The Digital Photographer Inside

Belly Dancers, Beautiful Women, Beautiful Photographs

2011-02-18T17:21:00.000-05:00

I recently had the photo shoot of a "Middle East" experience at the Casablanca Hookah Lounge in Sarasota the other day. I got to meet the lovely Bethsheba Almah and her beautiful Goddesses of Sisterly Love. These ladies have a unique bond that Bethsheba Almah has brought into her teachings of the art of belly dance. There is a camaraderie and love that these ladies not only share but express in their incredibly sensual dances that would make it tough for any photographer not want to shoot.
That being said, you can see more of these photos at my website www.imagesbydavidtaylor.com look for my Folder "Things Sarasota" and you will see "Belly Dancers".
So how do you go about and shoot "Belly Dancers"? It is a little more complex than just point and shoot, especially if you are in a lounge environment that has a number of patrons watching the show. Of course the shows venue was not lit up like one would like, so we have to go to the ISO factor. Yep, I had to shoot on ISO3200 to get some shots of the girls dancing, especially interesting where shots of the girls dancing with veils. Now these photos being shot at that high of an ISO will have a lot of noise (pixalation, as it is called in the business) and will not have much value unless you go to your photoshop type program and start doing some extra work. And that is a another story, so how did I take these shots. Of course the shot in the upper left, I used my flash (SB-800), shutter speed of 60th of second, aperture of F/8, straight forward stuff, right?!! So for the belly dancers to have motion in there photos, I was using an F/stop of F8, ISO of 3200, shutter speed of 3 seconds... yes I know that was a long time but in that time, I got some amazing photos, like the shot below, of course I am using the Nikon D90 and my 18 to 105mm zoom lens, a good D-SLR does help!
In looking for a different type of subject, look out for any belly dancers, the costumes are very colorful, the dancing is amazing and the people are wonderful. Use your camera to capture a "moment in time" of a belly dancer doing her exotic moves and you will have some spectacular photos!! And as always, have fun shooting!!!

When Action is Called Get the Photo

2010-12-08T17:35:00.001-05:00

When "Action!!" is called, you have to long be ready for "the shot" of the day. You have to have the camera aimed, the setting set and focused on a point where all of the action will take place. Yes, this was taken at Disney and I was ready. I had my Nikon D90, a 18 to 105 telephoto zoom lens, a shutter speed at 200th of second and an F-stop of F/8. I choose the shutter speed to stop the action (actually I fired off 5 frames to capture the fireworks) and I wanted to catch the car in mid air as well. I also wanted the background to be sharp and the photo lit up by the fire and fireworks, hence the F-stop of F/8. I was pretty lucky that the sun was behind me and this also contributed to lighting the entire scene, but as you can see it was the fire and fireworks that did most of the illumination in this photo. Remember, when you want to stop action, you want a fast shutter speed and a rather sharp F-stop (higher number) which in this case, gives the illusion of the car being lit by the fire and fireworks. So when you know someone is going to be yelling "action" be ready to get "the shot of the day!"

Siesta Key Sand Art for 2010

2010-11-20T14:13:00.000-05:00

Sun, sand, the beach, that time of the year!! I know it's November, but in Florida, it is outdoor time for the real natives. We Floridians live for it and understand when you arrive at the beach and aren't turning to a french fry ten minutes later. The humidity is half of what it is in July and temperatures are in the mid 70's. Yes it's fun to be at the beach, surfing, swimming, sunning, sand castle building. You read it right, Sarasota's Siesta Key has an annual sand castle festival, it is actually called the Siesta Key Sand Sculpture Competition, but the people who do these extreme works of sand come from all over the world. I am told that the state of Washington is the number two place for sand castle building. Who would know? Anyway, this photograph, one of many of the sand sculptures is one of my favorites and as you can tell it has an incredible amount of detail. Yes, you have to get to the beach early, the festival didn't open till 9:00am. Once in you have a few minutes to get some extreme photos without having to jockey for position, trying to get by everyone else who is also trying to take photos too. After all, it is only a four day event and you have to get the photos as quick as you can, crowds permitting. As for shooting this photo, you can tell the sun was coming from my left, I wanted it to be back lit, yet I wanted the detail in front. I shot this at 200th of second, my f-stop was 14 and I fired my flash which just filled in enough to light up the front of the sand sculpture. The detail in this photo is amazing and it has a very relaxed looking dragon as the subject. The artists were working on this as I began to photograph it and were real nice about stepping away to allow me to get this awesome photo. I have enjoyed the sand art over the years and it gets better and better. The art is sometimes so real looking that you do a double take. Yes I shot quite a few from different angles and you can see more of this and other sand art on my website. Go ahead, stick your eyes on the sand and be amazed at the extreme art made of good old beach sand!! Don't forget the sun tan lotion!!

