Enjoy!
]]>
]]>
What I DO use my GoPro for is to capture footage when I'm at sporting events, and since the majority of sporting events I go to are cycling and skateboarding events, the GoPro camera is a perfect little camera to get the epic footage that I'm looking for, whether it be a cool close up of a skater blasting out of a bowl, or a mountain biker launching off of a jump, or a cyclocross racer sloshing through the mud. The little GoPro is perfect size for me to carry in my pocket when I'm on site, and allows me to pull it out and shoot some footage while I have my SLR in my other hand. I have a good SLR camera that shoots good 4K footage, but really, unless I have a 10-20mm lens on it, the 70-200mm I usually have on it, is not THAT conducive to shooting footage. I find that the GoPro has amazing capabilities to shoot what I need, and if you have one of the latest models, like anything from the Hero 8 Black to newer, you can dial in the right lens "look" (super wide, wide, linear, etc) and frame rates (up to 240fps) to get the look you want. For my stuff, I almost ALWAYS shoot in 2.7K, Wide, 120fps. I'd shoot in 4K 120fps, but I use the Hero 8 Black and the highest frame rate it does in 4K is 60fps, which will STILL get you good slow motion footage, but 120fps is SO MUCH FUN! 2.7K is still high enough resolution to allow you to crop in, or do some moving around of the footage in post if you want, and since 99% of my stuff is going up on Stock Footage sites, or Youtube, I export it in 1080p anyway.
Here are some examples of some of the stuff I've shot with my GoPro:
On a very wet and soggy day out shooting a cyclocross bike race. I figured if the racers have to race through calf high water, then I might as well get in there with them. Good thing I brought my boots. ;) This is a perfect example of why the GoPro cameras are great for using as just video cameras. You can shoot in pretty much ANY weather conditions.
A great example of how shooting at 120 frames per second allows me to slow the footage down to 24fps and achieve super smooth action. A photographer at the same event was using a handheld Godox strobe while he shot photos, and this produced the "happy accident" of my footage capturing his flash, allowing me to freeze my footage for a super cool "pause" in the frontside air the skater was doing.
For this one, I had my GoPro on a Zhiyun action camera gimbal and ran backwards as these cyclocross racers headed to, and over, the little jump ramp on the course. The beauty of the small gimbal and compact nature of the GoPro, makes it super easy to get these sorts of shots.
So as you can see, I am a firm believer in using my GoPro camera as "just a video camera" when I'm out and about at these sporting events. If you attend sporting events as a photographer, either "on the job", or just for your own enjoyments, I highly recommend either bring your GoPro, or picking one up to shoot footage and add to your personal portfolio, stock offerings, or to your clients as another asset. They are super easy to use, very portable and produce great footage.
Now grab your GoPro and get out there and shoot!
]]>
I've covered this race as an earnest photographer going back to 2016, and have come away with some pretty good photos, some prints of which I sell in my Etsy Shop and here on my website, and this year, I went out to try and capture the race a little differently. Meaning I wanted to try and capture the ambiance and the "feel" of the race, and went out of my way to include the crowds, the locale, and the general "feeling" of what was happening in front of my lens. For this endeavou, I packed my trusty Tamron 70-200 f2.8, my Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 and my Pentax 50 f1.8. I shot with the 70-200 mostly, to try and get shots "through the crowds", from a bit of a distance, and to try and isolate some of riders from both the foreground and the background. For this, I shot at mostly f2.8-f4 max with that lens.
Here are some of the images that I think came out pretty well. I've got a full gallery of photos from this race in my Portfolio section of my site, feel free to check it out!
For more insights and stuff, be sure to check out my Youtube Channel
Thanks for reading, now get out there and SHOOT!
]]>I'm an old skateboarder who still likes to get on the board every now and then (when my fragile ankles will allow it), and skate around. But what I REALLY love to do is photograph skateboarding. Coming from a skateboarding background, I like to think I know how to capture the action as it's unfolding and knowing where the sweet spot of the trick is going to be, so I can be in the right position to get the best shot I can.
Go Skateboarding Day in Vancouver this year was a blast. The skaters were awesome, the weather was great, and the skate spots were some of the most iconic spots in the city.
Here are a few of the shots I managed to come away with:
False Creek Curbs
False Creek Curbs (parking lot)
Victory Square
Victory Square
Victory Square
Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
If you've never tried photographing skateboarding, I highly recommend it to not only hone your skill set as an action sports photographer, but to maybe get out of your comfort zone and try something new. The action is fast and sometimes unpredictable, but trying to capture these things will help you understand your camera bit more, make you play around with your settings and ultimately make you a better photographer.
Now get out there and shoot!
All of these images and more are available for digital download Here.
Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for more awesome stuff!
]]>
I also realized I hadn't updates this blog since the Spring, but dang, i was pretty much busy shooting and editing nearly every weekend over the past few months! So awesome that sporting events are back in full swing after pretty much being non existent for the past couple of years!
What did I get up to you ask? Here's a whack of photos from my summer:
First off, here are a few shots from the Canada Skateboard Open Series put on by Canada Skateboard and Slurpee Canada. These were shot at the legendary Hastings Skatepark in Vancouver and the PoCo Skatepark, respectively:
Next up was the 7 Generations Cup skateboard event out at the Langley Events Center. A super awesome event combining awesome skateboarding and indigenous culture. So good!
From there it was on to the Vans Bowl Series at a variety of local Vancouver area skateparks. These events are always a great time showcasing the talents of a lot of local Vancouver area skateboarders.
Then it was up to Whistler, Canada to snap photos and video of both the Air Downhill and the Canadian Open Downhill bike races during Crankworks. If you dig, mountain bike stuff, Crankworks is THE place to be for all things mountain biking.
Then to top things off, I got the DM of a lifetime, asking if I wanted to be on the back of a motorcycle shooting riders taking part in the RBC Gran Fondo, an epic 122km ride/race from Vancouver to Whistler. Umm, yes please.
Now, it's cyclocross season, so i gotta go charge up my batteries and make sure all my waterproof gear is good to go.
Later!
Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for more awesome stuff!
When I go out to shoot a mountain bike race, I like to try and scope out at least 2, maybe 3 good vantage points to shoot from. This is why walking the course before hand is super important and will help cut down on the amount of walking around, thereby missing shots, you have to do.
Take these shots I took while covering the 2022 B.C. Provincial Mountain Bike Championships in Abbotsford, B.C. on the May long weekend. I walked the course, found a few good spots (and one that a lot of people were shooting from that I didn't really care for), and varied my shot list, capturing images from these spots at different times of the day, as the different classes of racers did their laps. Walking the course and scoping out a few good spots to shoot from will save you time and energy and allow you to get as many good shots as possible in the limited time you have during the race(s).
The first spot I shot from was from slightly above the apex of a high speed corner on a decent somewhere in the middle of the overall course. This spot got me quite a few really good photos due to being up slightly above the racers and showing the flow of the course lines. For a few of them, I slowed my shutter speed down and managed to get a few "panning" style shots. Panning shots in bike racing are the "Holy Grail" shots, IMHO, as they show the speed at which the racer are going and can really add to the "value" of the shot.
