Our wonderful economy sure has taken us all for a lovely ride, hasn’t it? The past couple of years have been very trying for most people and much worse than that for others. My heart goes out to those who have suffered financially through no fault of their own.

And when times are tough, it’s harder to find the time and money for recreation and hobbies.

But our digital cameras give us an almost ‘free’ way of getting some instant karma and some of our good feelings back. If you remember the days of film cameras, remember all the costs and extra time that used to be involved in taking photos? Now we don’t have to pay for film or processing. Or wait to see our results.

So grab your camera. Here are some ideas that not only will assure you of some good pictures, but will definitely help your mood.

• Take your camera for a walk. Get outside for even a 10 or 15 minute walk. Then really look at what you see. You’ll find something that will make a great photo. Maybe it will be a close-up of something with a striking design, or the way the light and shadows play on the street or sidewalk, or something with colors that you miss on ordinary days. See what you can find within a block or two of your house. You might surprise yourself. And if not, your camera will thank you for the chance to get out!
• Find your children. It doesn’t matter what they’re doing. Use your skills to take some great shots of them in their current normal day to day activities. In the future candid shots like this will tell more of a story than the typical birthday and holiday photos. And when you look back on them in the future, you’ll be glad you did this.
• Do you cook? (If you don’t you’ll have to stop by the store for this one.) Whip up a favorite treat for your someone you haven’t seen for a while. Maybe it’s your Mother or another family member. Or one of your friends who could use a boost. Take it to them and record the event with your camera. You’ve got the skills to create a memorable shot. You’ll feel better, they’ll feel better, and the best of all will be the memories because you used your camera.
• Grab your camera bag and gear and give it a good cleaning and sorting through. Get the accumulated dust and grime off everything. Sort through your gear and get it reorganized so you’re ready the next time you think of grabbing the camera. (And maybe now your would use that polarizing filter because you’ll know where to find it.) I know this sounds like work, but if you would spend 15 or 20 minutes doing this now I guarantee you’d be a lot happier. And you can be proud of yourself!
• Pick a hobby or project that a family member or friend is involved in and is proud of. Is someone growing a garden, or flowers? Is your buddy rebuilding a car, or your friend making a quilt? Use your camera to take some great shots. Process them and send by email so they will be able to share the photos with their friends and family. (And if you’ve got a few extra bucks, print an 8X10 and put it in an inexpensive frame and give them a copy of your best shot.) Do this and you might be amazed at how much better you feel.

Like a leaf floating down the river, we go on day by day repeating our same routines over and over. Bust out of that routine, if even for a few minutes, and you will be glad you did.

Then, never let yourself be a leaf again.

I’ve told myself over and over that if a person wants to take some good photos, you have to go take pictures! I think we all forget this from time to time.

If you have a half hour to spare on a nice day, grab a sandwich and your camera and head to the nearest park. You might be surprised what you might be able to capture.

Even a goofy chipmunk makes a good picture after a few days off from the camera habit.

It was interesting to see what appeared after sitting for just 15 minutes or so.

I put my telephoto lens on and set the shutter speed to 1/1000 of a second. When something moved I shot it <grin>. Nice bright sunny days make this easy.

It was nice sitting out in the sun. And in the Zen spirit, on a nice spring day, it’s good for the soul to spend a little time contemplating nature and letting a little bit of stress go. I did have to walk about ten steps to take the shot of the Mallard. But I managed that feat of exercise without a sweat.

Don’t waste the nice days. A half hour break with your camera in your hand beats an hour of sitting at your desk eating your sandwich and looking at all the emails in your inbox.

So bust loose and do it. The emails will not mind waiting.

Example of an HDR hand held shot

Another barn to use on the geotagging/map page

A green barn, unusual. And with a chimney with lots of vines growing from it. This should be a real ‘green’ barn when the leaves come out on the vines.

A red and blue barn. I’m sure the flowers in the ‘planter’ in the foreground are plastic. First shot this year with green grass.

Add more photos/text…

Paco road along with me this afternoon on a trip up to Crow Wing State Park and the Camp Ripley area. It was a lot of fun having him along. And I have quite a few shots that I will be sharing with you. But time is of the essence and hopefully tomorrow morning I will be able to try some sunrise photos. Plus they are having a maple syrup demonstration at Lake Maria State Park and I’d like to check that out if the clouds stay away for the morning. So you will have to wait for some really dreary or rainy weather to give me a chance to keep the blog updated. So many photos, so little time.

Food for thought: Can a person take an art-worthy photo of people drilling holes in trees to make maple syrup? If you have the answer, let me know.
(Update 3/30/08: The weather didn’t cooperate yesterday. We’ll try again next weekend.)

What a beautiful Easter Sunday. What a nice day! On the drive back from Easter dinner, I turned on the GPS and headed for home taking all the back country roads I could find.

