Horse Eyeball Photos

Everyone likes to take photos of horse eyeballs and we are no exception. They are fun, challenging and rewarding!




Here are just a few important things to know about taking effective horse eyeball photos.

• Details matter - make sure the eyeball is clean, this means no goop or tears. No burs in the forelock or mane. Watch out for misplaced hairs. No dust or mud on horse.
  
• No halters or bridles - keep the photo clean and simple.
• Shoot in good light - Take photos in early morning or late afternoon when the light is low and soft
• Focus needs to be sharp and in the right place, the eyeball has to be sharp.
  
• No dead center compositions, these are usually static and boring.
• Watch your backgrounds, shooting at an angle that includes their mane and/or neck always works great.
  
• Shoot at eye level, if you are shooting a pony, get down on your knees if you have to.

http://www.learntotakephotos.com/horse_eyes.php

Nikon's Buffer Expansion

One of the most annoying things about digital cameras is the buffer. If you shoot in raw and shoot fast moving subjects or quickly changing scenes then you are probably very familiar with that moment when your shutter simply won't fire. You wonder what the problem is and stare in disbelief at your camera as it slowly and methodically writes to the card. In the meantime, you have missed at least 1000 great shots. This can be incredibly frustrating!

The scene plays out over and over for us with the horses. Say you are at the race track. The action is fairly predictable and you know you'll be shooting as the horses come thundering down the track towards you filling your frame. You get all excited, do your thing and take a bunch of photos. The next thing you know one of the horses has lost its rider but your buffer is full, you are done, the loose horse is running wild and your camera is writing to the card. After awhile you'll get to fire one more frame.

Or, say you are out in the pasture and the horses get stirred up and start trotting around. You get all excited and take a bunch of photos. The next thing you know their tails are up over their backs and they are running like mad. You click off three shots and your buffer is full, you are done, the horses are running and your camera is writing to the card, again. You are ready to rip your hair out, again. But, it doesn't have to be that way.

A good buffer is one of the best reasons I know to buy a pro camera body. We shoot lots of horses and sports action and the buffer is a crucial limitation on shooting.

Here are the number of shots that can be stored in the buffer during continuous shooting for some of the popular Nikon bodies.

D5000 or D90 - 7 raw
D300, D700 and D3 - 17 raw

So, you can see you get more than twice the buffer capacity with one of the pro bodies. That is a great start! But, you also get an increase in the frames per second which can plug the buffer full in a couple seconds or less.

There is an answer! Its the "buffer upgrade" offered by Nikon Service. For $500 they will add memory to your buffer and increase the capacity of your D3 to 38 uncompressed raw files.

This will change your life! And, the way you shoot. You won't be taking the camera from your eye. You can keep right on shooting and shooting.

Go to D3 Digital-SLR Camera Buffer Memory Expansion Service to find out how to get the service done. Yes, its expensive but not really compared to your investment in equipment and your time and effort.

Having a great time with art photography

We recently completed the first session of our Artistic Interpretations course and we had a great time. The students were a lively and creative group. The exchange of ideas and sharing of vision was truly inspiring. Christina and I found ourselves out most every day shooting new work and trying out ideas for composite images.

This is one of the best things about teaching for us. As we work to put our knowledge into words and ideas we can share with others they become fully formed and crystallized. There are lots of ah ha! moments and new inspirations.

The whole idea of Artistic Interpretations is to experiment with abstraction and impressionism. It is a great way to rekindle your creativity and find some new ideas that light your fire. We played around with slow shutter speeds and all kinds of multiple exposures and composite images.

The course served as a springboard for us and we have more ideas for art photography courses. The creative shooting and Photoshop ideas are limitless. We are still enjoying the abstract and are working on new course materials for fall. Can't wait for those colorful autumn leaves this year!

In the spirit of creativity we have a student photo challenge for Enhanced Images going on in August. The upload deadline is August 16. Let's see your stuff!

