My Bio, a Throwback in Time (Part 1)

Ever since the post "I Am a Photographer" featured back in June (see here), I have been wanting to give a brief little rundown of all the many types of cameras I have used over the years. This will be to make a point for one...and two, I simply want to show you what is 'behind the scenes' of this blog.

Many people think that you have to own the most up-to-date camera equipment on the planet to make beautiful photos. As if to be called a photographer, they first have to spend thousands of dollars. On the contrary, you don't have to have a $5000 Canon DSLR camera with a $900 lens just to dip your toe the photography pool. 

No. All you need to have is the will to walk outside and capture the most beautiful colors known to man on a Fall day...and some sort of camera. That's all you need to start.

Having said that, here are a few of the cameras I have had over my lifetime. As you will see, most are not "all that".

Image not mine, but courtesy of wikipedia.com

The first camera I ever remember playing around with was the Kodak Instamatic, similar to the one pictured here. (I had to be no more than 5 years old.) It was an old camera passed down from my great grandmother. It took an easy-to-load 126 film cartridge. The neatest thing was the "flashcube" (not pictured here). You took a picture, and when you advanced to the next frame, the flashcube would rotate. Four flashes per cube, then you threw it away. How neat! Although wasteful, it was very innovative back in the 60's when they came out. 


 

Image not mine, but courtesy of wikipedia.com

The next camera that I had was a Kodak disc camera that was passed down to me from my aunt back in the early 1980's when I was 7 or 8 years old. This camera used the old VR format disk film in the flat cartridge. Each held 15 exposures. Not very glamorous but I loved it. It was flat, and I could stick it in my back pocket and carry it anywhere. This was the beginning for me I do believe.

Image not mine, courtesy of flickr.com/photos/mech_for_i/

Skipping ahead a bit to my last film point-and-shoot camera...shown here is the Kodak Advantix T550 camera. It uses the 35mm-like APS film cartridge that pops in from the bottom. I got this one new back in the late 90s and still have it. It takes awesome pictures for a little point-and-shoot, (due to the larger film size that mimicks 35mm) and is completely automatic. It's a nice little backup camera to your backup camera (did you follow that?).

50mm, ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/250th of a sec, strobe 1/128th pwr

This is the Pentax P30. It is a 35mm SLR, fully manual, even down to the focusing. The only thing you can set to automatic is the shutter speed, that's it. It's basic and beautiful. I have two lenses for it along with a flash that can be attached to the hot shoe. I received it as a birthday gift from my parents on my 12th birthday. I've got it still and, in fact, this the actual camera shown here. 

This is the camera that made me realize that I had an interest deep down inside that was a little different than my friends at the time. This was a flame that started to grow into a hobby.

And with that, we'll end part one of my bio. These are the film cameras that started it all for me. Next time I'll touch on some the digital cameras that I have been fortunate enough to call my own.

Here's something I want you to take away from this... You don't have to have all kinds of sophisticated gear to dabble in photography. All you need is some type of camera to START. You can always add gear later.

It's been a nice little journey for me so far...and it all started with a Instamatic camera passed down from my great grandmother. Hope you enjoyed this little throwback in time.

Thanks for reading and happy shooting!

Brant

(Like it here? Resister your email for automatic updates up at the top. Also, pass the blog on to your friends using the Tweet and Facebook buttons.)

Shooting In Morning Sun

50mm, ISO 200, f/8, 1/250th, strobe 1/32 pwr

Summarizing today's post: Leveraging the sun's light, early morning outdoor photography, & off-camera lighting.

Let's spend a little more time with the idea of shooting outdoors. When it comes to photography, subtle changes in the time of day and weather conditions means you have to completely adjust how you think. I am constantly thinking--even when I don't have my camera with me--of how I would capture an image if I run across something neat as I go about my day. Thinking...how would I have to light this? Or...Is there enough ambient light? Or...How would I have to adjust the settings on my camera to adapt to this situation. Or...just name it.

So having said that, I wanted to devote one more post to shooting outdoors before moving on (especially since we have darn near 16 hours worth of daylight this time of year). We have touched on shooting in the evening just after sunset (see the post here), and also shooting in full-on sun midday (see here). 

So now what's left? Shooting in the early morning just after sunrise (you could also apply these principles to late day photography just before the sun sets). 

