Survival – Saved by a pocket camera

As an ex Air force member I was selected to work in the South African Embassy in Bern, Switzerland from 2007 to 2009. During that time I bought a small Pentax pocket camera. During that time my ex-wife and I got caught in a point of no return situation deep in the mountains when I tried to take some photos during fall of 2009 of the beautiful trees and colours deep in the mountains. Those photos nearly cost us our lives. We ran out of time and got caught in the dark which ended up that we had to prepare ourselves for the worst. It started to snow heavily and we hid under a rock with just jeans, “tekkies” and thin windbreakers against the cold wet and snow. We have already said goodbye and prayed etc. when late that night I heard a vehicle somewhere. It turned out that it was three brothers who hunt together every three years in that area. I ran and saw them driving far away in a valley towards our mountain area. As an ex-military member I immediately made a plan and ran to my wife who had that small camera in her jacket pocket, but due to the extreme cold we could not feel or open the small zip, when I decides to tear the pocket open and ran to the side where they might see me. Needless to say, I could not get the camera to work as my fingers were frozen etc. after which I eventually pressed the buttons with my front teeth and got the flashlight working. I sent three flashes towards them and saw the vehicle stop. They flashed back three times. We did the same once more and I saw them returning to the small towns direction where we came from. Not long after that I heard a helicopter in the distance and again used the flash to guide the pilot to our position.

All went well saving our lives on the mountain and the pilot showed me the outside temperature was minus 22 degrees. With that background you can understand why I am interested in photography and am so glad that I have found a club like CCC.

A few years ago I bought a cheap Sony compact camera and took these two photos which I entered, in the “manual” mode with that camera. I have very little knowledge of camera settings, but am working on that.

The photo of the lion attacking the leopard was taken at Afsaal water point in the Krugerpark. I had to zoom in past the optical zoom to electronic zoom and took the photo with no tripod aid. It was a wonderful experience and I saw the splashing of the water for the first time, when I placed it on my PC.

Photo no 2 was also taken a few years ago during our visit to Yosemite National Park in California. With the angle of the lake from our car I saw no reflections. I stopped and walked down the valley until I saw this wonderful reflection and was very lucky that there was no wind blowing at that time. That photo was also taken in the “manual” mode

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Focus Greetings

Jackie Bosch
(1* Centurion Camera Club)

	EXIF Data
Description	Photo 1	Photo 2
Make	Eastman Kodak	Casio
Model	Z740	EX-Z750
F-stop	f/3.7	f/4
Exposure time	1/500 s	1/320 s
Focal Lenght	63 mm (380 equiv 35mm)	8 mm (38 equiv 35mm)
ISO	80	-
Club Competition Feb 2012	COM - 1* Winner	COM

Together through deep waters – Danie Loots

This photograph is a good example of how a picture can tell a little story. A story that is not necessarily an accurate reflection of the true events, but a story created  within the frameworks of my artistic freedom.

The original RAW image was captured at 10h08 on a bright sunny day on the South Coast. The two subjects, who are brother and sister, were both very unsure of themselves playing in the shallow surf. This feeling of not being too safe was confirmed a minute earlier by a wave that knocked both of them off their feet and had the little girl running to her dad in tears. Her brother was also a bit stunned by the wave, but it was obvious how concerned he was for his little sister. The children’s father is actually at this stage just out of picture to the left and the little girl is about to reach out to him again, not quite comfortable with just her brother supporting.

I obviously could have told another story or two with those pictures as well, but chose to tell this one of these two little ones on their own in these threatening waters, clinging to each other.

I did a couple of important things right in creating this image. I think the first one was that I was in the sea with my camera. So many pictures get taken on the beach, but most of them will be taken from the beach towards the sea. I try to always get a different perspective than the normal one. This immediately adds interest for the viewer. The next thing I did right was cropping the picture the way it is. All the viewer can see is what contributes to the story. The famous French born American landscape photographer Alain Briot says in his book Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity and Personal Style, that everything you put in a picture either adds to the picture or takes away from it. He says “A strong image is one in which nothing detracts. Remove all the elements that are distracting to the viewer’s eye.” This image does not include anything that does not add to the story this played a major part in its success.

