Photo Insights June '13

Jim Zuckerman’s

PH OTO I N S I G HTS June 2013

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Foreign models Silhouettes Capturing lightning Aerial photography Photo tours Student showcase

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Table of Contents

4. Shooting foreign models 13. Silhouettes 16. Shooting lightning 22. What’s wrong with this picture?

24. Short and sweet 26. Ask Jim 28. Aerial photography 32. Student showcase 35. Back issues

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Do cameras really capture what you see? No, they don’t. Let me explain.

When you use a telephoto lens, there is a sense of compression. Background elements seem closer to the subject than they appear in reality. And, telephotos have shallow depth of field. In the photo of my great Pyrenees and me, above, look at the background. It’s not sharp. Our eyes never see this.

We always have complete depth of field.

When you use a wide angle lens, the perspective is elongated. The distance from the immediate foreground to the distant background looks further than it really is. In addition, the foreground is disproportionately large compared to what we see with our eyes.

Therefore, we do not capture what we see. Our photographs approximate what we see. Even a 50mm lens, which is the closest to our own vision, lacks complete depth of field when you shoot close to a subject, and it doesn’t have our peripheral vision.

My point is that you shouldn’t be disappointed when your pictures don’t recreate exactly what you saw at the time of shooting. Instead, you need to ‘think as the lens sees’. This is how to compose your photographs You should previsualize a scene as interpreted by the lenses in your camera bag, not how it looks in reality. photos@jimzuckerman.com www.jimzuckerman.com

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PHOTOGRAPHING FOREIGN MODELS setting up

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payment

communicating

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ravel photography is often frustrating because you can’t always be in the right place at the right time with the right lighting. If you like to photograph people and their culture, you usually breeze in and out of a village or town relying on serendipity to get good shots. This is not the way to do it.

I learned a long time ago that it takes forethought and planning to guarantee great pictures of people in other cultures. Sure, serendipity does happen at times when everything comes together. We all know, however, that this doesn’t happen often.

Therefore, when I travel to a foreign destination, I make a list of the types of images I want to take.

I compile a list based on visual research I’ve done online as well as my own ideas of what I think

will make outstanding images. For example, my preconceived list of ideas when I took a photo tour group to Indonesia contained the following items: -- Balinese dancers posing in front of temple -- Kecak fire dance -- Javanese bride with traditional attire and makeup -- Workers mining sulfur in smoke -- Balinese dancer posing with a barong character

When I led a photo tour to Ethiopia, I brought with me a piece of black velvet. This was another preconceived idea thatI thought this would make visually compelling shots (see the shot of the woman on the previous page). When the members of my tour group saw what I intended, they thought I was crazy and they wanted nothing to do with using this prop . . . until I showed them the portraits on the LCD moni-

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tor on the back of the camera. Then they all wanted to take the same pictures.

To get these kinds of shots, I have to wear a director’s hat and set these images up. First, I use a local guide or taxi driver and explain what I want. He then takes me to the person, company, or organization that can make the arrangements for me. We negotiate a fee beforehand, I choose the time of day when the lighting is best, I select the location (or ask for suggestions where we can shoot and then I check them out), and I always select the models to make sure they are the kind of people I want to photograph.

Too often I’ve requested a specific type of model and my local guide brought someone completely different. I don’t do that anymore.

I have to see the people before I commit to the shoot. If it’s an entire dance company,

that’s a different story. Then I simply agree that I will photograph the group, and if I prefer some of the dancers over others, they are the ones I spend most of the time shooting.

I direct the models through an interpreter if there is a language barrier, and this is usually my driver or local guide. Don’t be shy about asking the models to pose a certain way, look in a certain direction, or to move to another location so you can take advantage of a different background or better light.

As the director, then, you have to direct. Do so respectfully, patiently, and with kindness in the tone of your voice. This is very important. Even if your models don’t speak English, they will pick up on your feelings. If you get angry, impatient, and irritable, they will know it. In some cultures, like Thailand, it’s very impolite to show anger.

