Hey Y'all! Hope you're having a great week! This week I want to talk about this funny word we use in photography, Bokeh. The term “bokeh” comes from the Japanese word “boke,” which means “blur” in English. And that's just what bokeh refers to. It's the quality of the blurry parts of a photograph. So why would we want part of the photograph blurry when we spent all this money on sharp lenses? LOL  Bokeh and the use of it can make a photograph visually pleasing. Everyone has scene this in portraits where the subject is in focus but the background is blurred out. But it can be used in other types of photography also. In landscape the main subject maybe a tree or a brook is in focus but the forest behind it is blurred. We can use this technique to isolate the subject in a busy scene. Maybe isolate a single sunflower out of a field of sunflowers .  So we have "making the photo more visually pleasing" and " isolate the subject" and there is one more use and that is to use Bokeh as a artistic aspect of the photo. I'm sure you have seen Christmas lights all blurred out making a artistic glow or water on a glass blurred out . So there are three reasons to use Bokeh as I see it. #1 visually pleasing, #2 isolate the subject #3 Used as an artistic item.

So how do we create Bokeh when we are out and about taking photo's? There are a few things that can control Bokeh and they can be used by themselves or in combination to create this effect. One way to control Bokeh is with Aperture .  The smaller "F" stop number the smaller the depth of field and the greater the Bokeh. Depth of field is the amount of the photo that is in focus. So the part that isn't in focus is the Bokeh. By using a fast lens one that has an maximum aperture of f2.8 or smaller can create great Bokeh. You can take a photo of a person and only the tip of their nose is in focus and everything else be out of focus. So the opposite can also be said the larger the f-stop number the more of the photo will be in focus. So f22 more of the photo will be in focus than f2.8. So Aperture is one thing that can control Bokeh. The next thing that can control bokeh is the type of lens used. The Leaf longer the lens the easier it will be able to create bokeh. For example a wide angel lens say 14mm is almost built to make everything in focus and it is difficult to make things within the photo blur. On the other hand a telephoto lens say 200mm is built to isolate things and Zoom into something. These lenses are much more easier to make things blur in the photograph. Combining a low aperture with a longer lens makes it easer to make parts of the photo blur. The final thing that can help is being close to the subject will make it easier to blur everything else. So there are the three ways to create Bokeh. Aperture, type of lens, and proximity to the subject. By using these three things together and adjusting them you can control the Bokeh in your photo to make it more pleasing to look at , to isolate the subject or to use Bokeh as an artistic subject. 

Using Bokeh as a creative technique can make your photo's stand out of the crowd. Until next week Get out and Shoot!
 

Hey Everyone! How's it going this week? Me? Not bad thanks for asking. This week I wanted to talk about improving your photography. But how do we improve? Well there are lots of ways to improve but what if we looked at our photography skills like a sport? If we wanted to get better at a sport what would we do? We would practice, but practice what? We must practice the parts that we are not good at. Here is an analogy for you. I've recently just started playing golf again and like photography its a solo sport. If I analyze my game I can see where I need to improve to get better. Maybe I drive the ball okay but I don't putt well then I need to practice on my putting. You practice and try to improve the things that you are not good at. So first you must analyze your photography skills and what you're good at and what you're not. This takes a lot of honesty on your part and when you identify the weak parts of your Photography game then you can take actions to improve them.

Photographers seem to search for improvements in equipment much like in golf that new Driver or Putter will improve my game. The answer is Lightbulb Water Lighthouse the same for both golf and Photography. It's probably not the equipment. If your camera was purchased in the last 8-10 years and working properly its not the camera. It may be in the skills we use when we use the camera. Maybe we are only taking advantage of 10% of what the camera can do. Learning how to use our gear will make us better photographers. Read the manual or watch a video of how to do things on your brand/model of camera. Modern cameras are amazing and many of us will become better just by learning our camera.

Maybe the technical aspect of your Photography game are solid. You know your camera and how it works but you're not creative with it. Much like in golf. You can hit your clubs well on the practice range but getting good results on the course isn't happening. Photography like golf is more than just pushing the shutter button, creativity needs to be more focused on to be creative. In golf being able to curve the ball at will and making creative shots will save a round. In photography different Points of View, Perspective will create more story telling photo's .  So try shooting from a worms view, around a corner, through something to make more interesting photographs.

EYES The act of taking the photograph may not be your weak point. Maybe its the editing the photograph that you are weak at. I think that editing is at least 50% of the end result of a great photograph. I don't have a good golf analogy for this one creative scoring is just a fancy way of cheating. LOL To improve this part of the Photography game you might need to take a workshop, watch tutorial videos and practice . Maybe get with someone that is good at editing to help you along. Which brings me to my next point.

When you go out and shoot with others you will learn a lot. Just by watching and observing others you can learn a lot. Photography with others will help your Photography game. Like in golf playing with a group even folks you don't know will make you play or photograph better. I encourage all of you to join some sort of camera club. I have improved so much after joining the camera club that I belong to now. We have monthly meetings with presentations, printed contest, monthly challenges. We also have monthly outings and workshops where we travel around and try different types of photography. You get to shoot and learn with people with the same interest in _DSC4702 photography and make friends that you can go out and shoot with. 

