The View Findercvcameraclub.org/Newsletters/CVCC _November_ News_16_.pdf · 2016-10-31 ·...

Catawba Valley Camera Club’s Newsletter

The View Finder

November 2016

Photograph by Donny Teague

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Volume 5, Issue 11 November, 2016

We see them every day overhead, and they always make us look up and pon-der. Airplanes are a romantic concept because of the faraway places to which they can take us, and because of the amazing feat of flight itself! The fact that airplanes travel so quickly is something we all connect with. From an artistic point of view, their shape and design are very appealing. These are all factors that have driven me to get as involved with aviation photography as I am with wildlife.

Aviation photography is a fast-growing community. More and more photogra-phers are discovering that not only is it challenging—it's also a lot of fun. Plus, it requires very little gear. For me personally, it's a simple combination of wildlife and landscape photography. The plane is the wildlife, the rest of the photo is the landscape—and when you combine the two, you come up with my style of aviation photography. To help you light the fires and kick the tires, here are ten tips to lift your aviation photography off the ground.

10 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR AVIATION PHOTOGRAPHY

CONTINUE ON PAGE 12,13,14,15,16

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SLAM DUNK QUIZ ANSWERS ON PAGE 17

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WEB SITES TO TRY 4

ASK TIM GREY CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

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CAROLINA RENAISSANCE FESTI-

VAL FIELD TRIP PHOTOS 5,6,7

CLUB OFFICERS & PRESIDENTS REPORT

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PUSHING YOUR COMPOSITION TO THE EDGE

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10,11

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS 3

PERSONAL FIELD TRIP PHOTOS BY DONNY TEAGUE

8,9

INTERESTING PHOT OF THE DAY 16

APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP 19

Inside this issue:

C a t a w b a Va l l e y C a m e r a C l u b

Continued on Page 12

10 Tips to Improve Your Aviation Photography

by Moose Peterson

http://www.moosepeterson.com/blog/

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The world is filled with photographs. I did a bit of research and found the following statistic. Researchers estimate that the average individual is now exposed to approxi-mately 250 different images per day. It’s no secret that we are now inundated with visu-al stimulus. Everyone owns a camera and everyone is shooting images. In 1857 Francis Frith took photographs of the pyramids and the Sphinx. The general public was mes-merized by images of a faraway and exotic location. Today, if I search “Images of the Pyramids” I get 7 mil-lion results; everyone knows what the pyra-mids look like. This whole phenomenon translates into a chal-lenge for photogra-phers. How do you shoot something dif-ferent and unique

Are you up to the challenge? Are you willing to continue experimenting with the methods you use for composing your images? I say push things a little further each time you take a photograph and experiment with how you can use the edge of the image to create interest in your work.

Calendar of Events

Nov 2 Competition - Projection - Weather Randy Knauf

Nov 12 Field Trip - Warbirds over Monroe Janice Setzler

Nov 16 Competition - Projection - Field Trip Images Randy Knauf

Dec 7 Projection - Image Critique Night Randy Knauf

Dec 21 Annual CVCC Dinner & Awards Presentation John Setzler

Jan 4 Competition - Projection - Open Randy Knauf

Jan 18 Presentation - Yellowstone National Park Ed & Donny

Jan 21 Field Trip - Light Factory & Levine Museum Judy Young

Feb 1 Competition - Projection - Open Randy Knauf


Pushing your Composition to the Edge by Erin Fitzgibbon

Continued on page 10

http://digital-photography-school.com/author/erinfitzgibbon/

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Slam Dunk Quiz

As the country gears up for another basketball season, these North Carolina stars are worth cheering for.

1. From 1960 to 1997, UNC basketball coach Dean Smith won 879 games, as well as 13 ACC and two NCAA cham-pionships. Smith, who died last year, was a Tar Heel through and through, but he was originally form what state?

A. Missouri

B. Kansas

C. Arkansas

2. Known as “Coach K,” Duke’s winningest basketball coach surpassed the 1,000-career-victory mark in 2015. Who is this 12-time National Coach of the Year?

A. Mike Kaloyanov

B. Mike Kennedy

C. Mike Krzyzewski

3. Horace McKinney was a star basketball player on the Durham High School team that won 69 games in a row and three state championships. McKinney, who went on to play collage and professional basketball, and also coach at Wake Forest, went by what nickname?