Photo Show at the Arts Center in Sarasota FL

2010-11-15T20:07:00.000-05:00

Still Waters Run Deep (in the Fiber of Our Being)

I invite everyone to the Arts Center in Sarasota this Thursday (November 18th) for the opening of the expose called "The Fiber of Our Being." This event will be held from November 18th through Jan 8th, 2011. Of the 326 entries, only 153 were chosen and I was fortunate to have a photo chosen for the show. This is not just a photo but you get a look at my writing as well. I imbedded a poem that I wrote on the photo, something of a gamble that paid off. The photos is from a book that I am working on about a state park in Ohio called Hocking Hills. It is located in southern Ohio and this shot was taken in July of 2009 while on vacation with my family. I would like to encourage everyone to take a look at the amazing work that was entered for this prestigious show. I will include the words from the photo, thanks for looking!!

The Fiber of Our Being by David Taylor

Choices we make, a direction we choose and decisions we have made.

Living with our thoughts, emotional ties, white lies, angry eyes, soft cries.

Open spaces, hard knocks, golden locks, sunset on the dock, soft rock.

Warm socks, nature walks, quiet talks, a cold drink.

Hot coffee, heartfelt, mind piercing, thought provoking, love making.

Butterfly kiss, gentle touch, easy itch, feeling rich, losing hope.

The last laugh, trying to cope, spiteful hurt, intense pain,

The wrong lane, tears of joy, big boy toys, sinfully delicious, wrongly tried.

Instant jealousy, a lost love, peaceful ties, blue eyes, lonely hearts,

Your mother’s yell, your dad’s belt, brother’s cry, sister’s laugh.

Your new car smell, diesel fuel, old tools, a living hell,

Being old, looking young, feeling lost, wanting to rock.

Ice cream sundae, brain freeze, gentle breeze, weak knees,

Hole in one, touchdown, silly frown, out on the town.

Different stroke, hard felt poke, cold coke, one more toke,

Finding time, lost dime, in your prime, lemon-lime, no more rhymes.

Here Ye Here Ye the Medieval Fair is In Town

2010-11-14T20:22:00.001-05:00

You still have one more weekend to go back to the times when knights ruled the world! November 20th and 21st (Saturday and Sunday) will be the next time you can go back into time. You can see jousting knights, human chess matches and eat food of the period. It is also a great place for photo opportunities. These knights make some serious noise hitting all that metal with just wooden swords, one can only imagine what kind of noise if they were real!!
So how do we photograph this fast pace action. I took this photo using an f-stop of F8 and a shutter speed of 125th of second. There is a lot happening so I decided to let the 5 frames per second motor drive built into my D90 take over to catch some interesting actions. I really find the Medieval Fair a great photo heaven, most of the actors/characters are very gracious about allowing you to photograph them, which makes again, for some real interesting photos. There are many things going on at the fair that there will never be a dull moment to not get some really interesting photos. You can check out my website at : www.imagesbydavidtaylor.com for more of these photos. If you come on the weekend, you can find me and we can get some really great action and period type photos. If you are interested call me or email me and we will set up a mini class and take the knights on for our own photo jousting match!!

2010 Sarasota Chalk Festival - Don't Miss It Next Year!!

2010-11-02T20:59:00.000-04:00

Remember the days of chalking on the neighborhood streets when you were a kid?! The Sarasota Chalk Festival took place over the weekend of Oct 30 & 31 2010, yep Halloween weekend!! As you can see the art is based on this hollowed day for those of you who love that time of the year. My weekend was highlighted by the annual chalk festival and I loved it. I have more of these photos up on my website, this is an example of some of the art that graced the Burns Court neighborhood streets. The photo I have, as an example of the art, is actually sunlight in the right places that gives it the "highlighted" shoulder and the light on the eyes, making the drawing appear to have depth. I have one photo that actually was a 3-D chalk drawing and was able to capture it. Again, check my website and you will see the "mouse trap game" photo. It will amaze you with what appears to be "floating" items in the photo. As for this photo, I liked the way the light plays on the shoulder, giving the material a waving appearance. You have to remember this image is a chalk drawing on a city street, giving due credit to the artistic talent. I have always enjoyed this annual festival and will continue to support it. As for how this photo was shot, you will have to remember that it is the early morning light that is coming across the street that gave the streaks of light to appear at the right time. Thus giving me the strange lighting condition on a flat surface. I shot this at ISO 100, F/10 and 1/60th of second shutter speed. I spot metered on the light which gave darker shadows and this photo. So the next time you see some chalk on the street, take advantage of the light and maybe you will get a scary photo like this!!