So my advice is to treat your photography like a sport. Practicing what your weak at will bring your whole game up and you will make fantastic photographs. Trying to improve and try new things in photography is not only fun but will make you better. Getting out of your comfort zone will also help. So until next week analyze your Photography Game and get outside and shoot!

Hey Everyone! How's it going this week? This week I want to talk about my Fall Colors workshop and what worked and what didn't. Last week I went over the events of the workshop and where and when we went to them. First I want to say that the workshop was a big success despite the interruptions of weather that had with our trip. A good time and photography was had by all and I highly recommend it to anyone. But after each photography or camping trip I like to go over what worked and what didn't and how do I fix the things that didn't in the future. I try to be a highly organized person and I do use a spreadsheet to help me in packing .  I'd like to say that I have that system pretty much controlled and I had no problems with the things I brought and didn't really bring anything that I didn't need. This is an example of previous examinations of trips and correcting for that. So here goes a list of what went well and what didn't in no particular order.

Camera Gear. The camera gear that I brought with me worked well and had no problems. The choice of lenses and camera body worked flawlessly and am very happy with the outcome. Just for a overview I took a crop sensor camera and 3 lenses that ranged in full frame equivalent from 15mm to 525mm in focal length.  I also had all the correct filters and accessories with me and did't want or need anything else to document the trip. So this was a win!

Video Recording. This was a fail. I brought a GoPro and some accessories to document the trip and make a video at the end of the trip. For me trying to photograph and do video at the same time is very hard to do and you end up not doing any of them well. This was the case with me. I started out trying to video everything we did for the first couple of days but my photography suffered and I slowly quit using the GoPro at all. So for the first couple of days I can make a video but for the second half of the trip nothing.  I have asked for video clips from my fellow photogs that went with me but have not got much .  Robert my normal wingman couldn't come to this workshop and he is a great videographer and usually documents our trips but I failed. Big Fail on my part .

Weather. We had mixed weather while on our trip. When we left it was raining and it rained off and on during our trip. The temps were cooler than we are used to at home but it really didn't get cold as we have had in the past even though we did see snow. So the weather not perfect but it wasn't a fail.

Mobile Photography Editing. This may be where I struggled the most on this trip. When I go on a trip instead of a laptop I use a iPad pro for my Cades Cove mobile editing and backing up. The edits will sync up with my home laptop and when I get home they are there. This didn't work this year. It has in the past and the reason. (which I didn't figure out until I got home) was that my main computer is a 2015 iMac and is so old that the operating system can't be upgraded which is fine but the new Adobe Lightroom Classic will not load onto it because of the operating system is too old. Now my iPad pro is newer and has the newest version of Lightroom. These two versions seem to clash and the system did not work. I could edit a few photo's on the road but the big sync stuff didn't work. And also the backing up of my SD cards to the SSD drive I have didn't work 100 percent for some reason. It may have been me and I may have interrupted the transfer while in the mountains . But I still had my daily SD cards so I didn't loose any info and that's how I got all of my photo's downloaded to my old computer at home. The fix? I need to upgrade my old computer and this should correct all of the mistakes and allow the new versions of Adobe for years to come. I am currently researching upgrading my main computer. I'll keep you updated.

Accommodations (House). The house that we rented from VRBO was fantastic! Kudo's to our Club President Caitlin on choosing this one. It was kind of perched on a ridge and could have views all around the house of the valley below. Some of my best views could be seen from the window of our house. Everyone had a bed ( no sleeping on the floor or couch) and some even had their own bathrooms. The house had balconies on the bottom and second floors to enjoy the views. A ample kitchen and open common area gave plenty of room for lounging and editing photo's. Even though I shared a bunk room with 3 other snoring guys it was quite comfortable and I've been in a lot worse places. Big Win!

Itinerary .  We took a lot of time and refinement to come up with our schedule of events for the trip.  We wanted to go to some of the old spots Mingus Mill from trips gone by to some new ones that we haven't been before. We wanted everyone to have something that they were used to shooting in the itinerary. We wanted wildlife shooters to get to shoot some wildlife. We wanted landscape folks to shoot some landscapes. After all it is Fall colors . And we wanted to do some travel type shooting by exploring some towns. Mission accomplished.  We did go to some new places some I don't need to see again and others can't wait to go back to. And I'm sure that is true for all of the participants of the workshop. I did enjoy some days over other ones as I'm sure others did also. Over all a big win!

To me the trip was a big win! Not only for me but the whole club! I would like to see more of these trips happen! As a matter of fact we are planning on taking a trip this spring that we are just starting to plan. We had one planned the year Covid happened and didn't get to go but we are planning for this spring. So I'm excited about future trips and will try to correct my fails to be better for the next trip. Until Next week get outside and keep shooting!