Kindness usually begets kindness, so make sure

you direct your models with a kind demeanor. If you are not getting exactly what you want, don’t show any irritation. Simply ask your guide to explain to the models the kind of pictures you’re trying to take. If you have an iPad or iPhone, it can be very helpful to show them what you are looking for. Perhaps you found a shot on the Internet that you’ve downloaded and brought with you. Or maybe you have pictures from your photo library that provides a visual idea of what you see in your mind. These things can help a lot.

For the kecak fire dance, right, where I had about 60 dancers, I told them (I speak enough Indonesian to do this) that I wanted no music and, in fact, no dancing. I wanted them to hold a position that is representative of the dance, but I didn’t want movement. In this way, my photo tour group wouldn’t have to worry about using fast shutter speeds in the low light environment

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UPCOMING PHOTO WORKSHOPS Baby Wildlife Workshop Hinckley, Minnesota June 14 - 16, 2013

Winter Wildlife Workshop Hinckley, Minnesota Jan. 31 - Feb. 2

Frog & Reptile Workshop St. Louis, Missouri June 22 - 23, 2013

Two back-to-back Carnival Workshops, Venice, Italy Feb. 21 - 27 - 23, 2014 Feb. 27 - March 5, 2014

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of shade. We could get the perfect picture that would be almost impossible to capture during the actual performance because it’s usually done at night.

Payment

of Bali, and the director presented me with four girls. I chose two of them, and he asked for $150 for a half day, including full makeup and costuming. I did feel this was high, given the local economy, but I agreed and was thrilled with the pictures and the experience.

Negotiating a price in a foreign country is challenging because you don’t really have a sense of value in the local economy. Usually whatever money is requested by a model is easily affordable (and sometimes ridiculously cheap) and I simply agree without bargaining. I don’t like bargaining, anyway, so this works for me.

The following year I returned with my Indonesian girlfriend who is now my wife, and due to her language ability (obviously better than mine in Indonesia) and her keen negotiating skills (also much better than mine), she arrranged to hire five young dancers for only $25 total! So, I grossly overpaid the previous year.

I had wanted to photograph Balinese dancers for 25 years, and when I traveled to Bali for the first time I was so excited that it was actually going to happen. My taxi driver brought me to a dance school in Ubud, the cultural heart

My point in relating this story is that the $150 I paid for the two girls bought me a wonderful experience and pictures that I still love. I never could have taken such wonderful photographs had I been relying on shooting from an audi9

ence during a public dance performance. I felt this was a small price to pay given the cost of the overal trip and given how much I enjoyed the interaction with the models. The photo at right is one of the images I took during this shoot.

Sometimes the price I pay for a picture or series of pictures is simply the purchase of a handicraft or inexpensive souvenir. For example, I will say to a child who is trying to sell me something that I’ll buy whatever he or she is offering if I can take a few pictures. I look around for the best place -- for example, a shaded environment with an attractive background -- and ask them to follow me to that place.

In the case of the two teenage girls below whom I photographed in Morocco, they were trying very hard to sell me some trinkets that I really didn’t want. So, I told them I’ll pay three times

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what they were asking (I offered $10 for bogirls) if they would go home and come back with veils and traditional Muslim clothing.

It’s very difficult to photograph veiled women in Islamic countries, and these girls were dressed in Western jeans and weren’t wearing veils when they first approached me. I thought they would be amenable, and they were. They spoke enough English to communicate, and they agreed. I arranged to photograph them in a nearby restaurant with a beautiful mosaic wall as the backdrop. The lighting comes from the entrance door into the restaurant.

In a Western country, or a country like Japan, models will cost more, of course. I always try to trade pictures for modeling services, but if that doesn’t work then I have to pay. In 1991 I was shooting for my stock agency in Basel, Switzerland, for example, and they have a carnival every year in February just like Venice does. I wanted to recreate at least one small aspect of it even though I was there in the summer, right. I paid $300 for a young woman to model three different costumes for me.

