Panoramic and High Dynamic Range Workshop

We have had numerous requests to run specific Panoramic and High Dynamic Range Imagery workshops and now we have a time and date for the course. Mark it in your diaries, December 5th. This is a one day workshop located in the Adelaide City Centre. We will spend the morning shooting the streets of Adelaide and after lunch will hit up the gallery space as Photographic Wholesalers to learn how to put all those shots together. This is a jam-packed photo extravaganza with loads of hands on tutorials in the field as well as in the digital darkroom on how to get those images to blend together seamlessly. Demystifying the processes for both HDR and Panos we will also have the expert knowledge of the PWs staff on hand to help with any equipment related questions. For more details and how to book head along to www.craigingramphoto.com.au/workshops

Hope to see you there

Craig

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Broome Birds Workshop - Participants Images

Just a quick post to showcase some of the great images taken by the folks who came up to Broome with me last month. Check em out here. These are just a few of the many fantastic images that were captured during the week. Everyone walked away with some fantastic shots and all who attended should be super pleased with their work, we all know how hard they did work for some of those shots.

And a quick plug for tomorrow, stay tuned for some exciting news for Adelaide folk being announced tomorrow. A bit later than promised but tomorrow for sure!

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APSCON 2009 Presentation

Had a great day down at the Australian Photographic Society's Annual Convention today. I spoke at the event on adventure sports photography, the hows and the whys of shooting extreme sports and had a great time. Met a load of nice people that were all just so keen on photography and although none in the audience were inclined on shooting sports on the edge (I don't think), everyone was keen on seeing and sharing there photography. These sorts of events always impress me with how much photography people can handle.

We talked about lighting, equipment, composition, techniques, pretty much everything all crammed into one hour. I could have talked for way longer than that(and shown a bunch more images) and the audience would have lapped it up. Not that I think my talk was that inspiring it is just the audiences enthusiasm for photography was insatiable. I always enjoy giving talks at these events for that exact reason, everyone is keen, friendly and willing to learn and to share ideas.

If you were one of the many folk down there thanks for putting up with my jokes and hello to all those who came and had a chat afterwards. It was great to meet you all and hope to see you again either at one of the many club talks or even out shooting one day. Maybe I encouraged a few folk to try something a little different with there photography;-)
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Traveling with photography gear

We didn't get a chance to blog every day from the Broome workshop as we were out of mobile range for the majority of the trip. So to make up for it I am going to run a few posts over the next few days relating to the experiences we had on the trip. To start with a brief post about travelling with camera gear. This is one of the most asked about questions at the moment with airlines cracking down on baggage allowances all over the place.

The first thing I do is try to drive. This way I can carry as much gear as I want including loads of spares and "what if" equipment. When driving I usually take two camera bags packed full of gear and at least two tripods. Then I have all the equipment I could possible imagine.

If the drive is too long which means more than 8 hours, then flying makes more sense. When flying I take only what I need for the job with a spare body (total of 3 bodies) and take it all as carry on. This normally fits inside my Think Tank Photo Airport Addicted backpack (See above). If I need a little more room for longer projects then I take on the slightly oversized Airport Security. Inside these bags I pack all of the gear needed to get me on the ground running so everything from laptops to batteries and chargers. No point having a bunch of cameras with no power. Tripods have to get checked but everything else comes in the cabin with me.

This came up on the course as on participant landed and his checked baggage did not. He had some of his camera gear with him but no chargers for his phone, laptop and cameras and a few lenses still in transit somewhere or even worse in the trunk of someone else's car! Things turned out okay in the end with his gear turning up the next day but it does go to show that you want all or your gear on your person at all times so you can hit the ground running when you arrive at your destination.

Now all this metal and glass will take you over the stated weight of seven kilograms but there are ways and means to get around this. The first way is to not get checked. I have only been checked once so far but it will happen again one day and if you know the rules though you can get around them. You are allowed one bag of seven kilos, a laptop which can be in a separate bag, a camera and they don't weigh you. I usually travel in a pair of trousers with large pockets, large enough to accommodate a 70-200 f2.8 and another lens in the pockets. If they are weighing peoples carry-on at the check-in take a couple of lenses out of the bag stick them in your pockets. Place all chargers and cables in with the laptop and sling the camera over your shoulder and instantly you have lost a pile of weight from your check-in bag. On the one occasion I had my carry-on weighed I did this in front of the attendant and was allowed aboard. Strange but they allow it. Probably not worth the argument most of the time.

