SDuffyPhotography.blog

Photographing the Eiffel Tower

I spent seven days in Paris. Not nearly enough time to give you a comprehensive list of the best and worst locations for photos. However, based on what I did and saw, I’ll do my best to help you find some cool photo locations if you’re only going for a short time like I was… Some of the locations may be obvious, some may not be. Even so, I’m able to save you a little time if you’re ever in Paris with a camera.

In this article, I’ll try and give you some tips on shooting the most famous Paris location of them all: the Eiffel Tower.

Shooting from The Trocadéro

In my opinion, the best place from which to shoot the Eiffel Tower is across the Seine at The Trocadéro (pictured right). Unfortunately, the fountains were not on during our week in Paris but, had they been, I’m sure I would have enjoyed the shots even more. We shot the Eiffel Tower from here on a Monday, once in the noon/afternoon time frame and once in the evening. While the top level was full of kids, the levels closest to the fountains were fairly empty, allowing me to set up my tripod dead center without many people getting in the way. Some of my favorite Tower photos came from this location:

At night, before you cross back over the Pont d’Iena bridge, head down the steps toward the Seine for some cool night shots of the bridge and the Tower:

Shooting from Parc du Champs de Mars

The other side of the Eiffel Tower, in the Parc du Champs de Mars also presents some interesting photo opportunities… There are quite a few dirt and gravel paths on either side of the main grassy area, allowing you to shoot the Eiffel Tower with trees, lamp posts, flowers, and park benches in the foreground. The combinations of potential shots is limitless. One of my favorites from this area is below:

NOTE: Shooting from the Parc du Champs de Mars at night also has incredible possibilities. However, the paths can be dark and they feel “secluded”. As such, you may have undesirables or just plain old crazy people wandering through the area. We were confronted by one such aromatic fellow and it ultimately prevented me from getting some cool night shots from here. Beware.

From the Top, Looking Down

If you’re going to go all the way to the Eiffel Tower, you simply have to go to the top. The elevators stay open until 11:00 at night, and until midnight during the summer. It will cost you a few Euros and perhaps some time waiting in line, but it is well worth the wait. From the top level, you’ll be able to see the entire city, including the Trocadéro, Hotel National des Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, and even Notre Dame. Your best bet is to take a long lens. For most of my shots from the top of the tower, I used my 70-200mm lens. This helped me get in close enough to some of the other major landmarks for some decent aerial shots.

You will NOT be able to use your tripod inside the Tower but the good news is, the fence openings are wide enough that you should be able to easily stick your lens through them. I even managed to take advantage of my lens’ IS capability to get one three-shot panorama of the city:

Oh, How It Sparkles

Once an hour at night hundreds of tiny white lights on the Tower light up and sparkle brilliantly for ten minutes. This is definitely something to behold. Your best shot at photographing this, in my opinion, is to get up close, increase your ISO to 1600, decrease your shutter speed and snap. Since the lights are sparkling randomly very quickly, a long exposure is just going to make it look like all the lights are on at once. It might look cool to you but it just doesn’t look right to me. Example below:

See what I mean? Not bad, but it looks like the tower is “frosted”. Compare that to a handheld shot from up close at ISO 1600 and you get a much better look at the sparkling tower:

Of course, you can see the Eiffel Tower from all over the city which will give you a great opportunity to shoot it from anywhere. I found that, from a distance, the sparkling actually takes away from the tower, leaving it much too overexposed. But, give it a shot!

Also, at night, there is a large spotlight constantly circling at the top of the tower. To catch the spotlight in one place, you might want to try a shorter exposure. Or, you may be able to get a cool halo in a properly composed longer exposure. I was unable to get any good shots of the “halo” effect, but you can see the spotlight in the image below:

Stroll Down Avenue de la Bourdonnais

On the northeast side of the Parc du Champs de Mars is Avenue de la Bourdonnais. From this street, you can get some great shots of the Eiffel Tower over some old European-looking buildings. This was one of my favorite places as it gives you a perspective that you don’t often see in the gazillion photos of the Eiffel Tower that you’ve probably already seen. A couple examples below:

The Map

I’ve included an embedded map below with a marker on the locations I’ve described in this article.

View Larger Map

Also, feel free to browse my Eiffel Tower set on Flickr. Every single photo is geo-tagged so you will now exactly where I took the shot.

Conclusion

I hope I was able to give you some insight into photographing one of the most impressive structures ever to be caught on film. If you know of any other cool locations for shooting the Tower, I’d love to hear them!

Tags: eiffel-tower, france, paris, tips, travel

Paris Wrap-Up Part 1 - The Gear

Ah, if I had to do it all over again…

Now that I’ve processed all 6500+ images from our wonderful trip to Paris, I’m left contemplating what I would have done differently. Of course, seeing all of Paris in one week is a tough assignment but I think we did pretty well, overall. Even still, if I had to do it again, what would I do differently?