If you intend to sell your pictures, then payment includes the model(s) signing a model release. If they happen to be illiterate, then have them mark an ‘X’ and ask someone else to sign as a witness. Such was the case with the musician I photographed on the dunes in India on the next page. He had never been to school.

People on the street I know many travelers feel that taking pictures of people shouldn’t involve commercialism, that somehow it makes the experience less friendly, less enjoyable. I understand that, and there have been many times when I’ve taken pictures of people in other countries

without payment. But I feel that they are giving me something I value, and the only way I can really give back, besides a kind and appreciative smile, is by paying them something. When I shoot people on a street, in a shop, or perhaps workers doing menial jobs, I typically give the equivalent of a dollar. If the images are extraordinary and/or the person is very helpful to me, then I’ll give two or three dollars. They are usually very happy and we part with good feelings.

Helpful guides One approach I’ve used in terms of paying models is to let my guide do it. If he or she is ammenable, they speak to the people of, say, a village, and negotiate a price or simply pay out money as they deem appropriate. They keep track of what they spend and I reimburse them at a later time. I did this in India and Ethopia, 11

and it worked out great. I could focus on the photography without worrying about paying each person as I photographed them.

Sending photos to the models If the people you photograph have access to the Internet, they will usually ask you to send them some pictures. In the past, we had to make small prints and mail them to the foreign country, never knowing if the envelope reached the destination. Now, all you have to do is send low res images by email and they are happy (the images I send are about one megabyte). They can share them on Facebook with their friends and family, and it doesn’t cost anything. It’s also nice to get a confirmation from the model that he or she received the images. And, if you ever return, these people will be excited to pose for you again. §

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Silhouettes

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hat defines the success of silhouettes is the shape and the lines of the subject.

If the silhouetted form is attractive with a an excellent graphic form, the picture will be successful. If the silhouette is messy, truncated, or confusing, then most likely it will not make a striking image.

For example, the picture of the grazing horse, below left, is a ‘nice’ silhouette. The sky is pretty, the horse was placed well in the frame, and everything is sharp. But the shape of the horse is boring as horses go.

The comparison image below right, on the other hand, is dynamic. Sure, the sense of action is great, but what makes this image so much better is the graphic design of the rearing horse.

Photographers often photograph trees and tree branches against a rising or setting sun, and the same idea applies. Not all trees are created equal. Some have shapes that are elegant, artistic, and beautiful, while others are a mass of branches and leaves that look like huge blobs when silhouetted. The tree upper right is an example of one that I’d call elegant. I photographed this at sunset in Monterrey, California.

Exposure What is the best method for getting perfect

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exposures when shooting a darker object in front of a bright background sky? There are two choices: 1. You can do it the traditional way when we all shot film, and it still works with digital captures. You use the spot mode in the camera (or a hand held spot meter) to read a middle toned portion of the background. Of course, you have to correctly identify what that middle toned portion is. Then, set the camera to manual exposure mode and use the f/stop - shutter speed combination from the meter reading.

2. It’s much easier, though, to simply take a picture and look at the image on the LCD monitor on the back of the camera. If it is too light or too dark, use the exposure compensation feature built into your camera to tweak the exposure in 1/3 f/stops increments until you like what you see. §

E-books to help you take better pictures Click on any ebook to see inside

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Capturing Lightning Lightning is one of the most dynamic natural events on earth. It teases photographers to capture its elusive electrical discharges, but it gives us precious little time to do so.

