Photography Boat Trip Pictures

Following on from my recent post about taking our friends Jim and Mary on a trip down the River Dee on my boat ‘Moonshadow’. Jim has sent me a couple of his photographs from the trip taken with his Lumix LX3.

I think he’s done a great job – especially considering he had never been on a yacht before and was just finding his sea-legs. I’ve posted the two original pictures below together with my slightly edited versions and a few tips that should help on future boat trips.

Photograph 1
‘Moonshadow’ was creaming along at almost 8 knots when Jim took this picture of the seaward side of Little Ross Island. That is not the ideal time for photographers –  the boat was heeling over at an angle of some 20 degrees. But Jim has coped well – and managed to hang on without falling overboard.

In the ever-so-slightly edited image below (N02), I have simply straightened the hotizon a little and used the dodge and burn tools to add a little emphasis to the clouds. The seagulls has added to the fresh feel of this bright image.

I also like the way the white lighthouse stands out so clearly against that dark sky.

Photograph 3
This photograph was taken as we returned to Kirkcudbright harbour. The light was fabulous and I could tell that Jim had noticed just how it animated the view as we approached towards the marina and the town. So I slowed the boat right down so that he could take pictures.

I found the composition just a tad uncomfortable because there is too much foreground here that’s not doing a lot. It’s empty. But just look at that sky – it’s full of interest.

So I think Jim should have cut out a lot of the foreground and included more sky. Again, just a little straightening and a touch with the dodge and burn tools has given a professional finish to the image. Se photograph 4 below.

I do notice that the white boats on the left of the image are a little over-exposed and burnt out. I’m not sure which exposure mode Jim was using, but I suspect it was fully auto. If so, I reckon the meter has been fooled by the dark hillsides and clouds into over exposing.

Had Jim opted for Aperture Priority Exposure Mode, he could have used the Exposure Compensation setting to under expose by one or perhaps two thirds of a stop. This would have corrected this problem. He could then a lightened the darker areas with the dodge tool in Photoshop.

If you would like to improve your photography – find out more about Photography Holidays and Photography Courses with Philip Dunn

New Canon EOS 60D Camera

As reported in my Photography News section, Canon have now launched the new EOS 60D camera body.

This is now available in the PhotoActive Camera Shop

Latest features include:

Of all this – I can’t help thinking that the best thing Canon have done is to include that moveable LCD screen to enable live-view shooting from almost any camera angle.

… and when you’ve bought your lovely new Canon 60D, find out how to use it to best effect on a Photography Holiday or Photography Course with Philip Dunn

Photography boat trip down river

We went out on my boat for a short trip down river the other day. Anyone who’s been on a photography course here in Kirkcudbright will know just how beautiful it is down there – especially on a lovely, sunny day.

We left on the early rising tide and pottered gently down the River Dee, whose muddy banks were still glistening and exposed in the bright sunshine before the rising tide covered them.

We took along Jim and Mary, two good friends and both keen bird watchers. They had never been on a yacht before, so I had the added pleasure of seeing their faces light up as they saw the river from a very different perspective.

Jim is also a keen photographer and he took along his little Lumix camera and snapped away at the herons, lapwings, curlews and other waders as we glided slowly towards Kirkcudbright Bay, where we anchored for a pleasant lunch off the beach at Balmangan. At one stage, Mary spotted a porpoise, but it was just a fleeting glimpse and too far away for Jim to get a photograph.

Conditions were just perfect for a first-timers’ trip on a yacht, and after lunch we stood out through Ross Sound and, in a good stiff breeze of wind, gybed around the lighthouse island of Little Ross before creaming back up across the bay and back to our berth in Kirkcudbright.

I look forward to seeing Jim’s photographs – but then he keeps threatening me with a showing of his 700 images from their recent trip to Canada.

Perhaps I’d better not ask.

I wonder how many photographers out there might be interested in a photography trip down river?

Find out more about Photography Courses and Photography Holidays with Philip Dunn

How to Photograph Rainbows

There are lots of photographic subjects that can catch you by surprise – and a rainbow is one of them.

HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH RAINBOWS
Rainbows can be fairly predictable in certain lighting and weather conditions – but simply capturing a picture of a rainbow is rarely enough to make a striking image. To become a worthwhile picture the rainbow has to be photographed in the right place at the right time – so there is definitely an element of luck involved.

For the competent landscape photographer this ‘luck’ is better described as informed guesswork.

Typically, a landscape photographer wanting to photograph rainbows over a particular scene might keep a very careful eye on the weather forecast, and time the photography to coincide with the passing of a cold front which is likely to bring crisp clear air and short, sharp showers of rain.

The position of the sun – the light source – is crucial to success. Frontlight is best. The sun must be behind the camera. This part of the exercise is easy to predict. Using Frontlight also has the advantage of removing the shadows from the subject and this will appear to enhance the colours within it.