Photographing Exotic Flowers

2010-09-27T20:40:00.002-04:00

You are looking at a Bird of Paradise flower that I shot at a friends house. The flowers have stunning colors, shapes and have fascinated me since the first time I had seen one. While I have filmed many of these flowers, everyone seems to have a different look from the one next to it. How did I shoot this flower?! I started with a Nikon D90 using a 18 to 105mm lens, a fast lens but I was able to catch the sunlight on the flower that had a shadow in the background to give this "in your face" color. I shot with a an f/stop of 16 and a shutter speed of 500th of a second. When I start looking to shoot flowers, I become very aware of what is in the background. I have had to many really beautiful flowers that lost their impact because I did not watch what was in the background. I find myself seeing some really beautiful flowers but I can't shoot them because of the background light. You will loose so much if your flower shot is lost in the background. Remember to be patient about when you do decide to shoot flowers. You may have to get up very early to catch first light or very late in the day to catch those "golden hours" of light to light up your flower, yet leave your background in a way as to make your flower "pop" out of the picture. Look for unusual and different angles, different patterns, even creatures (insects or animals) on or near your flower to not only give it a unique perspective, but to show nature being nature.
Patience is probably the most important element in getting the perfect flower photo. You will be richly rewarded if you have the "peace and harmony" when photographing things in nature. And don't forget to share those beautiful flower shots with us!!

Black and White is it for You

2010-07-26T19:32:00.000-04:00

Black and white photography can have a dramatic affect on your photos. When I am shooting photos, in the back of my mind, I am envisioning what the photo may look like in the black and white world. Part of tweaking the photos, I convert the photo to black and white. How do you convert to black and white? If you are an Adobe Photoshop user, I use the "Desaturate" option under "Adjustments". I use this feature, because it allows me to use all the other features of photoshop. If you use the "Grey Scale" feature you limit your photos to a very few features in photoshop. While using Photoshop I find that I can use the "Levels" command and the "Brightness and Contrast" commands as well, which gives me a great deal of control over the contrast as in the example photo shown. With a little practice you can have some really stunning black and white photos that surely will get you the Wow factor that I believe black and white photos must have to keep ones eyes glued to your photos. Go for the Wow factor... and you will be shooting more black and white!

Creation of Strange and Unique Photos

2010-07-03T19:23:00.006-04:00

Happy Fourth of July to all!! Hope you enjoyed this long weekend and got some great photos. My favorite photos shooting on this weekend is of course the fireworks. So how do you shoot fireworks? I use a tripod, a zoom lens and a long exposure. As an example of fireworks shooting, the photo on the left was done by having the camera on "bulb" setting (in Manual Setting). I set the lens to an F-Stop of F/11. I hold the shutter down (in the "bulb" mode, the shutter stays open as long as you hold the shutter open. In the photo at the left, I moved the zoom lens in and out to get some rather usual effects. I open the shutter as the fireworks is leaving the ground, as the explosion happens, I either zoom out or in depending on what I am trying to achieve. As the second explosion happens I release the shutter and get ready for the next set of fireworks to leave the ground. Again, you can just set your zoom lens to the "far out" setting and take spectacular fireworks photos by holding the shutter open until the "fireworks" explosion is over. I like doing both, sometimes just catching a really colorful explosion gets some rather unique photos, but I use the zoom lens and get some even more spectacular fireworks photos. So take your time and do not feel overwhelmed by the fast pace of fireworks, just jump in and shoot and you will be amazed at what you get. One of the benefits of shooting fireworks is the fact that I am near the ocean and not only do I get the fireworks reflecting on water, but before the fireworks there is always that chance of a real colorful sunset. and yep, I was pretty lucky and got the best of both worlds. Good luck shooting your fireworks and don't be afraid to share those amazing shots.

Remembering Forgotten Heros - Thanking Those Who Served

2010-05-31T21:06:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day, 2010 has come to a close and I would like to wish those who served, a "heartfelt thank you" for your duty to our country. For those of you who were out capturing the days images, I hope you got photos that really brought home the point of this day. Yes, it is a day to celebrate with family and friends, but it is also a day of remembering those who "gave it all". You got the barbecue and the kids playing, did you get a photo of a hero today? How about the parades, did you find that shot that said "thank you for serving"? Shooting a parade is pretty challenging, given the fact your lighting conditions change all the time. Yeah, you could stick your camera on automatic and get great shots, but what about the ones that have that Memorial Day impact.

