the view findercvcameraclub.org/newsletters/cvcc_may_news13.pdf · carolina seashells quiz these...

Volume 2, Issue 5 May, 2013

A little while ago I wrote about the Nikon Coolpix S800c, the Android-powered camera that is essentially a smart phone/point and shoot hybrid. The S800c is now part of a revolution – sort of. It might be more accurate to just call it a pioneer, like those first airplanes that weren’t particu-larly safe and really couldn’t cover much distance, but showed great potential for the future – if only designers could get past all those bumps in the road… err, sky.

Nikon Coolpix S800c

The S800c isn’t the only bird in the sky: Samsung released its Galaxy Camera late last year, and Polaroid has just announced the iM1836, which has the distinction of being the world’s first Android-based camera with interchangeable lenses. So now that there is actually a smattering of

choice in this marketplace, is it a good time to jump on the “smart camera” band-wagon?

Polariod’s IM1836 Camera

The general consensus seems to be “no,” but the answer really depends on how you weigh photo quality against the ability to share images instantly and, let’s face it, all those extra toys – not to mention the prestige of being the first guy on the block to own one of these gadgets.

Android cameras have a lot going for them. They’ve got apps, and everyone loves apps, right? And you aren’t just limited to photography apps, either. You can purchase and download any app in exactly the same way you acquire apps for your smart phone. These cameras run GPS apps, email apps, music apps, web

Will Android cameras replace the point-and-shoot? By David Peterson

WILL ANDROID CAMERAS RE-

PLACE THE POINT-AND-SHOOT? 1

CAROLINA SEASHELLS QUIZ 3

WEB SITES TO TRY 3

AN OLD FARMERS ADVICE 3

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 WILL ANDROID CAMERAS REPLACE THE POINT-AND-SHOOT?

4

CHARLESTON FIELD TRIP PHOTO-

GRAPHS 7

MINIMALISM: USING NEGATIVE SPACE IN YOUR PHOTOGRAP

13, 14

WILD BIRD PHOTOPRAPHY TIPS 2

CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4: TIPS FOR AVOIDING MEMORY CARD PROBLEMS

5

BULL’S ISLAND PHOTOGRAPHS 6

MORE CHARLESTON PHOTO-

GRAPHS 8

PRESIDENTS REPORT 15

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION 16

Inside this issue:

C a t a w b a Va l l e y C a m e r a C l u b

The View Finder

Continued on page 4

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Capturing great wild bird photos can be challenging at times, but with good prepa-ration, the right equipment, and a few sim-ple tips, it can also be quite fun and re-warding. What follows are our top tips for capturing better stock wild bird photos.

Know Your Venue If you’re hoping to capture some great wild bird pictures, the first thing you need to do is get to know your venue. First up, do some research and find out what species you’re likely to spot. From there you can work out when and where you’re likely to find them. Once you figure out where you’re likely to find them, find a map of that area and convert it to a sketch map so you can mark your own details on it.

When you first arrive, use your sketch map to mark out the overhead path of the sun, so you can anticipate lighting in different locations, mark different vege-tation/habitat types, and where you can find good cover for yourself.

Then, as you spot different species, mark the locations (and times) on your sketch map. Soon, you will have a very handy reference guide for future shoots. When

If the eyes are sharp,

the rest doesn’t

matter. If the eyes

aren’t sharp, the rest

doesn’t matter! No

doubt there will be

exceptions, but if you

keep that firmly in

mind when you’re

shooting and editing,

you will end up with

a much stronger

collection.

Calendar of Events

May 1 Instructional - Processing Images (Basic) Marv Higgins

May 15 Competition - Projection - Minimalism

May 18 Field Trip - Wing Haven CLT/UNCC Gardens

Jun 5 Competition - 50mm Lens Restriction

Jun 19 Instructional - Cataloging & Filing Images

Jun 22 Field Trip - South Mountain State Park Robert Hambrick

Jul 3 Favorite Image Projection/Travel equip. round table

Jul 17 Competition - Old / New Image (side by side)

Jul 20 Field Trip - USA White Water Center


Continued on page 9

Wild Bird Photo Tips By Matt Brading

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Carolina Seashells Quiz

These treasures are scattered on our shores, hiding in plain sight.

