Yesterday, I joined my aunt and my cousin-in-law for a little hike along a river. I got to practice a little trick for photographing waterfalls – shoot with a longer shutter speed.  Instead of freezing the water, it captures the movement with a smooth, blurred look.  The article says to switch into shutter priority, but I did the same thing in aperture priority, while adjusting the aperture.  Note:  Be sure to use a tripod.  I balanced my camera on a rock for these.

Here’s the same photo at a fast (F4.2, 1/320) and then slow (F29, 1/10) shutter speed.

It was a really easy trick and I was really happy with the result.  Try it out!  Here’s a couple other waterfall shots I captured in the area.

Still though, I said I’d share, so here goes…

Week 1′s lesson was to learn about the dramatic light at sunrise and sunset. I took the same shots at 6AM, 8AM, and 1PM to see how the lighting compared. I was a little rushed so I’m not completely happy with the photos I took, but I was able to identify the golden light hour.  For me, it was around 8AM.

Week 2′s assignment was moody lighting – working with fog, mist, rain, or artificial lighting. After a thorough critique on my first week, I used a tripod and thought about my photo settings this time.  I was very pleased with what I captured.

Week 3′s assignment was about backlighting, including silhouettes, transillumination, and rim lighting. Finding interesting subjects for this one was challenging, but I finally figured it out.

Week 4 was about window light and I think I got my best shot of the class for that week. Thomas graceously volunteered to be my model.  I sat him next to the front window during sunset and pulled a dark curtain behind him.  I got a few shots that I was really happy with.

Overall, I really enjoyed the class. I felt a little rushed trying to find time to go out and shoot, but I learned the lessons taught and picked up a bunch of other good tips. I’m thinking of trying another one of their classes this Summer – maybe child and baby portraits if I can find some volunteer models.  If you’d like to see some of the other shots I took during this 4-week class, I’ve posted them on Flickr:

• Natural Lighting Class (25 photos)

My New Moo Business Cards

Finally, my new Moo Cards arrived. I ordered these about a month and a half ago, but there was a printer error delay. Anyway, I’ve got them now and I think they look great.

The cards have 10 of my favorite photos printed on the fronts, and the back has my email address and website. I was inspired to make these by my blog friends, Leah and Mark. They hand them out when they meet new friends – like when I finally met them in person at a party this last weekend. These will be great to give new friends in Belgium when I want to share my email or web address.

Despite the delay in receiving the cards, I do recommend Moo. It connects directly to your Flickr account and you can easily pick out a variety of photos to be made into business cards. If you’re looking for a way to share your photos on nice quality cards, these turned out really well…and the price was very reasonable.

Sorry there haven’t been many posts recently. We’ve just been trying to get everything packed and see some of our friends before we go. I have a handful of photos still to post, but I really don’t think I’ll get to those until Christmas week.

Gorilla

First of all, the class was wonderful and I highly recommend it. Ron Mayhew taught it through Emory Continuing Education.   The class was geared more toward photographers with digital SLRs, and I mostly used a Sigma 50-500mm on my Nikon D50.

Ostrich

There was a little bit of instruction, but most of the time was spent photographing the animals. What made it different from a regular trip to the zoo is that we got to go behind the scenes to get photos up close.

Orangutan

The day started out with a talk about minimizing the zoo-y (fences, unnatural lines, glass reflection) look in your photos. Next, we had a group tour of the overall zoo. After lunch and some more instruction, we had our close up sessions with the gorillas, orangutans, giraffes, ostriches, and birds.

Eagle Owl

At the beginning, the instructor asked us what single thing we wanted to focus on for the class. I said that I wanted to get a nice portrait of an animal, and I’m happy with a few shots that I captured.  I think the big keys are patience and a telephoto lens.

Gorilla

If you want to see more, I’ve posted the whole set on Flickr:

• On Safari at Zoo Atlanta (34 photos)

Baby Gorilla

Baby Orangutan

Adult Female Orangutan

Adult Male Orangutan

Baby Orangutan

The judge picked the left one from me and the right one from Thomas:

It worked out that we didn’t win, since we just bought the book that was the prize. :) You can see the other 9 finalists and the winner on the Flickr group.