This website is loaded with useful tips on photography that will help you get familiar with your camera settings. You will learn how to take good pictures and how to photograph like a pro using our photography tips.
There are many reasons why Photoshop has so far managed to hold its ground as the undisputed king of the image processing world. One of the primary reasons is that it keeps evolving every year, as it has for thirty-one years. It stays up to date in two main ways. First, it improves upon existing features like selection and healing tools. And second, it keeps coming out with new features every year or two. One of the key new features this year – and also one of the most anticipated – is a sky replacement option. Let me demonstrate in this article how to use the new sky replacement feature and how effective it is. Photography Life
Back home from the Tokyo Games! First off, I want to thank all who responded here on blog, or Instagram, FB, Twitter to the postings, pictures and ramblings from Japan. It was enormously encouraging to hear questions, interest and a few attaboys along the way. It proved to be a wonderful source of energy to power through the humid slog of twenty hour days at these past summer Games. Many thanks!
Lots of questions! And I’ll continue to gather those and answer as time goes on. One of the foremost sets of questions involved, naturally, gear. So, here we go with “What’s in the bag?”
My hotel room was super tiny, so the only “work surface” was my bed, really. Every morning, I’d figure out what I’d carry, relative to what venue I would be going to. Positions, and the “newsiness” of the day dictated how heavy to travel. When I went to seriously remote locations, or went to a sport just to photograph it for the excitement of what might be there, I could travel a bit on the light side, i.e., cameras and lenses. But when Simone Biles was competing, or a major athletics final was in the offing, the computer, card readers, power cord, and external drive would all bundle into my copious Gitzo backpack, which can hold a ton. Those were long days in the heat–40 to 50+ pounds on my back and shoulders. Long nights as well, downloading, editing and shipping straight from the venue.
On the bed, in something of an order, are four Nikon D6 cameras, one Z 6II and one Z 7II.
S series lenses for Z cameras are the 70-200,14-24 and 24-70, all f/2.8.
And, one non-camera/lens component that was absolutely essential. A monopod. I’ve sworn by Gitzo tripods and monopods for over thirty years, and this Olympics was no different. I had two Gitzo monopods I rotated, day to day.
Do I own all that stuff on my hotel bed? No! At big events like an Olympics, pro photographers are supported by the camera manufacturers who have camera depots at the press center. I’ve been a member of Nikon Professional Services for about 40 years or so, and they are indispensable to the mission at hand. Incredibly hard working and supportive, they make so many things possible for the pro. On the spot repairs, clean and checks, tech advice, and of course, loaner gear. I literally would have very few pictures to show for my time in Tokyo without the help of NPS.
Not all of it goes out with you, of course. You try to go by the maps of the venue positions that are made available for photographers. Lens throws are different for FOP (field of play) positions, than of course, spots up and away in the stands.
The above map was for fencing, and the pic above is at a zoom throw of 260mm. For boxing, given COVID, there was a very tight pool of photogs who could be ringside. Shot the below from a distance, with a 400mm.
Ammar Riad Abduljabbar (in red) from Germany beat Jose Maria Luca Jaimes (in blue) from Peru in men’s heavyweight Round of 16 boxing prelims during the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.
Day to day strategies. Is it worth it to risk really big glass and thus miss some context? Or is a zoom called for? Not as tight, but flexibility of viewpoint might be the order of the day. Two telephotos, one on a monopod, one hand held? My bed became a chess board as I planned each day, often at 4-5am. Also on the bed: My credential, tickets to high demand events, like athletics, test tube for the regular spit tests, press center locker key, taxi vouchers, Lysol wipes and business cards. Not seen is the ever present Advil, and, on outdoor days, floppy bucket hat, and sun block. Also spare cards, spare batteries.
The days started on a bus, prior to sunrise, generally. Mask on for the next twenty hours! Off to the venues.
And, given the boatload of gear on the bed up top, one might think it overkill. Used everything, except the 300 f2.8. That one never came along. But all the other stuff played a role, from an 800mm….
Most of the time, when you see a good photo, you’ll get a sense that the photographer took it deliberately. But how can you tell that? What subtle things about the photo make it appear deliberate rather than random? That’s what I’ll cover today. Photography Life
I just realized that I’ve been doing photography seriously for ten years (plus some change). So, I’d like to take this chance to look back and share ten of the most important things I’ve learned along the way, in chronological order. Photography Life
Rio de Janeiro. 8/15/16. Hurdles. 800mm lens, D5. Rain.
The life of a photographer is just odd, sometimes. I love the reach of the 800, I hate trying to drag it onto an Olympic bus. Toting that thing around, about halfway through the day, I start channeling quotes from Forest Gump. “Are you crazy, or just plain stupid?”
Wouldn’t have given a thought to history repeating itself here in Tokyo. I set out to find a spot where I could effectively shoot the 400m hurdles, and still grab the high jump, and saw a nice angle on the staggered hurdles, which lent itself to the compression of that lens. I settled in.
Sydney McLaughlin and Anna Ryzhykova in the women’s 400m hurdles semi-final 2 during Tokyo 2020 – ZUMA PRESS
Tokyo. 8/02/21. Hurdles. 800mm lens. D6. Rain.
Unparalleled hurdler Sydney McLaughlin was up in the heats, and I waited on her to take to the air, during what was a pretty light rainfall that had started.
But then Anna Cockrell came round, another preeminent American runner, and it started raining heavier. And then it lightened again. I have tremendous respect for these athletes and how hard it is to do what they do. I wanted everything to go well for the runners out there on the track, who couldn’t have appreciated the conditions. But, I have to admit, I was rooting for heavy rain. Photographers. We’re perverse, at least occasionally. I ask forgiveness for all of us. Anyway, I got my wish. Hard rain, charging runners.
Women’s 400m hurdle semi-finals during Tokyo 2020 – ZUMA PRESS
Using a small group of AF points here, to slide the focus past the lead runner, Sara Slott Petersen of Denmark. (Remarkable runner, sadly, she got tripped up in the rain and did not finish.)
All was not smooth for me at camera. I goofed big time on a run I should have had. I had teed up fine on Dalilah Muhammad and was pairing with her nicely, but the lens, monopod based, got away from me. Too much momentum left to right and I got ahead of the runner and couldn’t recover. My bad.