A Brains

B. Beans

C. Bones

4. Basketball star Michael Jordan was named College Player of the Year as a sophomore at UNC. Jordan later played for the Washington Wizards and what other NBA team?

A Chicago Bulls

B. Charlotte Hornets

C. Houston Rockets

5. UNC women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell led her team to the 1994 NCAA championship, and was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004. She was born in what Piedmont city?

A. Winston Salem

B. Gastonia

C. Dunn

Answers on page 17

http://500px.com/popular

http://digital-photography-school.com/

http://photonaturalist.net/

http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/

http://www.steeletraining.com/

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/

Click on the links above

Web Sites to try

Ask Tim Grey

I am embarrassed to say that I forgot to change the time on my camera during a recent trip, so all of my photos show the wrong capture time. Is there a way to fix this in Lightroom?

Tim's Quick Answer:

Yes, you can very easily correct a time zone discrepan-cy for your photos in Lightroom using the Edit Cap-ture Time command found on the Metadata menu.

More Detail:

For situations where the capture time error is simply due to having neglected to change the time on your camera when changing time zones, the correction is quite simple. First, navigate to the location where the affected photos are stored, and then choose Edit > Se-lect All from the menu to select all of the photos in that location.

You can then choose Metadata > Edit Capture Time from the menu to bring up the Edit Capture Time dia-log. Choose the second option in the "Type of Adjust-ment" section of the dialog, which is labeled "Shift by set number of hours (time zone adjust)". Then, in the New Time section, choose the applicable number of hours you need to shift the images by from the popup at the far right. Keep in mind that you can choose a


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Photographs by Tom Devlin


Carolina Renaissance Festival Field Trip Photos

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Photographs by Tom Devlin

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Photographs John Fuller

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Photographs by Donny Teague


Photo Trip to Highlands, NC

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Photographs by Donny Teague


Photo Trip to Highlands, NC

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when the world uploads 1.8 billion photographs a day?

There is no easy answer. I don’t know how many times I have heard someone say, “That’s a beautiful image of the shoreline. You are a really great photographer but take a look at this. I shot the same thing last year on vacation.” Some photographers may become frustrated with this occurrence, but perhaps we should look upon this as a challenge. What can you do to make your photographs more unique?

Live on the edge – of composition

We all want people to view our images and say, “That’s amazing! I’ve never seen that before!” It’s going to be tough but it’s worth a try. It’s time to push your composi-tion skills to their limits. Consider using techniques or viewpoints that are a little unconventional. Try pushing the main subject of your composition towards the edge of your frame. Let’s consider this photograph of a kayaker.

In this version, the image is composed using the rule of thirds. The scene has a pretty unique atmosphere as the sun struggles to break through the morning mist. Should-n’t that be enough to make the viewer stop and take no-tice? It’s a beautiful image and it was a fantastic morn-ing. I know people will love this image. But what if it was recomposed to push the kayaker to the edge of the


Continued from page 3 Pushing your Composition to the Edge


frame? Does this make the image even more appealing? Consider the difference.

This second image is cropped way down to illustrate a point. What did you look at first? Hopefully, your answer is the red light on the left of the frame and then your eye moved over the image to discover the kayaker. This tech-nique is called “the delay” which means that the viewer is delayed by other details before focusing on the main sub-ject. This means that the viewer notices the details in a much slower and more deliberate manner. You might even create the emotion of surprise when your viewer discovers the full extent of your composition. That’s a good thing. Creating emotions within the viewer ensures they will re-member your image.

When the rule of thirds is not the best choice

Let’s take a look at another image. In this case the main subject, the flower bud, has been pushed right to the edge of the frame.

By placing the main subject closer to the edge of the frame you can create more tension within your image (above left). The image is certainly more dynamic and interesting than this conventional version which focuses on placing the flower bud along the rule of thirds (above right).

In this shot of the boxer and his trainer I was disappointed and considered it a failure because it didn’t follow any of

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the rules of composition. The autofocus locked onto the training gloves, not the boxer. But after consultation with the magazine editor, he decided to use it because the an-gle was so unique. The composition told the story in a different way. Notice the trainer’s nose is just in view in the top corner. The editor loved that element and it sealed his choice.