2022 BC Provincial Mountain Bike Championships1/125 sec.
f/2.8
70 mm
2022 BC Provincial Mountain Bike Championships1/200 sec. f/2.8 70 mm
From here I moved up the path to shoot this same corner from a different angle and little further away. I wanted take advantage of the Tamron 70-200 f2.8 that I had brought with me to create some shallow depth of field looks by shooting through the foliage and framing the racers with the lush greenery. Here a few examples of what I'm talking about:
2022 BC Provincial Mountain Bike Championships1/800 sec. f/2.8 115 mm
2022 BC Provincial Mountain bike Championships1/640 sec. f/2.8 88 mm
2022 BC Provincial Mountain Bike Championships 1/800 sec. f/2.8 108 mm
And from there I went up a little higher to capture this corner when the sun was a little higher in the sky and lit it up just perfectly.
2022 BC Provincial Mountain Bike Championships 1/100 sec. f/7.1 70 mm
2022 BC Provincial Mountain Bike Championships1/125 sec. f/5 70 mm
2022 BC Provincial Mountain Bike Championships1/60 sec. f/6.3 70 mm
Keep in mind that I shoot mostly (99% of the time) in Aperture Priority and adjust my ISO depending on the lighting conditions. Taking this full day of shooting, from morning to late afternoon, my ISO fluctuated between 100 and 1600. Quite a range.
So there you have it, a little insight into a day of shooting a mountain bike race and some tips and pointers on what to expect and how to get the most out of your day.
Big thanks to Cycling BC, Glenridge Acres and Norco Bicycles for putting on this awesome event!
Now get out there and shoot!
Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for more awesome stuff!
Now, yes, shooting video is different than shooting photos, as the settings are different, the aspect ratio is different, the frame rates can all be varied, etc, so it's a bit of a thing to get your head around, but adding video footage to your repertoire can do a couple of things. It can add value to your offerings, especially when it comes to promoting your products and services on social media platforms, video streaming platforms and the like. It seems like people like seeing moving pictures (video) over stills on Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook these days, so it only make sense to shoot video, if only for using it to promote your stuff. Another benefit to shooting video at sporting events is for commercial purposes as well, like selling it on stock video websites like Shutterstock, Dreamstime, and Pond5. I upload SOME of my video to Shutterstock, and not all of it, because they don't pay as much as they used to for video footage. Pond5 is my go to and most lucrative stock video outlet when it comes to generating revenue from my video footage.
Now, here's the kicker, if you're going to upload your stuff to the stock footage sites, you HAVE to upload it as Editorial footage. If you don't upload it as editorial, it will get rejected because you don't have releases for the people you are capturing on your video. Editorial still sells, but you just have to keep a few things in mind when shooting the video, like what you're capturing, who you're capturing, the mood, angles, commercial value, etc. I've touched on this in a previous blog post, but it bears repeating here: shoot things that have editorial commercial value. Example: if there are older people competing in the sporting event, capture them. News outlets, blogs, lifestyle sites, LOVE seeing older people still partaking in sport, and there is great commercial value in that.
Take this clip for example. This is a clip from a cyclocross bike race here in the Vancouver area, that features a group of older men running and riding over the set of barriers at the race. I shot this with my GoPro camera at 120fps and slowed it down to 24fps using my editing program of choice: Davinci Resolve. Not only is a great looking clip, shot from down low, with a wide angle lens, but it also has editorial commercial value in the fact that it features the older men's category of the race.
You could also use a shorter version, or snippet, from a clip like this to use to promote your work you've uploaded to the stock footage websites, or Youtube, and post that snippet to Twitter, Instagram, etc. Hell, even if you don't shoot video to use as commercial product, you could alwys shoot little clips like this to use as promo clips for your still photography work. The benefits to shooting video footage at sporting events far outways the reasons not to. Hell, even if you don't want to use your still camera (all of which shoot FANTASTIC video these days), you could just use your phone to shoot little clips to upload to the Socials. I do that WHILE I'M AT the event, just keeping my followers in the loop as to where I'm at and what I'm shooting. It always gives them a little taste of what to look forward to in the coming days with regards to what I'm shooting.
So there you have it. If you're out a sporting event, snapping photos, make sure to take the time to shoot some video while you're at it. People love video, it's taking over the social media formats, and can really add value to your portfolios.
Now get out there and shoot!
Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for more cool stuff.
]]>
After looking through my photos and doing some edits, I figured I would make a blog post about How I Shot these images and go over the details of how I achieved these results and how you too could get these results. It's pretty simple after all, all you need is a camera, a 3 stop ND Filter, a tripod, and a creek. Now, in case you're wondering what a "3 Stop ND Filter" is, it's a filter that essentially makes your camera think it's 3 stops darker than it is. For example, if you set your F-stop to f22, putting a 3 Stop ND Filter on stops it down another 3 stops to f25. There are Variable ND Filters that can stop your camera down further, like 8 stops, which is great if you're trying to shoot long exposure stuff during the bright sunlight, but for this purpose, and for where I was shooting (in the woods where it was already darker than out in the bright sunlight), a 3 stop ND Filter was all I needed. Plus, Variable ND filters are around $100 and up, depending on filter thread size, and 3 Stop ND Filters can be had for around $20. If you're just getting into long exposure daytime photography, start with a 3 Stop, hone your skill, and if it's something you want to take further, get a Variable later on.
Ok, on to the photos. After finding a cool spot and shooting some video footage, I was kinda digging the location and the flow of the creek that I was shooting, so I popped on the ND filter, and did some test shots to dial in the settings. I'm shooting with a Pentax K-3 Mark III, and a Sigma 70-300mm. After a few tests, I settled on the following settings to achieve this result:
150mm (230mm in 35mm equivalent)
2.5 Second Exposure
f5.6 (add 3 stops for the filter, so like f11?)
ISO 100
And here's another one shot at the same location, but zoomed out a bit to 93mm (142mm in 35mm equivalent) to get a little more creek in the shot. The settings for this one are as follows:
1.6 Second Exposure
f4 (add 3 stops)
ISO 100
And here's another one that was a bit more challenging since I didn't have my Variable ND Filter with me. Challenging in that it was still pretty light out even though the sun was setting in early evening down by the river, but I waited a bit and managed to squeeze out a few shots before the sun completely set. It would have been advantageous to use a Variable ND Filter for these conditions, but this is a good example of how you can make a 3 Stop ND Filter work if that's all you have in your camera bag. Just gotta wait a little longer for the light to diminish and you'll be good to go. For this one, I wanted get the river as "glassy" as I could so a longer exposure of 30 seconds was needed. Perfect effect against the wood and concrete pilings in the river. The settings for this one were:
50mm (77mm in 35mm equivalent)
30 Second Exposure
f16 (add 3 stops)
ISO 100
This last one was shot at a different location; Bridal Veil Falls in the Fraser Valley region of B.C. Normally, the Falls are raging with a torrent of water flowing over them, and this little waterfall off to the side is usually MUCH more dramatic, with a lot more water flowing over it, but in late summer, it was just a cute little flow coming over the logs, and I thought it looked cool, so I set up and snapped off a few frames to see what it looked like. Came out pretty decent if you ask me, and I was lucky to get it, seeing that there were A TON of tourists milling about and almost standing in front of my camera while I was shooting. ;) The settings for this shot are as follows:
75mm (115mm in 35mm equivalent)
2 Second Exposure
f11 (add 3 stops)
ISO100
So there you have it. A few examples of how using a 3 Stop ND Filter can help you get those cool long exposure photos showing flowing water as smooth and glassy. And as you can see, there really isn't a "one size fits all" approach to the settings you need to achieve these results. Some photos have a 30 second exposure time, some are 2 seconds, some are 1.6 seconds, etc. Some are f4, some are f11, f16, etc. You'll need to get to your location, set up, do some tests, and dial in the settings you need to achieve the results you're after, really taking the time of day, the amount of light there is, and the lens you're using to get the results you're looking for. Now get out there and shoot!
Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for more awesome stuff!
]]>
Let's go.
Ok, so here's the shot I'm referring to to:
This one was pretty simple, and pretty easy to do. Actually, this sort of photo is pretty easy to do come to think of it. You can do this sort of photo with pretty much any camera that shoots in "burst" mode. Hell, even a decent smart phone can shoot in burst mode. Now, I shot this with a DSLR that shoots a pretty high frame rate, so I had a good amount of photos to use for the final image. You will need Photoshop and will know how to use layer masks to cut out the parts of the images that you want to place on top of the main, base image.
Once you have all your shots, you'll need to import them in Photoshop and select one of the images as the "main" image, meaning that the main image will be the one that is the base layer that you will then place the other sequence images on to. Here's the main base layer image before I added the other sequence image onto it:
And from here, you add the other sequence images on top of the main image. This image shows the one of the action sequence images before and after I added a layer mask and masked out the skater from the rest of the image.
Before:
After:
And from there, you just add another sequence image, add a layer mask, and mask out the skater from the background. Here's the next image I added to this image sequence.
Before:
After:
And from there, you have your finished image. Now, I masked out and Content Aware Filled out the background people and stuff just to clean up the image a bit, but if your image doesn't need it, no worries, work with what you have.
So there you have it, that's how I shot this image...or images...and put them all together to achieve this result.
Happy shooting!
Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for more awesome stuff!
]]>
I was gonna write out a big long Blog going over this topic, but I did a YouTube VLOG instead. Much easier to follow along, and worth your while to watch it, I might add. :)
Enjoy!
]]>
Take this photo as my first example. This was shot during the Gastown Grand Prix, a criterium style bike race that is held in the historic Gastown area of Vancouver, Canada. The Gastown Grand Prix is part of a week long series of races that make up what is called B.C. Superweek and is held every July. It's a super awesome race; it's fast, it's rough, and a fantastic opportunity for photographers to get awesome shots.
Now prior to getting this particular shot, I shot a ton of photos from various vantage points around the course. Some super wide (10-20mm) overhead style shots, some low angle, "under the fence" style shots, some head on and "back of the pack" style shots, and about half way through the race, and since I had my trusty 70-300mm Sigma still on, I wanted to see if I could get a panning shot that isolated a particular rider. I had shot some panning shots earlier on using either my 10-20mm or my 18-55mm, and they were cool and all, but I wanted a more intimate panning shot showing one rider and hopefully, with a little luck, isolating the effort, the grit, the facial expression and the speed of the action. A very important aspect of getting a good panning sports shot is making sure you have a background that, when you are panning against it, shows the motion and speed. Being closer to action is better as well, and for this shot, I was about 25ft from the rider. Now, since I shoot with an APS-C sensor sized camera, shooting at 70mm is the equivalent to shooting at about 105mm. 25ft away from a subject at 105mm focal length is about perfect to get the rider filling the frame, capturing enough detail, and getting enough background to show the motion and speed. According to me at least. ;)
So, in order to get this shot, I positioned myself about 100ft from a corner that the riders had just come around and were starting to accelerate down the back straightaway. This meant that most of the riders were out of the saddle, stamping on the pedals, exerting maximum effort to get up to speed. As the riders were accelerating I would follow them with my lens, matching my panning motion to their speed and, in burst mode, fire of a series of shots as the sped past. Again, shooting at 70mm, I was able to get all of the rider filling my frame which made it easy to keep my eye on what I capturing. Now, while shooting in burst mode while panning, you are bound to get some bad, out of focus, blurry, or just weak shots, but there's bound to be at least one good one in the mix. They don't call it "spray and pray" for nothing. ;)
My settings, after some trial and error, for this shot were as follows:
70mm
1/100sec (not as slow as you thought it would be huh? this rider was MOTORING!)
F6.3
ISO 3200 (this was shot in the evening and in the middle of the city, where there was VERY little sunlight or ambient light available)
Now, of course, my settings for this shot are VERY particular for THIS shot and really can't be duplicated over and over again to get the same results for every panning sports shot, and this highlights the need to do some work in order to get the results you want. You have scout your location, pick your spot, picture the result in your mind, do some test shots, and set up/test/change/lock in your settings to reflect to type of shot you want to achieve. I just want to re-iterate that the settings are the LAST thing you should dial in. Your positioning, your spot, and your vision should be the most important thing when setting out to get shots like these.
I really hope this helps you all in achieving the results you're after when it comes to your slow shutter, panning sports shots. Now get out and shoot!
P.S. This photo, and a host of others, is available as a print or digital download in my shop: JWPhotoworks Shop
Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for more awesome stuff!
]]>
For me, it's a game changer for one simple reason. Offering larger print sizes from photos shot on a APS-C (or even micro four thirds) size sensor camera(s).
Think about it. You have an APS-C sized 16MP sensor on your camera and yeah, it shoots pretty high resolution RAW images, like say 4928 x 3264 at 300ppi, which is high enough resolution to print at 24inch x 36inch without any issues, but now, with the Super Resolution and Enhance feature in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom, you can bump up that up to 9856 x 6528, essentially doubling the size with no loss of quality and turning that image into a 64MP file. Amazing. Now if you wanted, you could print 4ft x 6ft prints no problem. That's huge. All from your APS-C sensor camera. Which, to me, begs the obvious question, at least obvious for me, since I'm in the new camera market and have had my eye on the new Pentax K-3 MK3 since it was finally made available in March of this year. I've been struggling with whether I need to fork out the extra dough to get a full frame camera since I'm selling more prints these days, and since I also shoot video, I need something besides my GoPro and iPhone that shoots 4K. I was waiting to see if Pentax was going to be updating the K-1 to add a 4K video feature to it, but alas, no. The new K-3 MK3 does shoot 4k and has a bump up in the sensor quality, so it's the most obvious choice. The only thing that was holding back my decision was the APS-C sized sensor and now that Adobe has this new Enhance and Super Resolution feature, I think my decision is made. I mean geez, i can increase the size and resolution of photos I shot YEARS ago, AND, I can increase the size and resolution of photos I am going to take with the new camera if need be. Game changer and winner all around.
Check out these examples to see what I'm talking about:
This first screencap shows a RAW file with a little editing done to it in it's native size and resolution: 4928 x 3264 at 300ppi.
