Wide-Angle Wednesday: Shooting Macro

Welcome to the middle of the week!

Today I would like to share a theme I have been working on for my current course in Digital Image Management PH124. In week one of the course, students were asked to select four themes. The themes once approved by the instructor would be our primary focus in shooting next to learning how to organize and manage images in Lightroom.

The four themes I’m working on are Nature, Historical, Reflections, and Macro. The first two themes are in my comfort zone to shoot, but the last two themes was a challenge I purposely imposed on myself. I had never shot macro, and reflections have never been my strong point when shooting nature.

I decided to treat myself with a new lens, specifically the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM. Knowing that I really have no idea to what I’m jumping into in regards to macro photography, I started to watch video tutorials. Of course when the lens arrived the best way to learn anything is to get out and shoot!

Corina Scoggins Week 1 Macro "Holly Berries" Feb 2014

In the first week, I tried to handhold the camera a lot. Guess what in macro photography any camera shake in magnified. Lesson number one, use a tripod or try to stabilize your self by leaning against a solid object as much as possible. Lesson two for myself was not to have high hopes in achieving the finest of details the first week in using this lens. Just like anything we shoot, practices makes perfect. I tried a few moving subjects, and realized I needed to jump back and focus on subjects who were stationary to better myself using the lens.

Corina Scoggins Week 2 Macro "Algae Bubbles" Feb 2014

In week two, I focused on understanding the working focal length of the lens. Basically how close can I get to the subject and maintain a good amount of focus. I have realized now that when using a macro lens, the full frame will never be in complete focus. A light bulb went off in my head, to research why? We have all seen the macro images of insects and flowers in which everything is in pristine focus. Once again the video tutorials lead me to understand that macro images could be many frames stacked in post editing to achieve the clear full frame focus we have come to see. Of course this is a very small explanation in achieving full frame focus, as I have come to learn macro photography is beyond just clicking the shutter button. There is a lot of science involved first in understanding the subject, lighting, depth of field, and angle. 

Corina Scoggins Week 3 Macro "Vivid Carpet Fibers" March 2014

 Now I’m in week three of the course. We had an ice/snow storm blow through Sunday night, that I thought I could try to capture some snowflake and ice images. A couple images come back with detail, but of course I wasn’t satisfied with the images. I had mentioned in an assignment essay that I was disappointed in the images and truly felt that the images could never be seen as “macro”.  I was asked to further explain why, and it’s because I keep fighting the fact that the images are not in focus.

Corina Scoggins Week 3 Macro "Snowflakes on Blackboard" March 2014

The blog today won’t solve the issues, but it’s an example that we as photographers are always learning. I like to think I opened up a can of worms when I selected to shoot macro? I knew Macro was a challenge. Something I haven’t mentioned was lighting, because I haven’t used anything additional. Another aspect I need to read into as I’m learning that external lighting is very much used even in full natural daylight.

Sometimes I need that reminder that I’m truly a student, and far from being a photographer shooting for National Geographic. Critiques can be misleading, if the viewer is not honest. Of course honesty starts with one self, and honestly this is a work in progress. After all it takes a lot to write about issues and post it to a blog for all of the Photography Student Professional Network to read.

 

Corina Scoggins Week 3 Macro "Blue Sleet" March 2014

Today I ask the viewer to share your comments, stories, and suggestions. This response does not have to be related to the subject of macro photography.

Before I forget, tomorrow is Photo Live: Get Connected! Every Thursday Faculty host a live webinar for students to attend free of charge. Check out the event’s page on PSPN for upcoming Photo Live and Artist Talk events. Depending on the current course you are in, attendance in the event’s can earn you extra credit. More importantly you can connect with Faculty and fellow students, ask questions and learn something new.

PSPN Webinar Events

*Note: In order to attend the webinars, software will need to be downloaded and installed onto your computer in addition to registering for the event. Once again this software is at no charge and it’s a very simple install.

Corina Scoggins Week 3 Macro "Chert Rock of RBX" March 2014

From my camera to yours,

Wednesday Student Ambassador Corina

A video I really liked this week in regards to Macro Photography

Youtube Channel: Mike Howard

#86 - Don Komarechka - Macro Photography - jpeg2RAW Photo Podcast

Testing 1, 2, 3?

Greetings fellow shooters! Tuesday Ambassador Stanley, here welcoming you to another... testing… can anybody read this, Tuesday? And no, this is not going to be like my last week’s post on Rantom. What I am going to write about is why every student, or anyone for that matter, should test their equipment, regardless of ever having worked with the equipment before. However, I have seen a good majority of students doing just that and it is an excellent thing to do because it makes you more familiar with your equipment before tackling those shooting assignments. So if you think that you may be the only person that pulls your equipment out of the box, puts it together and starts tinkering with it, just know that you’re not the only one. Although, be mindful of the equipment you are working with in order to prevent injuries to beings or damage to equipment whether they are big or small.

