess correctly.
Now here is our new Guess Where We Are? contest. The first two Images Newsletter, Blog readers, Twitter or other social networking followers to email us with the correct answer wins a prize! The prizes are are either (your choice) a free registration to any of our upcoming Workshops or Classes or a free digital and travel photography explained tutorial CD with free shipping. Hint: we are on a Spanish speaking island.
... your editors: David & Anna Smith
You have received this newsletter as a subscriber or with with our belief that you wished to receive news of interest to photographers, travellers & dreamers, are known to us or have contacted us. If that is not the case please accept our apologies. To Unsubscribe click the unsubcribe link at the bottom of this newsletter and you will be automatically removed from all our email lists. Thank you. Our policy is NOT to share our email subscriber information with anyone. No exceptions. |
Ziplining in Costa Rica, Cartagena fruit seller and historic Spanish fort, and Charleston, SC.
New and Enthusiast Photographer Tips
5 Questions to Ask Before Pressing the Shutter:
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Why am I taking this photo? Is it for documentary purposes, to capture an emotion, to give to a friend or as part of a story or series of images? This will help you decide on number of images to capture, use of light and different points of view to use. -
What is the object of interest in the scene? The answer will help you with decisions on composition (rule of thirds, leading lines, angle of view), depth of field settings (aperture value, portrait/landscape icon or scene mode selection) and camera orientation (vertical, horizontal of angled) -
Should the flash be on or off? Often the camera makes the wrong flash use decision in automatic mode. To reduce face lines outdoors on a bright day or to correct for camera exposure errors due to back lighting force the flash on. To use natural light available in a darker scene force the flash off. Selecting party/slow sync/night portrait or equivalent settings improves low light photography. -
Do I want a sharp or blurred image? In a low light scene, you may have to increase your ISO setting to permit a faster shutter speed for a sharp photo. Stabilizing the camera (tripod, resting on something) may be required. Blurred photos (panning, spinning the camera, object motion can give an interesting creative effect -
What are my camera's image size settings? Be sure you image size and level of image compression/quality is set to meet your needs. Someone may have changed them on you - check those settings before you shoot!
New Digital SLR Camera Features
Before buying that new Digital SLR camera be sure to investigate these new DSLR features:
- Extended Dynamic Range Imagine you're taking a photo of someone wearing a white dress next to someone wearing a black jacket on a bright sunny day so there is a wide range of contrast from black to white. Digital cameras are not capable of capturing details in both the bright highlights and the dark shadows. Some new DSLRs have a feature called "extended dynamic range" — this limits the brightness of highlights or increases the brightness of shadows to create a more balanced image.
- Video Capture Video capture is a common feature on compact digital point and shoot cameras but not on SLR cameras. In 2008, Nikon broke this trend with the D90 - the first DSLR that could capture both stills and video. Now many other cameras are following suit. The video captured by these digital SLRs is High Definition designed to be played back on modern flatscreen televisions.
- Preview Mode/Live View is the feature that allows a digital cameas'selectronic display to be used as a viewfinder Most DSLR cameras still do not have this feature, as it is fundamentally incompatible with the swinging-mirror single-lens reflex (SLR) mechanism. Most Point and Shoot cameras with a second tiny lens have preview/live view mode. The first general-use interchangeable-lens DSLR with live view appeared in 2006. Not many models adopted this feature until after 2008. Cameras with this feature enable viewing of exposure information before taking the picture and make video capture easier.
- High ISO with Low Noise. Some DSLR (and Point and Shoot) cameras have substantially solved the high noise (shows as artifacts or speckling on enlargements) problem when a high ISO (typically over 400) is selected. Some new DSLR cameras permit ISO setting as high as 25,000 because of their camera software solutions to high noise.
Recommended Local and International Events
North Shore Challenge
A photo competition of all BC and Yukon camera clubs. March 6, 2010 in West Vancouver, BC. For more info go here
The Official ProShow User Conference & Training Event Become a ProShow expert at the2nd national ProShow Conference. From October 25-27, 2010 in Austin, Texas, you'll experience three full days of training, tips, and technique in a fun and interactive environment. Held in Austin, Texas you can choose from dozens of workshop-style classes, and mingle with hundreds of other ProShow users 
From our archives: Buy cards, matted, mounted, canvas or framed prints; or posters:
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We are available for camera club, private and small group training, workshops or custom tutoring. Need help in learning and using your digital camera. Organizing image work flow. Setting up studio lighting systems. Moving from amateur to pro Photographer. Stock Photography. Photoshop techniques. Producing multimedia slide shows. Photo planning for a trip. Help is at hand!! Contact | |
