Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Pretty good. First of all I want to start out to give props to Derrick Story who has one of the best Photography Podcast around! I borrowed this title from him. He has a podcast on this topic and it really resinated with me. Because that's how I feel about photography. First if you haven't listened to his podcast it's the Digital Story and it can be found in any of the podcast services or you can google "The Digital Story" and listen to it there. Now back to the subject. When your buying a camera or camera system is the most important thing to you image quality? Or does the camera have to feel good in your hand? To me it has to feel good. I have to like where all the buttons and gismo's are. Shooting should be fun and not complicated or uncomfortable. But for some people it's not like that it's the bottom line of image quality that is the most important. How many megapixels , what's the burst rate, how fast does it focus . Image quality is everything. If you're a professional photographer I can understand that. But very few of us are Professional. Since this is my blog and it's all about me! LOL I'm going to take the other side of this argument and say that the Shooting Experience is more important that the image quality.

I have been in photography for a long time. When I got my first camera image quality was the furtherest from my mind because all film camera's pretty much had the same quality.  It was the shooting experience , how the camera felt in our hand , the taking of the photo's with friends and family. That was the fun part. Getting the photo's back from the lab and looking at them a week or so later it wasn't on how sharp the photo's were but the people and things in them. Now when I got into digital there was a time when I was obsessed with the megapixel count and how fast it shot (the image quality) But then I got away from that and started shooting crop sensor camera's and the image wasn't as important as the experience. You have a much better experience hauling a crop sensor camera and lenses compared to carrying around a full frame sensor camera. And the quality didn't change much. If you look at my website 90% of the photo's are shot with a crop sensor and they look great! (or at least i think so) I have shots on my website that were shot with point and shoots and with iPhones . So I think getting a camera for quality isn't as important as it used to be because any camera you buy today will give you great photo's. Even your phone. So maybe that's why I like film so much it's the experience, the feel, the sound of the shutter and the mirror slapping up and out of the way. Zone focusing, using old lenses on new digital camera's just for the feel of the old lens even though new lenses may be sharper. I like to set up my digital camera's as much as I can like old film ones . I like using lenses that have aperture rings on them to set the aperture like I would on an older film camera. I usually shoot in Aperture Priority or Manual to keep it close to as what it was when I was shooting film. I do like smaller cameras to shoot because large ones are just too heavy to tote around. I would rather take a point and shoot camera to shoot on a photowalk instead of a big bulky camera like I did on the last trip to the low country. I used a point and shoot and a film when walking around Savannah and had really good images. Were they as sharp and flawless as a more modern full frame camera kit? No but I don't even own a modern full frame camera kit. Mine still works fine. I think of camera systems as tools that you use. I wouldn't take a film camera to capture a race car race. I would take a big lens and camera to catch what I could. But I would take the film camera for a walk about a town and not the big lens camera.  I would take a crop sensor camera on a hike because it would be more comfortable (shooting experience) than a big digital camera that might have better quality images. How a camera feels in your hand is more important than the technical aspects of it. If you're not comfortable you won't take very good photo's. But I've seen photo's taken with a phone that are great because it was the right tool for the job at the right time and the photographer was comfortable using it.

I feel as I've gone off of the reservation a little. What I'm saying is that its not the technical aspects of the gear that is important its how it feels to you when your using it that is important. I have a Sony 24- 105 lens that takes great photo's but its just too heavy to take around with me so I'm having the conversation with myself should I change it out for a 20-70mm lens that is newer and lighter has an aperture ring that my 24-105 doesn't .  I'm thinking so I just haven't pulled the trigger yet. To me the 30mm difference in the lens is less important than me hauling a twice as heavy lens with me. I would get better photo's with a lens that I'm bringing with me and using instead of a lens that sits in my bag because it's too heavy. The shooting experience is more important than quality of the image. Well I've gone on enough on this subject. Please enjoy your gear and don't get it just because it's the newest and the greatest it should be comfortable to make the shooting experience greater ! So get out and shoot!

Hey Ya'll ! Hope you've had a great week! Me? Pretty good! This week I want to talk about a subject that will improve your photography by leaps and bounds. We as photographers are always trying to find the magic cure or recipe to great photography. We try new gear or special editing techniques. We download all sorts of presets hoping some other photographer has found the magic combination of settings in Lightroom. But there really isn't any secret sauce! The key is to keep it simple. Make your photo's simple. How do we make a photograph that will catch someone's eye? It's by taking out everything that is not needed in the photo .  Taking away all of the distractions for the viewer to see what was so special in the photo you took. By Subtracting! Why do we want large megapixel camera's? So we can crop and still have good resolution. Why do we crop? To get rid of unwanted things in our scene. We Subtract. To me that's the main reason to Raven's Roost Va. have a high megapixel photo. So we can crop or subtract. Thats why cropping works! 

It's not what you leave in but what you leave out that will make your photographs good. People use longer focal lengths for that exact reason when shooting street photography or wildlife or landscapes. To isolate what is important in a shot and to take away everything that is not. One of the great sayings in photography is " If your not getting good photo's move closer your not close enough" The saying is true because when you move closer you take away all of the surrounding stuff that doesn't matter to your photo.  Your Subtracting the junk to make your photo better. When you edit one of the final steps in editing is to do a boarder check. Checking the boarder for unwanted things that are poking in your photo. Subtracting the junk that isn't needed or wanted for the good photo. Distractions! Less is More!

