According to napoleon.com, the word “photograph.” was coined by British scientist John Hershel in the 1830s from the Greek words “phos” meaning light and “graphe” meaning drawing or writing. While a picture can be created with charcoal, graphite or paint, a photograph is made with light. In the film era, a photograph was made by focusing light from a subject through a lens then into a camera. That light would be recorded on film coated with a silver emulsion. The film would be process through chemical baths that would reveal a negative image. That image would be turned into a photographic print by reversing the process in the darkroom by shining light through the negative via an enlarger onto a light sensitive piece of paper. That paper would be dunked in chemicals to make the positive image appear.

With the advent of the cyber age photos now exist as pixels on a computer screen or as a series of 1s and 0s on a computer hard drive. Some people have questioned whether the photos made with digital cameras are photographs at all. Some avoid using the word “photograph” and have substituted the terms “image” or “capture” in its place.

I would say that these digital images are still photographs. The process of taking a photo is the same. Light still enters the camera and produces an image. It’s just the medium that’s changed. Instead with light sensitive film and paper, the light is captured by a digital sensor.

Photography has gone through many changes throughout it’s nearly 200 year existence. There have been format innovations from large 8”x10” negatives to 35mm film. There have been media advances, from glass plates to film and now digital files. But as long as you can capture images through light, then a photograph will be always be a photograph.

You may have a stunning looking rose or camellia but don’t rely on it’s beauty to carry your photo. This is, after all, a photography challenge. It’s not based on how beautiful your subject is, but rather on how beautifully you photograph it. Concentrate on the quality of light. As I’ve mentioned before, the warm illumination of early morning or late afternoon light tends to be the best.

The beautiful color of sunsets and sunrises can, with a tree in the foreground, make for great pictures. If you’re indoors look for some soft window light to highlight a potted plant or a vase of cut flowers. If you’re photographing leaves or petals of a flower, try backlighting them. They are usually thin enough to allow some transmission of light through them and still retain some color.

Use compositional elements to enhance your photo. Try using branches of a tree or bush in the foreground to frame your subject. A colorful backdrop of flowers or a sky full of clouds can be a nice setting for a portrait. Just make sure you eliminate any distracting elements in your backgrounds to help strengthen you photo visually.

Try incorporating people in you photos. You can photograph kids playing on a tree swing or in a tree house or take a portrait of an avid gardener. You can also get someone walking down a nature trail or through a leafy forest.

You can over living things among plants. Birds and squirrels can perch along the branches of a tree. Egrets search for food in flooded fields or at the edges of rivers or streams. In the Lodi lake Nature area there are a handful of deer that roam the woods.

Plants are also good for macro/closeup photography. Get in as close as you can. Try to capture the veins of a leaf, the smoothness of a flower petal or the rough texture of the bark of a tree. If you’re very patient you can try to get an bee or butterfly landing on a flower.

You can find your plant picture in the wild and photograph them as they are or create your own by placing the elements where you want them in a still life. Plants can be the main focus of your photos or they can play a supporting role to your main subject. No matter what you choose let all things growing be the season’s reason for you photos.

How to enter:

1. Entries can be emailed to coto@recordnet.com. The preferred format is jpeg. Type in “Plants” in the subject line.

2. Photos have to be taken between March 9 and March 23.

3. The number of photos is limited to 10.

4. Include your name (first and last), hometown, the kind of device you used, how you got your close up and where the photo was taken (eg.: John Doe of Stockton, Canon Rebel T6i with 50mm macro lens. At Victory Park in Stockton).

5. If there is a recognizable person or persons in the photo please identify them (name, age, hometown) and describe what is going on in the photo (eg.: “Jane Doe of Lodi looks at the rose garden at Victory Park in Stockton”). Please indicate if they are related to you (mother, father, daughter, son, etc).

6. Please feel free to include any interesting anecdotes or stories on how you took the picture.

7. The deadline for submission is March 23. The top examples will be published on March 30, with an online gallery of all the photos on the same day at recordnet.com.

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Stocktonian John Ranelletti’s photo looks like if it could be the inspiration for a Japanese woodblock print. With an Apple iPhone 12 Pro he photographed his backyard koi pond on a windy day. He captured the turbulent waters creating an abstract pattern from the broken reflection of an overhead arbor and blue sky as a fish surfaced for a striking image.