You know the one of the old veteran sitting alone, looking stoic and obviously contemplating the past! Many times we look past these moments not realizing that this "hero" has his own moment to remember those "hero's in his life". I imagine he goes back to the battle or battles and relives the battles all over again, like some ageless photographs, etched in his mind of some comrades who fell and never got back up. I imagine him feeling the pain in his heart of these friends who would never come home. And I imagine the pain of the wounds of battle that will live with him forever. What may seem an eternity of thoughts is just a mere few seconds of time, but did you get that shot?
Or how about those folks in the parade that made up their own "reminder" signs. I mean the real creative ones that really bring the point home of "thanking those who served". You know the real colorful red, white and blue ones that are so big they take both hands to hold on too! And yes, you always see "God Bless America" but the one that has to say it all is the one on the other side that reads" We owe our Freedom to Vets", you know, those forgotten hero's who proudly served and gave you your freedom to have a day like today. Thanks to all who took that photo with your "hero" and got the memory, hugging your hero, thanking them for being there for all Americans. While I shot over 350 photos today, I feel I didn't get enough of the "hero's" who bravely served our country but what I did get will "Remember the Forgotten Hero's and Thank Those Who Served"!

Honor Those Who Fought For Your Freedom

2010-05-15T21:45:00.000-04:00

As Memorial Day approaches I was reminded this past week again, of those Hero's who fought for our freedom. Another military friend had past on Wednesday, my friend, Daniel W. Majors. He was a highly decorated pilot from the Viet Nam war. His passing will be sorely missed, as Dan was one of the most likeable persons you could ever meet. Sadly, I just got to meet his family at his funeral, Dan being from St Louis did not give us time to meet family. Dan was one of the few people who could get you to laugh without much effort on his part, but he could also make you think about what was going on, especially if you were into sports. Ole Dan loved his Dodgers and was always wanting to see St Louis play against them.
When I first met Dan and he introduced himself to me, he had the warmest welcome I think I've ever felt from anyone. I was pretty fortunate to have met this wonderful person, but finding out about his military history was pretty impressive. Although I won't go into detail, the passing of this Hero is a grim reminder that so many Hero's are not apprecitated and remembered like they should be. I hope that this Memorial Day you will go out and photograph Hero's you know, if not for your own interest, be it for the history of that individual. After all, that Hero went were alot of people have never been and knew what he had to do, that Hero went into combat. There are no words to try to explain what fear, yet courage these Hero's faced in a time in there life when otheres were busy enjoying the freedoms that we have in this country. Memorial Day is two weeks away, thank a Hero and you just might want to get a photo with them too!

National Cemetary in Sarasota FL 5-12-2010

A Little Something to Remember My Mother

2010-05-09T19:27:00.002-04:00

I wish Heaven had a phone so I could hear your voice again. I thought of you today, but that is nothing new. I thought about you yesterday, and days before that too. I think of you in silence, I often speak your name. All I have are memories and a picture in a frame. Your memory is a keep sake, from which I'll never part. God has you in his arms. I have you in my heart. Hope you got a great photo of Mom today, you will never get enough. For those of you who spent the day with your Mother, I hope you got a lot of photos of her. You can never get enough time with your Mother, nor photos. Happy Mothers Day, Mom!

New Lights New Approach To Photography!

2010-04-26T20:56:00.000-04:00

Isn't it amazing the new found passion you find when you get new photo equipment? Recently, I replaced my old model lights with some new Alien Bee strobe lights. Wonderful product and of course I was biting at the bit to use them. Thanks to my actor and director friend, Dan, I was able to spend the afternoon utilizing my new lights.
While we were in Dan's living room, I found that I was shooting a whopping 200th of second at F/18, because Dan's living rooms interior space only allowed us to be in a space of approximately eight feet by eight feet. Yep, the lights probably gave Dan enough light he needed that he won't need to go out for a tan! I was shooting a 1600 watt main light, 800 watt secondary and a 400 watt hair light. Yes there was alot of light hitting my subject, but as you can tell the results were pretty impressive. The detail and sharpness amazed me, I could have stopped alot of action in place, including I think my subject blinking his eyes.
Now the product, Alien Bee's, a weird name for photo strobes but they are a great product for the price. The company does have a more expensive higher end line of lights, but if you are like me, the wallet does not get to put out that many dollars at one time. I had a budget, I stuck to it and saved (gave up eating out for a couple of months and having paid off the car) I had put enough away to get all the lights that I wanted for a professional looking setup. I now swear by these lights and if you are interested in them, Google - "Alien Bee's" and look at the hardware packages. The company actually gives you a discount for buying more than one light, so you can't go wrong. The "Beginner Bee" package gets you started with one light if you don't have the ready cash to buy three light. But if you can afford the "Professional Bee" package it is "the" package to get "stung" owning. But the point being, get yourself some strobe lights and take your portrait photography to the next level. Who knows maybe you will be doing famous celeb's too!!

