Sardis Digital Clickers

I have had a lot of time consumed lately with a new project. Coming in September I will be facilitating a camera club/learning program. Meeting the third Tuesday of every month at Sardis Library, in my home town of Chilliwack BC, we will have fun learning and exploring all aspect of photography.

http://www.fvrl.bc.ca/programs.php?programType=All&fromDate=&status=1&programSearch=Search+for+Programs&library=Sardis&toDate=

So if you want to learn more about how to capture great moments, or some editing techniques, or just want to help others please come down and check it out. Oh and don't forget your coffee/tea and your camera.

For now I will leave you with an image I shot 3 years ago. It was quite dull and bland until I found a mask technique called luminosity masking. Pretty powerful editing style.

Vancouver Skyline

Hope you like it.

Focus Behind the Camera? Sure.

Ever hear of back button focus? No? What is it? Is it important? Why would I use it? Answers to these questions and more will be answered in this week's blog. Read on for 100 reasons why back button photography is the way to go and how to set it up.

When you are composing a photograph you as the photographer have the ability to choose where your camera will focus. If you are using a canon you will most likely have nine different points to choose from and three different focus types.

First let's address the focus types. The most common one to use is single shot. When using this mode you depress the shutter part way down your lens auto focus takes over and you press the shutter button all the way and presto a perfect photo:) The next option is AI focus. Much like single shot depress the shutter part way and the camera will auto focus on the point or points you have chosen. The nice thing with this mode is if you continue to depress the shutter part way and you subject moves you auto focus continues to track that subject and stay focused till you snap the shot. Last is AI Servo. In this mode your auto focus will track the subject constantly and even "learn" what it should be focusing on. Now this technology sounds amazing, and it is, until you start recomposing your shot and your camera tracks everything except the subject you want to shoot. Step in back button focus.

Through your camera menu settings you can disable the shutter button for focus and use one of the buttons on the back to focus with. Now you may ask yourself "why would I do that shutter focus is obviously the best way and that's why the camera company uses this default" right? Wrong. Camera companies use this feature because using a shutter button is normal practice and has been since cameras were invented, but remember the camera of our fathers and grandmothers did not have auto focus. Focus was gotten by turning a dial on the lens to bring the elements into alignment thereby achieving a crisp clean focus. Now with the flip of a switch and a press of a button a little red light appears in your view finder telling you the focus is perfect on your subject. So enough history, why use back button focus?

Look through your viewfinder at your subject, press your shutter part way down, look at the little red light in your viewfinder flash as your auto focus locks on to your subject, recompose, shoot. Now shot two. Look through your viewfinder at your subject, press your shutter part way down, look at the little red light. Get my point? This is very time consuming. Now change your camera to back button focus. Look through the viewfinder, press your back button, recompose and shoot. As long as your subject stays the same distance away from your lens you can recompose and shoot to your heart's content. This is the true beauty your shutter no longer has any use except what it should be for, activating the shutter, not focusing. If you choose to use your AI Servo mode you will find that again because it is independent of your shutter tracking your subject will be smoother and pressing your shutter button will be more fluid and controlled.

Anyway sorry for the lack of recent blogs. I hope you go out and try this new style of using your camera and as always I look forward to hearing your comments and getting your emails. Till next time.

When Shooting becomes overwhelming

Ever notice how often life gets overwhelming. I would like to give you a quick example of what a week for me looked like this past summer. I don't do this to complain, actually the opposite is true, we all get busy but when you are doing something you love it just doesn't seem that bad. So sit back read about a week in late August and next week we will get back to our tutorial on using your camera in manual.

DAY 1

 It started on a Thursday when just after 10 AM my cell phoned chirped an appointment alert. Now I wasn't that stressed about it cause anything important I give myself a 24 hour and 1 hour alert, so imagine my surprise when I checked it and discovered I had to be on location for a filming shoot for a pilot local cable TV show. No camera equipment in my vehicle I had to race home load up and head to the location arriving a mere 10 minutes late, which I blamed on traffic. We filmed all day and then I took my wife to YUK YUKS comedy club that evening for an entertaining time with friends.

 Day starts at 7:00 AM ends 2:00 AM

DAY 2

Now my day did start a little slower as I didn't have to do anything till 10 AM so slept in till 9. Then it's time to hit the computer and start work on the film that was shot Thursday.