In these conditions all that is needed is for nature to send a shower of rain directly over your scene. The sun will do the rest and a form a rainbow. The brighter the sun and heavier the shower of rain the better and more colourful the rainbow.

Exposures for rainbows are fairly straightforward. Provided there is nothing glaringly white within the scene that might fool the exposure meter into giving a reading that will seriously under expose the image, I simply point the camera at the scene and take a light reading. However, I always under expose by at least 1/3rd of a stop in order to give more saturated colours. Over exposure will give washed out colours.

The picture above was taken in Laxey Bay on the Isle of Man. Conditions were ideal for rainbows, but until the little boat came along I did not bother to take any pictures.

PHOTO TIPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING RAINBOWS

• Rainbows are common after the passage of a weather cold front
• Short, sharp showers and a low, bright sun create ideal conditions
• Place the sun behind the camera – Frontlight
• Do not over expose

You can learn how to use light more effectively on a Photography Course or Photography Holiday with Philip Dunn. Philip’s instructional DVD ‘Light & Composition’ will also give you essential guidance

Out-of-context Feature Photographs

Here is another successful newspaper photograph of one of those charming people I so much enjoy photographing.

Once again, this gentleman was photographed for The Independent newspaper – or it might have been The Times –  and once again it was taken a long time ago  so I cannot remember exactly what the story was about.

I do remember that he was a Druid Bard – probably a very important bard – and I think he might have won fame for his poetry – that maybe why I photographed him reading a large book. Perhaps if the gentleman sees this he would like to contact me and refresh my memory and I would be delighted to email him a copy of the image.

One of the things that really delighted me when I went along to photograph him was the fact that here was a very exceptional individual who wore clothes that would certainly make him stand out in any crowd – yet he lived in house that had to be the epitome suburbia.

I do remember it was a very hot summer’s day and that I decided to take his picture in his immaculate garden which was complete with flower borders and a neat vegetable plot. The fact that I could include the row of neat houses in the background added to the picture’s appeal.

By taking his photograph in this garden, I was able to place an unusual-looking robed figure in a perfectly normal everyday situation. His robed figure looked completely out of context – and that is often a winning formula for a successful newspaper feature photograph.

Of course – no set of photographs for a newspaper feature would be complete without making sure that there was at least one good close-up image of the subject. This was taken, but not used.

• Nikon F3
• Ilford FP4
• Nikkor 24mm f2 lens

If you would like to know how to take newspaper and magazine photographs that SELL – find out more about Philip Dunn’s Photography Courses & Photography Holidays

Photographic Assignment – the electric harp

I’ve been delving into my huge photo archive again – and found this little gem of a feature story. Yes, I know the image needs a good cleaning up and I’ll get round to it sometime – but that picture has sold many times – it has a right to be a bit tired and spotty.

I’ve always taken great delight in photographing eccentrics. These are special people, often highly talented and very creative; they just seem to be out-of-step with the rest of the world.

When they can be persuaded to have their picture taken, the possibilities for gently humorous photographs is always there. Way back in 1986 I was sent by the then newly-launched Independent Newspaper to photograph a Welsh gentleman who had invented an electric harp that could be powered by a car battery.

I think – it is going back a long time, so I hope he will forgive me if I’m wrong – his wife objected to the noise of his constant harp playing (perhaps he was just harping on too much – sorry) in the house. He decided to power his electric harp from the car battery so that he could take to the hills with his harp and play without upsetting anyone.

The picture did not need to have any gimmicks or special treatment – just recording on film what the subject did was quite enough to tell the story and produce a happy, amusing picture.

After driving round to find a suitable photo location, we set up his harp and attached it with electric leads to the car battery. It was far more illustrative to use a battery actually in a car than just a separate battery.

I used a 180mm telephoto lens in order to foreshorten the background and make the distant Welsh hills appear bigger – and with everything set up I just asked my subject to play his harp.

This produced the perfect positioning and facial expression.

Of course, I also photographed my subject in his workshop (see lower photograph), where the light was beautiful and, after a little tidying up, the background was particularly photogenic. But is was the outside image that was used across a whole page in The Independent. That’s because it told the whole story in one photograph – that is the essence of newspaper photography.

If you would like to know more about how to produce photographs that sell to magazines and newspapers – join Philip Dunn for a Photography Course

How to Photograph Smoke

Here’s an interesting photographic project to keep your shutter fingers working on the rainy days we seem to be suffering right now. Learn how to photograph smoke. It was an exercise I set up with a student during a photography course recently while the wind blew and the rain lashed down outside.

You do not need a well-equipped photography studio – everything can be set up on the kitchen table. You will need a flash which can be fired off camera – ideally two flash units, but you can easily make do with one flash and a white reflector.

If you’ve ever observed the extraordinary shapes and movement created by a smoking joss-stick, you’ll realise very quickly that these wonderful shapes can be captured very easily on camera to create very striking abstract images.