You might think that there's not much difference between shooting at 8am versus 11am, but try it...you'll soon find out.

Now, let me divert for just a minute...

Everyone has their best times of the day when they seem to think or work better. Some folks are morning people, others are night owls. I have known people (when I was in college especially) who can stay up til 3 and 4am consistently because that's when they can get the most done. That's never been me. I have always been a morning person. If I have it my way, I'll get up at 5am everyday because that's when I can think the most clearly and can be the most productive. 

50mm, ISO 200, f/8, 1/250th, strobe 1/32 pwr

Being that I am up every morning before the sun comes up, I can look outside my patio window and see the sun as it moves over the treeline. I decided one morning a couple weeks ago to try and get a few shots of Spooky (yes again...she's aspiring model I do believe) when I saw it was going to be a clear day (no clouds to hinder the sun). What a great opportunity, I thought, to show you guys how to take advantage of this special time of day.


To take advantage of such a wonderful lighting scenario, you have to change your way of thinking as compared to the last post (when taking photos in full-on sun). I can't help to think of the sun as my enemy when it's blaring down at me on a cloudless day...and I am constantly trying to 'tone it down' or control it when forced to take photos under it's bright rays.

But when the sun is low on the horizon--such as in early morning--it's no longer is your "enemy". It actually becomes your ally, your friend. No longer are you trying to shield its blaring rays. On the contrary, you can use them to your advantage. It's another way to leverage light.

So here's an example of how I (as in my last post) leveraged my available light. 

On that morning, when I saw the morning sun just peaking over the treeline, and I saw that Spooky was perched on table outside all nice and pretty...well, I took advantage of the opportunity. [By the way...you have to always be ready when the time comes to get those great shots, they rarely fall in your lap.] 

After adjusting my camera settings to expose for the sunlight, I found my sweet spot at ISO 200, 1/250th of a second, and an aperture of f/8. I wanted to underexpose the frame just a bit before adding my own light...and f/8 was perfect. Then I stuck my strobe on a little lightstand over to the right and set it a 1/4 power. Way too bright. After taking a couple of test shots, I discovered that 1/32 was all I needed. Afterall, the strobe was only about 3 feet from her. 

After I was done playing and setting up, Spooky proceeded to walk all over the patio table and pose like she was on a fashion show catwalk. I kid you not, she was eating it up! Such a great opportunity. The sun turned out to give a nice little highlight--also called a rim light--to her right side (especially shown in the top photograph), while my added light lit up her left side. 

The photos turned out really well, I was quite pleased. I wanted to share...I hope you enjoyed.

If you are a night owl, I have a challenge for you...go to bed early one night so you can hop up early the next morning. Take a short walk around your neighborhood or just sit outside and drink your coffee. Have your camera with you (of course!)...you'll be amazed at the things out there just waiting to be captured.

Thanks for reading!

Brant

Wow, look at you...you made it all the way thru my post! I really appreciate you as a reader. Don't forget to register your email for automatic updates up at the top. Please pass this blog post on to your friends using the Tweet, Facebook, and Google+ buttons. That would be awesome. 

 

Make The Sun Work For You

44mm, ISO 200, f/11, 1/250th of a sec, full sunlight w/ added strobe

Summarizing today's post: Leveraging the sun in outdoor photography, off-camera lighting, & spending time with family.

Let's talk about leveraging light a little more. I have touched on this previously, now we are going to expand on it a bit.

Everyone is off to the beach this time of the year, vacationing with family or just making a day trip (if you are so blessed to live that close by!). I lived about an hour from the Outer Banks in North Carolina up until I was 19 years old, so I had the privilege of spending many a day on the beaches of Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills. Even though I live much further away now, we still make it a point to go down there once a year around this time. It is a wonderful time together as family. Now...where there's family, there's pictures. That just goes without saying!

So I thought it would be appropriate to talk a little about taking photos in full sunlight. By far--in my opinion--the best outdoor photos will be in the shade, out of the harsh direct sun (see this post for the 'how to' on taking great photos outside while in shaded areas). However, I understand that there's not much shade on the shore at 12 noon...so today I'm going to give you some pointers on how to take some good pictures with the sun right above you.

There is a reason I introduced the idea of using multiple strobes (in my self-portrait, shown here) before talking about taking photos in full sun. The reason is that I want you to think of the sun as just another strobe...albeit a very powerful one! A strobe (flash) and the sun are both light sources. Now, we are going to make the sun work for us, and leverage its light. 