Another very important contribution to the success of this picture was made in the post processing of the RAW picture. The original photograph was much too bright and lacked contrast as a result of the time of the day it was taken. This did not fit in with the story I wanted to tell, so I used Photoshop to first add contrast to the picture and then de-saturate and  darken the colours. This had the effect of adding detail to the water and making it look far more menacing. (see the original image)

Original Image Data:

• Make: Canon
• Model: EOS 5D Mark II
• Shutter Speed: 1/1250 sec
• F-Stop: f/4.0
• ISO Speed Rating: 100
• Focal Length: 200mm
• Lens: EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
• Club: Best of Event February 2012

Article provided by:

Danie Loots

(2* Centurion Camera Club)

Competition Theme–February 2012

HDR Photography

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is a relatively new genre in photography. The idea behind HDR is to capture much more of the information in a picture that what one can achieve with a single frame. Therefore more comparable with what you can see with your eyes. In order to create a HDR image one typically captures 3,5 or 7 images with different exposures in order to have details in most parts of the photograph. Once the images are captured they are blended by using software. Software such as Adobe Photoshop and Photomatix are examples of such programs. A variety of Photoshop plug ins also exist that can be used

If you look at the "correct" exposure photo on the right then you will

Correct exposure

Over Exposed (+1)

notice that although there is detail in most parts, the engine has little detail, there could be more detail under neath and the background is too bright. So in order to rectify this we take two more photos , one that is 1 fstop over exposed and one that is 1 fstop under exposed. That is the next two images. Please bear in mind that the data in each photograph can be represented by four histograms, namely: Highlight and Shadow, Blue, Red and Green (seeing we are working in an RGB or sRGB color space). Therefore if we are able to capture a wider range of information in the highlights mid tones and shadows, we will have more details in these areas.

 And if we are able to capture more shades of Red and more shades of Green and Mores shades of blue we will end up with a photograph that is vivid and punchy in color and it has details in areas where there would normally just be shadows or over exposure. 

Under Exposed (-1)

In order to take these photographs one can use AV mode, TV Mode or Manual mode. In manual mode one would look at the exposure graph in the view finder and literally take a correctly exposed image, adjust the shutter speed to get an exposure that is fstop under exposed and then adjust the shutter speed again to have a 1 fstop over exposed image. One can also use AV/TV mode and adjust the exposure by using the ev (exposure value) setting of the camera. Or the best way is to use bracketing, where the camera adjusts according to the way you have setup the bracketing.

One last point to consider is whether to use AV mode or TV mode. In AV mode you keep the depth of field constant but you vary the shutter speed. However in TV you keep your shutter speed constant but you vary the depth of field. Be careful of this as you may now have a photo with f stop of f4 and another with f16. This might create problems between areas in your photo. I prefer to use AV and vary my shutter speed. Especially when I photograph static objects. So when you photograph something with movement like the sea, what then? Well one option would be to try TV. The other is to use one correctly exposed RAW file and create three JPGs from it that has different exposures. And then to do the HDR blend with these JPGs.

HDR Blended image of the above three exposures

The last comment to make on this post is a warning. Remember that you are blending images, and subsequently my find that images show artefacts of these actions. Look out for anomalies in the final picture as well as halo's. If these exist it is necessary to carefully clean then up afterwards in software such as Adobe Photoshop. Unless it it is the intention be careful that the HDR effect is not pushed to far. As this can spoil the image a take away the realism of the photo.

Recommended reading: The HDR Book - by Rafel "RC" Conception.

by Francois Venter APSSA
venterfa@ibi.co.za

Tips and tricks for a Project 365

In part 2 of the Project 365 blog, I want to give you some tips on when you want to attempt a project of this nature.

