Family Time

Family is so important when you live on a small island. They help keep you sane.

Someone once asked my what are the must have accessories for your camera. It really comes down to what types of photos you are planning on shooting. It really depends on what type of photography you are into and opinions vary. For me, I could not live without a circular polarizer, a tripod and a flash (not the pop up flash that comes with your camera and some way to get your flash off of your camera.

The kids got a new skimboard and wanted to try it out. Of course I wanted to get some photos and of course the sun was bright which made it horrible for taking photos. The solution, flash. Now a lot of people don't even think of using flash on a sunny day, but it can make a big difference. In this case, I wanted to make the background not so bright. So with my canon camera on aperture mode, I dialed in -2 stops of exposure compensation. For the canon, this meant pressing the shutter half way then rotate the dial on your camera counterclockwise. You will see the needle (if you are looking in your view finder) move as you turn the dial. What this means is that your exposure will now be underexposed by two stops. But, I wanted my son to be lighted properly. So I dialed in +2 for my flash exposure compensation (check the manual for your camera on how to do this). So, this meant I had an underexposed background and a properly lit photo (where the flash hit -in this case pointed at my son). I used a shoe cord to get the flash off camera. I often will use this and I just hold the flash in my left hand and the camera in my right hand. If I have a heavier lens, I will use a monopod instead of handholding. By still having my flash attached to my camera, I was able to use high speed synch (again check your camera manual). Basically, your camera will only synch to your flash up to 1/125th or 1/250th of a second. If you go above that, your flash can't keep up (detailed explanations if you want - just google). But, some cameras allow you to go above that by using High Speed Synch. Now, if you remember a good rule, called sunny 16, your exposure on a sunny day would be 1/iso at f16. Since I'm using ISO 100, my shutter speed would be 1/125th (cameras don't have 1/100th) at f16. But I don't want that high of an aperture, so the more I open up (in this case f5.6) the faster the shutter speed. I also wanted to make the background darker (which meant a faster shutter speed also). So high speed synch was essential. You just got to remember your little flash is doing a lot of work, so closer is better. I probably didn't explain well. Strobist has a good article on this so check it out (he explains much better). If you just want to try something new, do this:

1. exposure compensation negative (pick your number)

2. flash exposure positive (same number)

3. flash set for high speed synch

4. fire away.

AND, don't forget to change your settings back because if you don't, you may wonder why all your photos are underexposed the next time you go to shoot (been there, done that).