Looking for a new perspective from a bird's eye view

This week's Photo Challenge theme is "View from Above". Here are a few tips and thoughts for taking photos with a "View from Above"

Go grab your stepladder out of the garage and try a fresh perspective on your usual subjects. Try the kids in the sandbox or maybe the dog chewing a bone in the grass. There are lots of other ways to get a view from above like shooting from a balcony into the street below or out the hayloft door into the barnyard.

Be sure to compose your images carefully. This is your chance to get a perfectly clean, clutter free background like an uninterrupted expanse of green grass or the sparkling water in the swimming pool.

Try to make the overhead perspective meaningful and add interest to your photo. Think about what is unique about it.

You can shoot wide angle or telephoto for these type of shots. Anything goes! It depends how high you are and what your subject is. Here is a fisheye shot of Ohio's Amish country taken from a hot air balloon.

An aperture of f/8 will work well for most photos because everything will be on one focal plane and everything will be in focus.

A note for new students ... these weekly challenges are free and open to all our students at www.learntotakephotos.com. They are a great way to get motivated, share photos and have fun with some friendly competition. Please jump right in. A good way to start is rating the current challenge and taking a look at some past winners. Don't be shy.

Are you seeing a pattern here?

This week's Photo Challenge theme is "Pattern" so we have put together a few tips for shooting photos of patterns.

Visual patterns are things that repeat like stripes, zigzags, and polka-dots. Patterns can be found in nature and man-made objects. For example, zebras and Appaloosa horses have patterned coats. Effective photos of pattern are filled edge to edge with pattern.

You will start seeing patterns everywhere once you start looking for them. Some examples are water drops on your windshield, veins on a leaf, tree bark, ripples on water, a patchwork quilt, wood grain, lines in the sand.

To be effective, your pattern photo should completely fill the frame, edge to edge. If you are going to photograph the pattern on a zebra zoom in until the stripes completely fill the frame.

Pattern photos are usually best when the entire pattern is in focus. Using an aperture like f/8 or f/11 will give you good depth of field and sharpness for a pattern that is all on one plane. Try get a camera angle that puts you parallel to the pattern rather than shooting across it. Patterns frequently become abstracted and that is just great.

Our photo challenges are free and open to all students at www.learntotakephotos.com.

Click here to view recent winners and login to enter your photos in the challenges.

What flowers are blooming at your house?

This week's Photo Challenge theme is "Flowers". The photos can be of a single flower, a group of flowers, cut flowers, flowers in the garden, wildflowers or any kind of photo of flowers.

The Peoples' Choice prize is a $10 Amazon.com Gift card and the Instructors' Choice prize is a $20 Learn to Take Photos coupon. The upload deadline is: 05-10-2009 11:59 pm

Click here for recent winners and to rate and upload for challenges.

Our photo challenges are for our students. If you are not yet a student, why not try a class? We offer free short courses each month for new students. Coupon codes are available on the course detail pages. We have courses starting May 6 and 20th.

Tips for better flower photos

Soft indirect light is best for flowers. You want to avoid bright sun because it creates overly bright highlights and hot spots on your flowers. Try using a diffuser to make the light softer. If you don't have a diffuser you can use a piece of sheer white fabric like a bed sheet for the purpose.

Use your telephoto lens to isolate a single flower. Set your aperture to wide open like f/2.8 or f/4 and zoom out to your longest focal length like 200mm.

Try your wide angle lens for fields of flowers. Set your aperture to f/22 and use a wide focal length like 24mm. Get a very low camera position and focus about 1/3 of the way into the scene. You'll be amazed at the dramatic effect.

Early morning or just after a rain is a great time to shoot flowers in the garden. The light is soft and the flowers have dewdrops.

Window light works great for cut flowers. You can set your flower up in any window without direct sunlight. The most ideal is a north-facing window but any window getting non-direct sunlight will work. Use your tripod for window light setups.

Try a spray bottle to mist your flowers and create your own dew drops if you are setting up a shot.

Happy Shooting!

Christina & Laura

Photo Challenge News & Ideas

Photo challenges are something new for Learn To Take Photos students. The Challenges offer another engaging way for students to share photos and have fun with some friendly competition. All students are invited to participate by uploading and rating photos. There are two prizes for each challenge. One prize is awarded to the Peoples' Choice highest rated photo and the other prize is awarded to the Instructors' Choice photo.

