Christmas holidays are all about relaxing for me. Some like to hang out with friends & family and some like to hit the tourist places.
I spend a lot of the year at events, parties and with lots and lots of people I didn’t know before the event, so for me this time of the year is about hiding and getting away from it all.
Spending time getting back to nature and grounding my soul for the year ahead.
It’s about having and giving myself time so I can in turn give that back through my work.
It makes for a great time to get out and capture all the Christmas lights while they are still around. 🙂
Christmas lights and lights in general can be hard to capture especially if you want to also capture a person or some other subject that is not lit up by the lights. The resulting images will be that the either the subject will be dark or the lights will be over exposed.
The trick is to use some form of flash to light up the subject so that you can even out the exposure across the entire image and in doing so reduce the contrast between dark and light. There are lots of ways to do this and some I will go into in the coming weeks.
If you are just out to capture the lights you may not need a tripod but it is a good idea if you are after sharp images due the the camera needing to open the shutter longer than you can hold the camera steady for.
What I tend to do is go out and give it a try. I start with hand holding and then move toward using other supporting devices if the need arises.
Why? because then I can travel lite and I have less equipment to get in peoples way. After all they are also there to experience the joy that is Christmas lights.
So before the lights fade away for another year, grab your camera and head out to capture some lights. Experiment a little, play with your shutter and aperture and just have a bit of fun.
The weekend is finally here and what a glorious weekend it is set to be. The weather here in Canberra is going to be in the high 20s with some cloud cover to keep the harsh some way.
One of the great things about living in the bush capital of Australia is that it’s only a short drive you are surrounded by magnificent eucalypt trees, native grasses and not to mention the Australian animals like kangaroos and wallabies.
Last weekend I packed the truck with my camping, camera and fishing gear to head to a place called McIntyre’s Hut and Flea Creek, and if there was something I learned it was that I much better at taking photos that I am fishing. 🙂
I could see the fish and even when dangling the bait in front of their little faces I still couldn’t catch shit!!!!!! hahahahaha So I cracked out a few beers and put my camera to work instead.
What is it that you have planned this weekend?
Standing on my Rhino Rack Pioneer tray to get the shot of waterfall trail at the back of the Brindabella ranges.
This Sunday I am predicting that there will be a car wreck here in the south of Canberra, and I will be there photograph it, will you?
Lighting subjects can be a daunting affair and lighting something like a car wreck is like trying to tight rope walk across the Grand Canyon while blindfolded. It can be very scary and full of danger.
So how do you even approach such a thing?
What are the lights and techniques you can use to light both the inside and outside of the car?
What are the tools you need to use to pull this off?
How can you control the different lights to bring the image to life or focus on areas that you bring to life?
Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT
My half a day one off lighting workshop this Sunday will answer just these questions and more like:
What is the best camera setting for using lights on location?
What limitations does lighting bring to a photo?
What problems will you come across shooting on location using multiple lights?
What is High Speed Sync and when/why should I use it?
How to use colored Gels on your lights to change the look and feel of your images?
This workshop will focus on lighting a car wreck and it will be on-location. Limited places and incredible value at just $49 so you will have to be quick to secure your spot in what will be a jam packed workshop.
For only $49 this half day offers incredible value and with limited spots they are sure to go fast.
For more information and to secure your spot before its too late email/SMS me using my contact details on my website
With a free afternoon it is a good time to go out on location with a couple of speedlites and light modifiers to try out a few ideas that have been bouncing around in my head. yay for having some creative time. 🙂
These little lights are great for all sorts of things and give us as photographers great flexibility and creativity. You can stick them in all sorts of location and put light modifiers on theme like umbrellas.
Do you struggle with using speedlites? If so what do you find the hardest thing to understand?
Canon speedlites
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