For me, this happens in particular when I am travelling.  Typically when I travel I have one chance to get the shot.  After that, we will visit a different place or leave the area.  On some occasions when I have a good hotel location, I do receive multiple chances – but the reality is I usually have to take what I get.

Until recently, I found I would get annoyed quickly.  I would get impatient at the person with a camera cell phone attempting to photograph something that just isn’t possible with it but refusing to believe that this is the case while standing right in front of my camera.  Even more annoying was on a recent trip to China a guy sat right in front of what I was photographing and then motioned for me to get away so his wife could take his picture.  OK, I still get frustrated at these people – but I now have a new strategy.

The strategy is simply to make your enemy your strength.  Instead of getting frustrated at that which is preventing the picture you desire, look at what opportunities this opens up.

The shot above is a beginning example of this.  While we were in Beijing, the light was horrible.  Due to the strong pollution there, everything in the entire city was washed out and we did not see a single patch of blue sky while we were there.  I realized that the light was just simply not going to improve, so I chose to zoom in instead.  I rather like the shot above.  True, better light could have made it spectacular, but it would have had to come from a perfect angle and I think this shot isn’t so bad without it.  In this case, I used the poor light to push me to take more closeups that have less dependency on light.

On another trip to the Great Wall, we were stunned to wind up in a part that was literally overflowing with people.  While there are parts of the wall that have fewer people, our tour guide (ChinaTours.net – I do not recommend them) took us to one of the most crowded parts and there were so many people that we were literally packed like sardines.  It took forever just to move several feet.  Clearly I was not going to obtain the images I was hoping for.

So instead of trying to avoid people – I chose to focus the shot on them.  While I am still not completely happy with this shot – I think it needs some more post processing – it is one of my favorite shots from the Great Wall.  It clearly demonstrates what we were up against and what the Great Wall has become.

While we were in Xi’an, we decided to attend a Chinese cultural theater presentation.  The theater was very nicely decorated and the costumes and dancing were all very well done, but very often while I attempted to take pictures several guys in front of me would lift their small cameras as far in the air as possible to get a shot.  It became very annoying just when I thought I had a great shot I would find a camera in the middle of it.

Thinking about it a bit more, what would become of my shots anyways?  I couldn’t sell them, as I didn’t have the model releases.  A few of them I would show to family and friends, but that was about all.  Therefore I decided to try something different.

I really like this shot, even though my wife hates it so much she forced me to remove it from our photo album from China.  It still needs a bit more post processing, but is still my favorite shot from the evening.

In both of the cases above I deliberately made use of the thing that was annoying me to get a shot I liked better than most of the rest anyways. 

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Here’s the truth about fireworks shots.  In order to get that truly amazing fireworks shot you need to be familiar both with where the fireworks will be shot off that year as well as the optimal spot in the city to take a shot.  Typically this ‘optimal place’ will not be empty and you will need to set up way ahead of time in order to get the spot.

While you are setup in this spot, you will need to deal with photographers and spectators setting up right in front of you and if you need to use the bathroom you can consider your spot gone.  If you have kids, you’ll either need to not take them or they will get restless waiting hours before the fireworks.

The other thing to consider here in the Seattle area is that all of our fireworks shows suck.  The fireworks companies here simply do not utilize the more creative shells that many companies on the East coast utilize.  The one show I know of not shot by a local company here – the Seattle show shot by Pyro Spectacular – also sucks.  This puzzled me for some time, as Pyro Spectacular has a good reputation in the fireworks industry.  After some digging I found that the city of Seattle is not a fireworks friendly city and is such a pain to deal with in terms of budget and restrictions that the end result sucks.

Part of being a truly professional photographer is knowing when not to click the shutter.  Fireworks are pretty, but the chances that you will get a great shot haphazardly are close to infinitesimal.  If you are going out with the intention to photograph the fireworks show, my recommendation is to not go out at all.

Several years ago I got sick of fighting the crowds and found my fireworks shots no better than the millions of other horrible fireworks shots that plague the ‘Net after the 4th.  Therefore, I decided to go a different route and I now purchase some small fireworks items and shoot them off in our backyard with the kids.

Our kids now absolutely love the 4th of July and count the days before we shoot the fireworks.  As we have a small backyard I don’t buy anything big – mainly sparklers (the wood kind), some small fountains, bees, and pagodas (a yearly tradition – each child gets his/her own pagoda).  I do not shoot any festival ball and we stopped shooting firecrackers after some of our guests complained about the noise.

This year I hope to take some pictures of the event, as last year we used small sparklers that expired quickly and I spent all of my time distributing them.  My shots may not be masterpieces, but they will be far more memorable and valuable to me than the junk I would have taken at the fireworks shows here.

Therefore, please do your part this year and save energy by not forcing servers around the Internet to transfer your garbage among the millions of garbage fireworks shots that come after the 4th.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

First, if you are using autofocus at all when shooting macro, turn it off.  In macro, when you change the focus using the focus ring, you are actually changing the magnification.  Generally, you care what the magnification is on a given shot. The camera, on the other hand, has no idea. Therefore, do not let the camera do this for you.  Set the magnification yourself (most macro lenses have it printed on the barrel) and focus by moving towards and away from the subject.