The gear

Below is a list of the gear I brought with me:

- Canon EOS 5D
- Canon EF 24-70mm, f/2.8L lens
- Canon EF 70-200mm, f/2.8L IS lens
- Canon Speedlite 580EX II
- Canon ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter
- Quantaray tripod
- Lowepro Toploader 75AW camera bag
- 2 camera batteries
- 1 8GB Compact Flash card
- (My girlfriend’s) Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi

Overall, I certainly don’t think I overpacked equipment. However, the equipment I used the least was the Speedlite, Speedlite transmitter and, believe it or not, the tripod. If I had to do this all over again, I would still bring the flash and the tripod… they helped me get some of my favorite shots, but I probably could have lived without them.

The gear I wish I had brought

There aren’t too many things that I wish I would have had with me. That being said, there are a few things that would have made somewhat of a difference:

- A Gorillapod - Some places may allow photography but do not allow tripods. The Notre Dame Cathedral is one such place. I managed to get some decent shots here but it is very dark inside and I ended up using an ISO of between 1600 and 3200 for almost all of my inside shots. Needless to say, any attempt I made at creating an HDR from inside the cathedral was useless. Even if you’re somewhere that allows tripods, carrying one with you all day is no picnic. The Gorillapod would have really helped. According to the manufacturer, it will support up to 6.6 pounds. My camera, with my 24-70mm lens weighs a bit more than that. Even so, I would have liked to try it out. It may have given me the extra stability in a small package that I was looking for.

- A flashlight - This is something I am planning on putting in camera bag for good. I can think of a few occasions where it would have been nice to have a little extra light on me. This would have come in particularly handy for some of the shots my girlfriend and I did together in the dark by the river. It was too dark for me to tell if I had here in focus when we were setting up the shot. As a result, we ended up having to take a few practice shots and hope that we got it. For example, I would have loved to have a flashlight while setting up the shot below:

- More storage - Do I need to explain this one? While the single 8GB CF card appeared to be enough for my shots day-to-day, another CF card would have come in handy. The storage I’m really talking about, however, would have been in the form of a portable external hard drive. My Mac Powerbook had about 70+GB free when I took it. By the last day, I had to keep 8GB of images on my CF card because the laptop had run out of space. One other thing… While I love Apple’s Aperture for image organization, I wouldn’t use it again while I’m trying to conserve space. It generates previews and thumbnails after you import images that end up taking up a lot of space in, and of, themselves. Next time, I’m just copying them to the drive and only using Aperture to edit/crop/resize one or two images at a time (for blogging, emailing home, etc).

- A different bag - I currently have two camera bags. One is a Quantaray Pro backpack and the other is the Lowepro 75AW Toploader. I love both of these bags but I’m not sure either would have been ideal for this trip. The backpack is great for carrying a lot of equipment and the Lowepro Toploader is great for generic photowalking. I need something in between. Preferably, a shoulder bag that carries a fair amount of equipment that I can access easily, without having to take it off, unzip, etc., etc. As a result, I’ve recently purchased the Lowepro Stealth Reporter D550 at a local camera store. So far, I like it a lot. A lot of room and easy access to my equipment. I’ll let you know how it works out in India when I leave next weekend.

That’s about it in terms of the gear I wish I had brought. Do you have anything that you always take in your “travel” photography bag? Let me know in the comments…

Also, stay tuned for the second part of the Paris wrap-up where I’ll talk about some of my favorite photography locations as well as a list of the places and things I wish I had been able to shoot.

Cheers!

Tags: bag, france, gear, paris, tips, travel, tripod

Take great photos with a point-and-shoot!

Ever since I started really taking my photography seriously, I’ve had countless friends and family come to me and complain that they’re incapable of taking good photographs because all they have is a simple point-and-shoot camera. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is many of today’s point-and-shoot cameras are perfectly capable of taking outstanding photographs. On the flip-side of this are people who do go out and drop a significant amount of money on a low-end DSLR but never take the camera off Auto shooting mode. And, yes, they still wonder why they end up with snapshots instead of photographs. I love helping people take their photography to the next level and I’m tired of sending them elsewhere. So, I’ve collected a few tips that may help you produce incredible images without spending a ton of money on a new camera.

I hope my experienced readers will bear with me for this post while I cover some of the basic basics. Remember… we were all there once, wondering “What does f/7 mean?” If nothing else, the next time a friend or family member compliments you by saying they could never take photos as good as you, you can say “Sure you can!” and point them here! It might get you out of being the family photographer for a little while!

Read the instruction manual

This may seem like common sense, but it isn’t, as I’m sure many of you know. I had my Canon Powershot for over a year before I opened the instruction manual. When I finally did, my photography improved almost immediately. That doesn’t mean you have to spend hours reading through pages and pages of technical jargon. It will literally take you only a few minutes. For example, the first time I opened my camera manual, I was sitting in a diner with a cup of coffee, my camera, and the manual. Within minutes, the camera made a lot more sense to me. I learned enough that I could start experimenting outside of Auto. I immediately went downtown and took a bunch of photos of the Vietnam Memorial that are still among my favorite shots.