I am still on my quest to take as many shots as possible of anything that catches my eye for the sake of building up a ‘knowledge base’ to work from in the future. I’m not showing these shots as examples of the best that can be done. Only what I have been able to find so far and recording these ‘items of interest’ for future consideration.

I was struck by this old house (click on the photo for a larger view). At first glance, it looks rock solid. Then when you look closer, all the windows are gone, the front porch has been ripped off, and it looks like just a lot of junk stored inside.

I shot the house hand held and had a long zoom lens on at the time. I am not real happy with the sharpness. The front looks like it is out of focus. But the side of the house and posts in the foreground seem like they are, so I am having trouble figuring this out.

I do think I’ll plan on checking this spot out again in the future and will use a tripod the next time. Nothing makes me more sad than looking through a bunch of shots and seeing half of them not sharp or in focus. But we all keep learning.

Then a little farther down the road, I ran across this ring necked pheasant. Bright sun, bright snow. A nice opportunity. But the little buggers run so fast! He was moving along at quite a clip when I ‘shot’ him. I am rather happy with this one. Again, no where near tack sharp focus and that’s too bad. But the little buggers run so fast! (Or did I already say that?)

Trumpeters are the largest native North American bird. They are a protected species now, but they were nearly hunted to extinction 100 years ago or so. Widipedia has a short but informative article if you are so inclined.

Since they have not been (legally) hunted for a long time, they are not very fearful. But they definitely don’t like it if you get too close. And while I really like shooting them (with the camera), I hate to bother them too much. I rather like seeing them.

Wildlife photography is a field all of it’s own. And over the years I have become convinced about two things. First, that taking a tack sharp good photo of a wild animal is one of the most enjoyable things to do in outdoor photography. And secondly, that it is nearly impossible unless you are really willing to spend the time and effort to do so. (And going to the zoo or a game reserve with tame animals doesn’t count.)

Wildlife photography takes more than talent and gear. It takes TIME. Lot’s of time, usually. The Trumpeter shots here are nice enough for a photo to remember that you actually took a picture of one. But because of their low fear of humans, they nearly fall into the tame category. To get a true shot of a ‘wild’ wild animal, you do need to spend time in blinds, or well hidden waiting and it can take hours and hours before you actually get a good shot.

The purpose of this blog is to talk about how we (as non-professional photographers) can take better photos. Perhaps wildlife photography would be a good subject to address on it’s own. Maybe we can find some short cuts.

And here is one more barn to add to my (never ending it seems) collection of old barns that I’m building. Can you believe all the different colored shingles on the roof? (Click on the photo for a larger view.) I can’t wait for the snow to melt off the other two roofs and then go back and give this old barn a serious photo session.

I am looking forward to some stormy Spring days to try some shots of some of these barns in a little more ‘moody’ situation. They’re old and worn out, and like a lot of older things, don’t look their best in the bright light of day. But give them a little darker lighting, a little mood, and they look a lot better.

Which brings me to my first subject, ice. And particularly, ice fishing. I have to admit that ice fishing is not a pastime (I hesitate to call it a sport) that I am exceedingly fond of. But taking a photo of a dedicated ice fisherman sitting on the lake (for hours at a time, usually) gives me the chance for a late evening shot to see how things turn out. (Click on the photo for a larger view.) I had to set up the tripod to take this since it was actually darker out than it seems in the photo.

Again, this is not a wall hanger shot, but another in my series of photos to add to my photo education. There were quite a few problems with this shot and the final result. At first glance, this looked like a good opportunity that could have been a great shot. But I stumbled upon the scene on my way home from a photo outing. The light sitting on the ice caught my eye and I thought, “why don’t I take a picture?” (I think that a lot.)

But I didn’t know the guy on the ice, and it really was rather dark so we couldn’t see each other. I walked out fairly close to him and told him I saw him and his light and wondered if it was OK if I took his picture from ‘up there on the shore’. He said go for it, so I did.

But I rushed this a lot and really didn’t have time to compose things. That’s a lesson learned right there. Don’t waste your time trying to take a ‘good’ picture if you don’t have time. And it took enough time setting up the tripod and fiddling around. I didn’t want the guy to think I was some kind of nut job so I took a couple of different exposures and skedaddled.

I can think of a number of ways to try this type of shot again in the future. The obvious ones are to get down on the ice, or maybe really low down rather then going back ‘up on the shore’. And a close up of the fisherman with the lantern accentuated would have been a nice shot. But as I have said, I at least took a shot that will give me food for thought for the future.

