_MSP8201-Edit Hey Everyone! Hope you are doing well so far this New Year! Back in 2020, my photo buddy, Robert, and I went to the coast of North Carolina for a photo of the New Year.  We had a great time and it was a great start to the new year that actually turned out great considering that Covid started.  Speaking of Covid, we didn't do anything in 2021 because of it.  So this year we decided to make a go at it again.  So we went from sea level in 2020 to the highest peak east of the Mississippi in 2022. 

Trip Planning: Trip Planning was pretty easy.  We had 3 or 4 ideas on places ranging from Virginia to South Carolina.  Once we decided on the location, my photo partner in crime booked the nearest hotel.  That was pretty much it.  It was a 4-hour drive, and he volunteered to drive. So I really didn't have anything to do but show up. Which is wesome!

31 December 2021: We left about 10:00 in the morning and started the long drive.  The conversation was lively as it always is.  We talked about Mt. Mitchell Sunrise gear, new photo techniques, politics, almost anything.  I don't think there was a minute of silence the whole way there.  We stopped to get gas and made some sandwiches with stuff we brought with us.  We kept heading to the mountains.  Robert's brother in-law was going to meet us at some point.  He has a little Miata that he was driving and wanted to drive the curvy roads of the mountains.  We finally made it to our hotel in Marion, NC, and realized that we were still an hour away from Mount Mitchell.  So we dropped off a bag, got back into Robert's truck, and headed out.  The road up was very curvy and steep in places.  We finally made it onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and after a few tunnels, we were there.  When we got out it was cold, windy, and looked like it was going to rain.  The bags we dropped off at the hotel had our jackets in them.  Yikes!!!  We bundled up the best we could and headed to the top.  This was a short but steep climb, and we finally make it to the observation tower.  We took photos and scoped out where we were going to Sunrise 2022Mt Mitchell shoot in the morning.  On the way down, we met Robert's brother in-law and we went back up to the top.  We then all headed out to get us something to eat.  Robert attached a GoPro to the Miata for footage of the trip down the mountain.  We found an excellent Mexican Restaurant in Marion and had a feast.  After that we headed to the hotel to get ready for the New Year's shoot.

1 January 2022: We started early and left the hotel at 5:30. For some reason we thought that sunrise was around 7:00, but it wasn't until almost 7:30.  We figured that the drive would take longer because it was dark, and it was.  We arrived at Mount Mitchell at 6:30 and didn't know if the gates were going to be open.  They normally don't open until 7:00, but they were open so we drove to the top parking lot.  It was 6:30, dark, rainy, and cold. The temp was 39 degrees, and the wind was howling.  We were sitting in the truck and it was shaking in the wind.  And we were the only ones there.  After a while, another car _MSP8206-Edit and a truck showed up, but it was still dark and windy.  We saw a lone figure heading up with a hoodie pulled over their head, so we decided to get bundled up and head up.  I ventured not to take my tripod because it was so windy it would just get blown around, but Robert brought his.  When we finally made it up to the top, there were 5 or 6 people there watching the sunrise on the new year. The wind was howling and the clouds were streaming by.  The lone figure we saw was a smallish young lady who was standing on a bench with her cell phone being almost blown off the bench at any given time.  It was a pure pleasure to be with these people watching a new year start. There were these big columns that I sat my camera on to steady and it worked out okay.  Robert wedged his tripod through the rungs of the railings and it kept steady.  We oohed and awed at the scene for about 30 minutes.  I turned around and a young man was on one knee proposing to his gal.  It was an honor to be a witness to this at this place and time.  She said yes.  We got some great photos and video and really enjoyed the new New Year's tradition.  On the _MSP8233 way down, we stopped at a couple of places along the way and got some shots.  We stopped by the hotel and, score, they were still serving breakfast, so we sat down and had a big breakfast before heading home.  Our journey home was much like the one there, filled with conversation on many topics.  But the most important topics were the next adventures we have planned.  Some small and one large adventure planned for the future.  We'll talk about these later.  