There’s certainly an element of luck involved to get a perfect photograph of smoke – but you can do a great deal to weigh the odds of success in your favour. What’s more, the resulting images are ideal for manipulating in Photoshop afterwards – and there is virtually no limit to the ways you can interpret your images. You might, for instance invert the colours or change the colours using the colour adjustment tools. Almost anything goes in order to create some really punchy pictures.

What you need to photograph smoke

• A joss stick or scented cone
• A dark background
• A room without too many draughts

How to photograph smoke

• Set the camera on a tripod
• Set Manual Exposure Mode
• Set Manual Focusing Mode
• Set a low ISO for the best quality image
• Set the White Balance (WB) to Flash
• Set the maximum shutter speed for your camera’s flash synchronisation
• Set an aperture of around f/8 or f/16 for good Depth of Field

Connect the flash to the camera with either a synch cable or remote control. Position the flash to one side and slightly behind the subject smoke. If you are using two flash heads, position one at either side and slightly behind the subject smoke. If you are using one flash and a reflector, ensure that the reflector is positioned on the opposite side to the flash gun

Arrange your composition and focus manually on the smoke. There is no need to look though the viewfinder from now on because nothing sill change except the smoke. So relax and watch the smoke with your finger on the shutter button.

Time your shots for the moment when the smoke makes an interesting shape and press the button. Take lots of pictures. Experiment by adjusting the power and position of the flash.

PHOTO TIPS

• Use a non-draughty room
• If your smoke simply climbs up in a simple straight line, try gently blowing the smoke to encourage it to make different shapes
• Try to reduce ambient light by cloing curtains
• Turn off an anti-vibration functions when using a tripod

Find out more about Photography Tuition with Philip Dunn

PhotoActive Website

My apologies to everyone who experienced problems with the PhotoActive website this morning. We got a spanner in the works somewhere and the home page went haywire.

All is now fixed, thank goodness.

My thanks to our web hosts Web Hosting UK for the instant technical help.

The guys at Web Hosting UK are really tremendous – not only are they on the ball and knowledgeable but always ready to help.

Thanks fellas

Photography Workshop Oct 22-24th FULLY BOOKED

The Photography Workshop October 22-24th is now fully booked.

I’m sorry if you were wanting to come. However, there are still some places on the Photography Workshop the following week October 29-31st.

These weekend photography courses prove very popular and if you have been along to any of them you will understand why. I’m afraid, though, I only get the opportunity to run a few courses each year.

You will stay in a lovely hotel in the beautiful harbour town of Kirkcudbright in SW Scotland, ALL your meals, coffees, teas, accommodation are included – even a welcome drink of your choice. Of course, the tuition is provided by me and there is a lot of it. We get out to work together with our cameras and there are talks and tutorials over the weekend in the hotel’s conference room. The FULLY INCLUSIVE price is just £395 until the end of the year.

Photographers of just about every possible level have benefited from these photography workshops.

So – don’t miss your chance to learn the art of good photography while having a wonderful weekend.

Joan Johnson wrote about her weekend:
It is just over a week since I returned home from the fantastic weekend that I spent in Kirkcudbright. And the monkeys persists! [This is a reference to a simple, but highly effective teaching method I use] Thank you for causing me to have to abandon the Sunday papers to rush onto the beach and down to the harbour to catch the light of sunset. I just knew that the angle would be right – and oh those silhouettes! I learned so much in that one weekend; learning is so much easier when it is fun and in the company of a great group of folk!

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS

BOOK A PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP NOW

Getting the right camera position

Photographers can adopt some very odd stances in order to get the shots they want. Sometimes, of course, it really is necessary to adopt the most bizarre contortions if you need to get the camera in a particular position – flat on the ground, or leaning over the edge of a building, for instance.

During my photography coaching I try generally to discourage any stance that will lead to camera shake – standing on one leg is quite common. It’s always best if you can keep both feet firmly on the ground.

Another fault I do try to correct is the position where the photographer’s head is leaning over at an angle. This usually comes about when the photographer is in a comfortable position and decides to lean over to one side to take the picture. The result is a cockeyed horizon because it is virtually impossible to judge when the camera is level if you lean over and look through the viewfinder from an angle.

Anyone who has reads this blog regularly will know of my distaste for cockeyed horizons. See ‘Level Horizons in Photographs’

The picture above also answers the question I am often asked – “What do you do if it rains when I come on a photography course?” – Yes, sometimes we might get wet.

TIP
It helps to keep your head upright behind the camera if you want to get your horizons or verticals straight and level

I have posted here a couple of photographs of former students who have adopted picture-taking stances that actually did work very well – even if they do look a little odd. Who cares if they work? – and anything that encourages my students to enjoy themselves is welcomed.

Find out more about Photography Courses with Philip Dunn

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