But… since you’re probably not going to stop and open the instruction manual, I’ll point out some of the basics.

Aperture

The aperture is the hole through which light passes in the lens of a camera. In a camera, this opening can be adjusted. Its diameter is described by numbers like f/1.4, f/2.8, f/11.

All you really need to remember is this:
- The lower the number (f/1.8, f/2.8), the wider the opening. The wider the opening, the more light will enter the lens. In addition, your depth-of-field (the amount of your image that will be in focus) will be shallower. This means that, if you focus on one subject, the background will be more and more out of focus. Portraits are generally taken with a wide aperture to make the subject stand out.

- The higher the number (f/11, f/22), the narrower the opening. With a narrower opening, less light will enter the lens. Additionally, your depth-of-field will be deeper. This means that you will be more likely to get more of your image in focus. Landscapes are generally taken with a narrower aperture so that the entire landscape is in focus.

See the following illustration from Wikipedia:

Shutter speed

Shutter speed is exactly what you probably think it is. It describes how long the shutter will be open. Shutter speeds can range from 30 seconds or more (for dark, night shots), up to 1/4000 of a second or faster (for high-speed subjects and/or sports). And, again, just as with aperture, your shutter speed will determine how much light enters the lens. A faster shutter speed means that less light enters and vice versa with a slower shutter speed. As your shutter speeds decrease, though, you’ll start to introduce camera shake. No matter how steady you think your hands are, when you start dipping below shutter speeds of 1/20 of a second, you’ll notice considerable blur.

ISO

ISO is numerical description of how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light. The lower the ISO, the less sensitive your sensor is to light. As the number increases, your sensor becomes more and more sensitive. In point-and-shoot cameras, it’s often measured as 50, 100, 200, 400. DSLRs often can increase the ISO up to 6400. Using a higher ISO, will enable you to get faster shutter speeds in lower light. This helps if you don’t have a flash and/or a tripod. However, you should be warned that the higher the ISO, the more noise and grain will enter your photo. On a point-and-shoot, this can be considerable noise even at ISO400. See the two photos below for a comparison. Both were shot with a Powershot A520:

Click on each for a larger version…

 

As a rule of thumb, I only increase the ISO if it is necessary to increase my shutter speed. If I’m shooting a fast-moving scene, I might increase the ISO even if it’s a bright day. Why? Since the sensor will be more sensitive to light, the shutter speed will also increase. This will help freeze the action. Conversely, if I want a slower shutter speed (for night photos or to blur moving water), I’ll lower the ISO as far as I can to also force the shutter to slow down.

Camera modes

Most likely, your point-and-shoot camera has multiple shooting modes. These are often depicted by tiny images. I’m not going to cover these in this post. I’m only going to cover the ones that are denoted by letters. On my Canon Powershot, those are:

P
Av
Tv
M

P: Program Mode

Program Mode is similar to Full Auto Mode in that you let the camera decide what the aperture and shutter speed should be. You do have more control than Full Auto, though. In Program Mode, you can adjust the focus, light metering, and ISO. In Auto all of these things are chosen for you. Consider Program Mode to be one step away from Auto and it isn’t a bad choice for most snapshots.

Av: Aperture Priority Mode

In Aperture Priority Mode, you can still set the focus, metering, and ISO, but you now have control over the aperture. You set the aperture to what you think is best, and the camera will adjust the shutter speed accordingly. Since the aperture affects the focus of the camera more than anything else, many photographers spend a lot of time in Av Mode.

Tv: Shutter Priority Mode

In Shutter Priority Mode, again, you still control metering, focus, and ISO but this time, you control the shutter speed. Once you set the shutter speed you want, the camera will adjust the aperture appropriately. This is effective for shots where you know you need either a fast or slow shutter for a particular subject.

M: Manual mode

In Manual Mode, you have control of everything. You can manually set focus, metering, ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. This is particularly useful if you feel the camera isn’t making the best decision. This is extremely helpful in difficult lighting conditions where the camera isn’t metering the light the way you would like it. This allows you the most latitude to experiment with different settings.

Get a tripod

I can’t stress this enough. Seriously. If I could possibly narrow down the moment when my photography improved the most, it would be the moment I bought a tripod. You can buy a decent tripod in Best Buy for less than $20. And, in a hobby as expensive as photography, it will be the best $20 you could spend. Having a tripod will enable you to do long-exposure night shots. How many times have you, or people near you, taken shots of something, like a city or monument at night, on Full Auto? I see it all the time in DC. People stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at 10pm, aim at the Washington Monument and shoot. The flash goes off and they quickly inspect the LCD only to be disappointed. Those shots are not possible without a tripod and a multi-second exposure. The day I bought my tripod, I went downtown and spent three hours taking night shots of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. I still love those shots. Get a tripod. Tonight.