And here it is at 100% magnification:
Here's the same RAW file after Enhancing it and applying the Super Resolution treatment to it, ending up with a 9856 x 6528 at 300ppi image:
And here is the Enhanced RAW file at 100% magnification.
Here is a Side by Side comparison of the 2 images, cropped in on a particular section at 100% so you can see the difference. Here's the Non Enhanced one:
And here's the Enhanced one. You can clearly see the difference, especially when you look at the Vans logo on the back of the heel of the shoe.
So as you can see, this new feature in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom is super awesome and I know I'm going to take advantage of it every opportunity I can. I mean geez, I could make 8K timelapse videos using this feature. Crazy!
Anyway, I'm off to do some shooting, so take this info, run with it, enhance your photos and have a great day!
Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for more awesome stuff!
]]>
Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get down to it. What have you all been shooting over the winter months where you are? me? I shot a few cycling events in September and October, and I kinda laid low over November and December since not much was happening sports wise (Covid 19 is still KILLING organized sports events) and the weather was absolute shit here on the West Coast of Canada. Not the most motivating for getting out and creating content. Oh sure, I shot some stock related product stuff in my garage studio but that stuff isn't SUPER exciting, unless you're into metal soup cans, coffee beans and VHS tapes and VCR's. If you are, be sure to check out my Shutterstock portfolio! ;)
On the creative side of things, it's only been recently that the weather has been decent enough to get me off my ass and out of the house to shoot stuff. Here in the Vancouver area of the West Coast of Canada, there are a couple of little regional parks I like to head out to for waterfront and nature related shoots. One is called Barnet Marine Park and the other is Fraser Foreshore Park. They are both waterfront parks, but differ in many ways mainly due to the facts that Fraser Foreshore Park is on the Fraser River and faces South, and Barnet Marine Park is on Burrard Inlet (ocean) and faces North. Both of them are on the water, but they offer up completely different views and scenery which makes for great photo and video opportunities, all within 20 minutes of my house.
I've shot a few Timelapse videos at both parks over the last week or so and in this blog post I'm gonna break down a couple of them, shot with both my DSLR and my GoPro cameras, just to give you a look at what 2 different cameras systems can achieve.
The first shoot was at Fraser Foreshore Park on a cold, but mostly clear evening with a few clouds forming off the south. I set up the camera facing mostly West, just getting the setting sun off the left of the frame. I shot this sequence in Aperture Priority mode to try and maintain the light levels since the sun was setting.
Here's a still from the DSLR using the following settings:
Sigma 10 - 20mm at 10mm
Aperture Priority at f/7.1
ISO 400
And here is the Time Lapse video made up of 194 stills. I use Lightroom Classic to do the post processing of the stills, then run them trough Time Lapse Deflicker to take the flicker that pretty much every timelapse video shot with either Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority seems to suffer from. It's a good program and does a really good job at "de-flickering" timelapse videos. From there, I use Davinci Resolve to crop, maybe do some more color grading if needed, and export in various sizes and bit rates.
This is the video at 720p:
Whenever I shoot Timelapse videos with my DSLR, I try to shoot one with my GoPro at the same time, just to have a back up and a different perspective.
Here's a still from the GoPro using the following settings:
3mm Gopro lens (15mm equivalent)
f/2.8
ISO 111
DCIM\100GOPRO\G0031313.JPG
And here's the resulting video. Again, since the GoPro shoots in RAW format, i process the stills in Lightroom Classic the same as I do with my DLSR.
So, as you can see, VERY different results from 2 different cameras. Of course, you can do alot more with a DSLR, but the object of this game, at least for me is, to get different results from the same opportunity. If I've got the cameras, might as well use them, correct? ;) Oh, and the GoPro video is longer because I was shooting other stuff with my DSLR while the GoPro was shooting the Timelapse stuff.
At Barnet Marine Park, facing the North Shore Mountains on the West Coast of Canada, there are relics of the old logging mill operation that was there in the early 1900's and as such, they make for great photo opportunities.
Here's a still from the GoPro featuring one of these relics, which I believe is from the main logging building where they loaded the logs into to be milled once they came off the ships. It's a very cool structure.
The setting for this image are as follows:
3mm (15mm equivalent)
f/2.8
ISO 100
And here is the resulting video comprised of 124 images played at 24 fps. Funny thing is, this video is short because I spotted a bald eagle in the trees above me and wanted to get some shots of it, so I stopped shooting the timelapse, grabbed my DSLR which had a 10-20mm Sigma on it, and then realized I hadn't brought my 70-300mm with me. Can't really shoot a bald eagle in a tree 40ft up with a 10-20mm ultra wide angle lens...
Anyway, here's the timelapse video using the GoPro:
At the same park, facing North West I got an awesome timelapse video of the clouds moving from south to north while the sun was setting. Y'know, shooting timelapse videos this time of year is awesome, 'cause the air is clear, the clouds are cool, and the weather is generally moody but man, you really gotta get moving 'cause the sun sets really early and really fast!
Here's a still from that shoot and the settings are as follows:
10mm
f/6.3
ISO 400
Aperture Priority
And here's the video comprised of 388 stills (1 shot every 3 seconds) played at 24 fps:
So there you have it. 4 timelapse videos shot by 2 different cameras in a couple of really cool locations producing really cool results. If you have any questions about my set up or any tech specs of the shoots, please let me know in the comments, or contact me directly through my website.
If watching Youtube videos about this sort of stuff is more your jam, then check out my Youtube channel and the videos I put up there going over Time Lapse editing, tips, and basic tutorials on how to get the best out of your Time Lapse video projects
Thanks for your time reading this, now get out there and make your own cool photos and videos!
]]>
One of the biggest challenges of shooting time lapse stuff is coming up with ideas on what to shoot. Weather? Traffic? People? Stars? My problem, and I'm sure others have the same issue, is, I usually figure out what to shoot with very little time in which to shoot it. I find myself sitting around the house, usually watching TV, and then all of a sudden, I'll see some awesome clouds outside and think, "Hey! What the hell am I doing sitting around the house when there are awesome clouds floating by that I could be shooting!" So I grab my gear, head out to a cool spot and hope that I've got enough time to shoot it. It usually works out, mind you, but man, I really gotta work on planning stuff out better. ;)
Here are some examples of some of the time lapses I've shot over the years featuring a wide range of subject material.
First one is a cool nature one featuring a lake, some clouds, and a mountain range in the background. The photo info on these is:
1/250 sec
ISO 100
F7.1 @18mm
Here's another I shot at night featuring some traffic coming to a stop at a traffic light on a busy downtown street. I added a bit of panning in post production.
This one was fun to do and is a perfect example of taking advantage of what you have right in front of you. This was shot on my lawn, in summer, just as the sun was going down. I wanted to see if I could shoot a time lapse of a flower closing up as the sun dipped, and I think it turned out pretty well.
Photo info is:
1/500 sec
ISO 400
F2.4 @ 35mm
And this one was fun to do. I headed out to shoot some star trail photos during the Perseids Meteor Shower a few years ago and came away with this cool time lapse video.
So there you have it, some cool time lapse info, a few ideas to hopefully get you motivated to get out there and shoot your own time lapse video. Lots of things to shoot for sure, you just need to decide what to shoot, when you want to shoot and how to get off your butt and go do it! Like me...lol.