The idea is to balance the sun's light with your other light sources. 

First I am going to show you an example using the equipment I love to use, my Nikon DSLR camera along with one single off-camera strobe. Then I will touch on how you can achieve similar results if you are using a point-and-shoot camera or even a smartphone.

Look at the photograph above...this is a prime example of shooting in direct sunlight. 

We had just finished a nice lunch with the family last weekend to celebrate my wife's birthday (happy birthday my Pinky!) and decided to move outside to take few photos before leaving. I figured what an awesome opportunity to take some professional-looking family photographs. There was a problem tho...no shade nearby. The sun was almost right above us. Yuck. But I made the best of it.

Before everyone had made it outside the restaurant, I had scoped out a nice place on the front patio for us to stand. The patio had (very) transparent fiberglass sheeting covering a small seating area which diffused the sunlight just enough to tone down the direct rays of the sun. I took a couple of test shots for proper exposure. I maxed out my shutter speed to 1/250th of a second (to my camera's sync speed at the time...you can only go just but so high/fast on shutter speed when using flash or weird things will happen). Then I had to close down my aperture to f/11. ISO set to 200. 

Now I was able to control the bright sun without washing out my frame. Now comes the addition of my strobe. Why even add flash you might say? Because without it, our faces would have had very dark shadows on them, due to the harsh sunlight. So to balance this contrast, I had to add some of my own light. And after shooting (and deleting) several frames, I found the sweet spot of setting my strobe to 1/2 power. That's a lot of power from a strobe that's only 6-7 feet from your subject, but that's what you have to do to compete with full-on sun.

Now how was this photo taken being I was in the picture? Funny you should ask. My mom took it! She gets tired of me taking the pictures all the time, so she asked me what to do with my big ole bulky camera, then I jumped in so I could get a photo with the birthday girl. My 6 year old son held the strobe over to Mom's left side and aimed it right at us while she snapped away. Not bad, huh? They did great :)

Here are some more shots I took after I wrestled my camera away from Mom.

Here's one of Pinky with my parents:

shot at 44mm, ISO 200, f/11, 1/250th of a sec, full sunlight, strobe added at camera left at 1/2 power

One with Gavin jumping into the picture (he just has to be in the middle of everything!):

Full-on sunlight, with added strobe

And lastly, one of Little Bud himself just messing around:

Another illustration where I am mixing full sunlight with artificial light

We had such a good time that day, as you can probably tell by looking at the photographs. Precious memories. I am so glad I remembered to take my camera--happiness extended as a result.

Now I did promise to show you how to achieve similar results as these with a point-and-shoot camera or smartphone. So here it is...you have two choices. The first option, you can cheat and turn on your on-camera flash (manually). This will at least put a little highlight on your subject's face to reduce contrast caused by the sun. Take a shot a see if the flash is too much. If so, try this...hold a very thin white napkin about an inch away from your flash. This will soften the light. Adjust as necessary. You may have to move closer to the person you are shooting.

The second option is a little more creative. If you have a friend with you (who you are not taking a photo of at the time), put them to work. Let's say you are at the beach this weekend and you want to take a picture of little Johnny building a sandcastle. The sun is overhead and to his right. Have your friend kneel down on his left side and hold a opened-up white towel (by the corners so it will hang straight down) just outside of the camera's view. Turn off your camera's flash and shoot away! The sun's light will reflect off the towel and the shadows on Johnny's face will be softened. Try it, you'll be surprised of the photographer in you.

Good stuff, go have fun.

Thanks for reading!

Brant

Wow, look at you...you made it all the way thru my post! I really appreciate you as a reader. Don't forget to register your email for automatic updates up at the top. Please pass this blog post on to your friends using the Tweet, Facebook, and Google+ buttons. That would be awesome.

Camerawith!

170mm, ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/25th of sec, ambient light only

I'm starting a challenge here, and it's called Camerawith! 

At its very core, it means to always have your camera nearby, whenever possible. In other words, carry your camera with you! What good is it if you leave it at home? You can have a $5,000 Nikon camera, and if you don't have it when an awesome picture is just waiting to be captured, what good is it? I'd rather have a $200 camera in my pocket in that case.

