Max Stansell Photography Hey Everyone! Hope your week has been as good as mine.  This weeks topic is about making memories with your camera. When we take a photograph we freeze time. You can go back to old photographs and you can see everything as it was back then. Going through your mom's shoebox that is full of old photo's you can see how life was way back when. You can see the clothes , cars and how people lived when the photo was taken. This is very cool. But if you didn't take the photo or if you were not there you don't have the memories. But if you look at a photo that you took years ago you can remember everything about it. The smells, the weather, the sounds the things that you can't see on the photo. This is one of the things that I love about photography.  The hobby of photography offers things that other hobbies don't, Memories. When you look at one of your old photo's the memories flood in . 

How do we preserve the memories? Well back in the film days it was easy we sent our film to be processed and got back prints and negatives. But now a days everything is on a disc of some sort. My advice is to print some way some fashion. I print books usually at the end of the year or for film projects. This year I'm doing a film project and I'm actually having 4x6 prints made of the keepers of each roll. So that takes care of my photography themed stuff but what about family and friends that you take with your smart phone. What about the memories that you have on Facebook? I answered that and went with a company that goes onto your facebook and puts into a book all of your photo's . You can cull out the bad ones and rearrange them the way you want but its a great way to save all of the family photo's that we have now on Facebook or social media.

My camera gets me out and about. I heard that your camera is a passport to life. Meaning that without the excuse of taking some photo's we would just stay at home and not explore the world around us. That was certainly the case for me. When I got back into photography at the dawn of the digital age I took a lot of photo's at home and in my back yard. Still lifes, Macros and the such. But after a while that gets old so I started venturing out to the state parks. There was one only 10 mile from my house that I had never visited before and now I'm there 3 or 4 times a week. Actually it got to all of the state parks in North Carolina. I started hiking and visiting all of the state parks , camping and exploring all along the way. I then joined the camera club in our town that even got me out and exploring even more.  Now I travel up and down the eastern sea board and even took a trip to Utah a couple of years ago. Great memories made one every thrip. None that would have been possible without Photography. When someone names a place that I have gone before the memories flood in of the times when I was there . I can go back and see the photo's of trips I have made, the clothes I was wearing, my weight, what job I was working at the time. All of these memories flood in like it was yesterday. So to me Photography isn't just about the images we make but the memories that we take with us along the way. Well that's it for this week until next. Get out and Shoot! And make some memories.

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great day today! Me ? Pretty good. I'm excited about this week's blog. I have been out of commission for a couple of weeks and was itching to get out and shoot. My photography wingman Robert had never shot film before. So this Sunday we planned a film only photowalk. I set up two cameras that would be pretty equal. Both were 35mm and both had working meters in them to make shooting easier for Robert. I supplied both with 50mm lenses and 28mm lenses.  I also supplied the film one roll of Kodak Gold 200 film (Color) and a roll of Ilford HP5+ (B/W film) . Both at 36 exposures so 72 shots each. Robert was thinking that 72 wasn't very many shots to shoot but he later found out that shooting film is a lot different than shooting digital. I told him that this experience would make him appreciate the fancy Fujifilm camera that he shoots daily.  We were going to shoot everything in manual to include focusing. So there is lots to do. Find the scene, pick the shutter speed and aperture while using the meter to make sure it's going to be the right exposure then there is the focusing. Once you have all of that done then and only then you can push the shutter button! But you're not done you still have to advance the film so you are ready to start again. Sounds simple right? 

We made it to the first town that we were going to shoot. We sat in the car and I went over the controls of the camera he was going to be using. Showing how to Focus, read the meter , Aperture , ISO setting and changing lens. I made sure he understood everything about the camera. We loaded the first roll of film . He was using the Canon AE-1 Program. This is the same camera that he had gifted me a few weeks prior. As a matter of fact after the day was over he had more film though it than I have. I was using my trusty Pentax MX that I have had and used since the early eighties a manual only camera. And off we went. It was very fun to watch Robert work this old camera. I did catch him trying to "Chimp" a couple of times . (looking at the back of the camera) and many times he had forgot to advance the film and went to push the shutter button after composing focusing and getting the exposure right and nothing because he had not advanced the film. I asked him if he could imagine having to learn how to shoot the camera back in the day and having to wait for a week or so to see your photo's came out and then trying to figure out what you did right or wrong without the immediate conformation of what you just shot like with digital. I asked him what was what he missed the most and he told me the flip screen for really low shots because now you have to get really low. But I have to give it to Robert he was committed to doing a good job and it seemed like he really got into the process and took his time shooting. I told him about how much higher a percentage of good shots you get when you have to take your time to get everything right in the shot instead of just shooting away with a digital camera. I told him that if he took some of what he was doing today and applied it to his digital camera just think how good some of the photo's would be.

