Fun in the Sun

When you have a beautiful day, there is nothing better then going out and spending some time walking along the river. When you go out on a leisurely activity like this, it is a great time to to take your camera along to take pictures. Even if you have taken pictures in an area, it is nice to take pictures in that area again, because nature is always changing. Even if you go to a city park there are still plenty of places that can be photographed including trees, birds and other wildlife. So with the nice weather, grab your camera and take some pictures as you go out on your walks and enjoy the weather and scenes that surround you.

Here are some pictures that I took today along another portion of the Gallatin River at Cameron Bridge, further north, away from the canyon where the previous pictures were taken.

Any suggestions for future posts, please place them in the comments below and I will be happy to try to work them in as we continue down the road of photography.

So remember, grab your camera, go out and take some great pictures and build those memories. And please remember to always be safe in all your activities.

Ghost Towns

When you are trying to think of something to do, one suggestion would be look online and see if there is any ghost towns near you. This summer one of my plans is to try to go to and shoot as many as I can, and share them with you. Today is the first one. This one is located about 45 min outside of Bozeman, MT called Maudlow. Unfortunately there is not a lot left of this town that was abandoned after the Milwaukee Railroad left in 1980. Even in the case of Maudlow that has been taken over privately and slowly dismantled you can still get some nice pictures, and these are what may one day be all that remains of this historic site. Another thing that you can do once you get these pictures is look and see if there are any historical sites where people share pictures that have been taken and share them. This way others will be able to share in the history and it may physically one day be gone but will still be available for people to view through images for generations to come.

Now here are some pictures that I have taken today of Maudlow. The first two are right next to the town but the rest are in what remains of the town.

Don't forget to grab your cameras, go out and take some pictures, and record history while you are at it.

Importance of White Balance

Lets start things off with a nice picture of the river then we will get in to some interesting things of an educational nature and end with fun images again.

In most of the more simple cameras available, and the dSLRs available when shot in auto mode, one thing that never comes to mind is the importance of white balance. But if you move over to shoot manually, or for some reason your pictures just don't look right, you will need to set your white balance your self. Now when I say this, I mean to one of the programed preset white balanced settings because I have not as of yet figured out how to manually set the white balance otherwise. When I was in broadcasting I could do it on the TV production cameras with ease. This chart is a list of the pre-programed setting's symbols and what they stand for.

I have found selecting the correct preset works just fine. On the 2 images below you will see one that is taken with the white balance set to indoor tungsten light. This is standard indoor lights, nothing fancy or special. You will notice how the picture has a blue tinge to it. The 2nd picture is set with the correct setting of cloudy, as the sky today was indeed cloudy, giving the picture better and more realistic colors.

The color change in the picture has to do with light temperature and how the camera reads the light and focuses the different light waves. We could go on about this for a long time.

Here is a few more pictures from along the Gallatin River today for your enjoyment.

So grab your camera, make sure your white balance is correct, and take those pictures.
If you have ideas or suggestions of topics or things you would like to see please leave them in the comments and I'll see what I can do to work some in over time.

Birds in Nature

Today I went out to a place that is designed as a wetlands environment that brings a variety of birds which can be a lot of fun to shoot. The trick to photographing birds is to move slowly and quietly so you don't startle them causing them to fly. Included in today's post are some pictures from today's excursion, including a couple of birds that I got pictures of. Another thing to keep in mind if your birds are not being cooperative and sitting still like mine were you will need a faster shutter speed to get good pictures of them. I will have to some of those pictures in the future.

Another tip when shooting around water, glass or other smooth shiny surfaces is to use a polarizing filter on your lens. Like polarized sunglasses, these filters reduce the glare on surfaces allowing you to take better pictures without the glare. These can be purchased at any camera store. Here in Bozeman I like to go to Bozeman Camera and Repair for any of the filters or other supplies and goodies I "need". If you look online you should be able to easily find a local camera shop near you.