Lose the flash

Not completely. Obviously, there’s always a place for flash in photography. But try to use it less. I see so many people take photos where a slight change in aperture or ISO would completely remove the need for a flash. The flash on point-and-shoot cameras tends to suck color out of an image and “flatten” it. Try and take some shots without it. I bet you’ll like natural light better on many occasions.

Get up close and personal

This is probably my number one pet peeve. Let me describe a scenario… You want to have your photo taken with some family members or your significant other. Since you can’t necessarily bring your brand new tripod with you everywhere you go, you have no choice but to hand your camera over to someone else for the shot. You frame the shot, focus on the rest of your family, zoom in appropriately, hand the camera to someone else and tell them “You don’t have to adjust anything, just aim and shoot.” Then they’ll make some comment about how big your camera is and they’re afraid to touch anything because it looks so expensive. You assure them it will be OK and they immediately lose their fear, zoom back out, and take the shot.

Memo: You don’t have to get the entire body of everyone in the frame!

When you’re taking a photo of someone, try and get in a little closer. Get just their faces in the frame. Chances are, you’ll end up with a better portrait.

Get a new perspective

Most people take photos while they’re standing straight up and putting the camera up to their face. You could probably browse through your aunt or uncle’s photo albums for hours and not find a single photo taken from a different perspective. Try something new! Get down on the ground, put the camera on the floor, stand on top of something, put the camera behind a plant, tilt the camera at a weird angle… do something different!

Post-process your images

This is huge. Photography doesn’t stop after you put down the camera. Most photographers probably spend more time post-processing their images than they do actually taking the photos. That’s not to say you shouldn’t take your time and take the best photo possible, but you should spend at least as much time post-processing it. Go browse through Flickr and find the best photos you can find. I would bet my 5D that the original, out-of-the-camera image is not nearly as compelling as what you found.

I’m not suggesting you should go out and drop $650 for a copy of Photoshop. In fact, you don’t have to spend any money at all! I’m not talking about complex edits with layers and palettes. I’m talking just simple adjustments in sharpness, contrast, color saturation, and cropping that will dramatically improve your photos. There are numerous online photo editing sites that will allow you to edit your photos for free. Below is a list of just a few:

FotoFlexer
Picnik - This site is actually integrated with Flickr
Aviary
Photoshop Express

Don’t print your own images

Friend of the blog, Mike Palmer pointed out in the comments, that new photographers should not print their own photos:

“…the only thing that I would add for a novice to get great images is that they do not print at home - there is no color management. Most labs do the basic corrections for you. Most shot and print at home with an uncalibrated monitor, no icc profiles, cheap paper etc…”

You can get prints from a quality commercial printer like Mpix fairly cheaply. I would highly recommend it!

Conclusion

This, of course, isn’t the definitive source for everything you need to know to take great photos with your point-and-shoot… I still haven’t covered focus and metering modes, white balance, JPEG vs RAW, lighting, etc. But, if you learn and follow the few things I covered in this article, your photography will improve so much that you’ll want to learn more.

I hope this was helpful…

NOTE: All the photos featured in this post were taken by a point-and-shoot camera: the Canon Powershot A520, which is now a few years old. Your camera could probably do even better!

Tags: aperture, beginner, canon, editing, iso, point-and-shoot, shutter-speed, tips

Gallery Shows: What I Learned

As you are probably aware by now, I had my first gallery show on Friday night. Overall, it was a huge success and was an incredible experience for someone like me who has never had their work displayed publicly before…

But now that I’ve had some time to reflect on the opening night’s festivities, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the event… What I think I did right and would do again, as well as, things I wish I would have done or should have done differently…

Things I Wish I Had Done Differently

Mingle
This is my number one regret. I was really looking forward to meeting a few Flickr friends at the show. Unfortunately, between the packed gallery, the heat, and making sure I got to spend time with my friends and family, I really didn’t get to meet anyone at all. On top of that, I have a tendency to be shy. I’m hoping that the upcoming Emerge Exposed event will be a little less hectic and crowded so I can take the time to meet more of my fellow photographers.

Postcards
One of the photos on display at the show (moo by static-photo) was a photo of a cow’s nose sticking through a fence. It was definitely one of my favorites and, judging by the reaction of others, it was a favorite of many others. Toward the end of the show, though, static-photo placed what looked like small postcards of the image on top of the hanging photo. I didn’t get a chance to wade through the crowd to grab one but I can imagine that, on the back there could be contact information on how to buy more prints. What a great idea! Even though I had my business cards available on top of my frames, who knows if anyone would remember which photo they were associated with after going through a gallery of so many talented photographers? The postcard solves that problem. Anyone who picks one up will easily remember what photo compelled them to grab the postcard. Make sure you know whether or not you’re allowed to put something on top of the hanging photos… There may be rules prohibiting you from doing so.