1. Measuring three inches long and checkered with or-ange-brown squares, what is North Carolina’s official state seashell?

A. Calico bonnet

B. Scotch bonnet

C. Checkerboard bonnet

2. One of the most common shells found in North Caro-lina showcases an array of colors including purple, white, and orange. What beach, near Nags Head, is named for this tiny clam?

A. Coquina Beach

B. Quahog Beach

C. Pismo Beach

3. Growing up to six inches in diameter, keyhole sand dollars are the skeleton of what sea creature?

A Sea anemone

B. Sea urchin

C. Sea cucumber

4. Moon snails are carnivorous mollusks that live in North Carolina’s coastal waters. The shell of this animal has a globular shape, and its apex is some-times bluish, giving it what nickname?

A Bluefish eye

B. Tuna eye

C. Shark eye

5. Brown and white in color, with a fan shape, the tur-key-wing shell also has wavy lines, which give it what other name?

A. Zebra ark shell

B. Barber pole shell

C. Candy cane shell

Answers on page 5

http://500px.com/popular

http://digital-photography-school.com/

http://photonaturalist.net/

http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/

http://www.steeletraining.com/

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/

Click on the links above

Web Sites to try

An Old Farmer’s Advise

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumblebee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.

Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway.

Don’t judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honorable life.. then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.

Don’t interfere with something’ that ain’t bothering you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging’.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got .

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browsers – and yes, even Angry Birds, so you can absorb yourself in beating those pigs’ smug little butts while all those photo opportunities pass you by. Of course if you banish games from your camera (as any smart photogra-pher should) you can instead focus on all those fun camera apps that allow you to do post processing, apply cool retro effects to your images and – perhaps the biggest plus of all – share your photos on Facebook, Twitter or through email or text without having to wait until you get home and find time to sit down in front of your computer.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera

In fact it is this very feature that has driven sales of cam-era-loaded smart phones while simultaneously having a negative impact on sales of point-and-shoot cameras. In our social media-obsessed world, people love to stand on top of that mountain and let everyone in their circle see the view in real-time, and they’ll give up a lot for the ability to do so. Image quality? Optical zoom? F-stop and shutter speed? Trite. Instant distribution to as many people as pos-sible trumps all of that.

That’s why manufacturers are scrambling to get a bite out of the Android camera marketplace, because although many people are willing to make those sacrifices they are still painfully aware of what their smart phones can’t do. These Android cameras have all those great smart phone features and many of the great camera features as well, including a 16 megapixel resolution and the aforemen-tioned optical zoom. The Samsung even has voice control, which is great if you can get past that “I’m talking to my camera” feeling (of course, many photographers already

do that anyway).

So why don’t reviewers like these cameras? Well, for the same reason that reviewers don’t like many of the inexpen-sive point-and-shoot cameras. The image quality isn’t that great (at least not in the Nikon and the Samsung, the two cameras that are actually available at this time) and the battery life is abysmal (some reports claim that they can only grab a couple of hundred shots before dying, and that’s if you’re not also playing Angry Birds). They’re ex-pensive, especially considering the image quality, and many of the photo apps that are designed for your smart phone don’t actually work well in these cameras.

Of course it remains to be seen if the Polaroid iM1836 will change all of this, or at least be an improvement on that first-but-still-young generation of Android cameras. At $399, this camera is still priced in the mid-range, but it comes with a 10-30mm lens, which makes the price tag more reasonable. If you want to add more lenses to your kit, you don’t have to wait for Polaroid to come out with a series of them made specifically for this camera, since an adapter will allow you to use already-available micro four-thirds lenses with the iM1836.