Everyone has a cell phone with a camera nowadays. Granted, there are some out there that are better than others...but for the most part, the quality of the pictures they produce cannot compare with those of a basic point and shoot camera with a zoom lens. So when I say, 'Take Your Camera With You', you can't cheat and say..."well, I've got my phone!". Save your smartphone for the selfies (click here if don't know what a selfie is) and birthday party snapshots. 

I use my smartphone camera all the time for snapshots, and it's great for just that...snapshots. It's wonderfully quick for taking a quick shot of our little boy, my wife, or one of the pussy cats and then posting it on Twitter or Facebook. I mean, it couldn't be easier right?

But Camerawith! is referring to something deeper. Everyone has an artistic side of themselves, and for you and I (I say you because you are reading a blog about photography) our outlet/release for our artistic ability is thru taking photographs. Photography is an art at its very core, and this challenge is designed to get you open your eyes and see the world around you. Then, when you happen across something outside of the ordinary, spend that extra few minutes to get out your camera and capture that moment. 

And this part is KEY...when you have your camera with you, you will begin to look for and seek out things you can capture that on an ordinary day you would walk right past. It's like when you got a Nerf gun as kid, what do you do?? You look for things to shoot at. Same thing. Simply by taking your camera with you, your eyes will open up. How neat.

Do you know what this challenge will do for you if you take it on? It will make you a happier person. It will UP your level of satisfaction...that feel-good-but-don't-know-why feeling. With all the craziness in the world and negative things in this life that tries to consume every bit of your time, we all need a little intentional positive reinforcement. Essentially, all I'm encouraging you to do is "stop and smell the roses"...but instead of smell them, photograph them. If you will take just 5 minutes out of your day (that's less than half of one percent by the way) and photograph something that stands out to you, it will force your level of contentment to rise...I promise you. Your life-appreciation will begin to increase. 

So, which is the best camera to 'take with you'? That's easy. The one you will use! If you are not comfortable with a DSLR (the type of camera with interchangeable lenses), the next best thing is a point-and-shoot camera that you can put in manual mode (click here for my post on shooting in manual mode...It'll open the door to a whole new world). But seriously...the best camera is the one you will actually use. (I will touch on a few examples of some of the more inexpensive cameras I recommend in a later post if you are interested.)

Note the little squirrel up top. He is just helping himself to some bird seed, shamelessly. It tears my father up when he looks outside and finds the squirrels stealing the birds' food that he takes time to put out every day. It makes me laugh to look at this photograph. It brings me to a happy place in my mind and makes me focus on my parent's home more than the actual squirrel. If I had of forgotten my camera that day when we went to go see them, I wouldn't have captured this image and this brief little nugget of happiness would have escaped. 

Camerawith! ...Take Your Camera With You. Accept the challenge and go out and shoot something meaningful to you today.

Thanks for reading!

Brant
 

Make Ambient Light Work For You

50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/60th sec, ambient & artificial lighting

Summarizing today's post: Off-camera lighting, balancing ambient (available) light with flash, & pet photography.

Now that I've touched a bit on what it is I am doing here -- my purpose so-to-speak -- let's get back to lighting.

Using two off-camera strobes is my personal lighting of choice, as in my self-portrait (shown here). One to camera left, the other to camera right. The key light is the muscle -- illuminating the scene with the majority of the usable light -- and the fill light is there softening the shadows cast by my key light.

I've tried in the past to give a little encouragement to those who do not have but one off-camera flash at this point in their collection. Gear is expensive (I realize) and I want you to learn everything you can about one piece of equipment before you go spend more on something else. As I have said before...I could keep myself busy for a long, long time with just a single strobe.

Now, as promised, I will demonstrate how you can make that one little strobe go further. It's all about using what is already there...good quality ambient light. And striking a balance. It's all about balancing light...or leveraging light. (We'll talk a bit more on leveraging light next time.)

What you have seen me do the most in past posts -- when it comes to adding my own light with strobes -- is to "cut out" or "turn off" all ambient light before doing anything else. I do this by working indoors and setting my camera to a fast shutter speed (most often to 1/250th of a second). 

Why do this? Two reasons. To make a point with the lighting set up I am demonstrating at the time (the main reason), and two, most indoor lighting stinks when it comes to using it in your photograph. The light is either too yellow (projected by incandescent lamps) or too green (thrown off my fluorescent lights). So off with you! (I think its so neat that you can "turn off" the light you don't need without going over to the light switch...but that's just me.)

