Notes From the Field, a Top Ten List of Tricks & Tips for Better Photos

In theory, this list could be a Top 100.

Tip #1.   Always check metering settings before entering the field.

Tip #2.   Carry a micro-fiber cloth with you, because clean lenses are worth gold.

Tip #3.   Walk quietly. Avoid leaves.

Tip #4.   Get there early. If you have seen geese in a field towards sundown, get in there around           dinner-time, and set up gear.

Tip #5.   Be patient. Wait for the shot. Expect no second chances, but take advantage of them.

Tip #6.   Use what is available. Often, I have no tripod, so a bench or a rock may become a tripod.

Tip #7.   Learn your gear. Do not shoot in Auto Mode.

Tip #8.   Set your White Balance for every shoot. Sunny days, cloudy days...enough said.

Tip #9.   Pay attention to backgrounds and depth-of-field.

Tip #10.   Have fun and accept a success rate of less than ten percent, just sayin'...

Professional Critique

There might come a point in your photography that you feel that you would like to have your work viewed by persons other than those on your Facebook friends list or your Instagram following. This is an excellent decision. Making the decision to have your work graded by a professional means that you feel that you are producing work of a certain quality that is good enough to be graded. There are a few sites that you can use for this, the one I use is Guru Shots  You just sign up with them and upload your photos for it to be critiqued. There is a small fee however after it is a professional photographer doing the work and you are paying for their time. The good thing is that when the critique is returned to you they give you a breakdown of all the things you did correct and areas that you could have improved. I would urge that you use these suggestions to better your technique. 

Photography At Night

Undertaking photography at night brings its own set of challenges and rewards. Night hours lack the one thing that is so crucial in photography and that is light, however this lack of light has the ability to produce the most amazing results, if you have the patience and knowledge of your equipment. With night photography you can perform, light trails of cars on roads, star trails and even astro-photography. Each bring with it challenges and equipment specifications. All require you to have a tripod and a lens that has a really wide aperture, at least an f 2.0 I would say. Some like the light trails you can do from bridges or cross walks, or even on the shoulder of the road way (safely of course). The star trails is better done in areas away from the bright lights of cities as well as their light pollution, this also applies to the astro photography. It would be helpful if you had a telescope for the astro-photography also. Some key things to remember with photography at night:

You usually need a tripod.

An overly high ISO setting is going to cause problems and make you image look grainy.

A lens with a wide aperture is always a good thing to have. I tried night photos at an event with a lens that had a small aperture and no speedlite, was a disaster.

A speedlite may be necessary depending on what you are shooting.

What are some examples of night photography you like?

Lens Assignment

One exercise to improve your photography technique as well as the knowledge of your equipment is to attach one lens to your camera and use that lens only for a week or two weeks. Shooting everything and anything. This really expands your abilities, also if you use a prime lens such as the nifty 50mm, with its fixed aperture of 1.8 and better you really have to move around to get the best angle sometimes, even moving closer to your subject because you do not have a zoom lens. Now suppose you only have the kit lens or two kit lenses that came with the camera, these would usually be a short zoom and a telephoto lens, (sadly of variable aperture) What you can do is adjust the zoom ring to a specific focal length and leave it there, no matter how tempting it is to adjust your zoom don't! Practice this and it should really open up a new set of options for you.

Patience & Knowledge

I have lost count as to the number of times I missed a photo opportunity due to lack of patience. having patience is so crucial in photography, especially in wildlife photography. You sometimes have to wait for hours, just for one picture. Many wildlife photographers would wait for days, weeks even months to get that one photo. Sometimes I got lucky and managed to press the shutter button just as my subject was about to move off and it produced the image that I wanted, other times the result was just horrid. Working hand in hand with patience is knowing your equipment, as well as the final photographic effect you want to achieve. it is of little use to have all the patience before the shot and after you take it and check back you realize your shutter speed was off or your ISO was too high and your photo looks like it has more gains in it than there are grains of sand on a beach (the result of having your ISO value to high) I think that both these attributes are key to being successful in photography along with of course that all important element of practice, practice, practice!!!!

Weddings & Such Things

Caterers, location, the music an open bar, THE DRESS oh and the guy that take the photos. Wedding photography is huge, huge business, locally as well as internationally. Photographing a wedding is not for the faint hearted, especially if you are the primary shooter. the top photographers in this field can command top dollar, as the client you are paying for their expertise and all the gear they bring. As a beginner I would not photograph a wedding as the primary shooter. Sure there are many great tutorials available on what to do for a wedding but all seemed to targeted towards professionals. In my view the best way to acquire the experience necessary is to be a second shooter to a professional. I have photographed a friend's wedding however it was nothing official, I stayed out of the way of the official photographer's way and I got some decent shots. What did I learn from this experience you ask?

• Your feet hurt, ALOT, for the entire day expect to be on your feet. It is hard work.
• Always have extra batteries physically on you, not in your car or in your bag which is located somewhere in the reception hall, have them on you.
• Flash diffusers help, no one wants to look like a ghost.
• Know your camera's flash sync speed, exceeding this produces some not to nice effects.
• Try to anticipate the shot and position of the subject and position yourself to capture it.
• If possible have two camera bodies with two lenses to prevent having to change lenses mid shoot and miss a key moment.
• Auto mode will not work for a wedding, you need to be comfortable in manual mode.

Taking A Phototrip

Taking a day out to just simply take photographs can be a most rewarding experience, it may not be possible to do that everyday or every weekend but you should still try to make time for it. You not only learn about where ever it is you decide to visit but you also learn how to use your camera in many different lighting conditions. If embarking on a phototrip then you as the photographer need to keep in mind a few important things.

1. Your gear, let's face it photography equipment is expensive, very expensive and having it broken or stolen is no laughing matter. Be careful and try not to be too flashy with all your equipment.
2. Make an itinerary and plan your routes if possible.
3. Just off the top of my head I know I would want to take the following

• My widest focal length lens, 
• Telephoto lens
• General use lens, 
• Tripod or Monopod
• Speedlite, 
• Reflector (if you have one) 
• Batteries lots of batteries
• Battery charger that works via a cigarette lighter

Any thing else you think you need for a phototrip?