1. The most important rule or tip is take one (or more) photo everyday. Don't skip a day. It may seem obvious, but this is the biggest challenge. There will be days that life seem to get in the way, but make time for the project.
2. Take your camera everywhere! Don't feel self conscious. Don't get lazy. Don't take a break. The one time you don't have your camera with you is the one time you'll wish you never left it behind. I can guarantee this. 
3. Take a picture as early as possible. There is nothing worse than night time arriving and realising that you have not yet taken your picture of the day. 
4. Never say, "I'll take a photo of that later." or "I'll take a photo of that on my way back." Take the photo while the idea is in your head and the light is right. Moments of inspiration seldom come at convenient times and light conditions are seldom ever exactly the same twice in a day.
5. When running out of ideas a very good idea is the use of themes. You could have a daily theme such as "Green Sundays"or weekly themes like "Signposts"or even a monthly theme like "The things I love". There is whole list of weekly challenges that you can use at Ramblings and Photos. The possibilities are endless!!
6. Plan ahead and write down ideas, rather than just waiting for inspiration. This is great practice and will enforce creative thinking. And what is also great is that when spontaneous ideas are few and far between, you can always review previously documented photo ideas.
7. Break out of your comfort zone and risk a bad shot by learning something new. Taking photos over and over again because you're comfortable taking them will not improve your photography and it won't increase interest in your work.
8. Anything can be photograph, but only use this as a last resort.
9. Don't beat yourself up if you miss a day. We sometimes have to accept the fact that we're busy. Just don't quit!!!! 
10. In order to avoid backlogs edit and process your photos at least weekly if not daily. Getting into a rhythm on editing and post processing is key to completing your project. For many the taking of the photos is the easy part, but editing and processing photos is the challenge. For every photo you publish you're likely to have many others that don't make the cut. Getting into a rhythm to select your final photos and processing them in a timely fashion will make the difference between success and failure.
11. Post your photos online. Use social media such as Facebook, Flickr or Google Blog. A very good site for posting your work and linking up with other Project Participants is  http://365project.org/ . It is a free site with 1000's of people taking part in projects of this nature. Remember, get your work out there.
12. When posting your daily photos online add notes as to what you thought worked or didn't from your days photos. Post general photo shoot and camera setting info from your EXIF data, you'll look back on this later to refresh your memory or to see how far you've come. Anecdotal stories are also great information to look back on. Understanding how, why and when you photographed your subject provides insight to your creative thinking that you can't get from just EXIF data.
13. Link up with other 365'ers. Search the internet to find other people that are attempting the same project as you. This helps when you are loosing steam and want to give up, it may just be the encouragement you need to finish the project. A very good site to keep track of your project as mentioned before is  http://365project.org/.
14. If you are looking for encouragement from others you need to encourage others. People love to comment on others who have commented on their photos. You can also build some great relationships through just commenting on others work. It doesn't have to be a critique (unless they asked for one) it can be as simple as commenting on something they wrote about. Build relationships!
15. Lastly, make sure to have fun during your year long photo project. The moment it becomes work the more challenging completing the project will become. Getting into a rhythm can help a great deal in lowering the perceived level of effort to get your daily photos in. Whether you're heading out to explore during your lunch break, taking a 10 minute detour in your commute or even taking 365 self portraits, knowing that you have time dedicated to get your photo in takes a lot stress out of the process. If you're the more spontaneous type then build in an extra 10 - 20 minutes into your appointment schedule to stop and explore with your camera. As with life ones destination is often far less interesting than the journey.

Remember, we are doing this to learn something and to improve in photography. The best part is that you can start ANY day of the year. Don't make the mistake of associating this project with New Years. There is no rule as to when you have to start. SO START TODAY.

Nico Strydom

Why to start a 365 (+1) project!

If your new years resolution was to take better and or more photographs in 2012, a good idea may be to start a 365 (or 52) project. Project 365 is a self challenge to perform a particular task each day, throughout the year. This does not mean that you have to start the project on the 1st of January. Also, there is no need to publish it every day, just take the photo everyday. Participating in Project 365 can be great way to develop your photographic eye and make taking pictures a habit.

Why start a Project 365?

Taking a picture everyday for a year may seem like a difficult task and some days it can be, but when the year is over you'll be able to look back at the pictures you've taken and see your photographic eye slowly starting to develop. When you have to take a picture every day you start looking at the world a bit differently. You'll be more aware of light and shadow. You'll become hyper sensitive to how everyday events van be best captured in a photograph.

Getting out and using your camera everyday will help you feel more comfortable with it. You'll be more likely to use different settings and try a variety of techniques. You'll also feel less awkward taking pictures in public.

The more pictures you take the more you'll recognize what you do and don't like about your pictures. This will make it easier to develop your artistic style.

The more pictures you're processing the easier your work process will become and you will start to streamline your workflow. The simple act of having to edit everyday or once a week will force you to come up with a streamlined way to work.  When photography becomes a second nature to you you're more likely to get the great pictures.

In the next blog I will give you some "rules" and "tips" for starting and maintaining a 365 Project.
To start giving you some inspiration on starting your own 365 Project, here is some examples of projects on Flickr.

Nico Strydom

Christmas greeting