readers request

hi, I’ve been writing for some time now based on what ever I feel like writing, so I decided to go in a diffrent direction, since you (The reader) who is geting the banifit, I thought I should ask you of what subjects you would like me to write about, please feel free to ask for any photography subject, and I’ll list them and do my best to provide you with a good material to read.

Thank you.

What to shoot?

So you got your self a nice camera, some great lenses, and went to a location to shot some great picture, but oops! you don’t know what to shot, even thoght you’ve been photographing for some time now, but you feel lost, relax, it happens for the following reasons:

•  You forgot about the basics.
• The place is so big you don’t know were to start.
• “I’m not as good as the others” and worry about your photos not being as good as there’s.
• Too tire, bored, don’t feel like photographing.
• Been to the same place a lot of times.

No worry, it happens to all of us, but lucky you, you are reading this 😉 so I’ll give you some of my secrets:

• When we go out and photograph for some time we tend to get high on the basics (and by basics I mean the rule of thirds and all that stuff) we think we are experienced now, we should not use the basic rules, it will make us look like a beginners, see that is wrong, we never leave the basics, we always use them. Yes we should have our own signature work, but it should all be based on the basics.
• I have a way to start shooting big and large places, I start with the big picture, shoot wide focal length, then you’ll start noticing the smaller things in the frame, after that you go and shoot the things attracted your eyes, and get closer and closer to them till you reach Macro on small subjects. I know, it’s easy and smart, thank you 😉
• Never ever worry about the others, and never think about what would they think of your work, I say that over and over again, you are the photographer and your work is for you, not for them, if you like it, it is good, if you don’t, then it’s not, if you don’t know, then ask an experienced friend that you trust.
• If you don’t feel like photographing, then don’t do it, if you do, all you are doing is damage, you will let your self down, because you won’t shot any thing and start thinking that you are not good, maybe you took the wrong decision to start photography and all that crap, so let it go, have the day off, and photograph when ever you feel like it.
• Kuwait is a small place, you will end up going to the same place over and over again, what I do, is a take one lens with me, say a macro, and shoot with it, the next time I go there I take a wide angle, and so on, what you are doing is ristricting your self from shooting every thing at once, and forcing your self to go there again and aging, the more you go, the more your eyes will open to new thing you have not noticed before.

 Thank you for reading 

The Right Setting

I used to wonder about what setting should I use for my photography, Aperture priority (A), Shutter Priority (S), Manual (M) or even full Auto, in my first stages when I used to have my Sony R1 camera, I always used A, because it had live view and I could actually see the picture and the effect of changing the A setting on it before I take it, and it helped me a lot, did not use S because I never needed it or never new what to use it for, during that time I used to hear a lot of crap about a real photographer should always use manual, I did not bather argue with them because there standard answer to me would be “you don’t even have an SLR” and they’d think they are the smart ones and I hate to argue with idiots, after I bought my D80, I lost the live view, in-fact, I was shocked that the screen did not work, I had to look throw the view finder! I never did that with my sony, and i was thinking “come on, me look from that little hole” well, that little whole became my life after some time, any how, going back to my D80, the second day I bought it, I took for a ride in NYC, and I continued to use A, I had difficulties at first, but after 2 days I gained control of it. I wanted to learn more about photographer, and to understand how this “A” thing work, I had to turn the nob to Manual oOoOoOoO! so I did, but before that I started reading about the relationship between Aperture and the Shutter speed, it turns out it is exactly like Men and Women! the more you open the aperture the less speed you want and vice versa, and I started working from there, on trail and error basis, from then till now I took a big leap in learning and there are still plenty to learn, but I had difficulty with manual, not technical wise but time wise, some times you need to shot some thing or an emotion right now, but by the time you figure out the setting you need, boom!, its gone, after missing a lot of good photos, I realized that manual does not always work, some times I have to use A and S and even full Auto, so at the end it all goes down to how fast you want to take that photo, and here is my latest conclusion (nothing genius, but hey, don’t push it) :

•  Full Manuel, when you have all the time in the world.
• Aperture priority, when you want a certain “depth of field” and you have a limited time (or don’t want to think)
• Shutter speed priority,  when you want a certain “motion” and you have a limited time (or don’t want to think)
• Full Auto, when you feel like”I don’t give a s*%t about the setting, I just don’t want to miss this shot”

Thank you for reading.

PDN+PhotoPlus Expo 2007

I will give a full report about in in KSC photographers gathering day this Monday, every one is welcome, and I will also post about it here in the next few days, till then here is a sneak peek. 

 Thats Joe McNally a photographer for Nikon at there both giving a presentation about the incredible D3 (man I want one) 

http://www.joemcnally.com/portfolio/

Canon both, note every one is holding a Nikon Bag 😉

Adobe both was packed all the day.

Scott Kelby, The God father of photoshop, it was a dream come true for me to attend a presentation for him and to take a personal photo with him too 🙂

http://www.kelbytraining.com/

Thats all for not, stay tuned for more later.