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Each lightning bolt lasts about one to two microseconds (one to two millionths of a second), and when there are multiple bolts the delay between these is around 50 microseconds. When lightning seems to last longer than this, it is the latent image on the retina of your eye that makes it seem fairly easy to capture. This is the same phenomenon that allows us to watch a movie projected at 24 frames per second. The image on the screen seems continuous without any flickering at all.

ning is at night. You don’t need to purchase additional equipment, and what you already have – a camera body, a medium telephoto or even a 50mm normal lens, and a tripod – will enable you to take great pictures of individual or multiple bolts. This is what I used for the picture below taken from the balcony of my bed and breakfast lodging in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (this is not a composite).

There are two ways to photograph lightning that insure consistently good results. First, you can shoot it at night, and second, you can use a lightning trigger. Let’s look at both of these methods and discuss the pros and cons of each.

The first decision you have to make when photographing lightning is which focal length to use. During an electrical storm, the lightning usually occurs primarily in one section of the sky. However, that area can be quite large. If you use a wide angle, such as a 24mm lens, you will encompass a huge portion of the sky and therefore you will capture most of the lightning strikes. The problem, though, is that the

Capturing lightning at night The least expensive way to photograph light-

The focal length

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bolts will appear to be very small. They will seem insignificant in the frame and that’s not what you want.

On the other hand, if you use a telephoto lens in the 200mm to 300mm range with the idea that filling the frame with the bolts is the best approach for maximum impact, you will get a dramatic picture if you happen to choose that portion of the sky where the electrical discharge takes place. The angle of view, though, is fairly narrow and it is very easy to miss the strike altogether. With a long lens, you could end up with no lightning pictures at all simply because you pointed the camera at the wrong place.

When I shoot lightning, the compromise focal length I usually use is between 135mm and 170mm. If the lightning is close and

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the bolts appear large in the sky, I will use the 135mm setting. If the storm is further away and the bolts look smaller, I use the longer focal length. Sometimes I’ll zoom out to 200mm because I prefer frame-filling lightning bolts. This is a gamble, though, because the angle of view is narrower.

In essence, to capture the bolts of lightning, you have to watch the sky and determine where most of the strikes are occurring. That’s where you point the lens. This is obviously an educated guess, and you’ll be frustrated that you will miss many of the strikes that occur outside the frame of your composition. Hopefully, though, you’ll capture some great images when the lightning occurs where you anticipated.

Only once did I use a wide angle lens to shoot lightning. The discharges were directly overhead, and it filled most of the sky above me in central Nevada . . . and it was pretty scary!

The exposure The exposure meter in your camera isn’t capable of giving you an accurate reading for lightning.

There are two reasons for this. First, you won’t be able to react fast enough to point the camera at the right spot and take the reading, and second, the extreme contrast between the bolt and the dark sky is so great that the light meter won’t know how to read it. This is true for hand held meters as well. Meters are programmed to read and interpret middle tones, and the brilliant flash of light in combination with the night sky presents the meter with something it can’t understand.

Therefore, let me share with you the settings I use based on many years of shooting lightning.

If the bolts are very bright and therefore close to me, I use ISO 200 at f/11. If the bolts are further

away and they are less brilliant, I use 200 ISO at f/8. Depth of field is obviously not relevant at all unless you are including a foreground element.

For the shutter speed, I use 30 full seconds. I open the shutter, wait for one or more lightning strikes, and then the shutter closes in a half minute. If no electrical activity occurs, I simply open the shutter again for another 30 seconds and I repeat this over and over until the storm is spent. During this long interval I may capture multiple strikes, or I may capture nothing. Unlike when we shot film, digital photos cost nothing. It’s very easy simply to continually take pictures of a storm without concern of spending money.

If you are shooting in or near a city, the light pollution will be a problem. Therefore, I recommend using shorter exposures of 10 to 15 seconds.

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The pictures must be taken from a tripod, of course, and I highly recommend turning the image stabilization feature (if your lens has this) off. Most IS or VR lenses will not produce sharp pictures when they are used on a tripod.

You do not need to use a cable release or the mirror lockup feature. The sharpness of your pictures will be determined only by how critically you focus the lens.