The Wallenda's 7 Man Pyramid

2010-02-12T17:02:00.000-05:00

The "Greatest Show on Earth" continues as we go inside the "Big Top" to photograph the great Wallenda families 7 person pyramid on the high wire. First of all, we should congratulate the unbelievably talented Wallenda family, led by Nik Wallenda for this amazing artistry on the high wire. From my previous post you read about his walk between the Ritz Carlton and One Watergate in Sarasota FL on February 4th. The "Circus Sarasota" event is even more amazing as a number of family members participate in this incredible feat. So how do we photograph in the "Big Top"!! We don't have much light to begin with, we can't use a flash (you would need one the size of a small car), so what is the procedure here. You need to again look at your ISO, you want the camera to absorb as much light as possible. You will need a lens that will let in as much light as possible. Remember light is the element that you "paint the canvas" with, so in low light conditions, you will need as much as you can get!! I took this photo with an ISO of 800, my 55 to 200mm zoom lens set at 60th of second and a F/stop of F4. I would have preferred a lens of 70 to 200mm with a f2.8 or better lens aperture opening, again one of those lens on my wish list. And of course, the most important thing was I used a tripod, there were moments that I set the shutter speed down to 40th of a second with some amazing results. If you go out and experiment with settings you could easily be getting great shots of the "high wire"act in your town!! It's a bit harder than you think, but remember if you experiment with your camera, adjust the aperture and shutter speed. The time it takes to get across the "high wire" is a slow process, think the same way with your shutter release. When there is a momentary pause in the act, release the shutter. Your subject is still for that split second, which is enough time for you to get a great shot! This applies in low light, dark background photo environments. Have fun and enjoy your shoot in the "Big Top"!! By the if your in Sarasota between Feb 12 and 28th I would encourage you to check out Circus Sarasota!

Circus Sarasota in Town Feb 12th thru 28th

2010-02-07T13:41:00.002-05:00

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Greatest Show on earth!" Why? I had the photo opportunity to photograph the Great Nik Wallenda, walking the high wire. Not just any high wire, how about one that was 600 feet long (that's two football fields, folks!) and 200 feet up in the air. The high wire was stretched between two buildings here in Sarasota, the One Watergate Tower condominium and the Ritz Carlton Hotel. If you do not know, this event took place on Thursday, February 4, 2010 at approximately 9:18 AM. (That was the time on my cellphone anyway). So how do we do this one, again, getting the right credentials always helps and for me, my son-in-law, who works for Nik, was my credential. But again, there was plenty of media there, shooting this from the ground up would have made for some amazing photos as well. So let's take a look at that perspective, as you can tell we had a blue sky and bright sunlight. The only way to shoot this would have been to have the sun behind you, shooting up into the sun would have only made a silhouette of your high wire walker, and the background would have been "blown out", unless of course that was what you wanted, but we will talk about that type of photography in another article. It was that time of the morning, so the sun was at about a 45 degree angle to the ground which would have put a lot of light on Nik, if you were shooting with the sun behind you. What kind of lens do you use? I used a 55 to 200 mm zoom lens for my shot here. My vantage point of course was the roof (I was on the One Watergate building) and as you can tell the sun is to my right just behind me. This shot was taken with the above lens and I continued shooting until Nik finished his walk. The ideal lens in this case would have been a 200 to 400 mm lens (next one on my shopping list). You could pull Nik in at every step of the way filling your frame with this great high wire walker. I shot this with an ASA of 100, a shutter speed of 160th of a second and a F/stop of 13 to get the greatest depth of field I could, with the horizon line being somewhat blurred. This is really an amazing feat that does not happen to many times in ones life time but I was truly blessed, by not only my family connection (thanks again, Mike), but that I was able to have this happen in my town. What a remarkable feat and great honor to be able to photograph from this point. Of course you always want to get the action coming to you, but for me I was thrilled just to have this vantage point, which really gave a different perspective. The point here is watch where your light source is, after all light is what a photographer "paints" with to get some of the "Greatest Shots On Earth"!!!

Photographing World War II Airplanes

2010-01-28T21:37:00.001-05:00

You all have flown before and heard stewardess say, "Put your trays in the upright position and fasten your seatbelt" Not on these planes, you are in a whole different environment when you shoot bombers. You have to have a different perspective when it comes to photographing these giant birds. You only have a few seconds to get the shots off and you have to have your camera set and ready to start "shooting"!! These giant behemoths move pretty quickly and of course you have to follow them as they are flying (if your lucky enough to be in another plane, then you don't have to worry). So how do we shoot a moving airplane, think shutter speed here, real fast shutter speed. These types of planes are moving somewhere in the vicinity of 150 to 225 miles per hour. You look down at your camera for 2 seconds and they have travelled over 500 feet away from you. Take into consideration you would have to find them in your viewfinder and focus you would probably lose another couple of hundred feet. So what do you do? Well here I had a bright sunny day, (f/stop was at F13), shutter speed was at 1/160th of a second, almost stopping the propellors in the air, which you don't want to do (come on the plane is flying)!! One more thing, you have to focus on the plane as it is coming towards you and begin shooting. Of course having a motor drive helps here because you can "machine gun" the camera at the bomber and if your using a zoom lens you can zoom in an out for some really cool effects! Take your time and time it, make sure all of your settings on the camera are set ahead of time and soon you will become an "ace" with some really cool photos of World War II Warbirds!!

