Scrappin' without Scraps

Taking Photos of Fireworks

I know today is only July 3rd but in typical frugal Yankee fashion our small New Hampshire town has Fourth of July Fireworks on July 3rd.  Yes, it is always the night before - at least for the 18 years I've lived here.  I used to think they didn't want to compete with the bigger ones in Boston, but it turns out that hiring a licensed pyrotechnic person is much less expensive if you don't want them on July 4th.  Makes sense when you think about it.  Ours are shot off a barge which is anchored in the middle of Cobbett's Pond so at least there's no worry about fire danger and plenty of shoreline viewing.

So tonight I will once again being trying to get some shots of the fireworks. I thought I'd try to get some hints to make my photos better so.. . let me send you to a couple of very informative sites I found.

Digital Photography School - I love the photos in the article, particularly the one with the light shining on the people looking up.  There's lots of info about camera settings.  The big thing I learned last year is that using a tripod really helps.

Article from HP site   Scroll down a bit to take a look at the panoramic instructions - this is an intriguing and simple way to capture a several sets of bursts which you can then stitch together into a panorama.  Very cool!

You might want to check your camera and see if it has a special setting for night scenes or even fireworks.  These will automatically set the aperture, focal length, shutter speed and aperture for you.  Also check your camera manual - there may be some recommendations on settings for your camera.

And above all - don't forgot to look up and catch the show!!

Photo 365 Cleaning Your Camera

Cleaning...this seems appropriate for the spring!

No matter how careful you are with your camera, it is bound to get dirty.  Phillip Greenspun wrote an article on Cleaning Cameras  at Photo.net and says

"If you leave your camera in a closet, it will never get dirty or broken, but you won't have too many great photographs to show for yourself."

True indeed. So, now, how do you clean that greasy fingerprint off your lens?

I've adapted the tips below from a number of different sources but, if one thing is very clear, it is that everyone says it is better to keep cleaning at a minimum.  You can do a lot of damage by over cleaning. There is the matter of dust and dirt on the digital sensors of DSLRs but I think I will leave that to the experts. If you want to attempt it I'll put some links below.

• Materials - you need a rubber squeeze bulb and microfiber cloth. You might also find lens cleaning fluid useful too.
• First, use the rubber squeeze bulb to blow visible dust and particles off the lens. Hold the camera upside down so the dust and dirt will fall off the lens.  You can find squeeze bulbs in your local drugstore - they are used for ear cleaning. 
• Now, use the microfiber cloth to gently clean the lens.  These clothes have very fine fiber and a tight weave and can remove dust, dirt and fingerprints.
• Forget using the combo blower/brush thing that probably came with your camera.  The blower isn't strong enough and brushing dirt across the lens will scratch it.
• For stubborn fingerprints or greasy prints, you may need to use the solvent to remove them.  Never apply the solvent to the lens itself since it may run and leak into the camera which could be disastrous to say the least.  Apply a few drops to the cloth and gently rub the area in a circular motion.
• The experts recommend that you not use canned air because it can be too forceful and sometimes contains propellant which isn't good for the lens. 
• You can use the micro fiber cloth to clean the LCD screen on the back of the camera too.  And microfiber clothes can be washed and reused.  Store them in a plastic bag so the cloth doesn't get dirty.
• Lastly, wipe down the body of the camera using the microfiber cloth.

Want more resources and info?

• Ritz Camera articles  - really good and lots of them are written by members of the New York Institute of Photography
• Summertime Tune Up - excellent article on getting your camera ready for the prime photo-ops of summer.  Also includes how to clean a film camera and DSLR.
• Cleaning Cameras by Phillip Greenspun - lots of information on clean DSLRs including cleaning mirrors and sensors
• Digicamhelp articles - a couple of small articles on camera cleaning and care

A Few Notes/ Photo 365

I haven't exactly mastered my digital camera nor am I shooting in manual mode but I have learned a few things by doing this Photo 365 project.  Mostly my technique is trial and error - and more error than anything else...you can see my results in the Photo 365 Album.

Taking a lot of pictures is good.  My friend Don used to say that if you take enough photos, you are bound to get a good one.  And he's definitely right - just keep shooting. Move the camera around a bit - change the angle or settings and see what you get.  Sometimes you get lots of nothing but sometimes you get a good one.  Which brings me to my next lesson...

You need to be somewhat ruthless about deleting the repeats and really bad ones or else you will end up with tons of photos.  So every couple of days I try to make myself go through all the photos and just keep the good ones. Of course, each day usually has a couple of good ones so I still end up with a lot of photos.  So I had to come up with a system so I could find the ones I had uploaded here.   Here is what I do - first I put the photos I take every day in a folder labeled with the month.  Each day when I pick one to upload here, I move it to another folder called Photo 365 - March or whatever month.  That way I have the 'good ones' from that month in one place.

One really nice thing about this project is that I am much more comfortable with my equipment.  I keep everything in one bag so things aren't scattered around.  A bag not only corrals my stuff it also makes it easy to grab and go.  I swear I can download my pictures from my camera in my sleep - doing it everyday takes a lot of the mystery out of it.  After a couple of frustrating days with a dead battery I decided to invest in a second battery.  That and trying to train myself to check the battery status has made it much less unlikely to have a dead camera.  Well worth the money.