Oh, and some of this stuff is available for licensing on my Pond 5 Portfolio if you are in need of such material. Give it a look see if you want!
Till next time!
]]>
On that note, and since I'm not the guy to find himself in FRONT of a camera, here's a video from The Loam Ranger that goes over some of the more simple techniques on how to achieve awesome shots next time you're out in the woods. Hope this helps!
Here are some examples of what using the above techniques can get you. All of these shots were shot by me, at various mountain bike events.
And here are a video clip using a GoPro camera trackside I shot for a larger video project I am working on. Super wide angle, panning along with the rider, and slowing the action down at the peak of the action for a super cool, dramatic effect.
]]>Here's an example of a shot I took of one of my vintage cameras using light painting with a small LED flashlight. This photo is a 6 second exposure, f8, ISO 100 at 35mm. I processed this photo in Photoshop to go from a color image to black and white 'cause I think it makes this camera look that much cooler.
Vintage Camera - Light Painting 6 Second Exposure
F8
ISO 100
35mm
Here's a short video of the light painting process to show you how simple this technique is. Once you set your camera settings, turn on your light painting source, hit the shutter button and paint away! Just remember to shut your light off after you're done so you don't have any light leaks getting into your shot.
See? Easy. Light painting is a really cool way to light your object if you are looking for a different look to your photos, or even if you don't have fancy strobes or LED light panels. All you need is a solid tripod and a light source as simple as a flashlight.
Get after it!
Oh, and if you dig my photography, check out my Etsy Shop!
]]>
Here's another great video from Learn Online Video that shows you how to achieve 10 awesome gimbal moves to, hopefully, take your mobile phone film making skills to the next level. Check it!
]]>
Luckily, there are few things you can do to make your footage look more cinematic that are pretty simple and very straight forward. Things like using vintage lenses, using a simple top mount handle, etc. I came across this video from filmmaker Mark Bone, who goes over some of these super simple and easy ways to achieve just that. Check it out:
]]>
After watching that video, I started to ask the question; what aspects of his set up could I incorporate into my set up. The LED light panels really caught my eye, along with the extendable monitor arms and the little ball heads that attach the light panels onto the monitor arms. I didn't need the set up to be movable, and I didn't want to spend $80 CDN on a monitor arm/post (x2) so I figured I'd go for a more permanent solution regarding the posts the monitor arms would attach to and just get a post that attaches permanently to the table and monitor arms that would fit around that post. At first, I thought I'd just pop down to Home Depot, pick up a couple of 1.5 inch threaded metal base plates and some 2ft threaded pipes to screw into the plates and then screw the plates on to the table. Simple, easy. Uhh...expensive. A 1.5 inch metal threaded base plate at Home Depot is $18 CDN. A 2 ft threaded 1.5 inch metal pipe is $30 CDN. I needed 2 of these set ups, and for that price, I could just get a monitor post and arm from Amazon. I wanted something less expensive. When I was putting the threaded pipe into the base plate at Home Depot, I was looking at it and thought to myself, "Hey, that looks JUST like an Ikea table leg turned upside down!". So, I looked at table legs on Ikea.ca and lo and behold, I got EXACTLY the posts I was after for $5.00 each. I got the rest of the stuff from Amazon though. The Neweer LED panels are fantastic, perfect size for my needs and space. The ball heads are "ok", they work for now, but one of them is a little "iffy" and I might spend a few bucks extra and get ones that are a bit beefier. The monitor arms are perfect for my table size, but if you have a slightly longer table, you might want to get ones that extend out a little more if you're doing any over head type shots where you want the light to be directly over your items. So far so good, and I'm totally jazzed on how it all came together and what I'm able to do with this set up so far.
Here's a complete list of what I got and how much it all came to for this awesome set up.
VIVO Steel Universal Full Motion Pole Mount Monitor Arm with Removable 75mm and 100mm VESA Plate - $29.99CDN each
Ikea Adils Table Leg - $5.00CDN each
So there you have it, a new and improved DIY Home/Garage/Desk studio set up for shooting small to medium sized items for just under $250.00CDN or, at today's exchange rate: $190.00USD.
Here are a couple of shots of the set up and a shot of some coffee beans I shot for my Stock Photo Portfolios
The reason I want to get a drone is primarily to give my Stock Footage portfolio a boost by adding some amazing cinematic drone footage to it. We here on the West Coast of Canada are blessed with an over abundance of amazing natural landscapes and I figure it would be to my advantage to capture some of it with a Drone. The DJI Mavic Mini seems to check all the boxes regarding what I need in a drone for now; 2.7K at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps, 3 axis gimbal, decent flying time, etc. Everything I would need to get going I think.
I found a cool video from Jeven Dovey, who has a great Youtube channel if you're into adventure photography and film making. He's got some really good tips and tricks he shares, so if you feel inclined, give his channel a peek. This video goes over his thought process on how to get some killer cinematic shots using your DJI Mavic Mini Drone. Check it!
]]>
Now that I know these things, I'm definitely taking it with me when I head out to shoot some more star trail photography and see what I can come up with and how it compares to my DSLR. Either way, it shoots in a much wider field of view compared to my widest angle lens I have for my DSLR, so it should be kinda cool.
Speaking of cool, here's a cool video from What Alex Did that goes over settings and whatnot to achieve a cool Star Trail image using your GoPro Hero 7 Black.
The Hero 7 has some awesome features that the Hero 3 doesn't have regarding the Time Lapse features, like Night Lapse mode, exposure control, shutter speed control, ISO control, along with other features usually reserved for DSLR cameras. Sure, you don't have lens options like you do with a DSLR, but with the GoPro, you can switch between their "signature" wide angle field of view, or their "linear" field of view, which gives you less of a "fish eye" look. Heck, you can even switch between 4:3 ratio and 16:9 ratio for the video. Which brings me to point out that yes, you can shoot time lapse stuff with the GoPro Hero 7 in either "video mode" or by shooting a bunch of RAW photos that you can edit in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom. The Time Lapse Video mode in the Hero 7 does pretty much all the work for you if you just want to create time lapse videos without all the set up. If you want more control over your finished product, you can shoot in Time Lapse Photo, or Night Lapse mode and capture a whack of photos to edit later.
I found a great video from MountMedia that goes over all the great Time Lapse settings the Hero 7 offers, so check it out and get shooting!
]]>
I stumbled across this awesome video from DSLR Video Shooter on Youtube that features an amazing desktop set up for filming Youtube style videos. It's got everything you'll ever need for setting up your own little home desk studio, including lighting, mic stands, capture devices, tripod mounts, etc. The kicker is that it can be set up for a relatively low amount of money; under $400 for equipment excluding the camera. I was watching this video and I immediately thought of how I could incorporate most of this set up to shoot my work flow scenes in my garage studio. The monitor stand, swing arms, lighting and tripod extension are what really caught my eye and could be adapted to my work bench/table set up very easily.
If you, or some one you know is looking to set up a desktop/workflow/Youtube style video studio, check this video out, it helped me, and maybe it can help you.
Check it!
