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Walking around San Francisco, I gave myself a photographing assignment. I was observing and photographing sea gulls, ubiquitous in this coastal city. It was quite fun assignment, with birds not being exactly shy, used to people and maybe even expectibng bribes. They did not get any from me, but I certainly was taking advantage of their posing, like in this image, and the one below.

Alcatraz island was particularly abundant in sea gulls. In the city, I was mostly focusing on a single bird. On the island, I was photographing them in flocks, or at least in small groups. I particularly like this image below because of the elegent posture of the sea gull in the background. It feels very feminine, and the foreground bird makes me think of the accompanying partner. Mind you, I know nothing about the gender differences in both species, so they might as well both be female. Or male.

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i took this HDR image of old automobiles on board of ferry “Eureka”. It is a part of San Francisco National Maritime Museum, which I had a chance to visit in March. It has a very unusual perspective, I admit, yet when I look at it I feel those cars are moving down the deck, and I observe them in passing. i think the leading lines created by those two cars hep creating this feel. Do you feel it, too?

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Being unique and creative when photographing flowers is a challenge, I am discovering. There is only few points of view- from side, above and below. All of them already worked to death. Then you can zoom the lens while photographing with slower shutter speed, or pan it, and maybe shoot through another flower. Use a macro lens for extreme close up. And that’s about it for the photographer’s toolbox toolbox. And yet, each time I am trying to get something different.

I visited Pella, Iowa to admire their tulips display few weeks before their annual event. Most of the tulips were already gone, limiting my photographing options. I came with only a couple of images I liked, it this is the one of those two. I was fascinated by those deep violet tulips, which almost looked black in a shadow. Wandering through residential area, we spotted a bed of those beautiful flowers, and I kneeled to photograph. Serendipitously, I framed my image with this grass straw. I liked it a lot, so it stayed. The texture of the grass and its color provides some contrast to delicate, deep shade of the tulip.

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The author

Mitchell Kanashkevich is a travel photographer and very prolific author of photography-related e-books. Many of the have been reviewed here, on blog: portfolio-style “Journey through Java” and “Rabri”, and more technique and tips orineted “Captivating Color”. A few more will be coming soon. His latest e-book, “Natural light”, was released last week by DIgital Photography School.

The e-book

I consider myself a natural light photographer. I know a thing or two about using speed lights, but I prefer shooting outdoors and not limited by the weight of my gear. I was instantly interested when “Natural light. Mastering photographer’s most powerful tool” by Mitchell Kanashkevich came out. It is not yet another book about natural light, covering basic exposure rules, metering modes and use of reflector. I was very excited to see author’s own spin on one of the most popular book topics.

“Natural light” consists of 96 double page spreads, divided into 7 clearly titled chapters (click on the image on the right to see larger version of the table of contents). It has a good combination of theoretical knowledge and practical tips and examples. The tips in the e-book on the same subject are referenced by clickable page links, the feature I found very useful. And all of it is illustrated with author’s own images from his travels to exotic places. I really enjoy his photographing style of creating often posed, yet totally natural looking shots. The minor complaint I might have, is while images are accompanied by the camera settings, they are missing the note on the place where they were taken.

“Natural light” starts from explaining basics of exposure, including metering modes and use of histogram. The qualities of light are discussed, like intensity, color, angle etc., and how to approach working with often unpredictable and impossible to control natural light. There is also good introduction to post-processing techniques, including differences between global and local adjustments, basics of layers and HDR (High Dynamic Range).

My favorite part of the “Natural light” is the guide to natural light. Mitchell Kanashkevich discusses each type of natural light, often changing with time of the day and weather, in every detail. He talks about the mood each light creates to suggest which stories might work best, the problems each type of natural light causes to photographers and how to overcome them.

“Natural light” ends with 9 case studies. These are images discussed in great detail. The scene is analyzed for composition, technical and artistic decisions and, of course, for light. There is a wealth of practical knowledge hiding in those case studies.

There is a lesson in the “Natural light” I have never seen anybody spell out before. While discussing different times of the day to shoot, Mitchell Kanashkevich is arguing against one of the photographic myths. He is not dismissing shooting in midday sun. Yes, the light is harsh, but in his opinion, it creates a unique mood, just like any other light. In the same way “golden hour” creates a certain mood by warm light falling delicately on the subject, the harsh shadows of the midday can help tell the story of, for example, hard living or working conditions. If you don’t believe it works, see the examples in the e-book!

Another take home message from “Natural light” is to read the e-book, learn the lessons and then practice by observing the constanlty changing light as you go about your life. And note all the photgraphic possibilities of each light to be ready when you are out with your camera, looking for subjects.