Congratulations to the winner of the most recent challenge. The People and the Instructors agree! It is unanimous, the winner of the Animals Photo Challenge is: Phyllis Burchett with her photo "Cute Kid". Phyllis wins a $20 coupon from Learn To Take Photos and a $10 Gift Card from iTunes!


This week's photo challenge theme is "Sunrise/Sunset". You may submit 3 photos of your choice that suit the theme. The upload deadline is Sunday April 12th 11:59 pm. Please click here to upload your photos.

The "Fill The Frame" challenge is open for rating. Please click here to rate photos. Remember, you must rate at least 50% of the photos for your votes to count. The deadline for rating this challenge is Sunday April 12th 11:59 pm.

Don't forget we have new courses starting Wednesday April 15th. They include:

• Spring Nature and Landscapes
  
• Black Shadow Backgrounds *
  
• Horses in Action *
  
• Beginners Guide to Great Photos
  
• Digital SLR Photography 101
  
• Learn more and sign up now!

We hope students will go out and shoot for the challenges. The best way to become an excellent photographer is to go out and shoot! Here are some ideas and tips for this week’s challenge.

We get lots of misty mornings and passing storms this time of year. These conditions make for very dramatic scenes. A misty morning at sunrise is hard to beat! The only thing that might be more beautiful is sunset after a storm.

Mist and fog simplify the scene by limiting visibility and concealing things in the background. A scene that usually doesn’t work can become beautiful when simplified by fog. Jump in your car and drive around on misty mornings to see things in a whole new way.

Clouds of any kind make for exciting photos. Clouds near the horizon are ideal. They light up and turn beautiful colors at sunrise and sunset. Clouds diffuse the sunlight and soften shadow and contrast.

Silhouettes are a great idea for sunrise/sunset photos, too. There is a world of colorful and dramatic possibilities for silhouettes.

The Golden Hour
The golden hour is the hour right around sunrise and sunset. When the sun is near the horizon the light is very warm in color and very directional. The light and shadows are soft. Those are the magic hours when professional quality shots are made. You will discover a wonderful peace and stillness at those times of day. If you haven’t been out shooting at dawn and dusk you have a real treat coming to you.

Check out www.sunrisesunset.com to find the time of sunrise and sunset in your area. Be sure to get to your location 30 minutes early. There is nothing worse than racing to get somewhere and watching the beautiful light disappear. You have to be there before the light!

When you think sunset is over, stay anyway and wait. After the sun goes over the horizon the sky will light up with color. Sometimes the color and light show will go on for quite awhile after sunset. Stay until all the light is gone.

How to include the sun in your photos
Shooting towards the sun and including it in your image can be very dramatic. But, just putting a big burning sun smack in the middle of your sky is not the best idea because it is going to burn out a big, featureless hole in your picture.

A better way to include the sun is to have it peaking out from behind something. The sun could be just emerging from the clouds, cresting the horizon, behind a tree, etc. You only need a few rays to make a beautiful sunburst.

Put your camera on Aperture Priority at f/8. Fill the frame with your background without including the sun. Pick an area off to the side of the sun and lock the exposure using the AE Lock method for your camera (check your camera manual). Recompose your picture and shoot.

The advantage of using AE Lock is that conditions change very quickly at sunrise and sunset. The light will rise or fall in a matter of short minutes. AE Lock is great for rapidly changing light or static subjects where you can take your time metering, locking and recomposing.

Full Moon April 9th
The moon is full on Thursday April 9th. There will be some great opportunities to shoot compositions that include the full moon rising and setting around that date. Before April 9th the moon will rise before sunset. Wednesday might be the best day to try for a full moon in a sunset sky. You can check the times of moon rise/set on www.sunrisesunset.com too.

New photography tip is available
We have posted a new photography tip about how to get a blurred or soft focus background in your photos. read more

Happy shooting!

Christina and Laura