Dress Appropriately
This little bit may be more specific to this particular show but worth mentioning all the same… This show was packed. The gallery itself was so full that it was difficult to move. And, of course, with a small room packed with people comes heat! It was pretty hot in there. So much so that, after about 15 or 20 minutes, I had to step out to cool down. I wanted to look nice so I wore a pair of khakis and a decent button-down shirt. If I had to do it over again, I would have worn (maybe) nice jeans, and a polo shirt. Hell, you could have had on a T-shirt and jeans and you wouldn’t have looked out of place. Keep that in mind if you ever show your work in a gallery… Hopefully, it will be as crowded as this one was and, if it is, you’ll be happy to left the sweater and jacket at home.

Things I Would Do Again

Preparation
What if your photo completely blows away the crowd? Are you ready to handle the increased interest in your work? I would highly recommend putting up some sort of website where people can buy your photos. I know most of you have blogs but are you ready to sell your work? Or, at the very least, have somewhere online specifically carved out for the prints that were on display at the show. I decided to set up a SmugMug Pro account, a Current Limited Editions page, and a post that was specifically scheduled to be published at 7pm Friday night to coincide with the start of the opening night’s reception.

Pricing
Again, this was not about the money. Sure, we all would love to make thousands of dollars off our work (work that has probably already cost some of us thousands of dollars), but this is about the exposure and sharing your work with the general public. If you sell a print or two, that’s wonderful! But going into this by only thinking of the potential financial reward is the wrong way to go. Having said that, based on the recommendations of my fellow photographers and event organizers, I priced both of my photos at $100. Being a new photographer who had never sold a photo before, at first I thought this seemed high. After all, it certainly wasn’t difficult! I love taking photos and take thousands of them for free! But, after I thought about it a bit, $100 seemed very reasonable. After all, I was offering something unique. And, while I didn’t spend a lot of time post-processing either of the pieces, I still spent the time to take each photo. For example, for the Air Force Memorial photo, I spent two hours in the middle of the night in the cold to get that shot. Plus, you have a special talent or eye that not everyone has. If you didn’t, your work wouldn’t be on display! How much is that worth? Think about it and don’t sell yourself short.

Limited Editions
Many people believe that the concept of “limited edition” prints is meaningless in the digital world. Perhaps. But, again, based on the recommendations of previous gallery photographers, I decided to run both of my prints in limited editions of 25. That means after I’ve sold 25 of them, I will no longer sell that print. Ever. I think this gives each print some added value to a potential buyer. I’m new to the art world myself, but I know I’d be willing to pay a little more for a nice photo if I knew I could have one of only 10 that ever existed. As to what constitutes a print, there is some discussion… Does a new crop or new post-processing make it a new print? What about a new size? Technically, I guess. But if I were to buy a limited edition print only to find out that the photographer simply re-cropped or added some post-processing and sold it again, I’d be a little put off. Decide what “limited” means for you and stick to it.

Business Cards
First and foremost, when you drop your prints off at the gallery to be hung, include a card with each one. This way, my card was hung up on the wall underneath my print and title card. That way anyone viewing the print can find out immediately where they can go to see more of my work. At the show itself, bring business cards! A lot of them! Before the show, I had a whole box of 100 Moo cards. Now, I only have about 20 left. What did I do with them? Well, I gave some out to people attending the show when they approached me about my photos. But I also left a small stack at the tiny table in the back for anyone to take. Finally, about halfway through the show, I saw someone leave a small stack on top of their framed, hanging print. I decided to follow suit. Since people couldn’t really take the one hanging on the wall, this gave them the option of taking a card home for themselves so they wouldn’t have to remember my website or write it down.

Bring The Camera
I debated back and forth with myself on whether or not to bring my camera to the show up until I actually walked out my door with it. I could go either way on this one as far as recommending it to others. On the one hand, you’re a photographer and this is a significant event! On the other hand, you will have to carry it all night and, if you’ve got gear like mine, that’s a 10 or 11 pound weight you have to lug around. If I had to do it again, I’d still bring it.

Thank the Organizers!
Last, but certainly not least, be sure to thank the people who organized the show! The show appeared to go off without a hitch… And I can’t imagine the amount of time and effort that went into planning something like this. So, from the bottom of your heart, thank the gallery organizers!

Here are a couple other related articles from the web:
Showing Your Photos in Art Galleries via Photopreneur
Your Photos in a Photo Gallery via Photocritic.org

Have any tips on showing your work in a gallery? Any other photographers from DCist Exposed wanna share their thoughts and experiences? Feel free to leave them in the comments!