Now if you are not one who typically dives into unfamiliar territory, I am sure you are not alone. That is okay though because you are going to school for photography after all. For some people though, school is not enough. One thing that you could do is READ through your manual after breaking into the package and laying out all of your equipment to be assembled later. This should be done on day one of receiving your package because you want to make sure that you have everything and that nothing is broken. If you do not understand something, reach out! There is a plethora of resources available at your disposal like PSPN on Google+, your upcoming or present instructors and if you want fast answers then you better resort to your most favored search engine like Google. Once you have everything all squared away it’s time to setup and test out your equipment. Make sure everything works! Test the highs and test the lows. Make sure your equipment is in flawless working order because I’m sure there is nothing like returning your faulty equipment and having to switch, stop or drop out of your class because you did not meet the deadline. I assure you that I’m not talking from experience.

One thing I learned through my curiosities in life about things I had no prior knowledge of, yet having full access to whatever it is that interested me, was in order to dig deeper about your subject, you have to break it. No, I’m not telling you to go break your equipment because that would be foolish and by no means is that what I meant! What I mean is I was always one who would get a toy, get bored with it, take it apart, study it and put it back together just to play with it again. Maybe that’s the reason why computers had been a hobby of mine for so long because of how quickly it advanced over the years. Now you don’t necessarily have to apply my experience to a specific subject, however, if you apply it to your life you may find yourself subconsciously applying it to subjects that interest you as well. Sure, I know that is a lot to ask but I do not think you would regret making the change.

Was this informative or inspirational? Let me know in the comments below. Have you felt this before? Do you think you are the only one? Are you getting a little freaked out because I am getting into your head and I may possibly know what you are thinking right now at this exact moment?  Ha! Who am I kidding? I cannot read your mind. Stay tuned next week to catch a glimpse of my studio studies as well as my recently published work, and as always, thanks for reading.

-Tues. Amb. Stanley

Long link goes to the image above by a no name photographer: http://static.videomaker.com/sites/videomaker.com/files/styles/vm_image_token_lightbox/public/articles/15346/306-F21-microphone-close-up.jpg?itok=k3IAaLWJ

Wide-Angle Wednesday- Get Connected

Greetings from the snowy Midwest!

One of the greatest inventions in technology created is the Internet. Prior to the Internet communication was limited but in today’s world we have the opportunity to communicate world wide in less than a second. As a military family, social networking keeps us connected to our families and friends no matter the location we’re currently in. As students our classmates can be in a combat zone or sitting on the sunny beaches of Hawaii at any given time. Online schooling is unique because we all have the opportunity to connect with one another through social networking like Google +.

            A few blogs back I wrote about life outside the classroom. One of the greatest discoveries for me as a student was the Photography Student Professional Network (PSPN) hosted right here on Google +. Moderated by our very own Ai Photography Department Faculty, the community page is a great place to ask questions, share imagery, community resource, and a chance to connect with both faculty and fellow photography students. The PSPN community main page runs just like other social networking news feeds, the newest posting appearing at the top. Off to the left of the news feed is a tool bar in which will narrow down the postings to a particular category.

            Photo sharing is very popular at PSPN and tops the tool bar list. When posting images expect faculty and fellow students to provide a critique. Some student’s will post images to give an idea to an issue their experiencing and specifically to ask how to solve the issue. Recently I shared images from an assignment, because I enjoy critiques and was proud of what I had accomplished.

            Look at the tool bar as a way to search through the postings on the main news feed. Though if your looking for something specific you can also use the “search community” box located directly above the tool bar. Below I searched “lighting” and all posting with reference to lighting was narrowed down in the feed from newest to oldest in posting. Being this is just a screen shot, you can only see a few postings, but the posting do continue as lighting is a commonly talked about.

            One of the highlights I look forward to is the posting of graduate’s portfolios. What a great way to congratulate our fellow classmates, review their hard work, and gain inspiration to continue your path in school. A few of the recent graduates were the original Student Ambassador bloggers. To narrow down the feed to view posting of portfolios just click on the BS Grad or AS Grad Portfolio tabs.  

            As you can see the tabs offer a quick way to narrow down your interest. The PSPN is more that an avenue for reading, your also invited to attend the webinars at no cost. Click on the event tab and you can view upcoming and past webinars. The Photo Live webinars focus on variety of subjects related to photography weekly. Artist Talk has been held monthly, in which an artist is invited to speak and share their work. Both Photo Live and Artist Talk welcome students to ask questions either by chat box or through a computer mic. The webinars don’t require a webcam, so no worries there. Feel free to show up in your PJ’s if you like, because no one will know. If you’re unable to be online you also have the option to call in and participate via phone. The only downside to phoning in is that you won’t be able to view any visual presentations.

            Personally I enjoy the webinars and look forward to meeting up with fellow students and faculty. I invite you to join the PSPN and to attend the next upcoming Photo Live webinar. Click the link below to view how to attend the upcoming Photo Live.

Photo Live: Get Connected  Thursday 6th of February @ 11am MST

I leave you with this quote;
“Introverts don't like small talk conversation, but they typically don't mind writing. The more people can "see" you on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or a blog, the more they will feel like they know you, even though you don't have one-on-one interaction with them.” 
― Thom S. Rainer

            The quote is very true as I tend to call a lot of people I have networked with online as friends even though we have never met face to face. Getting connected is more than building a friendship; it’s an opportunity to open doors. Whether it be a new technique, obtain a better understanding of a skill, there is always something new and exciting to see.

I look forward to meeting students on PSPN and hope to see you at the next Photo Live.

Sincerely,

The Wednesday Ambassador