Sometimes you will be surprised by what works.

Finding the right balance

Of course, there are times when this tech-nique doesn’t work and the resulting image just feels unbalanced and awkward. This image of a decaying pier in Lake Huron is a good exam-ple of when placing the subject close to the edge unbalances the shot.

There’s just too much visual weight placed on


Continued from page 10 Pushing your Composition to the Edge the right side of the frame and the image is not successful. But that’s okay because at least something was learned about the im-portance of creating visual balance when pushing the subject matter to the very edge of the frame. Try to balance the weight of the object along the edge with the visual weight of the rest of the space.

Conclusions

However, you choose to compose your images the chal-lenge will always be to create something unique that stands out from the crowd. The reality is the crowd of im-ages is only going to get bigger.

The post Pushing your Composition to the Edge by Erin Fitzgibbon appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Continued from page 2 10 Tips to Improve Your Aviation Photography

1) Holding the Camera

This is the number-one tool, technique, trick and tip that you must master for aviation— and for all pho-tography. There is little tripod usage in aviation work, mainly because of time, space and safety. However, you still must provide your camera with a solid platform to get those sharp images, especially in low light. The following technique must become a second nature for you, so practice, practice, practice.

Start with your left hand bent with the palm up. Then rest the lens barrel in your left palm. If you open your hand and the lens falls, than you’re not doing it right. Gravity should just hold the lens in your palm. Your right hand should grasp the camera body, with your finger resting on the shutter release. Activating the camera should be accomplished by a slight amount of pressure from your finger, firing the cam-era requiring just a little more pressure. You don’t want to lift your finger up and down to fire the cam-era. Bring your elbows into your sides, and have a rubber eyecup to bring the whole rig up against your face. Practice this until you’re comfortable shooting a stationary rock at 1/30 and getting a sharp image, and you’ll be doing great!

2) Panning

Panning is an old technique that we use to freeze the motion of a moving subject. It’s really simple. The camera is going to keep pace with the speed of the moving subject, and in doing so, as far as the camera is concerned, the subject is not moving. You can shoot at 1/20 while panning, and the subject will be sharp. Like holding the camera, you need to practice, practice, practice.

Using the proper camera-holding technique, follow the subject in your viewfinder by twisting at the waist. You don’t want to move the camera around to do this; you want to twist your entire trunk. This gives your camera a stable platform, and a smooth axis in which to turn. You can practice by photo-graphing a dog chasing a ball. For aircraft, practice on cars driving by on the street. Practice at different shutter speeds to see how they affect the background blur, and to see just how good your panning is be-coming.

3) Light is Essential!

Light is the very heart and soul of photography, and


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Continue on Page 14



it’s how we bring romance to aircraft. Shooting in the early and late hours is the norm, but you’ll quickly find that aircraft most often are in the air during the noon hours. That’s just fine, because we can make that work in our favor. Unlike most pho-tography, we use all three lighting patterns with avi-ation: front, side and back.

Use the light to tell only as much of the story as you need to. For example, planes have wings; however, you don’t need to have them all lit. Backlighting works if light is coming through the canopy where the pilot sits. It might seem out of place, but think of romantic landscape lighting when photographing aircraft and you’ll do just fine.

4) Giving Motion to Stills

This is essential, whether you’re photographing parked planes, or planes in flight. In our minds, planes are moving, flying through the air. In our photos, they are frozen in time no matter what the plane was doing when we went click. We need to give them motion, even though they're frozen in our stills. There are two easy ways to do this.

If the aircraft is parked, simply shoot from a low vantage point. Have a pair of knee pads (tarmacs are hard, and they get hot) and take a knee. Shooting up does two things: You see more of the underneath of the aircraft, and you take in more sky. That’s where the planes of our imaginations live. If a propeller plane is flying, go to Shutter Speed Priority, and use a speed less than 1/125. This will blur the prop, which gives it a sense of motion—even though it's a still image.