So You Bought a Digital SLR Camera... Now What!!

2009-12-24T15:08:00.004-05:00

This past Saturday, a new found camera buddy and I were shooting our favorite band, Amnesia, at the local American Legion and during our conversation I was asked about shooting "manual". Well for most folks who just got a "glitzy" new digital single lens reflex camera, your shooting "automatic" days are over. How does one begin to shoot "manual"? Your looking at other photographers photos and they have all of these real stunning photos, and you think, how can I do that? Well it is easier than you think, but of course, I know there will be a lot of you taking digital photo classes and seminars, spending a lot of unnecessary money and time. My basic photography rule is and you've heard me say it time and time again, shoot and keep on shooting. It is the only way you will learn. So how does one "wean" off of the "automatic" setting and switch to "manual" shooting. Start by looking at your cameras settings inside the view finder (while on automatic) to see what the settings are for the photo you are about to shoot. Now, remembering the settings, switch your camera over to "Manual" (M) and set your aperture and shutter speed to what the automatic settings were and begin shooting, but this time change the aperture setting one stop or the shutter speed higher or lower and look at your photos. You will see darkening or a lighter looking photo depending on your settings or maybe you stopped action or some other effect. By playing with the setting you will learn to get different effects. I started out by writing shutter and aperture settings down and then looked at the photos and analyzed them for the effects I was trying to create. In time I learned what it would take to get what effect and soon my photos were taking on what I was trying to create. Do not think that this will be something that will happen overnight, it is going to take a lot of time, not only do you have aperture and shutter speeds to deal with, you have other settings such as ISO, filters, lens type, camera type, white balance, on and on the list goes. So take your time and enjoy the art of photography, always talk to anyone who is holding a camera, you will be surprised at what you learn and they may even become a "photo buddy" you take on photo safari's. Remember, keep shooting, keep shooting!! Todays digital camera's allow you to see what you've taken and if you don't like it you can erase it, unlike the old film days, where you had to wait till the film was developed before you could see your results, and you had to pay for it just to see a photo that wasn't right. So save your money and experiment yourself with your digital camera and who knows maybe you will have a photo that is something worth hanging in the living room or maybe it will be a Pulitzer prize winner!!

Photographing Your Baseball Star

2009-12-04T14:28:00.008-05:00

At this time of the year, most baseball is over for the year, unless you live in Florida. Ah, baseball nirvana, year round baseball for the baseball maniac. And like most of us, it is your kids / "baseball stars" that are playing the game and your somewhere running around trying to get those "Sports Illustrated Cover shots". You know the ones of your child making that leaping catch, or hitting that grand slam home run! Well, its a little tougher than you think, given that you have to have the right play and the right lighting. And if your baseball star is playing "under the lights" at night, this brings a whole different "photo game" and a new set of rules that are different than daylight shooting. You have to figure out your lighting, your distance, aperture setting and of course your shutter speed. Don't forget that item on the camera called "ISO", this is the rate at which the camera absorbs the light. The higher the ISO the faster the camera will absorb light, given all the other settings, aperture, shutter speed, whether you have fill flash etc. Please note that too much of a good thing will cause you distress, as you go higher on the ISO scale your photos start to get "noise" or pixelate. These are little white spots all over the photo that washes out your possible "Sports Illustrated Cover shot". You have to be able to set your shutter speed fast enough to catch the game winning homer, but not destroy the quality of your photos. The photos you see here were shot with an ISO of 400, shutter speed of 1/60th of second and a135mm lens f/2.8, with a Nikon Speed Light SB-800 flash. And yes, I was on the field (something you have to do to get those great shots). Of course, there are many variables and possible settings on your camera, but you have to work with the equipment you have, vary your settings till you get the results you want. Keep shooting, keep shooting, it is the only way to learn about your camera and your photographic abilities that come from your "photo eye", which needs lots of stimulation to get the right photos. With a little practice, you'll get the photo you want of your little Jeter making the big play!!