Today's Ice Photos

I can't help it - the ice is so pretty.  Devastatingly beautiful.  I used the one above for my Photo 365 challenge photo for today but it was so hard to choose just one that I posted my other top favorites here.  Here's my  Photo 365 Album so you can see my progress so far this year.

Figuring out Photo Data

So...I've embarked on this Photo 365 adventure which involves

• carrying my camera around with me
• taking a photo every day
• posting it in my Photo 365 album

And I've been trying to learn more about photography.  Mostly by doing it of course but also by reading about it.  I bought Mastering the Basics of Photography by Susan McCartney and have snagged a few back copies of Digital Photography magazine which were hanging around the office.

One of the things that has mystified me about photography is all the data - apertures, shutter speed, focal length etc.   In Digital Photography magazine, there is a section where people send in their photos which sort of intrigued me.  Maybe I was having delusions of grandeur or something but I read the rules for submitting which say you must include all that data - ISO, shutter speed, lens, f stop - umm...is that Greek to anyone else?  Or should I say Geek?   Okay pro photographers I understand live and breather that stuff, but what about the rest of us?  Do people carry around notebooks and scribble it down?  Or do they just 'know' by looking at the photo? And what if you take the same photo but with different settings - how are you supposed to remember which settings went with which shot?

To these burning questions I now have an answer.  Technology strikes again - the camera remembers it! Infinitely easier than a notebook or relying on my memory.  And you get the info when you download the photos.  How amazing is that?  Probably less amazing than the fact I just figured all this out.  I'm sure I can hear some of you out there saying, "Duh". 

So where do you find it?  Once you import your photos into FxFoto from your camera, this data comes with it.  You can find it by clicking on the Info button in the top pane:

 

Now click on the Picture Description tab to get the box above.  On the right is the camera data in the gray box which has it all. And here's a close up of the data for the bird photo I took. [see? I really did take it at work.]    

 

Not that I understand it all yet but at least I (and now you) know where to find it! I'm a visual learner so now I can compare photos and settings and maybe even figure out some stuff.  I've been adding the data to some of my photos in the Photo 365 album - I just cut and paste the data out of FxFoto - so I can keep a record.  I wonder if any patterns will emerge - like I like certain settings better than others or I use certain settings most often. Maybe I'll understand why certain settings work better than others. And I'm hoping that I'll learn and understand these terms some day but for now just getting familiar with them is a big win for me.  :-)

Photo 365 1/5/07 Robins?

Had to share this one ....

One of the advantages of taking a photo every day  - Photo 365 - is that I am actually carrying around my camera.  So when this flock of birds - which I think are Robins - landed on the bush outside my window at work I was ready to snap away!  That is after I recovered from the idea of robins in New Hampshire in January!!  That's what they looked like at least to me.  But none of us are bird watchers around here so if I'm wrong, please let me know! It was 50 today - poor things are probably quite confused by this weather.

Photography Resolutions/ Photo 365

Resolutions have a way of coming and going, don't they?   I thought this thread which was called "What so you want to accomplish in the new year?"  was an interesting spin on the resolution issue. My resolutions seem to have a slightly negative tone - as in I resolve to lose weight or exercise more.  While not directly negative, there is an undertone which suggests that I'm too heavy or I don't exercise enough now.  So when Kathy Moore asked what we wanted to accomplish this year it got me to thinking...

I'd like to be a better photographer and to learn to use my camera better.  Figure out aperture and f stops and shutter speed and all that.  Maybe even learn to use the manual setting.  So often I just set it to automatic or simple mode. 

One way to do that is to take more photos of course.  So I'm going to try carrying it around with me and take at least one photo every day. And I was amply rewarded on day 2...check out this photo I took at DD's bus stop! 

I guess that's a positive sign!

I'm not the originator of this idea - I saw a post about this on the Photojojo blog and have been toying with idea for awhile.  January 1 just seemed like a good day to start!  Taylor McKnight did one in 2004 and you can see it on his Photo 365 blog.  Where to post?  Well, obviously, on your blog if you have one.  Another thought is to use a blog which is set up for primarily photos such as Flickr or Photoblog  For now, I think I'll stick with posting them here...since my other resolution is to use this blog more effectively. LOL!  So here is my Photo 365 album.

It turns out there are several Photo A Day blogs out in web-land so here are a few links - just to get you going.  And I'll post some more ideas as I go along.

Any other takers?  Maybe we can link to each other and follow our year along.  Email me and let's see what we come up with - [email protected]   You don't have to be a digital scrapbooker or an FxFoto user - this is a pure photography challenge.  Jump in!

Eric Desch Photo a Day - a professional photographer, I'm sure the photos will be amazing...

Stranger a Day - in 2004 Roark Johnson photographed a stranger every day...interesting idea and photos

Daily self Portrait - Noah Kalina took a photo of himself everyday for a year - I'm not sure I'm brave enough to do that!  But a photo of your child every day for a year might be very interesting....

Matt McGee   2006 photos

Dan's 365