This is geared towards new and intermediate photographers and other photographers who've made photography waaaaay to complicated.

Deep RedDeep Red by Mike Busby's School of Photography

We left early and shot Manito Park a little after 7:00 this morning. I hear advice all the time about shooting on manual and using manual focus for macro. I can't fathom the advice and in my view, it's quite possibly the worst advice I've heard. I bought an expensive camera to work for me, not so that I have to work for it. It's more important for me to be focusing on the moment and not fiddling with the settings. Manual has it's place, but not for general daylight photography and not for beginners. You're doing the same thing as the auto modes, but a thousand times slower, with frequent distractions, and mostly likely getting poorer shots.

So, this was shot on aperture mode and auto-focus. F4.5 @ 1/4000th sec, ISO 400. I intentionally had the ISO up, and by extension the shutter speed, because of shooting between the bright light of the sun and in the dark shadows. This was just a nice mix. Set the camera once, check in here and there, and get the cool shots all day long. I can print this image large at ISO 400 with great quality, but I would have missed it had I been fiddling all morning long.

A pet peeve are "expert" photographers making photography way more complicated than it has to be. If you're new and following the "Manual Mode" advice, and especially if you are frustrated,  I'd ask you to reconsider and focus on Aperture and Shutter priority mode and set the camera to matrix metering. Take the shot - get the shot. If it's off a touch, then adjust exposure compensation and shoot again. I've worked with a ton of cameras over the last year, and every single one of them nail the exposure on Aperture and Shutter. There are certainly times for manual mode and spot metering. But learn the easy 95% first with intent on composition and I absolutely guarantee you that your photography will dramatically improve no matter your skill level.

Mike

Mike Busby Photography

Mike Busbys School of Photography

I want to shoot the stars, but the moon is getting bright again and we're at the beginning of fire season. So, time to move on back to the small world and macro photography. For what it's worth, when I make a shift to photograph a new area, I do so with specific intent to improve. So, for macros, the intent is to get the subject as large as I can on the sensor while maintaining sharpness on the face and eye. 

"Close Up" by Mike Busby's School of Photography"Close Up" 1.750th sec at F8, ISO 400

This was shot at 1/750th sec at F8, ISO 400 with the Tamron 180mm Macro lens.

Mike

Mike Busby's School of Photography

Member: Professional Photographers of Washington - PPW.ORG

              Professional Photographers of America - PPA.COM

We ran the Macro class at Manito Park today and it was fantastic. It will be run again. I enjoy helping people learn new things, but there are often little frustrations that follow people, and it's really cool when they surface and when we knock them out of the park. 

In the FlowersMike Busby's School of Photography - Mike's Macro Photography Class

This class was for hand held macro and we discussed several techniques and camera settings for different scenarios. We talked about getting close...really really close, and we talk about the balance between managing depth of field while ensuring quality shots.

A really good day today.

Mike 

CPP, AFP

Mike Busby's School of Photography

Member:Professional Photographers of Washington and the Professional Photographers of America.