So go out and have fun and try photographing some birds. Its great fun. Get some great photos and have a great day.

Another Photography Option

Sometimes when you go out, taking your regular camera along is not always practical. When times like this occur never worry, you still most likely have a camera with you, your phone. With today's smartphones, the cameras in them are getting better and better making it so that you can use them to take pictures of things when you are out and about and still preserve memories of life events that happen to you. An example of this was last night for me when I had the opportunity to go to the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Soul2Soul Tour. Included with today's post are some images from the concert last night. As you can see, for a cell phone, these are not bad photos.

So grab your camera, cellphone, or whatever you have available that takes pictures and takes those pictures. Remember, do it safely and have fun while you do.

Tethered Shooting

Another way  to take pictures is by remote shooting, but I don't mean by shutter remote control. I am talking about tethered shooting. This is where you have your camera hooked to your computer and your computer is used to control all aspects of your camera for photo taking. With the fact that I use a desktop computer for my photography I am limited to indoor use for this, but if you have have a laptop, and the battery is charged, you can do this any where. When you are doing tethered shooting it gives you an opportunity to setup your camera and monitor it from your computer to take the pictures allowing you to not disturb the target area you are shooting.

This can be setup in 2 ways. With some of the newer cameras they have a wireless setup that can link direct to your computer or you can use the more traditional method using a tether cable linking the camera directly to the computer. Both methods work great, but the wireless methods have the benefit of providing possible longer distance and no cords to trip over.

I use this method at home for photographing the bird feeder and catching the different birds that show up. This is also helpful for a large multi family portrait session so you can shoot straight to the computer and transfer to CD for the families to take along.

So if you have an opportunity to try this method it can be fun if you have a target to be shooting that movement can disturb.

So head out have fun and take great pictures.

Post Editing

Today we are going to go a different direction and look at what happens before you see the pictures that I put up for you to see on this blog.

When you, or I,  shoot a photo, it is best to try to shoot the image so that as little editing as possible is needed. But when editing is needed there is a couple of options out there. The one that I like personally is Photoshop. The biggest issue that some people have with this program is there is a lot of details to learn to be able to use it. It is a complex program and is a favorite of a lot of professionals. I would have to say I don't even know a portion of what the program is capable of. I am still learning it. Some people will spend a year or more in college in classes learning how to use all the aspects of this program.

If this is not for you, or you don't want to spend money on a program because you don't plan to do that much editing, then there is options online that are free to download and use that can do everything you may need. One of these options is Gimp. Here is a direct link to their site https://www.gimp.org. There are also others, but be sure if you down load anything, that you do it from that product or companies direct site and not a 3rd party site, those can cause problems you just don't want.

So keep these tips in mind, go out, be safe and take some great pictures.

Here is some screen shots of photoshop so you can see the basic of what it looks like. It is not a lot of what is in the program though. This does not even start to scratch the surface of the program.

These screen shots are from an iMac. If you are running this on a PC the screens will look a little different but still be close.

Basic curve Adjustment graph 

This is the first adjustment screen when screen when opening what is known as a raw .CR2 file. We will talk about file types more in a later post

Photos at Airports

One place that I enjoy going to spend a little time is the local airport. It is a great place to get some fun pictures of planes as they take off and land. Here in Bozeman, it is nice because despite the fact it is the busiest airport in the state, there is only one runway, so photographing is easy as long as you can figure out which side they are landing from. This day I did a good job of that.

I talk about shooting in manual mode so that you have more control over how the pictures turn out but this is an exception in my opinion. All the photos I shot here are shot in full auto mode. This is do to the fact that as you are panning across the sky following a moving aircraft the lighting is changing too fast, for at least me, to be able to make the adjustment to get good pictures. If you live near a busier airport this could be even more fun if you can figure out what runway is the busiest and find a good vantage point to get the photos. So next time you are looking for something fun, go checkout your local airport. Remember, when you are near the airport stay safe at all times, and out of airport  operating areas.