As you increase in magnification, focus becomes even trickier.  With lenses like the MP-E 65 at high magnifications such as 3x-5x, focusing is incredibly challenging.  When shooting subjects like flowers, typically the camera is on a tripod and if you have Live View you can use the zoom feature to verify focus.  However, when shooting handheld – particularly subjects like insects that are on the move – it is much more challenging.

One trick that I use very often is obtaining focus at a smaller magnification, then increasing magnification to the desired level.  This will only work for subjects that are either stationary or easily trackable.  For very quick subjects like bees, you will need to preset your desired magnification.

I always start farther away rather than close in.  I try to place the lens just beyond the point where it will be in focus, then slowly move in.  One goal, of course, is to not whack the subject with the lens.

When focusing on your subject, there are two things you must always keep in mind.

1) The angle of the subject to the lens.  This will determine what is in focus, and what is not.  This is particularly important as you will not be able to determine the focus for the entire subject if it is moving or may leave any moment.  Instead, you should learn what is possible with each aperture at different magnifications and approach your subject accordingly. 

2) When determining focus in the viewfinder, look at only the most important part of your subject.  When focusing on insects, I look only at the eyes.  I do not pay attention to the rest of the insect, as I already know what will be in focus and out of focus based on the angle of the insect to the camera.  Once I know I have the eyes in focus, I will take the shot.

For insects, the eyes are incredibly important.  With rare exceptions, if the eyes lack focus the shot is lost.

In terms of triggering the shutter, I find it very much like my old rifle target shooting days.  Learning how to consistently get shots in focus takes a great deal of practice, but the following are some tips that may help.

1) Holding the camera steady is huge. Pay particular attention to where your elbows are.  Try to hold your elbow against part of your body.  When sitting, I rest my elbow on my knee.  When standing I try to rest it against my chest if possible.  Standing is by far more difficult than sitting.  Very often when standing, holding the camera steady is a function of getting the right stance while holding the camera with both hands.  I cannot really describe it, but practice definitely helps.

2) When you take the shot, hold your breath.  This will prevent some camera shake, which often is the culprit for missed shots.

3) Do not take a single shot of any subject. Take a number of shots at each angle.  I often take twenty to thirty shots of a single subject if I can, though most of my subjects do not allow me anywhere near that number.  Very often, I find that a number of shots are still out of focus, but if I get a number of frames off there usually is a good in focus one in the bunch.

4) Use a high shutter speed or flash.  If the frame is sufficiently dark, you can use flash to stop the subject and a lower shutter speed.  I will cover this in a bit more depth in a later post, as I have found that there are negatives with using the lower shutter speed.  However, the important thing is to stop the subject, which must use either a high shutter speed and/or a flash.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I take most of my fly images with my MP-E 65.  Once in awhile I use my 180L but I like the larger size of the fly that I can achieve with magnifications higher than 1x.  Of course, this requires that I get even closer to the fly.  When I use my 180L, it is much easier to get shots but I tend not to like them as much unless it happens to be a large fly.  For lighting, I always use a MT-24EX.  For the most part, taking high quality pictures of insects with only ambient light is not practical.

The problem most people have is not in the gear, but in scaring the fly off.  Flies are very skittish (they are used to us swatting them) and will take off at a moment’s notice.  Even today the majority of flies I attempt to photograph take off before I can get a shot off, but with patience I can get the shots I want.  The first piece of advice that most people offer is to not get in the fly’s light.  I have found this rule to also be true, so it is always a good idea to know where the sun is.  This also makes it a bit easier to photograph flies on overcast days.

As is true with all insects, mornings, late afternoons, and colder days are the best times to photograph.  However, I have noticed that many types of flies only come out when it is warm and sunny.  You can find flies in almost all types of weather, and certainly it is a good idea to start out on cold days, but you’ll also have to get used to photographing them on the hot, sunny days as well if you want more varieties of flies.

On the hot, sunny days, I try two different strategies.  The first strategy, which I find does not work as well, is to work very softly and keep a lookout.  When you see a fly, slowly approach it with your lens and hope to get close enough to get a shot off.  This is how I search for a number of different insects, but has a high failure rate.  More often than not the fly gets away before I even have a hope of getting a shot off.  However, with patience I eventually find a fly that is more patient.

The other approach, which requires more patience, has a much higher probability of success.  Basically you find a spot where flies seem to frequent and you “set up shop”.  Basically sit down, sit still, and wait.  Eventually, when you see a fly, slowly move your lens toward it.  Since you were already there, it will pay less attention and you’ll have a better shot of getting it.  In my experience, I also notice a number of other insects that I would not have otherwise noticed.  The shot above used this technique.  The other major advantage of this method is you often get more shots off of the fly.

In terms of framing, always try to get the fly from the front.  Side and back views (which are all too common) are just not interesting.  It might take a bit more patience to wait for the fly to face forward, but the end shot will be worth it.  I don’t bother even taking the shot if the fly is facing the wrong way.  Some side shots, though, can be interesting.

The main key is to keep in mind the way the fly is facing as you want the shot to be interesting for your viewers.

One thing to take away from all of these approaches and advice is that you must be patient.  Fly photography is something that is best done in solitude, with no one to distract you.  It is also something that usually fails when you are in a hurry.  However, with some patience and time you’ll find that these shots are not very difficult to achieve.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.