Cades Cove Tree Someone long time ago asked Michelangelo the famous Renaissance sculptor and painter. " How did you make the "David" statue out of a single peace of Marble. He said " I took away everything that wasn't David". He Subtracted! So as we can see this system ins't new it has been going on for centuries ! Now I'm not saying that using this method that you will become the Michelangelo of photography but it should make your photographs more appealing and simple. Without all of the distractions you can show the people what you liked about the photograph to begin with.

So how do we do this in practice? It's all good to say that we need to subtract the distractions in our photo to make them Light House Stairs better but how? I think we should slow down. Get back to basics. We've become button pushers and don't take enough time setting up the camera , composing( framing) or waiting for just the right moment. We want to click , click, click and move on to the next thing. I am very much guilty of this process. As a matter of fact until I started shooting film again I was very much the "Clicker of Photos" My expensive camera just became an expensive point and shoot.  So I think that slowing down getting the correct aperture , composition and waiting for the correct moment to push the shutter is how we eliminate (Subtract) distractions. 

So that's it for this week. Subtract distractions for better photo's. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're doing great! When writing this its the first day of Spring so Happy Spring! This week I want to talk about some of the Classic Debates that we photographers have about our great hobby. We photographers love to debate and have fun disagreements with our Photog friends. One of the classic is about camera companies. In my camera club one of the questions that we ask new members is what type of camera that they shoot. No matter what kind of camera it is we hear oohs and  cheers from the people who have that camera and from those that don't. The most classic is Canon vs Nikon these camera lovers are really loyal to the brands that they have chosen and get very outspoken about their cameras. I guess because they have spent so much money on them and want to reinforce their decision to investment in them. LOL So lets get started with the debate.

Full Frame Sensor vs Crop Sensor.  This is one of the most debated topic and people are really serious about it.  Ever since the first Full Frame Sensor Camera came out. (Crop Sensors were first) this debate has begun. They both have positives and negatives to them and I have even written a blog on this one Debate.  I have many years shooting both and can tell you that the differences especially with newer cameras are very small. Full  Frame Sensor are better in low light but not as much as they used to be and crop sensors give you more depth of field. Camera's with full frame are larger and crop sensors are smaller.  Those are the biggest differences. 

Manual vs Auto. Some photographers say that you are not a real photographer unless you shoot in Manual. Others say I can get better photo's quicker by using the Auto settings. I started photography in an age that there really wasn't a choice. It was manual only. I think you should know how to shoot in Manual but think you should use the auto modes and use manual when they don't work. It will make your work flow less complicated and concentrate on composition instead of what shutter speed to use when shooting manual only. 

Photoshop vs Lightroom. This debate has also been around for a while. Photoshop was the first editing program for older photographers then Lightroom came out with easy editing and organizing system.  I use both. I use Lightroom to organize my photo's and do the simple editing that I do and if I have to do some heavy lifting or editing I'll send the photo to Photoshop to do the things that Photoshop is better at. But choosing one over the other is just silly . You should be using both to get the best out of your photo's.

Zooms vs Prime Lenses. I have also had a blog on this subject also. I have a love for both and think that both of them have a place for your photography. Zoom lenses are great for when changing your position is hard like Landscape and wildlife. Primes are great for when you can control your position like Portraits and Street photography. Zooms tend to be heaver than primes and usually have a larger minimum aperture . They both have their place. But to choose one over the other I don't think that is right. But using both to fill out the needs of your photography.

Film vs Digital. This is mainly an Old guy debate as most young photographers have never shot film. But for guys like me _MSP6316 this can be a debatable topic. I like both. I like the look of film . I like the flaws in it. Digital can be flawless and is awesome to shoot with and you can shoot to your self content. With film your limited on the amount of shots on a roll of film. Film is like listening to vinyl record albums. It has a something , something that you can't put your finger on. This is a debate that I have with myself all of the time.

Color vs Black and White. This is a big debate among photographers. Some folks won't shoot Black and white and some won't shoot color. Since the digital age you can shoot both at the same time and I do this sometimes . There is a saying that states " when you shoot color you take pictures of their clothes when you shoot black and white you shoot their souls". Don't know who said this but I do like it. Black and White has a timeless feel to it and sometimes shooting in color the colors just get in the way. I love both and sometimes shoot both at the same time and pick the one I like the best in post.

Natural Light vs Artificial Light.  Among portrait photographers this is a big debate. Some will only shoot in natural light and say that it gives the best colors . Those that shoot with the aid of flash or strobes really control the light and can shoot in any situation. A definite advantage to be able to shoot with the aid of flash because the possibilities are endless. Shooting in Natural light does and can have a special quality to it but getting the light just right can be tough.

So here are some of the classic debates in photography. Do you have some that I don't know about. Please list them in the comments. So let's stop debating and start Shooting! So Get out and Shoot!