It was a great day we went to 3 small towns to walk the streets and shoot the interesting things of these towns. It took Robert all day to get through 72 photographs and this was a great exercise . I don't expect Robert to start shooting film but it was a good exercise for him to do and maybe slow down his shooting to get the great shots that I know he always gets. So this is a good exercise for you to do also. Even if you don't shoot film take your camera and shoot manual and limit yourself to 36 shots for a walk around town. Take time to compose and make sure everything is perfect before you pull the trigger. Slowing down will help your Photography. I took all the film at the end of the day. I had 2 rolls of color and 3 rolls of Black and white. I shot a little faster than Robert did and shot an extra roll which was to be expected I was very comfortable with the camera I was using.  

The next day I developed all of the film and Scanned into the computer. We had some really good shots and Robert did a great job. Only one or so were out of focus. And all were exposed correctly. I sent him his shots for him to go over and see what he has done. He was surprised by what he got. 

I enjoyed this experiment with Robert and hope he did too. Trying something new in your photography can make you a better photographer. If you're stuck doing the same thing all the time you don't grow.  Until next week! Get out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! Me?  Fantastic! I just got back from one of my camera clubs (Goldsboro Area Photography Club) workshop. Thought I would tell you about it. Our camera club is a very active club and we have some sort of workshop every month. This month was Wildlife photography . At our meeting which we have once a month also we had a great presentation by one of the wildlife photographers in the group and it was fantastic .  He showed us great examples on the how and the why of wildlife photography. Now I am not by no stretch of the imagination a wildlife photographer. I don't really have the patients for it. But I do like to do it in a workshop environment . So once or twice a year I become a wildlife photographer. 

Our workshop was lead by one of our senior wildlife photographers and he did a great job! Kudos MIKE! Usually when we have one of these workshops we go to a wildlife preserve. Pungo National Wildlife Preserve or Alligator River Wildlife preserve or Lake Mattamuskeet . All in North Carolina. Great places to go to see bears, geese, swans and all kinds of wildlife. This year we went to South Carolina to Huntington Beach State Park and then to Brookgreen Gardens located in Murrells Inlet.  What I liked about this is that there were real bathrooms there and we didn't have to drive around all day looking for wildlife. It did require a three hour drive to get there and we wanted to be onsite by 6 am.  So that meant a O'dark thirty wake up and leaving the meetup place by 3 am.  It was a nice enough drive. We carpooled there and being able to catch up with friends along the way kept us awake and lively. We arrived at Huntington Beach State Park a little after 6 am parked and headed to the causeway where we could view wildlife on both sides. Big water features supplied food and resting places for the wildlife from all sorts of birds and alligators. Got some great shots of some wildlife and some unique marsh landscapes. We then went to a couple of different spots in the park and had more opportunities to see some more wildlife and visit the bathrooms and park store for refreshments .  The weather for the day was Hot with continued Hot! Temps were at 90ish degrees Fahrenheit with a heat index of 105! At about 10:30 we headed to Brookgreen Gardens which was just across the highway from the State Park. We got our tickets and got in. Price is 22 dollars for adults with discounts for seniors and military. But the price is well worth it . I've paid more for less.  The gardens were fantastic and manicured to a tee! Big live oaks with Spanish moss hanging from the trees.  Artwork and fountains and pools are all over and there is a small art museum with hand carved work there.  There is also two or three places to eat there. We ate at the main restaurant and the food and AC was excellent!  After we had a nice lunch we headed out to the small zoo that is located in the gardens. They had all sorts of small animals from eagles, owls, farm animals, red wolfs and otters. I would highly recommend Brookgreen gardens for everyone! It is a very beautiful place but I would also suggest that you go when it's not quite as hot! When it got to be about 3 pm we were about done and headed back home another 3 hour drive and had time to mull over the days events and cool off in the car AC. We got home about 6. This was a full day of fun and shooting and being with friends for some wildlife .  I really enjoyed both Huntington Beach State Park and Brookgreen Gardens and would recommend it to anyone! So until next week get out and shoot!