PHOTOGRAPHY EXPOSED
by John Peters A.R.P.S.
HARD WORK
Nobody is very keen to mention 'hard work'. Photography is like most other things: life, marriage, your job, relationships, almost everything. If you want a degree of success at photography, you must be prepared to work hard.
TOP TIP Buy a good gadget bag, you always need to carry more gear. I used to walk around with 22 Kilograms of gear, not quite SAS weight, but a good range of gear.
TOP TIP I made a light-weight reflector from a plastic bin-bag. One side had aluminium foil glued on with spray-mount, the other side was left as black-plastic. The black-plastic side formed a nice background, or served as a waterproof sheet for my gadget bag when laid on the ground. The side covered in foil served as a nice light reflector in 'the field'. The reflector folded up, was light to carry, and was easily stored in my gadget bag.
Work hard, know the sport. Pre-focus on where you think the action will be. Work hard, move to a good position, if something has eyes, focus on them. Pre-adjust your shutter-speed, aperture and ISO, learn to see life through your camera. The Scottish Number 1 (at the time) in action. Including the shuttle adds to the overall effectiveness of the shot.
Work hard. Exposing for the 'land' leads to a washed-out sky. Work hard, replace the sky, cut out around the tractor shape. A 'combo' winner. If competing, be prepared to edit and work hard. If you don't like computers and editing, you are limiting your chances of success.
Work hard. I had to trek a fair distance with my gadget bag to get this shot. Duddo stones are located near Berwick, about 4 miles from the Scottish Border. Any experienced photographer knows that the success of a shot often boils down to lighting and location (or subject) and the secret of this shot relies on a good sky and capturing all of the stones in one shot. No, this is not a combo, the sky is real but HDR was used with some lightening of the foreground. Humping several lenses around paid off, as I was able to use my wideangle zoom lense to good effect, with a tripod and cable release of course. Sometimes that extra hard work pays off. I visited Duddo Stones three times before I encountered a good sky. If a shot has potential, re-visit on a different time of the day or year.