5) Clouds

Bald skies are lame, especially with aircraft! When we look up at planes in flight, we often see clouds

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behind them. When you watch a movie, airplanes are usually flying through clouds. That's where our hearts and imaginations place them. So clouds are a natural element that you want to incorporate when-ever you can.

If you have lots of clouds, shoot wide, and don't worry that the plane might be smaller in the frame. If you have a small amount of clouds, shoot tight, and position yourself so you get in the background the few clouds that are available. If the plane is in flight, plan your panning to incorporate the clouds in the background. This is essential when shooting jets, because without a prop, you need clouds to give them a sense of motion in a still capture. If you’re really lucky, the clouds will be low, so as you pan, they blur in the background. Now you’re talking aviation photography!

6) Lenses

This is the easiest tip to write. You need just one lens to start. The Nikon 80-400 or Canon 100-400 will take care of 90% of your aviation photography needs. You’ll want a body that fires the fastest FPS you can afford, but when it comes to glass, one lens pretty much does it all. When you get hooked (and you will get hooked—be forewarned!), you will next want a wide lens, like an 18-35 or a 16-35. You don’t need a “fast lens,” since you’re often shooting f/11 to f/32, but you want the fastest autofocus operation that you can afford.

7) Start at Air Shows

Airshows are the perfect place to get started, for many reasons—the best one being that you get to know your subject. There are old and new, fast and slow, common and rare aircraft, and nearly every photographer ends up with their favorites. For exam-ple, I’m into Warbirds, which are considered WWII/Korea-era aircraft. But I have a fondness for bi-planes. When you follow your passion, it shows in your photos, and that’s the best advice I can ever give you.

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Air shows are also a great place to learn about the history of the aircraft, which is important. It's simi-lar to what our teachers taught us about being a good writer: “If you want to write about a subject, you have to know it.” The same is true with aircraft. The better you know them, the better your photog-raphy will be.

8) Volunteer

Some of the best aviation photographers still volun-teer their time. Be it at air shows, museums or a fly-in, volunteering incorporates everything I’ve al-ready covered, with one important aspect added in: commitment. Many photographers have come be-

fore you, and some of them have damaged the good-will out there by not following through. For example, they may have promised prints and never delivered them. Volunteering puts you in the right place at the right time, and that’s everything. When you just show up, pilots will sometimes offer to take you fly-ing. You want to be there so you can say with a giant smile, "Yes!" Volunteer—you’re photography will thank you!

9) The Print

It’s really simple: A photo speaks volumes, and when you give a plane owner or pilot a print of them and their aircraft, the hangar doors fly open. Seriously, it’s that simple, and it’s that important. If you get re-ally serious, getting a Epson 3880 might be the best investment you can make in your aviation photog-raphy.

10) It’s All About Relationships

This is the most important tip I can give you: Planes are all about people! The people that fly them, own them, and keep them running. These are the folks you want to build relationships with. You meet them at air shows, you meet them at airports, you meet

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them when you’re talking to someone else about aircraft. They are incredibly passionate about their skill and craft, and it’s something you want to tap into. Biologists have been the key to my success in wildlife photography, and pilots the key to my avia-tion success. You will find no better friends than pilots into whose hands you’ve put a print of their aircraft. Once you’ve done that, seriously, the sky's the limit!

Is there more to aviation photography than these ten tips? Absolutely! You can find more info in our Photographic FUNdamentals iBook and Taking Flight iBook. Both are available in iTunes under the Moose Press app. These tips will get you started in succeeding in aviation photography. The best group of shooters you’ll ever associate with are out there waiting to help you, and I guarantee you’ll have fun!

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Interesting Photo of the Day:

Lion Steals Camera and Tripod

Nature shots in a safari setting feature the most pow-

erful, wild animals that Africa has to offer. Often-

times, taking photos from a distance is the best way

to capture these shots and remain safe. But what hap-

pens if your camera is left behind to sit in place and

shoot these images for you? The result can be lethal:

Photographer Thomas Selig captured this shot of a

female lion in Kenya departing with another photog-

rapher’s camera setup. He remarked afterwards that

the tripod was lost, but they were able to recover the

camera and lens. Unfortunately, the lens had been

half eaten by the lions and lost function. Apparently,

all it took was a long wait before they could go get it

back!

“Lion and photo camera” by Thomas Selig.”