Tags: dcist, exhibit, exposed, gallery, tips

(Photo)Blogging Tips: Part Two

As this site has grown and my subscriber count has gone up, I’ve been feeling a little pressure to keep coming up with decent content. Not only to attract new readers, but to give my current readers a reason to stick around. I’ve been thinking a lot more about the act of ‘blogging’ than I had originally planned. I’m not used to this new pressure since all of my past blogs combined wouldn’t add up to my current subscriber count. And I have to tell you, I kinda like it. It’s a good kind of stress because I know that it’s this pressure that is pushing me to improve my photography. So, I wanted to post a follow-up article to my recent post (Photo)Blogging Tips.

In that article, I talked a lot about the act of blogging: the content, organizing your site, networking and marketing your site, etc. But, to have a successful photo blog, you still need good content. I mean, you can just do nothing but post a photo of yours every day. There’s nothing wrong with that. I see plenty of good sites that do precisely that and I still subscribe because I love seeing new, compelling images every day. But if you want to build more interaction and you want to increase the chances that your blog will be linked to, shared, and discussed, you’re going to need good content. But how? Even though digital photography is somewhat of a niche, it’s a huge niche. There probably isn’t too much you can write that hasn’t been written already.

Given that, I thought I’d share a few of my own thoughts on how I come up with topics to blog about. I hope you find them useful:

Visit other blogs’ archives

I’m sure everyone has a few top photo blogs that they always go back to because they always end up learning something new when they visit. Well, take a look through their archives and look for topics that haven’t been discussed for a while. There’s no reason you can’t revisit the topic. Of course, your content must be original. Don’t steal content. Ever. Just use it to find some new topics. One of my most popular articles, Reading Histograms certainly isn’t anything new. There are definitely other articles that discuss it at great length. But this is something I hadn’t seen in a while and it was something I wanted to learn, so I wrote an article. And since it hadn’t been discussed for a while, it gets a fairly high Google rank when searching for related terms.

Read comments and forums

When you’re out browsing the web looking for ideas, be sure to take the time to read the comments in the articles you’re looking at. Often, especially on more popular sites, there will be plenty of comments from readers who might have follow-up questions. This is a great way to, not only find new ideas, but to include content that the original article left out. For example, in the histograms article I just mentioned, I didn’t cover color histograms. A reader, Niels Henriksen pointed this out and wrote some great info in the comments. That’s a new blog post waiting to happen!

Stop blogging for the cool kids

As a fairly new amateur photographer, I sometimes get discouraged because I read so many awesome blogs written by photographers that are light years ahead of me in terms of technical know-how and talent. I often find myself thinking. “What could I possibly write that Photographer Joe Smith would find interesting?” Probably not a whole lot. But that’s no reason to get discouraged. Keep in mind that, no matter how new you are to photography, the fact that you’re blogging about it probably means that most people who own a camera don’t know as much as you do about photography. Write for them! And if you’re trying to grow your blog, instead of going for that one link from some kickass professional photographer (which may be difficult and discouraging), why not go for 100 links from less advanced photographers? And, before you know it, while you’re still looking up to the photography masters, a lot of other people might start thinking you’re one of the photographers they want to emulate!

Dig out your manuals

I hate reading manuals. When I get a new toy, I want to begin playing immediately. However, there is some really good info in your camera’s manual. A typical DSLR camera will have a ton of functions and options. Most people, especially beginning photographers, quickly get into a comfort zone where they probably only use up to 50% of their camera’s capability. So, from time to time, browse through your camera’s manual again. It is chock full of topics that you can dive into and blog about. For example, when was the last time you used the AI or AI Servo focus modes on your camera? I hardly ever use them. Well, take some time, read about it again, take some shots and blog about it. What worked? What didn’t? Any tips on how to use it that go beyond the manual? Of course, this is valid for any piece of complex photo equipment. I have a Canon Speedlite 580EXII. I love it. Do I use all of the functionality it has? Not even close. With all the different modes and options in your photo equipment, there are at least two blog posts waiting for me in each of my manuals.

Get hyper-technical

Often times, we take a lot of things for granted. For example, we know what ISO is and how to use it… We know that the higher the ISO number, the more sensitive the camera sensor is to light, thus allowing us to preserve shutter speed in lower light situations. But do we really know what ISO is? Where did ISO come from and what does it stand for? How does it really work? Why is it measured as 100, 200, 400, 800 instead of 1,2,3,4? Why does noise increase when I increase the ISO? A great example of this came from Antoine over at All Day I Dream About Photography. Based on a question from one of his readers, Antoine explored the relationship between ISO value and an image’s file size. This is something I just took for granted and never really thought about until I read the article. The great thing about these articles is: even if you don’t feel like you’re a master photographer, it doesn’t matter. These types of articles only require a little bit of research.