At about noon I decided, all beit late and not smart, that the volunteer t shirt I would be wearing on Sunday shooting Chilliwacks Flight Fest should have my LOGO on it. Now if you have read earlier posts you may have seen the one about LOGOs and how important I think they are, well I also said that you should have professionals do that work and shirt logos are no different. I did not follow my own advise and due to the lateness of the hour I decided to go with an iron on printed at home. I couldn't find any iron ons in clear only white so the shirt did not turn out as nice as I had hoped but I learned from this mistake and will change things in the future.

That night I had the opportunity to shoot KAT at Party in the Park, a local Chilliwack festival. Now this girl is amazing. I have shot her in the past and love being involved in her career. She won EMI & MOA record recording contract 2012. She has been featured on Jan Arden's Being Jan  and continues writing and recording her own flavor of music. Look her up on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube. I was home about 9 and had to work the photos for her social sites that night. Post production done at 2 AM sent via WeTransfer to her manager. Off to bed.

 Day starts 9:00AM ends 2:30AM

Day 3

Preparation for Friday nights Hangar dance shoot and following airshow shoot. Now if you've never been to the Chilliwack Flight-fest hangar dance and dinner you are missing something amazing. The food is incredible with a full steak dinner with baked potato and Chilliwack grown corn on the cob. After the dinner there is an evening mini performance by some of the performers flying the next day. Shoot into the evening, have a few beverages, home late , do post on photos that are needed for the next day bed.

 Day starts 8:00 Am ends 2:00AM

Day 4

Start the day shooting the Flight-fest volunteers setting up for the day. A pancake breakfast for the community and then on with the show. Now this is my second year covering the event and it is a true honor to be the exclusive photographer for the event. Between B25 Mitchel bomber, spitfire, wing walker and stunt planes this was a photographers dream. The weather was amazing and the photo ops even more so.

Day starts at 6:30 AM ends 10:00pm

Now comes all the editing and when you shoot that many venues in that short a period of time it is very critical to get the best from your manual settings as you can so there is very little editing to be done. By Thursday, and after working at my other full time job 36 hours, my editing is done and all photos are in the hands of the clients. They are happy. I am happy. Now onto a new photographic day.

Photography, Down and Dirty

Get your mind out of the gutter! The down and dirty of photography is really all about how we photographers kneel, crawl, hike, climb, and really get into all sorts of nasty positions just for that one great shot.

We see photos everyday that are taken at the same old boring run-of-the-mill position. Subject standing, probably a little sideways to the camera, Photographer standing at eye level with the subject. Boring!

How about doing something a little different, like getting above your subject?

Take a look at these two examples and see how dramatically the mood changes just with viewpoint alone. The photo to the left (a straight-on shot) is just your average snap shot, but the photo to the right (taken from above, as my sore and craning neck will gladly tell you) relays more emotion and energy.

That's above, but why not also try tackling a subject from below?


This baby portrait shot was taken with me flat on my back while the child was flown over me by an uncle. Great family memory.

Finally here's a shot one of my bemused family members snapped of me while I was setting up to shoot an exhibit at Hell's Gate. It's not an attractive view of me but that's why I'm a photographer and not a model. More importantly, I got exactly the shot I was looking for, and it's probably not one that the thousands of other visitors took away from the same exhibit.

The result was great -- although it's worth noting that I was only able to, ahem, spread out because I was there early in the day. I encourage you to to take up any weird position necessary to get a shot, but make sure you're not a nuisance to any one else trying to see the same sights!


There is more to shooting pictures than standing and firing off hundreds of frames. You need to be ready to get down and dirty with your photography. Seize the moment, and don't worry about looking like an idiot. You'll have the last laugh when everyone wishes they thought to take the photo you were sweating for.

Destination Photography: Hell's Gate

Nestled in the Cascade Mountains, Hell's Gate is located two and a half hours away from Vancouver it is well worth the journey. If you start out early in the day, you can arrive easily by opening at 10 a.m. and even have time for a coffee and snack in the picturesque town of Hope on your way up the Trans-Canada Highway.
In terms of a view (and the resulting photos) this location is awe-inspiring; more water carves its way through this narrow Fraser River canyon than goes over Niagara Falls each day.

The main attraction is the air tram spanning the river, and as you board you can hear the thundering water. The sound isn't all that surprising, considering 200 million gallons of water per minute crushes between the sides of the gorge. On the day I visited, the river's water level was 120 feet deep, and this was at the end of July when high water is already down considerably.