White balance I always shoot lightning with a daylight white balance setting, and it usually photographs with a purple cast. You can use auto white balance or even a tungsten white balance setting if you want to experiment with various color hues, but you can alter the color balance using the temperature slider in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom during post-processing. If you want to remove the color altogether use the Photoshop pull down menu command Image > adjustments > hue/saturation and move the saturation slider to the left. This will reduce or eliminate completely the purple or magenta color that we never see with our eyes.

I recommend that you shoot lightning in RAW mode. Jpegs compress digital files, and the first aspects of an image to be discarded are the subtle details in the highlights and the shadows. RAW files retain more information in these important areas, and therefore you will be able to see more tones in the glow around the lightning bolts as well as in the dark clouds that comprise the storm.

The Lightning Trigger Stepping Stone Products of Dolores, Colorado (http://www.lightningtrigger.com/) makes the 20

Lightning Trigger. This device electronically triggers the camera when lightning occurs, day or night. It fits into the hot shoe of the camera, and a cable connects it to one of the built-in ports in the body. Without this surprisingly easy-to-use device, it is extremely difficult to capture lightning during daylight hours. I have tried it many times without the Lightning Trigger, and I was successful only once.

When using the Lightning Trigger, I opt for shutter priority (Tv) metering because the optimum shutter speeds for daylight lightning photography are 1/4 to 1/15th of a second. This range of speeds allow the camera to record multiple strikes. In addition, the longer shutter speeds enable you to have enough depth of field (due to smaller apertures) should you want to include sharp foreground elements as well as the lightning bolts.

When using the Lightning Trigger, various functions on your camera should be turned off such as autorotate, autofocus, mirror lockup, image stabilization, and live view. These features cause a slight delay in the response of the shutter, and when it comes to lightning, microseconds count. ยง

Costa Rica Photo Tour Nov. 30 - Dec. 6, 2013 Hummingbird shoots

Reptile shoot

Mt. Arenal

Waterfalls

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What’s wrong with this picture?

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t is generally not a good idea to cut the tips of things off. This includes feet, hands, ears, a butterfly’s wing, the pointed tip of a flower, etc. In this portrait of an Icelandic horse, that’s exactly what I did. I was shooting with a 70-200mm medium telephoto, and the horse was walking at a fast pace right toward me. I couldn’t zoom out any more than the 70mm, and as a result the shot was cropped too tightly. If I had moved back, I would have lost the moment. So, I shot quickly, opting to include the flyaway hair on the mane while sacrificing the horse’s front hoof.

I love the shot, and I really wanted to save it. I had fired off several frames as the horse was approaching me, and I went through my RAW files to see if there were another sharp image in the sequence that showed the right hoof. I was in luck -- it was the frame taken two shots before the image you see above. Here are the steps I used to fix the problem in Photoshop.

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1. I chose Image > canvas size and expanded the image area downward just a little.

2. I used the lasso tool and selected the right hoof in the photo that showed the complete foot. I included some of the grass around the hoof, then used Edit > copy to copy this to the clipboard.

3. I pasted the hoof into photo with the problem using Edit > paste, then using the move tool I moved it into place. With Edit > transform > scale, I enlarged the hoof slightly to fit the lega.

4. I flattened the layer with Layer > flatten image. I then used the close tool to add more of the out of focus grass to the bottom edge of the picture. To blend the pasted-in hoof to the horse’s leg, I used the clone tool on 60% opacity.

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SHORT AND SWEET 1.

2. Long time exposures at night can brighten a scene

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4. Atltanta, Georgia has a world class aquarium, and you can take many amazing pictures there. One of my favorite exhibits is the one for beluga whales. The pictures look quite natural in terms of background, light, and the movement of the whales. §

Try shooting flowers on a light table. They seem luminious as if they are glowing from within. If you don’t have a small light table, make one. Buy a small piece of white Plexiglas and place your flash beneath it.