So until next week, start making more photo traditions and get outside!

Hey Everyone! Hope you are doing well this week. This week's topic came from one of my camera club members that read an earlier post about what filters I use.  She wanted a description of when I use particular filters. So this is for you, Patricia. This is a list of the filters that I have and use, what they do, and when I would use them.  And there are really only 3 types of filters I use.  Polarizer, Neutral Density, and Graduated Neutral Density.  I will list them in order of importance in my opinion. 

Polarizer -  The polarizer is the most important filter of them all in my opinion.  It does what no other filter does, and it can't really be duplicated by Photoshop.  You may have heard it called a circular polarizer also.  It actually comes in two flavors - one is the linear and the other is circular. The circular is the more popular of the two and screws onto the front of your lens.  It has a rotating part that you can turn to increase or decrease the effects of the polarizer.  The linear polarizer is typically a square filter, and you will need some type of holder that attaches to the front of your lens. There are really only two positions.  If it doesn't work, rotate it 90 degrees and it will be working.  Both kinds will block 1 to 2 stops of light that travels through them, so you must make adjustments.  Your camera will automatically do this if you have it in one of the auto modes.

A polarizer does a few things. The first thing it does is increase the saturation of things.  You can make your Filters blah skies turn bluer than blue. It will also increase the saturation in vegetation making leaves green.  It also knocks the glare and reflection off of things. Looking through a storefront window, if you see yourself in the reflection, using a polarizer will make the reflection disappear.  If you look at water and it's too shiny, when you use a polarizer it will let you see to the bottom of a clear lake.  It's just like wearing polarized sunglasses when you're driving. Not only do they darken, but they knock the glare off of the windshield so you can see clearly.  With a circular polarizer, you can adjust as you like by turning the ring. For best results, the sun should be 90 degrees from where you're pointing. So not behind or in front of you, but to the sides.  This filter is great whenever you shoot around water, say shooting waterfalls.  This is a must-have in any photographer's bag.  Price will vary on the quality of the filter. Generally, you get what you pay for.

The Neutral Density Filter.  These filters are used when you want to darken the scene to either do a long shutter release or you want to open up the aperture of your lens.  This filter is used quite a bit for video work.  But for photography, it's mainly for long shutter release or opening up your aperture to give that great bokeh in broad daylight. Say for example you wanted to take a portrait in bright sunlight but you wanted to use an open aperture of 2.8, which is pretty wide open.  You would have to crank up your shutter speed to the thousands to get it to work if your camera would even get that high.  But when you put on an ND filter which darkens the scene, the wide aperture would let in enough light and you could slow down your shutter speed. I mainly use these filters to show motion.  I can do a long exposure in daylight and still blur a waterfall or have motions of the clouds drift across the sky giving a cool effect. These filters come in different strengths.  They are measured in stops of light.  Usually 3,6,8,10.  You can double up and have a 6 and a 3 together to make a 9.   Or a 3 stop and a polarizer to give a 4 or 5 stop light reduction. This is the combo that I usually use for waterfalls.  These filters can come in either square or circular filters.  For the square ones, you will need a holder of some sort to attach to the front of your lens.  The circular ones just screw onto the front of your lens, so you need to know your filter thread size. (usually found on the front of your lens)

Graduated Neutral Density Filter.  This filter can be duplicated in Photoshop or Lightroom in post-production, so it is not widely used as when film was king.  This filter is usually a rectangular shape and goes from clear to dark.  Sometimes it's a quick transition, called a hard graduation, and other times it's a slow transition, called a soft graduation.  These filters are used for sunrise and sunset shots mainly, and you can hold them over the bright part of the sky with the dark part of the filter and the light part goes over the land.  The hard grads are used for like at the beach where you have a clear cut horizon line, and the soft ones are for hills or trees  where it is not as clear where the horizon is.  Like I said earlier, these filters are not used as much anymore because you can do the same thing in post-production.  These filters come in different strengths also, like the ND filters and by stops also.  I haven't used one in a while but thought I would share.  These can be handheld for the shot.