Most of the time though getting to the airport early, a jovial smile and a joyful disposition is enough to get you through. And remember they are just doing their job and just because you are a photographer the same rules still apply. If you are forced to check your gear you have to take it on the chin, fork up the cash and hope your gear arrives in one piece.

The last option is to freight your gear there ahead of time. I am doing this more and more with spare equipment and large lenses as time allows. Sometimes back to back jobs don't allow this but I can take the minimum equipment onbaord and know the rest will be on location when I get there.

Happy Snapping

Craig


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Freshening up your photography

Keeping your photography fresh is an important and sometimes difficult thing to do. Looking back at your images and finding that you are thinking the same image over and over again even though the locations may be different is a disheartening thing. As are those days that you struggle to make any pleasing images at all, trying your hardest to make a few good clicks but nothing works. My favourite way to get over these slumps (we all have them) is to shoot something different or something that you shoot often but in a different style. I took this idea to one of my editors. I wanted to shoot an article for the magazine that stood out from the rest and indeed it did. It was for a rock climbing magazine and we decided to look at the people that made the sport rather than people doing the sport. We chose a busy weekend and set up an outdoor studio at a popular climbing venue and shot a bunch of people and turned it into an eight page photo essay that went down a treat. So much so it is now back as a regular feature looking at some of the figures that made the sport what it is today (See image above). This has refreshed my creative spirit, opened me up to shoot people again (when there aren't moving at 100km/hr), made an impact with readers and editors alike and has been a great opportunity to meet some interesting folk. And it is all just about what we love doing, getting out and taking photos!
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Photography In The Fast Lane

Well it is spring again and we are flat out, so flat out in fact, I cannot remember the last time I manage to post here on the blog. I am hoping to change that over the next few weeks with a few posts on some exciting up and coming projects. We are off to WA in a few days for some great photo opps as well as the 2009 Broome Bird Observatory Field workshop where we hope to blog every day to show you what goes on during the workshop. The I am presenting at APSCON in Victor Harbour on the 8th of Oct. This is a talk on shooting Adventure Sports so come along and say hi. If you want a bit more incite on shooting extreme sports next up we have two commercial shoots in Victoria shooting some of Australia's best extreme athletes and we hope to show you what goes on during such a shoot. I have also lined up a few articles that will be posted on the blog to help you out with a few basic ideas that give folk a bit of trouble when shooting digital. So stay tuned as we hope to liven things up over the next few weeks.

Happy shooting

Craig Read more...

Your favourite lens (and focal length)

After the last post I was intrigued as to what my 'favourite' lens is. My favourite lens would have to be a toss up between the 14-24mm f2.8, the 24mm PC-E or the 600mm f4. All these lenses allow me to create images that no other optic can. But what I was interested in was how many images are taken with these lenses. All are very specific tools, not everyday lenses but exotic optics used for specific purposes. I did a bit of digging and found a great tool that can search my Lightoom catalogue and reports back with some interesting info
Image Reporter analyses metadata in a Lightroom catalogue and reports on cropping, camera makes and models, lenses, average focal length, ISO, and more. Information it reports is astounding. Here are a few examples form my catalogue.

• My most used lens is the 600mm followed by the 24-120, 24-70, 12-24 and 14-24 all in similar numbers. This is interesting that all these have a 24 in the number. After the 6 200mm lenses I use I regularly use 5 24mm lenses.
  
• The average focal length of the 600 is 918, this is due to the fact that I am normally shooting with the 1.4 or the 1.7
  
• TC. The average focal length of the 70-200 is 134mm. This shows that I am using both ends of the lens equally not like the 80-400 at 328mm, which show I am spending more time closer to 400mm.
• The average of crop of all images in the library are 100% and of the images that are cropped the average crop is 85%.

I could go on with boring stats for a long time but they have nothing to do with you and your shooting so the best thing to do is go and check it out for yourself. You will learn a thing or two about your shooting style.
Image Reporter


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