The iM1836 has a lot of features that will certainly make it attractive to the average camera geek: it does panoramics, 1080p HD video and has a built-in HDMI output. It has built-in peer-to-peer WiFi capabilities with preinstalled photo sharing apps. It is also mirrorless, which means it is compact and light, but also means that you will have to live without a viewfinder and rely instead on the LCD screen.

Regardless of whether the iM1836 proves to be a gem or a disappointment, it is important to remember that these cameras are pioneers, and should be valued for their inno-vation – they are those first, lumbering beasts that proved the concept and opened up possibilities for all those manu-facturers who will soon follow.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you should go out and buy one, though. Of course, I’m of the belief that you can’t really have too many cameras, so if you’re the kind of

Continued from page 1 Will Android cameras replace the point-and-shoot?

Continued on page 5

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Continued from page 4 Will Android cameras replace the point-and-shoot?

Carolina Seashells

1. B. Scotch bonnet

2. A. Coquina Beach

3. B. Sea urchin

4. C. Shark eye

5. A. Zebra ark shell

person who loves social media, snaps hundreds of photos on an iPhone while leaving that poor Canon at home in its carry bag, one of these Android cameras would be a fun toy to add to your photographic arsenal. But don’t make it your only camera. You will still need a higher-end point and shoot or a DSLR to capture those photos that really matter – the ones you want to look good at 8×10 or those scenes where you’d like a little more control over how your final image comes out. And you’ll need to have that extra camera in your bag, too, when the batteries in your Android camera succumb to the early death-throes that these pioneers are prone to.

Regardless of their imperfections, these Android cameras are still worthy of our attention. After all, the Wright Brothers know that their Flyer wasn’t perfect, and that didn’t stop them from getting it into the skies. And now just over a century later we have jumbo jets, stealth planes and space shuttles. Smart cameras are going to go that way too, just wait and see.

May 1st Program Information

Marv Higgins will be presenting a program to the club that will be as follows.

It will be on BASIC editing in Elements 11. The key points are to be Levels, curves, color balance, cloning stamp, healing brush & sizing images.

If you want to improve your image editing, don’t miss this presentation.

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Bull’s Island Sunrise Trip

Pictures from the Bull’s Island trip on Friday morning

Photograph by Tom Devlin

7



Charleston Field Trip

Photo by Tom Devlin

8



Charleston Field Trip Photos

Photographs by Donny Teague

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Most birds will take off and land into the wind. So if there’s a prevailing wind direction at your venue, be aware of it and position yourself facing towards the bird’s likely location with the sun behind you (ie. so your photos will be with the bird flying towards you and lit from the front).

Most birds ‘tense’ their feathers just before they take off. When they’re relaxed (and going nowhere) they look more ‘fluffy’. When they’re about to take flight, they almost seem to shrink for a second or two before launching themselves. If you watch for this, it can be a great trigger to start shooting.

Buy the Longest, Fastest Lens You Can Afford

This tip comes with a caveat. You don’t need an exorbitantly expensive lens to get marketable bird photos, but any extra length you can afford will be helpful.

Some of the best bird photogra-phers I know, use nothing more than a standard 100mm-400mm telephoto and get incredible re-sults. In fact, most will tell you it’s more about the preparation, research, good positioning, and patient stalking techniques, as opposed to the lens.

In a perfect world, all bird pho-tographers would have a 600mm f4 auto focus lens, but realis-tically, anything over 300mm is probably good enough if you hone your other birding skills.

You can, of course, use a teleconverter: a 1.4 teleconverter on a 400mm lens will put you in the 600mm range, but be aware you will lose a couple of f-stops in the process. In open, well-lit settings, that can be OK, but in any sort of vegetation, it’s probably going to make life difficult

A final option a lot of dedicated birders use is called “digiscoping”. This entails attaching their camera to their spot-ting scope. A spotting scope with 25x magnification would be

Continued from page 2 Wild Bird Photo Tips you return, you’ll know when and where you need to be to capture the bird photographs you seek.