Well, there you go, Patricia.  There are the different types of filters I use and when I use them.  Until next week, keep shooting and get outside.

414BFcFy2sL Hey Everyone!  Hope you had a super week!  This week is a continuation of last weeks blog. Off camera lighting.  If you haven't read that one please go and read.  This week I want to talk about camera and flash settings for Off camera Flash.  This can be kind of tricky so I'll try to keep it simple.  As always when you're in doubt pull out the manual. The first thing you'll have to decide is TTL or Manual metering.  This can be a simple answer if you only have manual strobes.  But if your strobes can do both then you have to figure out which one you want to do. You can't really mix and match its either one or the other and I'll explain why later but first lets talk about TTL.

TTL (Through the lens metering).  When you have the correct strobe set up you may be able to use TTL metering.  This means that the camera meters the scene and then tells the flash how much to flash a little or a lot. This is how TTL works.  When you have your flashes set to TTL and your camera on one of the automatic modes like say Aperture Priority mode.  When you press the shutter button a signal goes from your trigger (mounted on your hot shoe) and it tells the flash to send a pre flash.  The flash pops and the camera reads the signal through the lens and determines the shutter speed and how much flash to use.  Then the trigger sends a signal to the flash to flash with the proper amount of flash.  All of this happens so fast you don't even see the pre-flash only the final one. But the camera has made all of the decisions. This can work great if all of your lights are TTL.  But lets say you only had one TTL flash and you were using it for your main flash.  Your second or third flashes were manual and you had them 41zl9yX4ltL to trigger optically.  Which means they see a flash and they flash.  So you have everything set up and you go to take a photo and this is what happens.  You only see all of the manual flashes and it looks like your TTL didn't flash at all.  But this is what really happened.  You pressed the shutter your TTL flash sent a pre-flash your other lights saw this and flashed. Your camera saw a lot of light because everything flashed at the same time.  Your camera saw all of this and told your TTL flash to go to minimum power and flashed.  So all of your manual flashes went off but the TTL was so weak that it looks like it didn't.  Confused yet?  The main point here is not to mix TTL and Manual its one or the other.  The main advantage of using TTL is simplicity.   You set them up turn them on and shoot. The disadvantage is cost and may not be as consistent light from frame to frame.

_MSP9577 Manual Metering-  Manual metering is done with an external light meter.  You can read my blog The Scoop on Light Meters and it will explain how they work.  Using manual metering and your camera in Manual and a simple trigger you can set each light individually.  And with a light meter there tends not to be a lot of guessing.  That said I am biased since I learned how to to off camera lighting with a hand held light meter. The advantages in shooting totally manual is cost, and you have full control but there is a learning curve.

Its hard to give precise settings of your equipment because they are all a little different but I will give general guidelines.

Shooting TTL -Camera you can shoot in Automatic or Simi-Auto but I would shoot in manual if possible. ISO I would put at 100-400. If your shooting in one of the Auto modes I would put the flash to be set to high speed sync and TTL.  This way if your shutter speed goes over the maximum sync speed of your camera it will still work. If in Manual mode your shutter cannot be over the high speed sync of your camera.

Shooting Manual- Camera in manual Shutter at maximum sync speed,  ISO 100-400 and aperture set to meter setting and after lights are where you want them.

Trigger Settings- Depending on your trigger if a radio set all lights to same channel and if you can have individual control set the lights to different groups.  This is pretty much dependent on the type of trigger you have.

Well as you can see there can be a lot to learning off camera flash.  But its really not as hard as it seems especially when you get your hands into and figure it out its pretty easy.  You just have to follow the directions of the equipment that you have and you should be ok.  There are lots of good tutorials online and one guy that stands out is Mark Wallace he has lots of tutorials on Adorama TV.

Until Next week Get outside and shoot.  If you have any questions or suggestions please leave a comment I would love to hear from you!