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Carolyn Silva of Jackson applied several coats of water sealant to a wooden picnic bench in her backyard a few months ago and it not only paid off in protecting the bench but for Silva photographically as well. After and overnight rain she went out and saw that the rain drops beaded up on the bench’s surface. She used her Nikon D7500 DSLR camera to photograph the beaded water with the morning sun flaming off the surface.

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There are all kinds of wildlife that rely on the area’s waterways for their habitat. Steve Gong of Stockton used a Sony A7R III mirrorless digital camera to photograph an egret at the Cosumnes River Preserve near Thornton. As the bird gracefully comes in for a landing the marshy waters of the preserve serve as a background for Gong’s image.

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Sometimes pictures happen where you least expect them. Cynthia Barker of Stockton was on a trip with her husband to the Mother Lode town of Pioneer in Amador County. A water-filled tire track in the mud is something that is usually avoided but Barker instead spotted a photo in the making. Using an Apple iPhone 8 she photographed a single pine tree reflected in the rut’s watery surface as it rose into the blue sky.

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Janet Baniewich’s photo of a single drop of water just before it fell from a melting icicle is a textbook example of minimalism. Shooting from below with a Nikon D3300 DSLR camera, she captured the icicle, drop and part of the ice-covered eave against a grey, featureless sky, which formed a negative space to balance against the other elements of the image. Centering the drop in the frame she captured the simple elegance of the moment.

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Veronica Monzon of Stockton used an Apple iPhone 12 Pro to photograph the Three-Mile Slough Bridge along Highway 160 near Rio Vista as the warm late afternoon light graces the towers of the bridge. The towers’ reflection shimmers in the moving waters of the slough and the bridge is nicely frame by the branches of a eucalyptus tree in the foreground.

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Stocktonian Donn Sperry’s home backs up to Brookside Lake in Stockton and he can find many water-related photos there. With a Sony NEX-7 mirrorless digital camera to photograph a mallard as it flapped its wings reared up on the lake as if to pose for a portrait.

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Steven Rapaport of Stockton submitted a photo from the time of day that transitions from the golden hour of sunset to the blue hour of dusk. With his Canon EOS 5D DSLR camera he photographed the Eight Mile Road bridge that crosses over White slough in Stockton. Along the horizon line is a golden band of light that is the last remnants of the sunset. As the light fades upwards into darkness a deep blue dominates the frame. The bridge is silhouetted in the bottom third of the photo and everything is repeated in reserve in the water’s reflection.

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All the photos can be seen in an online gallery at recordnet.com. A new challenge assignment will be issued on March 9.

From trying to take pictures of a swiftly moving mountain stream to images of your dog romping through the grass at a park to a baseball pitcher throwing a fastball, getting pictures of things that are moving have always been a challenge for the beginning photographer. There are 3 basic “rules” for capturing motion in a photograph.

The first is the easiest to understand. By using a fast shutter speed you can stop the motion of fast moving objects. It is what most photographers use to capture sports action of high school to professional athletes. The faster speed you use, the more you will freeze the movement. The minimum you should use for this technique is 1/500th of a second. At that speed even top athletes will be stopped, though there might be some blurring of fast moving appendages. Beyond about 1/000th to 1/2000th, of a second the benefits diminish. Most DSLR and mirrorless cameras can easily reach these speeds. A high shutter speed also has an added benefit of eliminating blurring caused by camera shake.

Using a slow shutter speed can also convey a sense of motion but in a different way. In this approach anything that’s moving will be blurred. The slower you set your camera, the more blur you will get, However, if you go too slow then the object in motion can blur to the point of near invisibility. It’s always a good idea to include something that’s non-moving and sharp in the frame as a point of reference to give some context to the photo. Camera shake can be a problem, especially at the slower speeds. A tripod is recommended to keep the camera still.

The third is a little more complicated and takes some practice to master. It’s called panning and it involves moving the camera along with the action while using a relatively slow shutter speed. For example, say a horse is galloping in from your left. Using a shutter speed of 1/125th to 1/30th of a second, follow the action and shoot as the horse speeds past you. It takes a lot of practice to get the timing just right but when done well it can be very effective in conveying a sense of action and motion. As anytime when you use a slow shutter, the use of a monopod or tripod is advisable.

From sports to zooming pets to the movement of dancers these techniques can be used on anything that’s in motion.

I haven’t talked much about digital mirrorless cameras in this space for the simple fact that I haven’t had much experience with them. I’ve read about them and even held one in my hands but that’s it. Mirrorless cameras were first introduced around 2008. By 2018 they accounted for nearly half of all camera sales. While Canon is the leader in total camera sales, Sony was the first to dip their toes into the mirrorless waters and still leads that segment of the market. The other companies, including Canon, were late to the game and are playing catchup.