Sunset 11-28-2009 my Passion for Photography

2009-11-30T19:04:00.001-05:00

On My Web Page I have a folder with Sunset photos, this folder is by far my favorite folder. I have this obsession with sunsets and sunrises. My current job gets me up early to do the sunrises and I leave in the afternoon within plenty of time to catch the sunset. Now weekends are a little different, I don't have as much time in the morning to do sunrises, with all those chores that have to be done, I am more apt to do sunsets. So as a way to relax and reflect on the past week and the coming week, I make my way to various and favorite sunset locations. Notice I said "sunset locations", granted most of my locations are on the beach, but there are a couple of sites that I occassionaly frequent. I visit my discovered locations a number of times, you never know what you will find, photographically speaking. And with that said, you will notice that my last post was from South Lido Beach in Sarasota, the photos here are from the Northern end of the same beach. This is the place where more people tend to do their beach thing, but it comes with the life guard towers that can add an interesting element to your sunset photos. Now I know I've told you from the previous posts what your settings should be, but to be efficient in any photography genre, it is important to know your camera and 'know-that-you-know' your camera. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to read your owner's manual for your camera, you can learn a lot just from the owners manual. Take a good online photography course and look at the nature and wildlife photography of others. Sunsets photos when done right are very rewarding and I believe you get a feeling of self accomplishment. All I can say is keeping shooting, like anything else, practice makes perfect photos, but most of all you gain confidence in your own abilities... Have fun!!

Sunset South Lido Beach, Friday 11-27-2009

2009-11-27T21:15:00.003-05:00

Well nature did not let us down this evening, if you were out at the beach in Sarasota FL, specifically South Lido, you were given another "eye candy" of a sunset!! Not only was I able to catch this spectacular sunset but I was privileged to see a young woman in a wedding dress and a young man in a military uniform get married on this very cool November evening. Good luck to that young couple whoever you are and I wish you a very colorful and bright future together. Now, that out of the way, my location on South Lido was actually about 100 feet from the shore line and behind a small hill with sea oats on it. I really enjoy this time of the year, the air is cool (makes the sky come alive with colors) but most of all it just makes photographing the sunset that much more unique and bearable than one of those summer searing nites. So how do you get this type of sunset photo? You start with a wide angle lens, 35 to 70mm, your ISO is set at 200, aperture at f/11, shutter speed at 125 of a second.... vary the settings, changing shutter speed, open and close the aperture, you know the drill... vary your camera's ability to absorb light. Make sure you have your camera on a tripod. The perfectly still camera will capture amazing colors that you really don't see except on your digital camera's monitor. I was quite surprised that there where so few people on the beach, most likely the cool weather and of course "Black Friday" was in progress. For those of you who where shopping, you missed the view of a life time, otherwise I hope you got that big screen HD monitor so that you can view this image on the website (www.imagesbydavidtaylor.com) !! Happy "Sunset Shooting" and if your new to photography, keep shooting and vary camera settings, you will learn what settings work best with your camera and when you view them on that HD monitor you bought, you will have sunsets to relive that magic that nature provides us, here in Florida.

Photographing Musicians at Your Favorite Bar

2009-11-23T20:08:00.003-05:00

Photographing your favorite musicians can be a real challenge. If your in a well lit venue you won't have much problem (unless "No Flash Photography Allowed") is the issue, then you will have "security" issues which is another topic. But if you go to your local bar and flash is not an issue and your favorite musician is playing there, what do you need to know to get those "killer shots." To start you may want to get there early, if the band is setting up you can take some meter reading (knowing the distance from the different spots or spot your going to shoot from is a start). Once you know where your going to shoot from, setting up your flash for fill will make shooting the "band" easier during the show. I always get there early and do test shots to make sure settings on the camera are correct for my favorite "bar stool"location. What type of lens should you shoot with? I like shooting with a wide angle lens (actually it's a 35 to 70mm zoom lens) to get the entire band and I like shooting with a 70 to 200mm for those awesome close up expressions. So back to the beginning, where I told you to get some meter reading to find the "distances" your shooting from, this is important, you now can set your flash for the distance that it will "fill." This is to give you and even balanced, sharp and clear shot of your favorite musician. And just maybe when that musician looks your way and you are patiently waiting in what I call the "sniper mode" (eye in the view finder, finger on the shutter release.. hold it, hold it, now!!)

You end up with your musician looking right into your camera as though they were posing for you! It takes a lot of patience and more patience to get the shot that gets the "wow" factor, but it is worth it!! Remember getting "setup" is important, getting there early and doing some test shots will always help you to bring home shots that look like they belong on a CD cover (or for those of you who remember, album covers). You will then have everyone wondering "how did you get those great shots" and it was just simply being prepared, right settings on the camera and of course the "right beer" does help too!