How do you come up with new content? Got any tips? Feel free to share them in the comments…

Tags: blogging, iso, manuals, tips

Shooting Galleries

I’ve never been an art guy. Paintings and sculptures just don’t do it for me. I couldn’t tell you what ‘impressionism’ was if my life depended on it. However, yesterday morning, prior to meeting some friends downtown, I had the opportunity to walk through the National Gallery of Art. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would… Primarily because I had my camera with me. There are a suprising number of neat photo opportunities in an art gallery. If there is an art gallery in your town, I would highly recommend visiting it. A few things to keep in mind before you go…

Click on each photo for a larger version…

• Check the rules - If possible, visit the gallery’s website before you go and make sure they allow photography at all. The National Gallery of Art does allow photography, for the most part, but given the nature of what you’ll be viewing, many galleries may not allow cameras. Also, when you show up, be prepared for extra scrutiny if you’re carrying a DSLR with a nice lens. To many people not familiar with camera equipment, stuff like this can spell “professional”. They may wonder why a professional photographer would be coming to shoot the gallery and may assume he/she will be selling the photos. For obvious reasons, this can make many art galleries nervous.



• Follow the rules - Yesterday, the National Gallery was running a special exhibition called Bronze and Boxwood. As I entered the room, a security guard politely asked me not to take photos. I asked if it was flash photography that was prohibited and he said that one of the conditions of being able to display these particular pieces in the gallery was to not let them be photographed. Be prepared for these types of special rules within the gallery. If you’re not sure, ask one of the gallery staff. Don’t try to be slick and snap a photo when no one is looking. This will likely get you kicked out of the gallery. Even if it doesn’t, remember, you’re an artist and you expect people to respect your artwork so respect the artwork of others.
• Leave the flash at home - Some pieces of art, depending on age and material, may be damaged by harsh, bright light. As a result, even though the gallery may allow flash photography in general, many exhibits within the same gallery may strictly prohibit flash photography. You’re better off leaving the flash at home. I was able to take all of my photos yesterday with an ISO setting between 500 and 800 and aperture set to 2.8. You might also want to consider spot metering some of your shots given the large variances in light between a piece of art and the surrounding room. There’s another reason you’ll want to leave the flash at home, too. You’ll want to…



• Travel light! - Upon entering the gallery yesterday, I was told that I would have to carry my holster bag in my hand rather than slinging it over my shoulder. This is, of course, to make sure that you don’t accidentally knock things over. However, had my girlfriend not been with me, I would have had a really hard time shooting with my camera in one hand and my bag in the other. As for checking it in the coat room (if there is one), forget about it. First of all, you don’t want to do that because the gallery certainly isn’t going to be held responsible if your gear gets stolen or broken. Secondly, most coat rooms won’t even take a camera bag, given the perceived value of the equipment inside. So leave your bag in the car. You can also do what I did and bring your wonderful and beautiful girlfriend with you so she can put her purse in the empty bag and carry the bag with her. Yes, she reads this site, too. Thank you baby!

Now, go out and visit your local gallery! You’ll be glad you did!

You can see the rest of my gallery set here.

Tags: art, dc, gallery, national, tips, washington

Marketing: The Flickr Way

When I first started thinking about selling my photos online, I was considering using this blog and my SmugMug site as the focal points of my online marketing efforts. I figured Flickr would stay in the background because I couldn’t sell photos there and, unless I changed my settings, people could download them or “blog” them for free. Then I woke up. Flickr is the ultimate photographer’s network! How could Flickr not be used by the aspiring professional photographer?

So I started thinking of how I could use Flickr to market my own photography. After a year and a half of browsing through Flickr and uploading almost 3,000 photos, here are a few things I came up with…

NOTE: Some of these things I’ve done, others I have yet to do… Your mileage may vary.

JOIN Flickr!

This may seem like a no-brainer but, over the last few months of browsing photo blogs I’m astonished at how many new photographers don’t appear to have a Flickr account. I’m not saying it’s impossible to build a photo business without it, but when you can get an account for free and a pro account for only $25, why wouldn’t you? It’s arguably the best (and most engaging) way to get eyeballs on your work. All you need is a Yahoo! account. Go now.

Put some effort into your uploaded photos

Upload in the right order

Flickr allows you to change the layout of your main page. The layout I use can be seen below:

Click on image for larger version…

Let’s look at this a bit. There is one main image and a few sets that you can see as soon as you visit my page.

After the jump, tips on tagging, groups, cleaning up your stream, and being social!

More »

Tags: business, flickr, marketing, sell, tips

(Photo)Blogging Tips

I’m not really new to blogging… I’ve blogged for most of the last four years. But, I am new to actually trying to build an audience and making the blog into something that someone other than my mother would read. I started this blog about 2 weeks ago and, so far, I am up to 100 subscribers and about 400-500 visits per day. Yeah, I know it’s not going to break any records but I’m happy with it. It’s exceeded blogs I’ve had for years by a long shot.