DSLRs and mirrorless cameras are similar in layout and function and both incorporate interchangeable lenses. Image quality are nearly indistinguishable between the two.

First, a primer on how a DSLR works. DSLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. The basic design harkens back to the old film Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras. The way they work is light comes into the camera though the lens. In the camera body a small mirror bounces the incoming light and image straight up. The light is then bent again in the pentaprism, that big bulge at the top of the camera, and out where it can be seen through viewfinder. When a picture is taken, the mirror quickly swings up and out of the way, the shutter opens and the light strikes the film. In today’s DSLRs it’s much the same except the film and film transport mechanism have been replaced by a digital sensor, electronic circuitry and algorithms.

As the name suggests mirrorless cameras eliminates the mirror and pentaprism resulting in camera that’s smaller and lighter than a DSLR. Its size is somewhere between a point-and-shoot camera and a DSLR. The small hump at the top some mirrorless cameras house a small digital monitor in the viewfinder.

Frame rate, or how many frames per second a camera can shoot, is important to sports photographers. As you might suspect a mirror/shutter physically can only travel so fast. The Canon 1Dx’s 14-fps is probably close to that mechanical limit. Sony’s Alpha 1 mirrorless electronic shutter can shoot up to a phenomenal 30-fps.

You’ve probably heard the clicking of cameras while watching a news press conference on TV. Much of that sound is what’s known as mirror slap in a DSLR. A mirrorless camera eliminates much of that sound. In fact, many mirrorless cameras can be completely silent, an advantage when shooting in quiet courtroom or funeral situations.

The lenses are not compatible between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. And, because mirrorless cameras are relatively new, their selection of lenses are limited when compared to DSLRs, so far. However, most manufacturers have made adapters to that you can use your old lenses with the new mirrorless bodies.

Early models reportedly suffered from “viewfinder lag” resulting from processor lag and slow display refresh rates. This meant that the images seen in the viewfinder lagged slightly behind what was actually happening. Newer cameras have improved so much so that this doesn’t seem to be much of a problem anymore.

Mirrorless cameras’ smaller size can be a boon for those with small hands, but photographers with big mitts can find the small cameras too small and controls hard to manipulate.

Mirrorless cameras have challenges with battery life. Because the sensor is constantly on, mirrorless batteries don’t last as long between charging as DSLRs do. I can go for more than a week before charging up my DSLR. Depending on the model, mirrorless cameras can shoot from 300 to 700 frames on a charge. That may sound like a lot, but I can shoot more than 700 frames during a single sporting event.

The subject for this month’s Readers Photo Challenge assignment is water. Water is an interesting substance to photograph. In its purest form it’s colorless. You can add color to it and it can take on color from what’s around it. It’s also formless, taking its shape from whatever it’s contained in. It’s transparent but under certain conditions it can also be nearly as reflective as a mirror.

You can get people using water for recreation, swimming, skiing, wake boarding, though they may be scarce this time of year. But there are people who get onto the water in boats to fish or sail regardless of weather.
Speaking of weather, this is the perfect time for rain photos. You can get people walking down the street under umbrellas or raindrops clinging to flower petals, leaves and branches. Even if the rain stops you can use the puddles left behind as compositional elements to capture reflections of the sky and surroundings.

Stockton and the surrounding area abounds with bodies of water; rivers, sloughs, creeks etc., to use a subjects. Also local fields that lay fallow are often flooded this time of year. The are also a plethora of animals; birds, turtles, otters, even the occasional wayward sea lion, that can be found along these waterways.

Sunsets and sunrises and water can go hand-in-hand. Getting the setting or rising sun reflected in a river, lake of ocean can double the amount of warm golden color in a scene.

A technique to photograph flowing water in a fast moving river or stream, is to set your camera on a tripod and use a slow shutter speed to capture the motion of water. The water will look blurred or even misty depending on how long you leave the shutter open. This can give your photo a sense of motion and energy.