Shooting the Shuttle from Nine Miles Out

2009-11-17T19:18:00.001-05:00

On Monday, November 16, 2009, at 2:30 pm the Space Shuttle lifted off of Kennedy Space Center in an ever exciting launch, seen by thousands and probably photographed by just as many. So just how do you photograph a space shuttle launch and what kind of equipment do you bring to a shuttle launch? Well it depends on one thing, your location or viewing area in regards to the launch pad. If you are lucky enough to get into the public viewing area on the Kennedy Space Center (you will need tickets and and you apply online, it's like a lottery if you get up on the website at the moment that view tickets are made available, you might have a chance). Then you can shoot with whatever camera you want, I don't recommend cellphone camera's, even though there where many people trying to capture the launch from nine miles out with them. If you are nine miles away like where I was, you are going to have to pull out the big lens. I was shooting with a 2600mm Phoenix lenses, that was a 650 to 1300mm lens with a 2x multiplier lens attached. The photo in the upper left was taken with a lens that looked like a cannon on front of my Nikon camera. I shot at 125th of second shutter speed and the lens has a fixed aperture of F/22, which means I only could use the shutter speed on the camera for light control. I needed a tripod and a monopod to balance the lens and camera so I could track it and photograph it at the same time. The cost of this lens was $350 a couple of years ago, it is an import from Japan, it was something I could afford then, put realize that I should have spent a few thousand more and got something decent. The photos are not as sharp as I like and they tend to be grainy, full of "spots"(most likely dust particles within the lens) and just not really what I call "display" material. But for capturing the moment and saying you got something that will work, say for your blog, then that type of photo will do. You can see the rest of the shuttle photos I took at the website, www.imagesbydavidtaylor.com , take a look and leave me a note telling me what you think. Rumor has it, there are plans for photographing the next shuttle launch and we are planning on getting into the one of the media areas for better photos. Good luck on your shuttle shoot if you go and if you can afford a big lens, get it, otherwise, get the spectator pass and use those wonderful F/2.8 200 to 400 lens to get some really spectacular shots. Special thanks to Dan, Glen and Carol for the wonderful fun time and assistance with this photo shoot. Great job!!

Photos of Reenactment WWII

2009-11-08T18:27:00.004-05:00

For those of you who are reenactment enthusiast, the weekend of November 6th thru the 8th, saw a rather unique program at the Railroad Museum in Parrish FL. A World War II reenactment of a German train depot battle scene, that provided quite a few photo opportunities. It was rather exciting, photographically speaking, you just don't get many opportunities with period costumes that are down to the smallest detail to make really great photos. Oh yeah, this can prove to be a real challenge to get photos that would look realistic without any modern day items, in the photos. But of course, you are shooting digital photos, you can photoshop them out right, well sort of, you need to look for shots that will convert to black & white to give what I call "realistic period appeal." One way of course is to be very careful of what is is the frame, I look for things that don't belong in the picture and I either frame them out or I completely recompose the photo at a different angle if something is in the frame. Some of the multitude of things to look for are, modern planes, trains, cars, people who are not in period costumes and the list goes on and on. You even have to look out for trash cans. (I took a great photo of a realistic shoot up scene only to discover that there was a plastic trash can sitting in the shot.) Yes, photoshopping the trash can out sounds like the thing to do, unfortunately it gets tricky replacing that space with something that balances light wise with the image, when you convert to black and white. You tend to get something either to dark or to light, plus you are spending all this time on a photo that may not look right when you finish. Being a WWII buff, I really enjoyed this shoot, I only wish I could have stayed longer, but I had another photo job to contend with Saturday afternoon. But overall, I was still thinking of the photos I got that morning and how eerie they seem to look once I converted them to black and white. Take a look and you will see what I mean, they almost look "to real" to me!!

Back from the Realities of Life

2009-11-05T18:58:00.001-05:00

Well I'm back, trying to get into the groove of everything photography. I have been busy putting together a website. And if you have not attempted this, you are in for a very rude awakening. I always thought that when I put up a website, that's all I had to do. Wrong! You have to maintain it, tweak it, adjust it, move things around, add to, subtract from, correct and even sometimes misspell, not to mention the time it takes to drive people to your site. And yes, all the while holding down a full time job, actually two full time jobs, maintaining a website, (a business in itself) and working 9 to 5 does not leave much time for anything else. Your constantly at the PC looking into the screen adjusting the site for this and for that, in hopes of driving more people to it. Of course this can be very tiring, time consuming and social counter productive to life after work, which is the price you pay for success, if and when you get it. Ah that wonderful moment when you get the first hit on your site, the thrill of that one hundred hit, the adrenaline pumping thousandth hit and it goes on and on, but it is the sales numbers that really takes your breath away. That is if the economy is not in the pits like it has been and seems it will forever be but does the hope of getting excited about having all this hard work pay off. Is it worth it? You decide if you have the "blind passion for digital photography" and then you will understand why it is!!

Fireworks

2008-07-05T10:32:00.004-04:00

The art of shooting fireworks can be quite tricky. The most important thing is timing and patience, of course having the correct lens settings does make a difference. I believe you can find different information about how to shoot fireworks, but I think you have to develop your own technical trial and error method to achieve the results you are looking for in a fireworks photo. I shoot with a bulb setting for the timing and a f/Stop of 22 for really sharp photos. Technically it involves holding the shutter release down, that is holding the lens open until the explosion has dissipated. Again, it is about timing, patience and how much light you want to paint across your photos. Give it a try, you'll be pleasantly surprised!