Or, use clear glass with white paper on it.

When you convert color images to black and white, contrast is always lost. This is unavoidable, so you need to re-gain that loss by adding contrast after the conversion. Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 is a great way to do that because there are presets where you can easily preview the results.

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so much that it can look like daylight. This canal scene in Venice looked so dark when I crossed over the bridge that it was devoid of color. With a 20 second exposure, it came to life.

Photography Tours 2013/2014 COSTA RICA December, 2013

LONDON/PARIS August, 2013

NAMIBIA November, 2013

BURMA (Myanmar) April, 2014

TIGERS & PANDAS in CHINA January, 2014

CARNIVAL IN VENICE February, 2014

AM SOUTHWEST April, 2014

WHITE HORSES April, 2014

SOUTH INDIA May, 2014

GREENLAND June, 2014

KENYA August, 2014

Check out the itineraries and photo galleries from these and other tours: www.jimzuckerman.com.

ASK JIM

Every month Jim will answer a question from his online students, from people who participate in his tours and workshops, or from subscribers to this magazine. If you have a question you’d like Jim to answer, please drop him a note at photos@jimzuckerman.com.

Q:

I enjoy your newsletter, ebooks, and DVDs. I have also had the pleasure of taking one of your online courses.

I have a question: We have a number of overcast days. The light is soft and diffused, but often the sky is a dull grey. There are few white clouds and no visible blue areas. I have tried to crop to limit amount of sky, but there are compositions where you need sky. Is there a way to enhance the dull sky without replacing it?

Jim Davis, Seven Lakes, North Carolina

A: In most cases, you can’t enhance a dull sky so it looks good. The only option is to replace

it. The most you can do in lieu of that is to darken it, possibly with the graduated filter in Adobe Camera RAW or Lighroom when you are working on the RAW file. It’s possible to add some color saturation, too, depending on the original sky. In the photo below, however, additional saturation wouldn’t work. If you tried to make the sky blue in this instance, which is possible to do, it wouldn’t look right because the light on the scene is soft, not indicative of a blue sky and direct sunlight.

I know this isn’t great news. That’s why I replace skies all the time. It makes a huge difference. I have a large file of skies specifically for this purpose.

Jim

© Jim Davis 2013

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China Photo Tour January 4 - 16, 2014

Tigers

Pandas

Harbin Ice Festival

Culture

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Aerial Photography

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f we could fly like birds, aerial perspectives would be no big deal. It would be like another day at the office. But we are confined to the ground every day of our lives, except when we risk life and limb and take to the air in a plane. When we do that, the world is completely different.

Shooting from the air opens a while new world. It’s stunning, really. No matter what you’re flying over -- cities, flower fields, coast lines, castles, sand dunes -- the patterns, designs, and the compelling perspective all go into making remarkable images that few photographers expend the energy and money to capture.

The picture at right, for example, is tulip fields in northern Holland. I had seen a post card 28

ten years earlier of this area during April, and the image stayed with me. When I next returned to Holland, I made it a point to take pictures like the one I had seen. I asked the conceierge at my hotel how to make this happen, and with one phone call I had a reservation for the following day. The photography was amazing.

Shooting clear The first question I ask a pilot of a small plane is if the door can be taken off. Some designs allow this, and although there is usually a small charge, the photography will be much better than shooting through Plexiglas. I like to sit next to the open door for maximum flexibility in compositing the images. It is definitely unnerving to be sitting next to an open door, but I swallow my fear and do it anyway because the pictures are so good. I wear a harness plus a seat belt.

Windows usually can’t be removed, but if the pilot slows down just enough to maintain altitude, he may allow you to open the window and shoot that way.

You must choose a hi-wing airplane for aerial photography. This design places the wing on

top of the fuselage and above your seat. A low wing aircraft means that the wing is below you and it totally blocks the view to take pictures.

With a hi-wing, the struts that support the wing are annoying, but by angling the lens you can get the shots.