This video I found on Youtube is from Jeven Dovey, a video maker who uses his love of adventure to make awesome videos and short films. His insights into equipment and video editing are great and in this video he goes over the basics of how to shoot, and incorporate B-Roll footage into your main video footage. Very straight forward, very insightful and super easy to get a handle on.
Enjoy!
Eric Pare is a master at this craft and this video he posted to YouTube goes over the basics on how to set up your camera for light tube painting. The set up is relatively simple, so take a peek at this video, get some sort of a light tube and have at it! Maybe one day I'll give this a go myself.
Enjoy!
So, naturally, I take a lot of photos and videos of bike related events, as there are a lot of them here in the Metro Vancouver area, on the West Coast of Canada.
Shooting stuff at these events is super fun, and challenging, as you have to be in the right spot at the right time to get the desired result you're looking for. For road racing, the most exciting style of racing is the Criterium, which is a race consisting of a closed loop course where the racers complete a certain number of laps. The action is fast, flat out and changes from lap to lap. Perfect for sports photography. A cool benefit of the races being a series of laps on a closed course, is that you can walk around the course, getting shots from different vantage points. I usually walk around the course to see where the best action is possibly going to be, and then, as the races progress, move to those spots to snap photos. I've found that the best spots for Criterium style races to be are just at the exits to the corners, particularly the slow corners. Why these spots you ask? Well, as the racers exit the corners, they then put all their effort into accelerating out of the corner to make a move on their opponents, which makes for great photos and videos. Here's an example of that type of shot:
A dramatic shot of the bike racers accelerating out of the corner. Settings for this photos are: 1/1600 sec. f/4 70mm ISO 200
Another awesome type of shot that you can get at road races is the Panning shot. This one can be tricky, as it involves using a technique known as "dragging the shutter", and to do this, you typically need to set you camera on manual, adjust your ISO as to your light conditions, open up your aperture, and slow you shutter speed. There is no "one size fits all" setting for his, as it totally depends on where you're shooting, so you'll have to play around with your settings to get the right levels you need for the shot you're trying to accomplish. Here's an example of that type of shot:
A panning shot of a bike racer speeding past the camera. Settings for this shot were: 1/100 sec. f/6.3 70mm ISO 3200
As for Mountain Bike races, the challenge is a bit different, as the course are usually, well, on the side of a mountain. The courses are all very different, but can be broken into two main categories: Downhill and Cross Country. Downhill involves racers racing one a time, speeding as fast as they can down a track made specifically for the racing. These tracks usually involve jumps and high speed corners which, as a photographer, is where you want to be. So, you have to scope out the course before hand and see where the best jumps are, and where the best corners are. For jumping shots, it's kind of cool if you try for a wide angle panning style of shot to add some jazz to the image, along with a slightly slower shutter speed to add that motion to the shot, but if you're shooting a jumping shot head on, you're probably going to want to shoot with a wider aperture, and faster shutter speed to get that shallow depth of field and a sharp, crisp shot. For high speed cornering shots, they are like the panning shots. You want to create that aspect of motion in the shot to make sure the viewer gets the sense of speed. Bottom line is, make sure you are in the right spots to ensure you can get the desired results you are after. Here are a couple of examples of those types of shots:
Downhill Mountain BikingSettings for this photos were: 1/320 sec. f/4.5 18mm ISO 200
Downhill Adaptive Mountain Biking1/800 sec. f/4 93mm ISO 1600
Downhill Bike Racing - Head on ShotSettings for this photo were: 1/800 sec. f/4 120mm ISO1600
Downhill Mountain Biking High Speed Corners1/60 sec. f/4.5 190mm ISO 100
Shooting Cross Country Mountain Biking is like the criterium road racing style of shooting, the course is a closed loop and you pretty much do the same thing; scout the course for the good spots where there will most likely be some good action. In cross country, or XC, mountain bike racing, there will be some cool stuff like drops, hills, jumps, and steeps, so make sure you make note of where the cools spots are and shoot accordingly. Here are some shots of some XC racing taken at cool spots along the course.
XC Mountain Bike Racing Settings for this shot were: 1/1000 sec. f/4 70mm ISO 1600
XC Mountain Bike Racing Settings for this shot were: 1/800 sec. f/4.5 170mm ISO 1600
XC Mountain Bike RacingSettings for this shot were: 1/1000 sec. f/5.6 21mm ISO 3200
And that brings us to Cyclocross. Cyclocross racing is like mix between road and mountain biking. It's super popular in Europe, particularly amongst the Dutch, and is growing in popularity here on the other side of the world. Any climate that has cold, wet Autumns and Winters is perfect for Cyclocross. Ha! No, seriously, the wetter, colder and muddier the course, the better. I think one of the major challenges of cyclocross racing is to see if you can stay upright long enough to make it around the course ahead of your competitors. Just imagine riding your road racing street bike with skinny knobby tires on slippery mud. A challenge, right? That's Cyclocross, and it's SUPER entertaining to watch, let alone shoot photos and videos of.
I would say one of the major challenges of shooting Cyclocross racing is keeping all of your equipment clean and dry throughout the course of the day. Rain gear for you and your gear is a must. Covering the race is just like XC mountain bike racing and road racing. Closed course again, so scout the good spots and shoot away. Now, since there aren't alot of jumps and wild riding stuff going on in a Cyclocross race, you have to catch the action that is cool, like racers doing drops, hurdling over barriers, cornering through mud, that sort of thing. I've found that it's more of an intimate sort coverage, looking for details and textures. The action is slower, so it offers up shooting opportunities that reflect that. Here are some examples of what I mean:
Cyclocross Bike Racing - The GritSettings for this photo were: 1/800 sec. f/4 70mm ISO 800
Cyclocross Racing Settings for this photo were: 1/640 sec. f/4.5 190mm ISO 1600
Cyclocross Racing Settings for this photo were: 1/1000 sec. f/4 120mm ISO 400
So there you have it. Of all these styles of races, I find that the most fun to shoot would be Cyclocross. The environment, the crowd, the weather, and the effort these racers put out just makes for a phenomenal day of bike racing.
Go out and shoot some Bike Races!
Oh, and some of these photos are available in my shop, so if you're looking for Cycling rlated artwork for you space, please check it out: JWPhotography Online Shop
Now, about that Star Trail quick and simple tutorial you came her for. I'm going to make this really simple and lay out my technique on how to achieve this result:
It's really easy, all you really need is a DSLR that allows manual control, a tripod, a remote shutter release, and time. Oh and a lawn chair, VERY IMPORTANT!
Now, I mention a remote shutter release, which is great, and they are very handy for lots of things and inexpensive, but if your camera has a built in intervalometer (the ability to shoot time lapse), that's actually better. Either way, whatever you have or what your camera has that allows you to snap photos without touching the camera will work.
First thing you should do is find a good spot to set up that is kind of away from city lights, to reduce the amount of light pollution that might creep into your photos. You don't need to be a million miles away from civilization though. The image that I'm showcasing in this tutorial was shot atop a local small mountain/hill here in Vancouver, that houses Simon Fraser University. It's smack dab in the in the middle of Greater Vancouver and surrounded by urban sprawl. As long as there are no major lights immediately around you, you should be fine.