The best bird photographers often tell me they rarely get their best shots on the first visit… the best wild bird pictures usually happen once they know the loca-tion as well as their own backyard.

Know Your Subject This should go without saying for any sort of wildlife photography, but it’s particularly important for captur-ing great wild bird photographs. Birds are incredibly fast and often seem totally unpredictable, so the better you get to know them, the better your chances are of anticipating their behavior and getting the shot you want.

For starters, invest in a good bird guide and learn eve-rything you can about the species you want to photo-graph. Getting to know their feeding habits, breeding, nesting, and migratory behaviors will help you make sure you are in the right place at the right time.

Knowledge of their specific behavior, from guides and observation, will help you anticipate what they’re go-ing to do once you’ve found them. The more time you spend observing the birds, the better you’ll be able to predict their behavior. It will also give them more time to get used to you.

There are some bird behaviors that are fairly universal though, so you can start with these.

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Continued from page 9 Wild Bird Photo Tips

equivalent to a 1500mm lens. Even when you buy the adapter as well, it can be a very affordable way of getting close to your subjects.

Adjust Camera Settings

In most cases, you’ll want to use the fastest possible settings to deal with the speed and mobility of your subjects. When the birds are flying, you’ll usually need at least a 1/500 second shutter speed to keep it crisp. Even when they’re perched, many birds fidget and rarely keep perfectly still.

There will be times when you want to slow it down and convey the motion, and this can (should) be done deliberately. Just remember, there’s a difference be-tween a photo deliberately captured to convey move-ment and one that’s just not sharp. If you’re going for movement, my suggestion would be to use panning to make sure there’s no question in the viewer’s mind that it was deliberate.

Digital ISO settings allow you to speed things up con-siderably, just be aware of how fast you can go before the picture quality suffers.

Always remember to constantly check your exposures. White, bright skies will trick your camera’s auto-exposure. So, for in flight shots, you’ll generally need to dial in 1-2 stops or more for exposure compensa-

tion.

Maximize Other Equipment

Usually a tripod would be considered essential equipment when using a long lens, but in bird photography, you will often find yourself in situations where setting up a full-sized tripod might be difficult. By all means use one whenever you can, especially if you’re working from a hide or semi-permanent position, but if you’re on the move, I always find a monopod more useful. In wooded areas there’s usually at least a tree to brace yourself against.

A lot of bird photographers will tell you their car makes a great hide and tripod all in one. Many birds are quite used to cars by now, so if you arrive on site and sit quietly for a few minutes, many birds will soon forget the car is there. Keep a small bean bag handy for a camera rest, and you’re in busi-ness.

Always carry extra battery power and extra storage. In the field, plastic bags are always helpful for protecting your gear from the elements (i.e. rain, fog, dust, etc.). If you’re really roughing it, a lot of pros suggest you don’t even change lenses. If you really need a choice of lens, carry it already attached to an extra camera body, to avoid any chance of getting dirt or water inside.

Be Deliberate In Your Composition

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There are a few basic rules that apply to most wildlife photography, and they are particularly relevant to bird photographers as well.

First and foremost, focus on the eyes.

If the eyes are sharp, the rest doesn’t matter. If the eyes aren’t sharp, the rest doesn’t matter! No doubt there will be exceptions, but if you keep that firmly in mind when you’re shooting and editing, you will end up with a much stronger collection.

Another “rule” that applies to most wildlife photography is: shoot from the front. With few exceptions, there’s rarely much call for the rear end view of any creature leaving the scene.

The approaching view is much more natural, therefore making it easier for most viewers to connect with the photo. With birds, the approaching view is even more important. Birds usually present to their mates ‘head on’, which is when they display their more brilliant plumage. While the rear view is more likely to be plain or even camouflaged.

Finally, as much as possible, shoot from eye height.

For ground or shore birds, this often means getting down on your belly. For high nesting birds, it means getting as high as you can yourself. Obviously you can’t always get to their level, but the more you try, the better your results.

Telephoto lenses do help give the impression you’re more equal, but try not to rely on that alone.