The vibration The next big concern is the vibration of the plane. This forces you to use a fast shutter speed. For the Skeleton Coast in Namibia, below, I used 1/1600 of a second with 200 ISO and f/4. Remember that depth of field is irrelevant when you are shooting from the air. Everything is at infinity as far as the lens is concerned. Therefore, you can shoot wide open (or one f/stop smaller for sharper images) and still use a low ISO with a very fast shutter which eliminates any possibility of blur. The minimal shutter speed I would use, given the

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likelyhood of turbulence, is 1/1250.

Hot air balloons If you get a chance to go up in a hot air balloon, take it. The aerial photography is easier in the sense that there is no vibration, you have expansive views, and you are flying slow enough to compose pictures carefully. In a plane, the rapid speed means the scene on the ground changes every millesecond.

Photography from a balloon, though, has to be done above a place worth photographing. Near my home in Tennessee, a company offers balloon rides that float over the town, the shopping area, and residential areas. That’s not very exciting. The picture below shows a balloon negotiating a narrow canyon in Cappadocia, Turkey, and that’s what I would call a photogenic opportunity. The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in New

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Mexico takes place in October, and it is also great because you can shoot the other balloons in the early morning during the mass ascension (make sure you go up in the first wave of balloons). There are many opportunities to shoot balloons in other cities in the U.S. and Europe as well. European villages from the air are particularly beautiful. §

Get professionalcritiques critiques of yourof work Get professional your work with Jim’s online courses with Jim’s online courses Betterphoto.com betterphoto.com Learn composition, exposure, Photoshop, beginning fundamentals, techniques in low light photography, flash, making money in photography, and more at your convenience and on your schedule.

Composite of three images: Lake Powell, a bald eagle, and a rainbow sky.

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Student Showcase

Each month, Jim features one or more students who took beautiful and inspiring images on one of his photography tours or workshops. It’s really fascinating how photographers see and compose such different images even though we may go to the same place. Everyone gets great images on my trips.

Dr. Terry Allen, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Namibia, home Photoshop workshop, and in 2014 China, Mongolia, and American Southwest

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Š Terry Allen

Dr. Terry Allen, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Š Terry Allen

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PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP in my home

Sat. & Sun., Sept. 21, 22

Photoshop is a photographer’s best friend, and the creative possibilities are absolutely endless. In a personal and ‘homey’ environment (I have a very cool classroom setup in my home), I start at the beginning -- assuming you know nothing -- but I quickly get into layers, cutting and pasting, plug-ins, using ‘grunge’ textures, modifying lighting, and a lot more. I promise to fill your head with so many great techniques that you won’t believe what you’ll be able to do. I go over each technique several times to make sure you understand it and can remember it.

creative ideas that will inspire you to produce amazing images with the pictures you’ve already taken.

Photoshop instructors approach teaching this program from different points of view. My approach is to be as expansive in my thinking as possible in creating unique, artistic, and compelling images. In addition to showing you how to use the various tools, pull down menus, layers, and so on, I spend a lot of time giving you

Contact me if you would like to participate in the workshop and I will tell you how to sign up (photos@jimzuckerman.com). All you need is a laptop and a lot of your pictures. If you don’t have a laptop, I have two Mac Book Pro laptops I can loan out for the duration of the workshop. §

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I live in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and if you fly into the airport (BNA) I will pick you up. If you drive, I’ll give you my address and you can find my home on Mapquest. For the $450 fee, I include one dinner in my home (prepared by my wife who is an amazing cook and hostess) and two lunches, plus shuttling you back and forth from my home to your nearby hotel.

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PH OTO I N S I G HTS you would like to read.

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PHOTO INSIGHTS®

published by Jim Zuckerman, all rights reserved © Jim Zuckerman 2013 email: photos@jimzuckerman.com physical address: P.O. Box 7, Arrington, TN 37014

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