Now we are going to switch gears and move outdoors. True, you can take some good shots indoors using only one strobe, but in my opinion you get the best results by mixing controlled artificial light with available light. And the best available (ambient) light is found outside...in the shade. 

So let's go, grab your camera and your one strobe and find yourself a nice shady spot outside. The best time of day to shoot in our case is going to be right after sunset, but as long as you can find an abundance of shade (say under the covering of some thick trees) you can do this even during the middle of the day. We are looking for that pure "white light" to use as our ambient, natural light.

I am using Spooky as my subject today. Such a sweet pussy cat...she's all into what ever I am doing outside at the time. You saw the finished product up above, but let's see where I started first.

shot at 50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/80th of a sec, natural outdoor lighting just after sunset

After adjusting my camera settings for the correct exposure using only ambient light (which always takes a few practice shots before I even focus on the subject) I was ready to go. Spooky was actually ready before I was, she had plopped down in a perfect pose. This first shot of her stretched out on the table was using only natural available light. OKAY, but her face is underexposed...a little too dark. 

Let's bring out my little SB-800 strobe and lighten her a little.

shot at 50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/60th of a sec, strobe to camera left added, set at 1/128th power

Now, she is really getting into it! Flipped all upside down posing like a pro. My goodness. I set up my strobe to camera left and powered it down to the lowest possible setting, 1/128th. It doesn't take much to throw a little highlight onto her in this relatively low light condition (and with the strobe set up only 4 feet away). I increased the background (ambient light) just a tad by setting my shutter speed slightly slower in this photo.

Now I'm satisfied. All the colors of her coat are shining bright. Beautiful.

This is balancing light. This is how to make ambient/natural light work for you. Go try it for yourself and have some fun.

Thanks for reading!

Brant



Wow, look at you...you made it all the way thru my post! I really appreciate you as a reader. Don't forget to register your email for automatic updates up at the top. Please pass this blog post on to your friends using the Tweet, Facebook, and Google+ buttons. That would be awesome.

I Am a Photographer

Summarizing today's post: Differentiating between different types of photographers, the purpose of this blog, & encouraging you to blow the dust off your camera!

shot at 82mm, ISO 200, 1/1250 sec, f/5, shallow depth of field demonstrated

I call myself a photographer, but what does that mean exactly?

For you, it may mean you are a 9-5 professional portrait photographer who works inside of a studio all day with your name, "Joe's Photography", on the front glass window. You are a true professional. Most often in this case, this business has been established for years, maybe spanning a couple generations.

For another person, being a photographer may mean they are a banker during daytime working hours, then he or she has a little side job doing freelance photojournalist gigs in the evenings. Still a professional, just at it part-time. 

And then there's the guy who just loves to take photos with the camera on his smartphone or pocket camera. A professional? No. A photographer? You bet!

They are all photographers, really. But the degree of "professional" would relate back to a couple of things. Namely...is this what they do for a living? Are they so good at what they do that they get paid for it? 

But other than getting paid for their services (or not), what sets these 3 fellows apart from one another? So many things. And are there other types/categories of photographers? You bet there are. So many in fact, it's difficult to name them all (if not impossible).

I have been struggling for awhile now, trying to decide on what "kind" of photographer I really am. More specifically...I am trying to hone a clear path for this blog. What is it I actually do and what is my purpose? In what place do I fall within the 3 examples of photographers above? The answer to that is, that I don't. I don't fall nicely into any one of those categories. I (like many others) fall into a category all my own.

I am a self-taught, no-official-training, amateur photographer. When I got my first Pentax 35mm camera at age 12, something happened...a spark started to grow. Now, 25 years later (and much more equipment later) I am still trying to define exactly what I want to do with this skill of mine. It's a work in progress to say the least. 

I am passionate about capturing images around me in this world. I am passionate about creative lighting. And I am passionate about stopping time for at least a moment, and savoring it. (The only way to stop time in its tracks is with a photograph...ever thought about that?)

Lastly, I want to help others (thru coaching) develop their love for photography and let their creativity blossom. That's it, that's my purpose. That's why I have created this blog. [you can also see my Welcome page here.] 