If you’re photographing birds in flight, you need to antici-pate and pan. Be extra careful not to crop too tightly. It is much better to trim things later than to find out you re-peatedly clipped off a tail or a wing. And when possible, try to capture the birds flying into the frame, rather than out of it. A seemingly obvious part of flight is the wings. Always watch the wing position of the species you’re photographing and refer to your bird guide. Different spe-cies will present very distinct shapes. The ability to cap-ture those behaviors and traits that make a creature unique is what separates the great wildlife photographers from the good ones.

Lastly, make sure you get good clear detail shots as well, so you can be totally confident in your identification of the bird. That means close up shots of the head, beak, breast, tail shape, and back. If you are planning to sell the images, accurate identification is essential. Don’t ever rely on common-names; buyers will usually want scien-tific names to be completely sure (i.e., If you have photos of a common Blue Jay, know that the scientific name is Cyanocitta cristata before you try to sell them).

Be Patient and Prepared to Practice

Patience is a virtue, especially in bird photography. When

Continued on page 12

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you arrive on site, always give the local inhabitants time to get used to you being there; you will get better images. Don’t try to force the issue by going too close too fast. At best they’ll fly away, and at worst, they’ll look visibly stressed which never makes a good photo.

Instead, after waiting and watching, work out what the comfort zone is for the species and stay just outside that. Most birds are instinctively afraid of people, but if you sit and wait quietly and patiently, you’ll find most are quite inquisitive, and many will actually approach you if you give them the opportunity.

Beyond that, shoot often and shoot heaps. Don’t expect your best shots to come on your first visit to an area. In-stead, treat your first visit as a scouting trip. Work out your lines of light, wind, where your cover is, and identi-fy as many species as you can, then you can research more fully before your next outing.

If you’re just starting out in bird photography, you might even find it useful to set up a feeder at your home, so you can practice and observe the birds in a relatively closed environment. Remember, the more time you spend get-ting to know your subjects, the better your photos are going to be.

Finally, spend plenty of time studying other people’s wild bird pictures. Dissect each shot and think about how it was created in terms of equipment, settings, timing, positioning, and the photographer’s understanding of the bird and its behavior.

A great wild bird picture doesn’t happen by accident. In fact, quite often, you’ll find the best bird images aren’t shot by bird photographers but by birders with photog-raphy skills. Something to keep in mind!

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series. This is also a great example of successfully breaking the “rule” of photography about not placing your horizons in the center. Sometimes the composition of the image and the leading lines within the frame demand it. I believe that if Brian had composed the scene with less sky and more water, the re-flections of the old pier would be complete in the scene, and he would lose that anchor to the bottom of the frame. On the flip side, if he had composed with more sky and less water, the image would lose interest by cutting out key parts of the re-flection.

I love this image by Mike Olbinski. It’s from a photo shoot he did for a family back in December (here’s a link to the post). The post Mike wrote speaks to the importance of getting fami-ly portraits done and getting them done now. Just months after this photo shoot was completed, the great grandfather in this image passed away. While the loss of a loved one is always a time of mourning, it’s really great to know the little girl in this image will now forever have this beautiful image of her and her great grandfather. The simplicity and minimalism in the image is incredible. The light on the subjects is just enough to provide definition to the girl and the palm trees in the back-ground frame the shot beautifully. Great image Mike.

Minimalism: Using Negative Space In Your Photographs

Sometimes it’s nice and refreshing to just strip a photo or scene down to it’s absolute bare essentials. Often times, I get too caught up in trying to fill every part of the frame with something interesting. The problem is, sometimes when we try to fill up the entire frame with objects, lines, people, shapes, etc, we actually over-complicate things and leave the viewer wanting a place to rest their eyes.

The trick/secret is this: Negative space can be just as interesting in a photograph as anything else, if done right.

