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When I went down to Virginia Beach a week ago and had some time on my hands (Carina was busy helping our friend Amanda Hedgepeth), I decided to use the time to practice a bit…
Photographers have to keep “in shape” even between shooting weddings and engagements, too!
A lot of people ask me for tips on improving their photography…
The biggest tip would be to push yourself to shoot… and to shoot often…
To set new challenges for yourself whenever you feel like you’re getting stuck in a rut…
Really, that’s one of the best pieces of advice I was ever given.
And it’s that simple!
Feel like your composition is getting boring?
Go grab a friend and take pictures!
If you can’t find a friend, take a lawn gnome!
A potted plant!
Just keep shooting though.
You can get creative…
If you shoot only with digital, imagine it was a film camera.
Give yourself 30 shots- no more! And here’s a challenge for you brave souls out there…
No chimping (ie, no looking on the back of your camera!). Try and get the exposure right by estimating or using your in camera meter.
But just keep shooting…
Take me for instance…
I mainly stick with a 50mm lens… in fact, I think I could shoot a whole wedding with just that lens…
It’s a lens a lot of photographers use, true… but there’s definitely a reason for that.
The 35mm f1.4 L lens from Canon… it’s another great lens, just not one I’m as used to…
So for this portrait session with Kristine DeCillis, I decided not only to limit myself to it, but also to shoot only wide open with it (that means shooting the whole time at f1.4 – IE, having an extremely shallow depth of field).
It was actually SO much fun.
We met up in Virginia Beach and Kristine and I went to a park… I’m not sure exactly what the name of it was, but it was strangely right next to a cornfield, right in the middle of Virginia Beach…
We braved snakes and ticks and one random deer to hike deep into the long grass for a few portraits…
And I’m pleased with the results. Using back-button focusing made focusing a breeze and I hardly had an out of focus shot (an achievement on a 5DMark II shooting on a wide open prime!).
Thanks so much for coming out with me Kristine! Be sure to check her out!
PS. After this shoot, I found 14 ticks on me!! Haha, the lengths we will go to for a few photographs!
So in addition to my tip on pushing yourself and to just keep shooting, be sure to take proper precautions when shooting in grassy Virginian fields at the height of tick season! lol
-Mike
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Check out that DIY camera strap!! She made it herself!
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Yes, the image on the left was shot wide open, too, focused on infinity and with a very fast shutter speed. There was some vignetting, but that is easy to correct in Lightroom.
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