Time at the lake

On Monday I took the boys out to ride bikes at the park at Lake Wilson, of course I had my camera with me and as the sun started to set and we were getting ready to leave the boys went down by the water. The only problem was I didn’t bring any kind of tripod so I found a park bench and set up the camera as best I could, not quite the exposure I wanted and not quite the framing I wanted, but the boys were not going to stand still for me to keep trying. I should have metered for the sky to be more red like I wanted and then put the camera in manual but I didn’t. This is one those times when just getting the shot at all was good enough for me.

Here is a slide show of all the photos from this trip.

July 4th photo fun

For the 4th of July I, did what has become somewhat of a tradition, and took photos of the kids playing with sparklers, but not just any photos, these are long exposure and a flash at the end. Here is how I do it, there may be other ways but this seems to work best for me.

First I will explain how to do this using a SLR style camera, then I will expalin how to do something similar with a point and shoot.

For my DSLR camera first I go to my menu and find my custom functions settings (some point and shoot cameras have this as well, check your manual) and find "Shutter curtain sync" and set it to "2nd-curtain". As your camera takes the photo the first curtain opens to expose the image and the second curtain follows to close off the light when the exposure is complete, 2nd shutter sync means that the flash will fire just before the 2nd shutter closes (instead of when the first shutter opens, as is normal). This allows for movement thoughout the exposure and the flash at the end stops the motion. Next I set my camera to "Tv" or time priority mode (Tv on Canon) and I set my exposure time from 1/2 second to 2 seconds and let my camera do the rest. I have the kids swing the sparklers aroung and I take there pictures.

Now if you have a point and shoot camera that does not allow for a 2nd shutter sync then the next best way I have found is to set your camera to a long exposure, my wife has a Kodak easy share point and shoot and on it I go to the menu and use the "LT" setting (check your manual for your camera) and set it to 0.7 seconds, this will fire the flash first and then expose for the set time to allow for movement, the only problem with doing it this way is the person tends to not be as sharp because the movement comes after the flash.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions leave them in the comments or email me at camnlo4130@gmail.com

This is Charlie doing his Wolverine move, he has three sparklers, and just watched the first two X-Men movies this week.

If you want to see all of the 4th of July photos look HERE


Exposure: 0.4 sec (2/5)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV
Flash: Flash fired

First post- Hi

First post for my blog that is focused on my photography, it will be used to show some of my photos that I like (and I hope you like too). I this blog will focus on the creative process, if any, involed with the photo, and try to explain how the photo was taken and intent of the photo.

Lets begin shall we,
here is a photo I took of my daughter Lindsey at her swim meet in Morehead City, NC on June 22, 2008. I used my Canon Digital Rebel XT, with a Sigma 70-300mm zoom lens.

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/10
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 400



With this photo there was some trial and error with catching different parts of the swimming stroke to see what looked best, this photo gave the best motion while still being able to identify the swimmer. I have been trying my hand at sports action shots for some time, but never in any serious way. I have made a goal of getting action shots that kids and parents would like for the members of Lindsey's swim team, and my best chance to do this is during the summer when the team swims outside, so I have a few months left.