 So go out, have fun, and take some great pictures.

Irving Elementary International Day

Todays blog is going to be a little different. The school that my kids attend has an annual public event called Irving International Days recognizing and celebrating the diversity of the schools population. This is the performance that is put on that is full of song and dance in languages and styles of cultures from around the world. The next day (tomorrow) they will have a parade were they have the opportunity to dress in traditional attire of there culture and then there are stations where the kids have the opportunity to go around and learn about the cultures that there fellow students come from. It is a great experience for my kids to grow up attending such a diverse school and have the opportunity to learn about the cultures of many other people.

You will notice that these pictures have a bit of "noise"/"graininess" to them. This is due to the fact that the pictures that I took where taken from a distance in a low light situation. If you have a higher end lens that I would love to have, but can't afford yet, The pictures would come out a lot more clearer.

This first set of pictures my oldest daughter doing the jitterbug and the second set is my youngest daughter doing a French folk dance. At the end of the program it always ends with the staff of the school doing a dance for the students and families. It is always a lot of fun.

The 4th graders do this dance every year, so my mother-in-law designed this dress to twirling effect

This is my youngest daughter in 1st grade this year

 Entire staff of Irving Elementary School in Bozeman Montana 

Some Pictures Of the Gallatin River

I would like to take a moment and welcome all my new readers from all over the US and the world. It was another gorgeous day here in the Gallatin Valley. I thought I would share some pictures of the Gallatin River where an old one lane steel bridge crosses over. It is one of the many sites that there is to see in this area and around the beautiful state of Montana that I hope to bring you as time goes on. In a past post I talked about when shooting and posting pictures, not to post images of people or children with out there permission. The exception to this rule is if the image is shot in a way that the person is not recognizable, which is the case in these pictures. So just keep this in mind. Also when you are out taking pictures be mindful of private property. You must get a land owners permission before entering a person's private land.

I am looking for ideas of what you are interested in seeing and reading about, just let me know in the comments below and I will work on working in your ideas as we continue this journey.

So as the days continue to get nicer, grab your camera, go out, and take some great pictures and have fun while you are at it.

Shutter speed and Exposure

In photography, shutter speed or exposure is the length of time when the film or sensor inside the camera is exposed to light, also when a camera's shutter is open when taking a photograph. The amount of light that reaches the image sensor is proportional to the exposure time. 1/500th of a second will let half as much light in as 1/250th. This will do two things. In a low light situation, it will allow you to take a picture without a flash but it will make the camera susceptible to camera shake without the use of a flash. The other use of shutter speed is for catching action. A fast shutter speed will freeze motion, so that the action will be frozen in time. An example of this is from a post a few days ago with my daughter jumping from the swing when I caught her perfectly in mid-air. If the shutter was set to slow this would have been caught as a blur due to the shutter remaining exposed allowing more of the motion to be caught by the sensor or film when film cameras were used. The pictures that I am including with today's post are some examples of how shutter speed affects the looks of an image that I used in a photography class that I took in college. You will see how there is motion frozen and how motion is blurred. The only thing done to make these effects is changing shutter speed on your camera. For those with the more basic point and shoot style cameras, play with your settings. There are usually several settings and many that change different things such as shutter for different types of shooting such as action. For those that have DSLR cameras, if you set your camera dial to "TV" you can set your shutter speed, allowing you to catch blurred or frozen action. So next time you get out, take a moment to play with some of these setting and see what you can do. If you go to sports games such as baseball, this can be really handy. Use rapid shutter release, you would be amazed at what you can get. Until next time, get out there, have fun, and take some great pictures.

I'm not sure what my settings were on these, unfortunately, but they are good visual examples of what the effect looks like. The second picture has some affect with use of the aperture adjustments also but we will discuss that in the future.

This is the one from a few days ago of my daughter and the swing.