Next, set up your camera on your tripod and your lawn chair. I like to point my camera as straight up as possible, and maybe, as in the case of this photos, frame the image with some foreground objects like trees, or a structure of some sort. From there, you'll need to set your camera on manual focus and focus your lens (I use an 18-55mm) to "infinity". That's the little symbol on the end of the lens that looks like a figure 8 turned on it's side. That way, all the stuff in your photo will be in focus, you know, 'cause it's super far away. Stars...am I right?
Now come the settings. After shooting a few of these things, I tend to use the same settings for most of them, because, well, they work. The settings I use are as follows: 18mm, f4, 30 second exposure, and ISO 400. Now, my camera has a built in time lapse feature, so I set it to shoot 1, 30 second image every 30 seconds so I don't need to use a remote shutter release, but if your camera doesn't have the time lapse feature, you'll just need to hit that remote button after every 30 second exposure has completed. Same result, different technique.
What you will end up with is a bunch of 30 second exposures. How many will depend on how long you want to sit outside shooting them. The more you shoot, the longer your star trails will be. For this image, I shot 57 images, which was about a half an hour of shooting. Next thing we have to do is process them in either Photoshop or Lightroom. I usually process my time lapse and multi exposure projects in Lightroom, because I think it's better for working on projects that involve a lot of photos that are of similar nature. I do a few little tweaks and what not to the images, but there is no "one size fits all" approach to how the individual photos should look. Everyone has their preferences, so I'll leave that up to you. The most important thing to do is, if you are shooting in an urban environment, is to "cool" the images down, because you'll probably have some "warm" cast to the photos from the light pollution in the area. Here's an example of the tweaks I did to one of the images for this project:
Once you've processed your images, you'll need to put them into a folder so that Photoshop knows what to do with them. Once you have them all in a folder, in Photoshop, go to File - Scripts - Load Files Into Stack and select the folder and photos you want to stack. Photoshop will them load all the photos as layers, like this:
From there, select all the layers and change the "mode" (the drop down menus above the list of layers) from "normal" to "lighten" and you should have something like this:
Cool huh? From there, you can save your image as a JPG and share with all your friends!
Simple, easy, and fun to do!
Thanks for reading, and for more cool Adobe Lightroom tutorials, check out SLR Lounge
]]>
First things first, you gotta think up a good idea for what you want to achieve with your time lapse, then you have to source out the right objects, location, etc., then you have to work out how long you want your finished product to be, do some math regarding how many shots per minute you'll need based on how smooth you want your video to be, and then set up your equipment.
Simple.
Not.
All time lapses are different, and there is no "one size fits all" approach to achieving a cool finished product. I'm showing you all several different time lapse's I've shot over the last few years to give you examples of how the time lapse technique can achieve a variety of cool results.
First one is a time lapse I shot at night using both long exposure and time lapse techniques. I wanted to get the look of the light streaks of the cars tail lights as they come to a stop, combined with a panning motion, done in post production. The result is a pretty cool short video that makes for great urban B-Roll stock footage.
This second one is a Cityscape Time Lapse I shot at night again, this time on the waterfront, with our local sport stadium as the main focal point. The cool thing about this shot are the water taxis skitting along the water. I shot this like the one above, using long exposure and time lapse techniques. I used 3 second exposures, every 5 seconds. These settings gave just the right amount of exposure and movement to the video.
This third one is one that I did on my lawn. I was about to cut the grass, and noticed that there were a lot of Buttercup flowers on my lawn so I decided to set up and shoot a time lapse that shows the flower closing as the sun was going down. This is the type of video that you see in nature documentaries and B-Roll in videos, etc. I normally shoot time lapse videos an full manual, but because the light would be changing so much during this shoot, and I wanted to maintain the same exposure level throughout the video, that required me to shoot in Aperture Priority mode. I shot this at f2.4 to get a cool shallow depth of field look and an ISO of 400. Now, because of the changing of shutter speed throughout the video to compensate for the changing light levels, I got a bit of flicker throughout the video. I fixed that in post using a program called TLDF 2.1 which analyzes each frame and outputs both de-flickered image files and video files. It's a great program, and is available for both Mac and PC.
And of course, there's clouds. Everyone loves a good, emotive cloud time lapse video. They can be used for so many things, and they sell quite well through my various online stock footage portfolios, like JWPhotoworks Shutterstock, JWPhotoworks Pond5, and JWPhotoworks Adobe Stock.
The settings on this particular one go as follows: Full manual, f6.3, ISO 200, 1/2000sec at 93mm. As with the above video, I ran it through TLDF 2.1 to de-flicker it.
So there you have it. A few examples of different kinds of time lapse's and how to achieve the results. I don't get into super detailed specifics with how to achieve these results, as I believe you just need to go out, shoot some stuff and see what you get. Bottom line is,use your imagination when it comes to shooting time lapse videos and you'll be ok in the end. Practice makes perfect.
Oh, and invest in a good tripod. ;)
If you're interested in more online photography tutorials and courses, check out SLR Lounge
]]>
Skate photography has always been a passion of mine. I started shooting skateboarding as a hobby back in the late 80's, if memory serves me correctly. Come to think of it, snapping photos of skateboarding and skateboarders was one of the first things I shot when I got my first real SLR camera, the legendary Pentax K1000 from Kerrsidale Cameras in Vancouver.
I remember hanging out at the Vancouver Art Gallery steps and the Granville Island waterpark, in the Fall, after they shut the water off, and in the Spring, before they turned in back on. Both locations were havens for people getting their stoke on, and there was always great action going on.
Here's photo from that 80's era down at the Granville Island waterpark. I have no idea who the skater is. This was probably 1987 or 1988.
The Art Gallery steps are still, to this day, one of the prime spots for street skating due primarily to the fact that the steps and ledges are made from granite, the best material for grinds and slides. I headed over to the Art Gallery recently to snap some photos and came away with some cool shots of the benches and ledges there, complete with those dastardly "skate stoppers".
These were shot on my Pentax K-30 with the Pentax 35mm F2.4 wide open at 2.4. since these were shot in the evening, I set the ISO between 800-3200.
Here are a couple of shots:
The Vancouver area has such a vibrant skate community, and during the summer, that are no shortage of skate related events going on. Here are a few photos from some of the local events. Most of these were shot with either an 18-55mm or a 70-200mm. No matter what lens I'm using, I always shoot as wide open as the lens is capable of, to try and get that separation between subject and background.
Dave Hackett - Seylynn Bowl - North Vancouver
Andy Anderson - New West Skatepark - New Westminster
CJ Collins - Hastings Skatepark - Vancouver
Alex Sorgente - Hastings Skatepark - Vancouver
Uknown Skater- Seylynn Skatepark - North Vancouver
So ya, I love photographing skateboard event, they're always a good time. Great people, great community, great vibes. If you are a photographer who shoots sports related stuff, and have never shot skateboarding related events and shindigs, I highly recommend it! (once this Covid 19 stuff is all over, I might add...)
Later!