At the other end of the air tram is a quaint and very informative interpretive centre. There are things to see and do for all ages, which kept my family occupied nicely while I devolved into my natural shutterbug state.


I made a point to wander out over the river on the suspension bridge and made full use of the late morning lighting to photograph the river and the fish ladders (see right). These fish ladders are designed to help salmon make their journey up the Fraser to their spawning grounds; they're designed to slow the water down so the fish can have an easier time getting through the gorge, where the water gets a little rough and rowdy as it pushes through.


After I finished with the suspension bridge I wandered through the displays. I found the Chinese history exhibit (dedicated to all the workers that helped build the bridge and the bordering rail lines) particularly interesting. While my family wandered around, I took advantage of the fact that we were the only ones there to get down and dirty and take some interesting shots of the artefacts. This is one of the benefits of starting out early and on a weekday: you can sneak shots in without getting in anyone's way or having to wait for a passerby to get the heck out of your shot.


Other than these photo opportunities, I have to wax poetic on lunch. I had an amazing bowl of salmon chowder, which was the best I have ever eaten, and a very large cheeseburger and fries that tasted like they had coerced a master chef into the tiny kitchen. Even if you're not a chowder kind of a person, just trust me and order a bowl. It was creamy, well-seasoned, and they weren't shy about adding the salmon. Perfect!

After lunch, I took some time with the family to check out the fudge factory. Yes, you heard me: a fudge factory. They had 23 different kinds when we were there, and I cleaned them out of the last of their espresso crunch fudge (which I can't stop eating, and now my wife has instituted a lunch-before-fudge rule).

Anyway there are many other things to check out and see, and a ton of great photo opportunities. Sometimes you don't have to go very far to find a completely new location and snap some dramatic pics, and I recommend you check out your own nearby tourist locations. Even if you roll your eyes at the thought of playing tourist, you shouldn't discount the opportunities waiting for you in your own neighbourhood. Tourist attractions draw tourists for a reason, and you can up your game by playing tourist with an SLR instead of a point-and-shoot or camera phone.

If you find yourself heading to Hell's Gate, I recommend bringing a wide-angle lens to grab more of that great landscape, a telephoto lens to zoom in on details that other tourists are likely to miss, definitely a tripod to help steady your shots and maybe set up some timed family portraits (including you), and last but not least, a big appetite for fudge.

Location, Location!

Choosing a photo shoot location is one of the most overlooked (and yet critically important) areas in photography. If you're thinking about investing in new equipment, you're going to spend a large portion of time looking at the market and researching the product. But while we all salivate over one gadget or another, how many of us go out for the sole purpose of researching, finding, and testing shoot locations?

A photo shoot location may be as simple as your backyard or as complex as the top of a volcano in South America or Hawaii. These locations change, sometimes dramatically, according to time of year, time of day, weather conditions and a host of other factors. How do you even begin to explore them photographically?

Before you get overwhelmed by the options, take a deep breath and start simple: step into your backyard. Easy, I can hear you saying. Nothing too dramatic there. But go into your yard and really look at it. Leave your camera inside and look at it without a lens. Can you see how the shadows are falling from your house or that big tree? Is there a strong vantage point you could shoot in the middle of the day when the lighting is not great?

Once you think you know the space like the back of your hand, change your point of view. Stand on a ladder, lay on the ground on your stomach and then roll over onto your back. I guarantee you'll have different ideas about the space than you did before.

After you have the space firmly in your mind, visualise clients or subjects in your yard. Where do you want to put them? Layer the elements one at a time -- and don't try to run before you can walk.

But you may not always have unlimited access to a photo shoot location to prepare and brainstorm, so how do you get ready for that?

Again, we return to the importance of research. Now especially, research is at your fingertips. The obvious places to start? The Internet, travel magazines, your local library. However, there is another, somewhat overlooked resource: photographers. In this business, as any other, it's important to network. Contrary to popular belief, even as an artist-based community, we usually don't "guard" our secrets. I, for one, am quite flattered when someone asks how or where I got a particular shot -- and I know they walk away thinking about how they might do it better. That's how we all got into photography in the first place: we see the beauty of a work, and then go on to figure out how to change it. This is how photography, as an art form, continues to evolve.