My target audience would be the person who has this awesome camera sitting in his/her closet, but doesn't know how to use it to its full potential. They may take it out for the kids' birthday parties and vacation, but that's it. All that's needed is the desire to learn more about that camera. I want to teach this person how to "stop time" in ways that makes the average person say WOW!

I am a photographer, who are you?

Thanks for reading!

Brant

Wow, look at you...you made it all the way thru my post! I really appreciate you as a reader. Don't forget to register your email for automatic updates up at the top. Please pass this blog post on to your friends using the Tweet, Facebook, and Google+ buttons. That would be awesome.

Example of a Portrait

Summarizing today's post: Traditional portraiture, an example of a portrait, & key vs. fill lighting.

shot at 50mm, ISO 400, f/3.2, 1/250th, 2 strobes at 1/16 pwr

After careful examination and spending countless hours weeding thru all the many, many applications from models all over the world...I have made my final choice. The model I intend to use today as my guinea pig when showing you a classic example of a portrait will be...ME. (My original choice -- my younger brother -- didn't work out, but I'll hog-tie him down later.)

Oh well! You'll just have to suffer thru it (and maybe have a little chuckle at the same time.) Yes, this will be a self-portrait. And as such, a little more challenging because it is always easier (and preferable in my opinion) to shoot someone else rather than shooting yourself self-portrait style. It's time-consuming, and well...I just like being behind the camera like I have said before. But necessity rules the day, so you got me to look at right now.

Okay, remember the last post? (click here) I will be using the same lighting set up shown there as I will in my real-life example today. Here's the details:

I simply put one of my SB-800 flash guns on a stand about 4 feet from myself (this would be to camera-left) at a 45 degree angle. This is my key/main light. I shot it thru a white umbrella to soften the light a bit. (Most often, soft light is the order-of-the-day when it comes to portrait-style photographs.) I then set up another SB-800 off to the other side -- to camera-right -- but set back an additional 3 feet...so we'll say 7 feet from me. This is my fill light.

Once my strobes were all set up, I put my camera on a tripod and aimed it right where I would be standing. I made several test shots until I achieved proper exposure, which was as follows: 

The ISO sensitivity was set at 400 when powering the camera up, so I left it right there and worked with it. I wanted to fuzz my background a bit so I swapped to a "faster" lens that allowed me to set my aperture to a very wide f/3.2. 1/250th of a second shutter speed was an order to cut out all ambient light. Once all set, I focused on the strobes' power setting. 1/4th power...total wash out, 1/8th...better, 1/12th...still to bright. Then I found the perfect setting...1/16th power for the both of them. Slightly overexposed, but that's what I'm aiming for.

Now, you may laugh at how I achieved proper focus, but you have to improvise at times. Being that my aperture was set so wide, the "fuzz factor" (I call it) was large...meaning that only a very small place between the camera and the backdrop was perfectly in focus. That's where my eyes should be. I can't be in front of the camera and focus it from behind the camera it at the same time (unless I want to dig out my remote "clicker", which I didn't). So...I found one of the pussycat's toys laying around that I could attach to the top of the backdrop and let it's little streamer (that the cats love to bat around when you wave it in front of them) hang down right where my forehead would be. Now I had a focal point. [How 'bout that? Those cats are worth something after all.]

After using the self-timer feature and shooting for about 10 minutes, I finally got what I wanted. I picked the photograph where I wasn't looking just but so dang goofy and went with it.

shot at 50mm, ISO 400, f/3.2, 1/250th, key light only

To help illustrate the difference of using fill lighting vs. not using it, I have included another photo using only the key light. Can you tell the difference? Scroll back and forth and see if you can tell what shadows are present this last picture in comparison to the final product up above. 

Look at the left side of my face (the right side of the photograph). Those are the shadows that that the fill light corrects...or fills, just as the name suggests. Pretty neat right?

Okay, enough already. Now you've seen me on my own blog. Next time I hope I can find someone a little better-looking to be my guinea pig.

Play around a bit and see if you can hold a family member still long enough to practice your portrait shots. It really is a very practical skill that you need to master, because it's use bleeds into many other areas of photography that you will see pretty consistently.

Thanks for reading!

Brant

 Wow, look at you...you made it all the way thru my post! I really appreciate you as a reader. Don't forget to register your email for automatic updates up at the top. Please pass this blog post on to your friends using the Tweet, Facebook, and Google+ buttons. That would be awesome.