]]>
Anyway, there are some interesting ideas and things to shoot that can be found in and around my place, and maybe you too can find some interesting things to shoot like these. For instance, this whole Covid 19 thing got me thinking about whether or not I had some "medical" related items lying around that I could shoot, and lo and behold, I just happened to find some expired cold and flu medicine in my cabinet that worked perfectly. I guess it was a good thing that I don't clean out my medicine cabinet that often...?
Here's an example of what I was able to come up with using this old medicine:
In addition to this sort of content, and more in line with what I really like shooting, I grabbed my board and snapped a few photos of it, more for stock, than artsy, although I do have some really cool artsy stock footage of my board, so rest assured, I'm still striving for cool angles, cool lighting, and a slightly different take on stuff. It's my achilles heel when it comes to shooting stuff.
]]>
You see, I, like some people who have a "blog" section on their website, struggle to come up with ideas and topics to write about on a regular, consistent schedule. What does that have to do with washing dishes, you ask? Here's the thing, I find that when I'm washing dishes, it gives me time to think, and what I'm usually thinking about while washing dishes is what I'm going to photograph or shoot video of next, where I'm going to shoot, how I'm going to shoot it, what camera and lenses would be best to achieve what I'm after, what to write about, that sort of thing.
I came up with the idea of this blog post while i was washing dishes this morning. Surprise!
Here's the meat of this post. I shoot both photo and video and think I'm equally suited to do both as well as the other. I love photography and I love videography and get enjoyment out of both; from the concept, to the execution to the post processing. What that means is, when I'm out of the house shooting "in the field" as they say, I bring both my video equipment and still photo equipment. But here's the thing; I don't like carrying a ton of stuff, I try to keep things as light, simple and easy to tote as possible. What this looks like is usually my DSLR, a few lenses, my GoPro, and a compact tripod. All of this fits into and onto a "sling" style camera bag. All in all, it makes for a very compact and easy to manage set up and allows me to switch easily from camera to camera, lens to lens, etc. This set up doesn't hinder me from using the equipment that I want for the shot or keep me from getting into position to get the shots I want.
Having everything I want at my disposal when I want it, allows me to create what need. Here's a couple of video examples of what I'm able to capture during a cyclocross bike race.
This video was shot with my DSLR and 35mm f2.4
Here's a video using my GoPro:
You don't have to be a genius to see that these are two VERY different styles of videos. The DLSR one is cool, artsy, with it's shallow depth of field, and the GoPro one is slick with it's ultra wide angle, aggressive framing and smooth slow motion capturing the mud flying off the rear tire.
Both are awesome videos and both in my portfolio because I had access to the equipment I wanted and needed when I wanted and needed it.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support. Now get out there and make something. Or go wash the dishes...whatever.
;)
]]>
First thing is; SHOOT THE PHOTOS WITH THE IDEA OF SELLING THEM AS STOCK PHOTOS IN MIND RIGHT FROM THE GET GO! Really. Shoot them with this purpose in mind right from the start. Don't think too much, don't get too artistic or fancy with them. Get into the habit of thinking of things to shoot that you wouldn't think of taking photos of. I know most people who get into photography want to shoot the next great piece of art and what have you, and yes, that's great, go for it, but for Stock Photography, you have to approach it from a different angle and a dedicated mind set. Think of these photos from a buyers' viewpoint; what do advertisers need? What obscure, overlooked items and subjects are not well represented in Stock Photography outlets? Find these kinds of things to shoot. My most popular photos that I sell are, in fact, pretty mundane objects. Things like electrical power meters, batteries, fire hydrants, industrial waste, and gas meters. Boring right? I know. But you know what? Photos and videos of those things sell REALLY well!
Second thing is; Make sure you frame your objects (or subjects) off centre in the photo so the client who buys them has space to add their text or title or whatever they want to them. Take photos with the objects to the right, the left, at the bottom and the top of the photo to cover all aspects. I have photos of the same objects off to the left, the right and centred, and I can tell you that the off centred ones sell MUCH better than any of the ones where the object is in the middle.
Take a peek at some of my top sellers on Shutterstock and you'll see what I'm talking about. None of these are high art by any stretch of the imagination, but they were shot with the sole purpose of selling on Stock Photography outlets, and I've been very successful with them.
]]>
All of these were shot with my Pentax K-30, and most were shot with either a Sigma 70-300, a Pentax 18-55DA, or a Pentax 50mm 1.8. In most cases, and just the way I like to shoot, the majority of these were shot wide open, and usually at an ISO of 400...maybe 800, depending on the light available.
Here are a few of my photos from the day, and of course, there are more in the Sports gallery section of my Portfolio.
Enjoy.
]]>I went out to Pitt Meadows (a suburb of Vancouver) on Pitt Meadows Day for just this reason. The action was awesome. From little rippers to seasoned local amateurs, the competition was pretty intense. I managed to snap a few good ones too. The full gallery is up in the Gallery portion of the site, so feel free to check them out. Here are a few samples:
]]>
When you look at what they create, you think, "oh man, there's no way I'd ever be able to do that!", but you know what, according to this tutorial from Eric Pare, it looks pretty straight forward (minus the travelling to stunning, exotic locations that is...he he.)
Check it out and if you dig what you see, subscribe to his Youtube Channel for more tips, walk throughs and tutorials.
]]>
I showed up early enough and managed to get a decent seat from which to shoot some photos and video which is a challenge because of a couple of reasons; 1) the event is free and always fills up to max capacity by the time the finals start, and 2), it means I have to get up early on a Saturday... ;)
Here are a few of my photos from this years event.
]]>
I had the pleasure of heading out to the New West Skate Park a couple of weeks ago to snap some photos of the locals doing their thing all in support of the eventual building of a new skate park.
You see, the old skatepark in New West at Mercer Stadium is going to be demolished. Sad, yes. But fear not! The city of New Westminster is going to building either a new skatepark, or a bunch of smaller skate spots, whichever the consensus dictates. Either way, the result will be super cool, and benefit the local skateboarder population.
I'll still be sad to see the old skatepark go though. It's a real throwback to the old school, flown, stylish, not so technical, style of the time that the park was built in the late 1970's, early 1980's.
After shooting this contest, and seeing the beauty of the old skatepark, I am taking on a new project. To travel around the lower mainland and capture some photos of the older skateparks that still remain. Watch this space for more.
In the mean time, check out some of the photos from the contest in the gallery.
]]>
Good stuff!
Kids, it pays to hang onto all your old tech. :)
Pile of Old Cell Phones on Shutterstock.com
]]>
Pretty darn good for Photography too. :)
Now, I've been shooting stock photography and video work for awhile now, and that's all cool and neat and makes me some cash, but that sort of content really doesn't lend itself to being showcased on a "portfolio" style website like this one. So the main focus of this website is to showcase my more non "stock" photo and video work. Work that showcases more of my personal interests and artistic creativity, and if this sort of work leads to some more paying gigs, huzzah!
Those who are familiar with this region of the world will deduce that mountain biking, road cycling and skateboarding are kind of everywhere. When winter hits, I'll be hoping to shoot some skiing and snowboarding stuff. So ya, voila, that's gonna be my focus with regards to what I set out to capture when I grab my gear and snap pix for this site.
Enjoy.
]]>