If you’re homebound like many of us are during the pandemic you still can use water as your subject. Fill a glass cup with water and see how the incoming window light affects it. Place it against a light background, then a dark one. See how each changes how the cup of water looks. You can photograph raindrops on a window or window screen. Also you can try to capture water drops as they splash into a cup, bowl or other container. This takes a lot of patience and practice to get it just right. I’d set the camera on a tripod and focus on the surface of the water in the receptacle of your choice. Have a family member assist you by using an eyedropper to release the water drop from a height out of the frame of the camera. Using a fast shutter speed to eliminate blur, try to capture the drop as it hist the water and then rebounds upwards. Like I said, it will take a lot of practice and perseverance but once you get the timing down, the results can be worth it.

If you venture out during inclement weather try to protect you camera as much as you can. A good DIY solution is to use a plastic garbage bag to cover your gear by poking a hole in the closed end to stick the lens out of and using the open end to look through the camera. This is one assignment where being “all wet” or “wet behind the ears” is a good thing.

How to enter:

1. Entries can be emailed to coto@recordnet.com. The preferred format is jpeg. Type in “Water” in the subject line.

2. Photos have to be taken between February 9 and February 23.

3. The number of photos is limited to 10.

4. Include your name (first and last), hometown, the kind of device you used, how you got your close up and where the photo was taken (eg.: John Doe of Stockton, Canon Rebel T6i with 50mm macro lens. At Victory Park in Stockton).

5. If there is a recognizable person or persons in the photo please identify them (name, age, hometown) and describe what is going on in the photo (eg.: “Jane Doe is reflected in a puddle as she walks her dog Fido at Victory Park in Stockton”). Please indicate how they are related to you (friend, mother, father, daughter, son, etc).

6. Please feel free to include any interesting anecdotes or stories on how you took the picture.

7. The deadline for submission is February 23. The top examples will be published on March 2, with an online gallery of all the photos on the same day at recordnet.com.

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Veronica Monzon of Stockton was at work at the VA hospital at Mare Island in Vallejo on a foggy morning when she spotted an eerie scene. Through the dense mist she could make out the Mare Island Naval Officer’s Quarters. Although the classic home was obscured, bushes and trees in the foreground were closer and clearer and helped to frame the building. Monzon used a Samsung Galaxy S9+ smartphone to capture a scene shrouded in mystery.

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Carolyn Silva of Jackson look out a back window at her home on and spotted her photo. A trio of oak trees in a field behind her home stood out against a hillside in the distance. A light rain was falling which help to obscure the hill. Dried grass in the foreground helped to give the scene some bright color. With a Nikon D7500 DSLR camera Jackson waited for a grazing cow to munch its way into the frame to give the scene the perfect accent point.

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Dave Skinner of Stockton usually like to use early morning light to capture his scenics but this time he chose the other end of the day. In the waning last bits of sunlight, Skinner watched as a flock of about a dozen sandhill cranes land in a flooded field at the Isenberg Sandhill Crane Reserve in Woodbridge. With a Nikon D7500 DSLR camera equipped with a 200mm-500mm zoom lens, he isolated 2 of the birds. The cranes were gracefully silhouetted against pink sunset reflected in the water as they forage for food. Skinner captured a perfect moment with a splash from one of the bird’s beak as it breaks the water in a stab for a tasty morsel.

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Walking is one of the few pleasures that are left to us during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. While out on a daily walk Lodian Holly Stone’s golden retriever Brodie likes to romp in pile of fallen leaves in their neighborhood. Stone used an Apple iPhone 7 to make a cute photograph of Brodie as he sat in one of the piles, his golden coat perfectly matching the color of the leaves, with some of them in his mouth.

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Most selfies are simple snapshots that often forego the photographic principles of nice lighting, getting close and simple backgrounds but Naomi Schwinn of Stockton used all three to raise the level of her selfie. She used a Google Pixel 3a XL smartphone to photographer herself at her home. Using simple window light she’s illuminated with a nice soft glow. She keeps the camera relatively close and fills the frame with herself. The light falls off quickly to darkness behind her, eliminating most of the clutter in the background. Finally, when taking selfies people will look at their phone’s screen and not its camera. Schwinn looks directly into the lens and creates a connection between the viewer and her piercing brown eyes.

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In comedy there’s a saying that timing is everything and so it is in photography. Stocktonian Steve Gong’s photo is the epitome of timing. With a Sony A7R3 digital mirrorless camera he captured a warbler in midair as it came in for a landing in tree in his backyard.

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John Ranelletti of Stockton used an Apple iPhone 12 to photograph a mesh truck bed cover at his home. The netting’s shape looks very web-like, just on a much larger scale. Water drops for a recent rain clings to its strands making it look like a dew-covered spiderweb. I just don’t want to see the size of the spider that made it.

