Author Archives: bobshank

Busy, Busy, Busy!

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Do you remember the magician in Frosty the Snowman? He used that line, “Busy, busy, busy!” He always seemed to have alternative motives, too. Anyway, it is getting to be that time of year again! Busy, busy, busy!

I have been busy. In the past two days I was behind the camera for three different shoots. I’ve been shooting so many photos in fact that I haven’t had any time to post or display many of them. I will over the next few days and I’m certainly not complaining because where is there a better place than behind the viewfinder?

Tonight my daughter and I attended a Christmas Concert by Tara Lynn. She is an incredible singer and entertainer. She had us all singing Christmas carols and getting us in the Christmas mood. Her boyfriend, Jeff, is an incredible guitar player, too! They make a great team and it was an awesome concert!

I had the privilege of being the photographer for the evening, with the task of trying to capture the concert with my digital sensor. This was not an easy task in a dark church without much stage lighting. I hope to post some of these photos tomorrow so you can judge for yourself how I did with this. It sure was fun!

Okay, I confess, I like being busy, busy, busy!

Basketball

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Tonight I photographed the Pleasant Valley basketball game. They played a good game against Northampton. In the end they came up a little short, but it was fun to try to capture the action on the court.

Indoor photography can be tricky at best. Working without a flash I had to bump up the ISO. My Nikon f/2.8 70-200mm got exclusive use and performed beautifully. Fast lenses are a necessity in situations like this. I turned my white balance to florescent which seemed to work very well and render colors correctly.

The action was fast and furious at times. I positioned myself on the baseline, hoping for the action to come straight at me. It did!

I did learn a few things that I need to remember for the next game I shoot:

1. Remember to follow the players as they jump. Sometimes they jumped out of the frame!
2. Keep shooting after the play is over. Players reactions are sometimes very photographic.
3. Bring knee pads along. They will save my knees from becoming so sore.

Overall, this was a fun shoot. I can’t wait for the next tip-off! I hope to have some of these photos posted on my website soon. www.bobshankphotography.com

Controlling the Light

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I am learning more about speedlights and how to use flash not just indoors but also outdoors as well. Photographers need to control the light. On a bright, sunny day we need to use a small aperture or perhaps even a neutral density filter. Controlling the light is mandatory for a properly exposed photo.

The necessity of using a flash unit indoors is pretty obvious, but taking the flash off the camera and firing it remotely might not be as obvious. Moving the light around can create different affects and outcomes. Give it a try. Many of today’s speedlights can be triggered remotely via infrared.

Also when you are outdoors remember that a flash can fill in the dark side of  your subject beautifully.

Remember to control the light and your photos will look much better!

No Photos

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I am just recently back from a nice long vacation. It was fun and relaxing but I still have over 300 email messages to process. And I do not have any photos to post. More about that later. In the meantime I am going to get back to processing my email messages. Oh the price we pay for being away!

How Do You Backup Your Photographs?

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We all know we ought to do it. It’s one of those givens–backup or beware!

Knowing the value and importance of something is one thing; it is quite another to actually do it. Backing up files goes right up there with going to the dentist or sitting in traffic. We all have to face these things but they certainly are not fun to do.

So, how do you backup your photos? Do you use an external hard drive? Do you use a Drobo or Raid system? Or do you cross your fingers and just hope for the best?

I’ve been reading and hearing a lot about the Drobo and I think I might give this a try.

But what do you do?

More on Social Media

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I’ve been posting to this blog for over a year now. WordPress has made blogging very easy for me and I enjoy sharing photographic insights with others. It’s a cool way to connect with others and create dialogue with fellow photographers. It also allows customers and those interested in my photography to stay updated.

This week I also began to Twitter more frequently. I had a Twitter account for some time but did not fully see the potential of this powerful social medium. Now I am posting a daily tweet including a PhotoTip. You can follow me on Twitter to see a new photo tip each day.

I also have a Facebook page that replicates each day’s blog post and displays some photos and upcoming events.

Continue reading →

Statues

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Photographers are always looking for new subjects to photograph. It’s in our blood, I guess. We just cannot help ourselves. There is always that elusive photo that we’ve had back in the recesses of our photo brain out there somewhere. We can see it our mind’s eye and we hope and pray we will be able to see it with our camera sometime very soon!

But what do we do when we cannot find that once in a lifetime subject? Do we put our camera away and go in the corner and pout? Or do we keep our eye behind the viewfinder and keep trying?

Here is a series of photos I captured one day when the creative camera juices were flowing a little bit. It was great fun!

Get the Little Things Out of the Way

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Most of us photographers like to spend time behind the camera. After all, we are photographers so this is our rightful place, isn’t it?

The problem is there are so many other details and little things that can distract us and prevent us from spending time behind the camera. Think about going on vacation for example. Just to get away there are a ton of things that must be done. Our to do list grows to enormous size and we have a lot of details to wrap up before can leave.

Even preparing for a photography-specific vacation requires paying attention to a lot of mundane details: did you charge your batteries? Did you pack enough spare flash cards? What lenses are you going to bring? Do you have cleaning supplies packed? How will you backup in the field? Do you know exactly where you are going? Do you have enough money for everything? Did you put on clean underwear? (Opps, that was bad!)

But in all seriousness all these little details can get in our way. So sit down, make a list, and begin checking these items off. The sooner you take care of the little things the sooner you can focus your camera!

Are You Tweeting?

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Do you use Twitter?

Twitter is a neat  social media application that allows you to share information with others and also follow the happenings of other people/businesses you might be interested in following. Each message must be short–140 characters or less. There are many people connecting with each other tough Twitter every day.

Give it a try! You can create your own Twitter account by going to twitter.com

I just updated my Twitter page, which you can see here: twitter.com/bobshank

The text and photos down the left and right sides are what I added to spruce up my Twitter page a bit. It was fun to do and now my page reflects a similar look and feel to my website.

I hope you are “tweeting” the official term for sending messages through Twitter. If  you are tweeting, follow me and I will follow you!

 

Handling Flash Cards

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I have a Nikon D300 camera so I use compact flash cards. I have CF cards in the following sizes: 8GB, 4GB, & 3 1GB. I keep each card in its individual case until the one in use is full and then I switch them. The problem is twofold. First, it takes time to take a fresh CF card out of its plastic holder and then swap it with the current one. Second, once cards are filled it can be confusing to which ones are still empty. I do try to keep the empty cards in my right pants pocket and the filled cards in my left pocket. Only once have I ever inadvertently formatted a card that full of photos. It hurt to lose these photos and prompted me to seek a better procedure in handling flash cards.

So what do you do? How do you handle your flash cards? Could you please explain the process you use? I’ve been thinking that a case to hold all of my cards could be helpful, but what do you do when handling flash cards?