In the meantime, I’ve learned quite a bit… I’ve also noticed that many people who appear to visit my site regularly also have blogs, so I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned over the past two weeks. Some of this you’ve undoubtedly heard on other blogs, some you probably haven’t. This is only based on my own blogging (and browsing) experience so if you have had different experiences, let me know in the comments!

The content

It’s about YOUR photos

This is a lesson I’m still learning. I’ve been focused so much on building this site and coming up with good content that, honestly, I’ve almost forgotten that this is a photoblog! I’m not saying you have to take photos everyday, but don’t forget that the most original content you can come up with is your photos. And, if you go through a stretch where you haven’t had a chance to come up with any new masterpieces, go through some of your old stuff that no one has seen. As you may have noticed, once a month I publish an article that “looks back” on photos I took a year ago. Flickr has an “archive” view so you can see your photos from any day in the past. Use it.

Write what you DON’T know

You might be thinking: “Huh? How am I supposed to do that?” Most blogging tips I’ve seen always say “write what you know” and that is certainly good advice. But, as someone who’s only been into photography for a little over a year, there really isn’t much that I know. At least not enough to fill a blog that people will keep coming back to. So, I decided that I wanted to use this blog, primarily, as a way for me to learn. So I started writing down the things I still needed to learn about photography… It’s quite a list! And I decided the best way for me to get good content AND grow personally, is for me to begin researching all of it. I’m a lazy person. I love to read but I hate reading dry photography books on techniques and rules. But this site gave me a reason. For example, when I started this site, I didn’t know how to read a histogram. I had an idea but I never bothered to sit down and learn it. So I dug into it a bit, learned how to do it, and wrote about it. That article is now one of my most popular posts with more external links to it than anything else I’ve written. Could it have been better? Sure. But that leaves me with the opportunity to write a follow-up article. If you don’t know something, chances are there are plenty of others that don’t know it either. Find out, teach them, and they’ll come back for more…

More »

Tags: blogging, tips

Photowalking Tips

On Wednesday, I mentioned that I would be participating in a photowalk in Bethesda, MD with some local photographers. I’ve gone photowalking plenty of times by myself but I’ve never actually gone on a group photowalk. So I started thinking about what I needed to know and bring before I went. I’ve decided to share a list of things to bring and know for your first photowalk. I hope you find it useful.

What To Bring

Your camera(s) - This is an obvious one but I also wanted to mention bringing, perhaps, a small point-and-shoot as well. Most point-and-shoot cameras can easily fit in your camera bag or pocket and you never know when having a second camera might come in handy.

A small camera bag - Again, pretty obvious but you definitely want to make sure you bring a bag that is easy to access. I have a great Quantaray backpack that, inevitably gets loaded with a ton of gear that I don’t necessarily need. I’d stuff five lenses, all my cleaning equipment, and just about anything else I could fit. Why? Because I could. At the end of the walk, though, I found that I rarely went into my bag at all. Consider getting a small shoulder or holster-style bag that will hold your camera, one general purpose lens, and a few accessories. You’ll be glad you did.

A video camera - You might be saying “Huh? A video camera? I thought you wanted us to travel light?” Well, I do. But, recently, I won a small Flip video camera in a employee photo contest where I work. It’s pretty neat. It easily fits into my pocket or into a small compartment in my holster bag, records up to 60 minutes of video, and makes uploading to the Internet insanely easy. It’s nice to have when you’re confronted by some private security guard who claims you can’t take photos of a particular building. More on that later… If you don’t want to buy a Flip video camera, you’re cell phone or point-and-shoot might also have video capability.

More »

Tags: feature, geotagging, gps, PhotoWalking, rights, tips

Reading Histograms

When I bought my first SLR (a Canon Digital Rebel XTi), I really didn’t understand anything about exposure. I simply took photos of things that I thought would look cool, I’d check the image on the LCD screen and, if it looked good, I moved on to my next shot. I knew enough to know that if the photo looked too bright, I needed less exposure (a smaller aperture, a faster shutter speed, or a lower ISO) or if the photo looked too dark I needed more exposure (a wider aperture, slower shutter speed, or higher ISO). But if the image on the LCD screen looked “good”, I figured there was nothing else I could do. Of course, this was a lot harder on very bright days. I would find myself trying to shade the screen as best as I could with my body or my hand, while squinting my eyes to look, ultimately getting frustrated at not being able to tell whether my shot had turned out like I had hoped. Finally, I’d get home, view the images on my computer and find out that part of the “good” image I thought I took was too underexposed or overexposed in one particular area that I didn’t notice when viewing it on the back of the camera. Now what?

I only had one of two options: Go back and re-shoot or try to fix the under/overexposure with software. It wasn’t often that I’d go and re-shoot because of one bad image (I tend to be lazy) so I’d start editing the photo. Often, this would work out OK but it bothered me that, as a new photographer, I was relying heavily on post-processing and not getting the image I wanted from the camera. What could I do?

This is where histograms come in.

More »

Tags: exposure, histogram, tips