If you're feeling a little shy, however, the library is a great place to start. I recently took a gander at a book called The Print and The Process by David duChemin. This is an artist based out of Vancouver and I found it to be an incredible resource. Among others, he tells a story (which really illustrates the point of shoot location preparation) about a trip he took to Iceland to photograph some of the natural landscape. He was there with another photographer, Dave Delena, and when they arrived they drove out into the country for a week or so, making notes about location and conditions and shooting the occasional photo. It was on the way back that the magic happened. They looked over the notes they had taken, having already considered what they wanted to shoot, and from that game plan they produced the best possible outcomes for the return trip.

On the other hand, when we go on a vacation with our families as amateur or semi-professional photographers, that system probably will not work for most of us -- backtracking is not always possible, and taking a thorough look at your surroundings while travelling can bore the rest of the family to tears. On the other hand, you can do a couple of things. Step one: look at what where and when other photos have been shot. This is easy enough to research before you leave, and this gives you a good jumping-off point. You can get a rough idea of locations you may want to explore further, and from there you can plan some family events in those areas. Even when you get to your holiday spot, I suggest making brief unplanned excursions for an hour or two to take some family "snapshots." The family, after all, is expecting you to document the vacation -- and if you spend all your time focusing on personal photography, they might get a little steamed when there are no memories of the family vacation. Spend time with your family or travel buddies first, and don't forget to come out from behind the lens.

Meanwhile, think about where and what you want to shoot on the way back. Once you have a few places in mind, set aside the hours or day that you need to create your pictures. Your family will be more patient, as they have had your undivided attention for a good part of the trip, and you won't feel rushed, because you filled your family's needs first.

Whether shooting at home or abroad, remember that research is just as important as knowing your equipment and taking the actual photo. Take some time and research your yard, your local park, and any particularly picturesque areas within 50 km. Network with other photographers, both in your area and in areas you would like to travel.

Lastly, have fun.  Don`t be afraid of your failures; these are just successes in a different frame, and creativity comes to those who wait and are relaxed.

No Cameras Allowed

Over the last couple of months, I've offered hints, advice, and solutions. Now it's time for a little bit of a rant.

You know what really ticks me off in the photography world? Camera discrimination.

You probably know exactly what I'm talking about. You arrive at a venue -- be it a concert, a festival, or even a clothing store -- and a sign on the door states in big, bold letters that no cameras are allowed.

That I can deal with (mostly), but what really gets my goat is that while SLR after SLR is turned away, the camera phone is allowed through without question.

Take, for example, a concert. Most, if not all, refuse you the ability to bring a camera, whether that be point and shoot or SLR. If they were so serious about eliminating  cameras in the venue, shouldn't they be concerned about the rising megapixel count built into the newest cellular technology? Restrict them all, if you're going to turn my Canon away at the door. It's not like people can talk on their phone during a concert anyway. It is out for the sole purpose of taking shots, tweeting, and facebooking, so restrict them or let us bring other types of cameras in.

The current quality of cell phone cameras is excellent. There are stock photography sites solely aimed at collecting and distributing high-quality phone pictures, and if that doesn't speak volumes about this issue then I don't know what does. The current iPhone boasts 28 megapixels, video in 1080p, and the ability to shoot 240 degree panoramas  -- all in a single hand-held device with no special equipment. The sensor is small, but the reality is this camera outperforms many point and shoots on the market today. Check out this pic from their site.



I'm guessing you've realized that this rant is coming out for a reason, and you would be right.

I attended a benefit concert last week and left my camera at home. (Not a smart move, by the way: a photographer should always have his/her camera with them). While I was there, I saw a person capturing some of the action with a point and shoot, so I decided to quickly fetch my camera and follow suit.

Before I left, however, I was informed that photography was not allowed. The person with the camera was a staff member. Oh well, I thought, and I sat back down.

Except then I started to look around, and noticed that everyone had their cellphones out, including a good friend of mine who took this shot.


                                                                                     Photo used by permission of KG
She also shot video without issue, and she wasn't the only one. There were people who came right up to the stage to get pictures. Again it begs the question: what's wrong with allowing cameras into venues?

I don't really have a solution to this problem. But I guess the answer (other than sneaking in your equipment, which on the advice of my lawyer I DO NOT advise) is to remember that as a photographer, you have many tools at your disposal.

And like it or not, one of those should probably be a camera phone.