If it wasn’t snowing like crazy today and tonight, I would be camped near this tree taking a long telephoto shot of it and the full moon. But it’s totally overcast and they are forecasting the same for tomorrow. Maybe on Easter Sunday the clouds will break in the evening but the moon won’t rise until 10:03 PM, so that will probably be a bust since this silly tree is 20 some miles from home. But we’ll see.

As some of you have already guessed, there will be a BARN page coming soon. We’ll set up a barn photo section for some good (and maybe not so good) barn shots. The goal will be to combine barns or other old buildings with at least one other element of interest to see if we can get some super photos.

(And just thinking, I may have to try some of these in black and white or sepia. What do you think?)

I was so busy looking at barns, I forgot about this shot.

It was snowing quite heavily this evening, so I thought I’d try some long exposure shots to try to catch the snow. The falling snow doesn’t show up, but I think the neighborhood looks like it’s in a winter mood.

This is another shot that can act as a reminder of what type of shots can be taken when the sun isn’t up. While this photo is of no interest other than the method that was used to take it, it can be used as a good reminder that some interesting photos can be taken on mild late winter nights during or after a fresh snow. Especially architecture type shots of interesting buildings or city shots with lights. Options galore.

Perhaps you have heard the story Acres of Diamonds made famous by Russell Conwell. It’s a tale of a farmer who was so obsessed with the idea of finding diamonds and becoming rich that he sold his farm and spent the rest of his life in a tragic, hopeless search for diamonds, while the man who bought his property went to work in the fields and discovered a rich diamond mine right on the farm.

Can the moral of this story, ‘dig in your own backyard’, be applied to our search for finding good photos when we have limited time to spend on our hobby or limited resources to travel far away to find the perfect spot?

This is the question I am trying to answer by checking out some of the areas closer to home and trying to see if there are ‘items of interest’ that would make good photos.

The result of my latest quest are the five photos currently attached to this post. I took these shots Friday evening after work in a two hour time frame. I didn’t travel more than ten miles from home. Are these ‘local’ shots ‘items of interest’?

The shots may or may not look ‘good’ to you. And that’s the point. I am taking them for me. To have them to learn from and as a record I can look back at a year from now when I am planning another photo trip during mid-March.

I can find a high number of items to be critical of in each one. But these five (of over 100 shots I actually snapped) each have some items that I personally like. And I can see at least one or two things in each one of them that I really like and I can learn from and add to my arsenal of experience.

For me, looking back on my own photos, it is interesting to see what different scenes looked like at each time of year. And to be able to remember how things looked when I was out on that photo trip. I do like the idea of shooting more shots without being so worried about whether or not they are good enough to hang on the wall. I think it gives me more ammunition in my hunt for really getting that better than average photo in the future.

While looking at these shots and trying to decide if it is worth the time and effort to take and process and keep these photos I think it’s time that we define a process for the hobbyist photographer that will greatly enhance their enjoyment of their hobby and do something that will really help them move on to getting great photos.

If you have a wish or are planning to become a professional paid photographer, then the thoughts and ideas I will be outlining in this blog will probably not be for you. For someone who wants to move up to be a professional fairly quickly, a lot more work and technical prowess will be required. And you will have to devote magnitudes more time than I am describing here. But if you are a serious amateur, being able to maximize your results and minimize your time spent are worthwhile goals.

And while I don’t have this theory and its methodology totally worked out, I do think we can start describing it and giving some names or tags to the different concepts. Therefore, for the time being, photos similar to the five shown here will be called ‘seed’ photos.

The goal is:
To create interesting or meaningful photos that you are pleased and satisfied with.
(Professional, meaning ‘paid’, photographers need to please and satisfy others. Perhaps someday that will be goal #2!)

The starting outline of this system/theory is:
1. Take as many photos as possible as often as possible. Don’t worry if they are ‘good’ shots. And if you do have a lot of experience and have advanced to where you get many great shots on an outing, follow this rule anyway.
2. It’s very OK to try to capture a ‘wall-hanger’ but do not fail to shoot a lot of ‘seed’ photos for future reference as well.
3. Plan ahead so that you have a plan ready when you do have the time or opportunity to get away for some photo time.
4. Make sure you have alternate plans based on the lighting you will have, the time of day and the season of the year so that you will always have something to shoot no matter when the chance occurs.
5. Keep learning. From your own experience and from others.

We will be expanding on this system and will work on expanding and clarifying it with the intention of making it usable for anyone who wants to maximize their results and minimize their expense in time and assets.

It’s going to be a great spring, isn’t it? With the change in daylight saving time, there is an extra hour of daylight left after work. And this is greatest time of year with an abundance of waterfowl and birds in full plumage that will be migrating through the area.

While this photo of some nice mallards will never make the cover of National Geographic, it at least is the start of this year’s spring season for waterfowl shots. And it was fun getting out for a little while. I was happy to be clicking away and I can tell my camera was happy too.