Another day, another church. This church has a bit of a story. It is the only time when I got grief from people for taking photos. As always, I had parked the car and asked some people nearby if it was okay to take some photos of their beautiful church. They said yes so I set up my camera and tripod. By the time I was set up, they were already gone. As I started taking photos, two guys came up. I could smell beer on their breath and they wanted money for me taking photos of "their" church. Now, I was going to say something like "doesn't the church belong to God", but I bit my tongue and let them know I had asked permission. Undaunted, they said I was going to make a lot of money selling photos of the church. So, I did what every self respecting photographer would do. I told them I wasn't going to pay them money (I don't lie and say I don't have any) but would delete the photos. I pressed a couple of buttons on the back of my camera and showed them a blank screen saying the photos were deleted. Got back in my car and drove away, with the photos still intact. Just goes to show it ain't hard to fool a drunk. So, today I post the church photo that was the 1st time someone tried to extort money from me.
P.S. 99.9999% of the people here are the friendliest people I have ever met. Most are very happy that you want to photograph their beautiful souroundings. Treat people with respect and almost always you get the respect back. But as in any place in the world, there are assholes out there. Don't let that discourage you.
You don't need a telescope to take photos of the moon, although a long lens helps. This photo was taken with my camera and my 100-400mm canon lens at 400mm. When shooting the moon, I always remember "moonie 11". What this means is a good starting point is 1/Iso at f11. So, If I am shooting at ISO 100 at f11, my shutter speed would be 1/125th at f11 (remember your camera won't have 1/100th so you need to go 1/135th). That will give you a good target. Check you histogram for blown out highlights. Remember, a lot of the viewfinder will be black, so expect your histogram to be bunched up to the left side. What you want is to make sure you don't have any of the histogram touching the right side. If you don't have a histogram, then start at 1/125th and then bracket to make sure. This is one of my favorite shots of a full moon in American Samoa. I am impressed with the detail you can get with just a camera and a long lens. No telescope here.
Well, I can't believe 2008 is almost over and tomorrow is December. I now start my one month of not drinking any alcohol, which I do every year. Normally, I wouldn't pick December as it is a time of Christmas parties etc., but I haven't gone a full month without drinking so it has to be December. I started this a while back and usually pick February (guess why - shortest month).
This is a photo of one of the many streams in American Samoa. Taken with an exposure of 2 seconds. There are a lot of streams here, although lately I haven't been venturing out into the woods due to a dengue outbreak that is going on here. I have gotten Malaria and one type of Dengue, but there are four different types of dengue which means you can get it more than once. I'm not keen on getting a bad case here, as the hospital is less than desired.
Well, I'm sitting here looking out the window and it is pouring down rain. For the past couple years, I have tried to go out after thanksgiving dinner and take a sunset photo. This photo was taken the prior year. That little white speck at the top is actually the moon. Since I was using a wide angle lens, the moon will look very small. If you want to make the moon/sun big, you need to use a long lens. I will be putting the turkey in the oven soon (I cook the thanksgiving dinner every year) and then we will just have to see if the weather improves.
The one thing about this photo I wish I would have done was throw some flash on the foreground (coconut trees etc) to make them pop a little more.
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).
I'm not normally into black and white photography, but some photos lend themselves well to black and white. This photo of American Samoans performing is a good example. There was a lot of color cast from different lights that made it difficult to get an effective white balance. So, I decided to make this a black and white photo. Now although some cameras have a black and white mode (digital cameras), I prefer to shoot normal. Since I use Raw, I know I have all the information I need to keep the color file, or convert to black and white. Since I use photoshop, I converted this image in photoshop. Now, I have been considering getting a lensbaby (www.lensbaby.com) to get some selective focus. These lens allow you to get a unique selective focus. The use of selective focus allows you to get focus attention on your focal point and blur distracting elements. But I already had purchased a suite of photoshop plug-ins from onone software. This included focal point, which simulates the effects you get from a lensbaby. I used this in the photo to attempt to draw attention to the subjects. I like the effects I get with this and will have to play with it more.
Samoans are great performers and I never get tired of watching them perform. This was a great evening and a couple of photos to add to my collection. It was dark and I had to shoot at ISO1600, even though I was shooting at f2.8. I was using a sigma 70-200 lens. The lens is good (the only non canon lens I own) but has a hard time focusing in low light. Also, wide open the quality diminishes after about 135mm. But it was half the price of the canon 70-200. But if I had the same choice, I would save up for the canon lens next time.