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Continued from page 4 Ask Tim Grey

positive or negative value depending on the direction of the required shift.

When you select a number of hours to adjust the time by, the capture time for the currently active image will be presented, along with the updated time based on the correction you've selected. This enables you to vali-date that you have selected the correct number of hours to adjust the capture time by. When you have con-firmed that the setting is correct, you can click the Change button to apply the adjustment. Keep in mind that this action can't be undone, so if you make an error you'll have to apply a new adjustment to the capture time to compensate.

It is also worth noting that by default Lightroom will only update the capture time for your images within the Lightroom catalog. If you want to save the changes to the actual image files, you'll need to enable two options in the Catalog Settings dialog for the current catalog.

First, you'll need to enable the "Automatically write changes into XMP" checkbox on the Metadata tab in the Catalog Settings dialog, so that Lightroom will save metadata updates to the image files in addition to saving those changes to the Lightroom catalog.

In addition, to enable updates to the capture time you'll need to enable the "Write date or time changes into proprietary raw files" checkbox so that the metadata for RAW captures will be updated for those files, in ad-dition to updating the Lightroom catalog.

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Slam Dunk Quiz Answers

1. B. Kansas

2. C. Mike Krzyzewski

3. C. Bones

4. A. Chicago Bulls

5. B. Gastonia


Video Links You May Like

What is the Blue Hour??

Bird Photography Tips

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November presents the last two opportunities to win points toward the year-end awards. Our first meeting, Nov. 2, Is an assigned subject projection event on “Weather”. The Nov. 16th. Meeting is projection competition on ”Field Trip” Images.

In between on November 12 is our final field trip to the “Warbirds over Monroe”. This is a yearly event at the Monroe Municipal Airport and affords some really good low passes and aerial maneuvers. Don’t miss any of these fellowpship and learning events.

I look forward to seeing you at the Camera Club.

John Setzler

President’s Report

We’re on the Web

http://cvcameraclub.org/

Club Officers

President: John Setzler [email protected] Vice President: Tom Devlin [email protected] Secretary: Judy Young [email protected] Treasurer: Stan Bolton [email protected] Image Coordinator: Randy Knauf [email protected] Webmaster: Ed Lane [email protected] Programs: Doreen Sugierski [email protected] Newsletter Donny Teague [email protected]


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Application for Membership

NAME_____________________________________________________DATE__________________

ADDRESS_________________________________________________________________________

CITY_____________________________________STATE________________ZIP_______________

PHONE: HOME (____)____________WORK (____)___________CELL (____)_______________

E-MAIL___________________________________________________________________________

Dues are $35 per year. Meetings are the first and third Wednesday of each month. Students: $15 per year.

New Member ____ Renewal ____ CLUB USE ONLY: Date Received______________ Cash_______ Check______

Please indicate your preference for committee membership on which you would serve if asked.

Program ____ Field Trip Leader ____ Working on Website ____ Newsletter ____ Mentoring ____ Social Events ____

Publicity ____ External Judging ____

Club Website: www.cvcameraclub.org

Please print clearly as our club correspondence is conducted via e-mail.

Occupation:____________________________________________________________________________

Website:_______________________________________________________________________________

My skill level in Photography would best be described as: Beginner ___ Intermediate ___ Advanced____ Professional ____

Do you have accounts with: Facebook ____ Google+ ____ Twitter ____ Other ___________________________________

Shoot Mostly: Film ____ Digital ____ Both ____

Camera Make: Canon ____ Nikon ____ Sony ____ Other _____________________________________________________

Photography Interest: (Check All that Apply)

Architecture ____ Eclectic ____ Events ____ Family ____ Landscapes ____ Macro ____ Nature ____

Photojournalism ____ Portraiture ____ Sports ____ Travel ____ Underwater ____ Waterfalls ____

Wild Flowers ____ Wildlife ____ Other ____________________________________________________________________

Computer System: Mac ____ Windows ____

Photo Editing Software: Aperture ____ Elements ____ Lightroom ____ Photoshop ____

Other _____________________________________________________________________________

The View Findercvcameraclub.org/Newsletters/CVCC _November_ News_16_.pdf · 2016-10-31 ·...

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