The offer

For the limited time, you can purchase “Natural light” by Mitchell Kanashkevich at a special, introductory price of $14.99. It is 25% off the regular price of $19.99! So if you feel this e-book is right for you, don’t wait! Click here to get your copy of “Natural light” today.

The links in this post are affiliate links. See details of our affiliate policy here.

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Previous weekend trip to Pella was very challenging photographically. Two weeks before Tulip Time, the tulips were all faded and dying. I guess they also couldn’t figure out this years strange weather, spring in February and late fall in April.
We spend some time walking around town, looking for any beds with decent looking tulips. We found those beautiful red flowers in the dark yard between the buildings. I knelt down to find more interesting perspective, and it allowed me to capture the sun peaking from behind the buildings. And here it is- another sun flare…

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“Dirt is moving” I heard my husband calling me. He added to get the camera and join him in the yard. He was doing spring cleaning and apparently discovered something interesting. It was early Saturday morning, quite cold for end of April and this little toad did not really care what is happening around. No desire to escape my camera. I had all the time in the world to photograph it. The only thing I had to remember, changing point of views, was to position myself carefully to make enough shade to compensate for the bright sun already out.

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It is this time of the year again. Time to choose four images to send out to Iowa State Fair photography contest. The ultimate, real life test of my accomplishment as a photographer in the last year. The only contest I masochistically participate from the first year I got my dSLR.

Well, technically there is still plenty of time to make choices and send files to Mpix for printing. But the truth is, I am going to be away for most of month of May, and when I am back, I will have just few days to get the package out. Bottom line- another thing, aside of several fixes to the house, we need to get done before taking off.

I know the time spend picking the pictures to send out to State Fair should be a happy day. I can go through the favorite images, mine, my friends (this time my husband and my close friend had few excellent suggestions) and easily choose four best images from last 12 months. Print them and proudly send them off. Well, it typically doesn’t work that way.

Each year I promise myself to make a collection in Lightroom and systematically put in it the best images from all the shooting sessions. Then I would have just one place to go to create a portfolio, or to have easier choice when contest time comes. And yet, I dont do that. And each time I need to go thorough all the images, several thousands of them, including those really bad from family vacation and random iPhone shots…

This year it hit me particularly hard. I am mostly disappointed in how little I improved and how mundane most of images are. First, I decided my images just suck. When I start rationalizing, I still feel bad, but now I am thinking I have seen so many great images in just last few days, that mine are just so boring and there is nothing unusual about them.

Right now, I have still almost twice as much images as I need and I have to edit them down to the final set. I better sleep over the choice. And hopefully, get up tomorrow in a more positive mood. After all, they cannot be all that bad, can they?

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Most of the airshows I attend, I have a chance to see Blue Angels. This air show, elite pilot team from the Navy has its counterpart, as I learned last year, in the Air Force. I am sure I have seen the Thuderbirds previously, just this piece of information was lost. Both teams offers amazing aerobatic show, with military precision and perfectly executed formations. The only thing you could argue is which aircrafts look better photographed on the background of the cloudy sky…

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When the weather finally cleared during my trip to San Francisco last month and I went to see the Golden Gate bridge for the first time in my life, I had no expectations of creating a particularly unique photograph. After all, I am sure it was photographed millions of times, at every weather and every season from every point. However, I was studying the architecture of the bridge during the walk along it. I wanted to take a photograph which would be mine, take my spin on it.
Architecture can be easy to compose in the sense that it provides you a lot of leading lines you can take advantage of. With this in mind, I also knew I am going for a black and white image. The red-painted bridge on the background of almost cloudless blue sky has its charm, but I thought it would take away from this composition. Well, it would also make the post processing more difficult, as working in black and white allowed me to tone those colors separately and quite heavy-handed without affecting the quality of the image and creating artifacts.
I am quite please with it.

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A couple of days ago, we just went out for the evening walk in the neighborhood. It was a nice, spring evening. I just put on my sweater on and took off. No wallet, phone, and certainly not my camera.
I regretted it as soon as we hit the fields. It was right about sunset, and the light was just gorgeous.
Well, out of us two, my husband at least had his phone with him. He allowed me to have it for the walk, so I could start harassing all the dandelions.
I like recently creating those sun flare images. They are nice during the day, but at the golden hour, they look amzing with the warmth added to the light.
The only downside of this phorto session was it was done with iPhone. Not only the white balance required quick adjustment. The overall quality of the images was medium, at least. Although the close up of the dandelion came out surprisingly crisp, I felt I needed to reduce the maximum size of the images for a better viewing quality. I like spontaneity of iPhone shooting, but I am not going to hang them as canvases on the walls anytime soon!

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