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All of the entries can be seen in an online gallery at recordnet.com. A new challenge assignment will be issued on February 9.

The goal of food photography is to make your subject look appealing and appetizing. The most important thing to achieve this is lighting. The two things to consider about lighting are direction and quality. Try to avoid front lighting. No matter how good your dish tastes, light shining on the front of your it (coming from behind you) will make your food look flat, bland and boring. Side lighting can help. Setting fixed lights or flashes on one side will help to give your photo some depth.

What I use quite often is skim lighting. It’s essentially backlighting where the light comes in at an angle from behind the subject and “skims” off of the surface. This helps to not only give some shape and depth to the food but will make any highlights glisten. It can create some shadows but those can bee filled in with a reflector or two (you can use something as simple as a white piece of cardboard opposite the incoming light to help bounce it back into the darker areas).

The quality of light is also important. Avoid harsh, unfiltered light. If you’re using an off-camera flash, try using a soft box. It’s a modifier that fits over the flash which allows its light to bounce around inside and out through some opaque fabric to create some nice soft light. If you’re using ambient light try using some coming in through a nearby window. Window light can be soft and pleasing.

Some people get the entire table along with the dish of food in the photograph. Get in close. You don’t need to get much more than the plate of food in your photo. The more distractions you eliminate the better your image will be.

Professional food photographers work with food stylists. One of the jobs of the stylist is to pay attention to detail. Look at the composition of the elements of the dish to see if they are all in compositional balance. Make sure there isn’t an errant pea or carrot on the plate. Also clean off any crumbs or stains on the table top or counter you might be using as your photo “studio.”

Lastly, like all things, you should practice. The more you shoot, the better you’ll get. In addition, find out things like which spot in your house has the best light or what part of your kitchen may provide the best background.

Some may think that having an unlimited choice of subjects may be a utopia but don’t forget about the parable of the dog with 2 bones. The dog couldn’t decide on which bone to choose so it didn’t make a choice and ended going hungry. Don’t get so caught up trying to decide what to photograph that you don’t take any pictures at all.

This time of year is a good time to photograph sunsets due to the relatively early hour when the sun goes down at around 5:00 p.m. Try to find a sky with clouds if you can. Clouds can pick up the warm golden colors of the sunset rather than just having a flat, plain sky. Having something in the foreground, a person, a tree or even a flying bird, can add some visual interest to your sunset.

Rather than the constant sunshine of spring, summer and fall, winter weather can be the most interesting the photograph. There are more days of the aforementioned clouds which can be more interesting than a featureless sky. Inclement weather can also be advantageous for photography. Rain and raindrops can add a visual element of weather to your photos. Rain-sickened streets make a urbanscape more picturesque especially at night where the city lights can reflect off of the wet surfaces.

If portraits are your thing, the cold, wet weather may not be a benefit for you. But you could move your sittings indoors. Try looking for some soft window light to flatter your subjects which can include pets as well as their human counterparts.

This is also a good time to take pictures of birds. Migratory birds are currently wintering in the area. Birds such as sandhill cranes or snow geese can be found places like, the Woodbridge Ecological Reserve outside of Lodi, Staten Island near Walnut Grove and the Cosumnes River Preserve near Thornton. Smaller birds such as sparrows, pigeons and humming birds can be found as close as your own backyard.

You need not limit yourself to just these suggestions. The possibilities for photos are endless. From still life to selfies, from animals to landscapes, the limitations are only your imagination. As the Nike ad says, all you have to do is to get out and just “do it.”

How to enter:

1. Entries can be emailed to coto@recordnet.com. The preferred format is jpeg. Type in “Open” in the subject line.

2. Photos have to be taken between December 22 and January 26.

3. The number of photos is limited to 10.

4. Include your name (first and last), hometown, the kind of device you used, how you got your close up and where the photo was taken (eg.: John Doe of Stockton, Canon Rebel T6i with 50mm macro lens. At Victory Park in Stockton).

5. If there is a recognizable person or persons in the photo please identify them (name, age, hometown) and describe what is going on in the photo (eg.: “Jane Doe walks her dog Fido past a tree wit fall leaves at Victory Park in Stockton”). Please indicate how they are related to you (friend, mother, father, daughter, son, etc).

6. Please feel free to include any interesting anecdotes or stories on how you took the picture.

7. The deadline for submission is January 26. The top examples will be published on February 8, with an online gallery of all the photos on the same day at recordnet.com.