I encourage you to consider this the next time you go out shooting. Incorporating negative space into your images can be very rewarding, and at the same time quite challenging. Sometimes situations will present themselves where it’s clear. Other times you will have to get creative with a subject to find the proper framing to create this type of image. Here are a few examples of negative space and minimalism to get your creative juices flowing…

In the above image, Brian Matiash actually set out to create a series of minimalistic, black and white images around Staten Island. This is just one image from that

by James Brandon

Continued on page 14

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Before

After

Minimalism: Using Negative Space In Your Photographs

Finally, here’s an image from my own portfolio. In my blog post on this image, I discussed how I have this sort of list in the back of my head of shots that I want

to get. This image was one of those list items. I didn’t go out to get this shot, but when I saw this hawk flying over head, I instantly knew it could be one of the shots on my list! I converted the image to black and white, and cranked up the exposure to completely blow out the sky. Yes, I intentionally created blown highlights. Oh no!

Conclusion

I hope this quick post will inspire you to go out and incorporate negative space into some of your work, if you haven’t already. It really is nice to go out some-times with the intention of creating a certain type of image and finding creative ways to execute on that idea.

Continued from page 13

It looks like the product developers in the Adobe offices have been working hard to bring improvements and new features to their popular line of photo editing software. Coming in on the heels of the new Lightroom 5 Beta announcement, the Senior Photoshop Product Manager, Zorana Gee, announced this week that the software makers are planning to add a new, and much anticipated, deblurring feature to Photoshop. Check out the video below for more details (for those of you read-ing this by email, the video can be seen here):

The feature, which Adobe is calling Shake Reduction, will be found in the filter menu alongside the rest of their sharpening tools. Once a user clicks the feature from the drop down menu, a dialog box will appear and Photoshop will auto-detect an area of the image to apply the filter to. There will also be some ad-vanced controls and a preview screen inside the dialog box to help photographers fine tune the adjustment.

As with any filter of this kind, it is not necessarily meant to be a cure all and will, undoubtedly come with some drawbacks. The filter can’t be expected to correct severe camera shake blur, but when used in certain situations, such as the above photo, it appears to enhance the sharpness of a photo quite nicely.

Amazing De-Blurring Feature Coming to the Next Photoshop

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May is here and the wild flowers in the North Carolina mountains are blooming. One a recent trip to Pearson Falls near

Saluda, North Carolina I was able to photograph numerous wild flower, some that I could identify and some that will

take some research to identify. While I was in that area I took advantage of the trip to hike to two nice waterfalls that I

had not previously visited, Bradley Falls and Little Bradley Falls. Now is the perfect time of year to get out and take

advantage of the mild weather before summer gets here and heats everything up.

The clubs outing to Charleston, South Carolina was well attended by club members and everyone seemed to have a good

time. Charleston and the surrounding area has some wonderful places to photograph, I know I would like to have spent

several more days exploring the area and photographing many more things.

Coming up this month we have two good programs, the first is a presentation by Marv Higgins on basic editing skills in

Photoshop Elements 11. The next is a competition on the topic Minimalism. After that we have a field trip to Wing Ha-

ven, UNCC Gardens near Charlotte.

If this newsletter seem a little short it’s because I have had a very busy month and couldn't spend much time preparing

the newsletter. Every thing should settle down in May so I will try to do better with next month newsletter.

Hope to see you Wednesday

Donny Teague

Presidents Report

We’re on the Web

http://cvcclub.wordpress.com

Club Officers

President: Donny Teague [email protected]

Vice President: Richard Griffin [email protected]

Secretary: Judy Young [email protected]

Treasurer: Chip Young [email protected]

Image Coordinator: Ed Lane [email protected]

Webmaster: Scott M. Powell [email protected]


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Application for Membership

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CITY_________________________________STATE____________ZIP_______________

E-MAIL___________________________________________________________________

PHONE: HOME_________________WORK______________CELL________________

Dues are $35 per year. Meetings are the first and third Wednesday of each month.

Students: $15 per year

CLUB USE ONLY: Date Received__________________ Cash_______Check______

Please print clearly as our club correspondence is conducted via e-mail.

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