Digital SLR Class Is Full

Sorry but my Digital SLR Class has filled up. I will be doing another one after the first of the year. If you have any interest in attending the next set of classes please feel free to contact me at mike@firstphoto.biz.

Those of you that will be attending, I will see you at 7:00 pm on Wednesday September 16th here at the store. I look forward to another great class.

Mike

Compact Digital Camera Class

Don's next set of classes will be on two consecutive Tuesday nights starting October 13th and 20th. Both of the classes will be from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm here at the store. He discusses everything you need to know to operate a compact digital camera. If you have interest in attending the next scheduled classes, please contact Don at 218-722-9567 or e-mail him at the address below. You must Pre-Register and Pre-Pay for these classes. Class size is limited to 12 people per class and is First-Come First-Serve. Register early because the class usually fills up.

don@firstphoto.biz

Online Photo Tips

We have a new feature on our website. Go to the Photo Tips page and you can view short videos that give you instructional tips to make your photographic images better and more interesting to look at.

Visit www.firstphoto.biz.

I'd love to get any feed back on these videos. New features will be added as they are finished.

Mike

Online Ordering

If you haven't seen it yet, we have a new online ordering system that is fantastic. It works with Macs and PCs both because it is web-based.

Go to www.firstphoto.lifepics.com to check it out.

Digital SLR Class

My next set of classes will be on four consecutive Wednesday nights starting September 16th and including September 23rd, 30th and October 7th. All of the classes will be from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm here at the store. I discuss everything you need to know once you buy a new digital SLR camera. Topics covered will include Digital Theory, Camera Controls, Shooting, and much more. If you have interest in attending the next scheduled classes, please contact Me at 218-722-9567 or e-mail me at the address below. You must Pre-Register and Pre-Pay for these classes. Class size is limited to 15 people per class and is First-Come First-Serve. Register early because the class usually fills up.

mike@firstphoto.biz

Thanks and I hope to see you there, Mike

New Web Site

It has been a busy summer for us all and I am sorry we have not been posting more on our blog.

As I am working on a new web-site I would like to ask all of you what you would like to see on our site. Please respond with any ideas that you may have.

Thanks, Mike

APERTURE PRIORITY

Aperture priority mode. This is where you could shoot if you want to control you depth of field. You choose the aperture (f-stop) and the camera gives you the correct corresponding shutter speed. You will notice that when you set a smaller aperture (larger number) you get a slower shutter speed. Conversly, when you set a larger aperture (smaller number) you get a faster shutter speed. Even though I am setting the aperture, I very closely watch that the shutter speed is fast enough to hand hold the camera. If not, I need a tripod. Also I need to make sure the shutter speed is fast enough to stop the action I am trying to shoot.
As far as depth of field is concerned, the easiest way I find to remember it is FAST shutter speed equals FUZZY background. SLOW shutter speed equals SHARP background. Fast is FUZZY, SLOW is SHARP.

TRIPODS

One of the most common problems we see in our business is that photos just are not sharp. The camera is focusing fine, the exposure is correct, but there is camera movement. It may not be as noticeable in a small print, but when you enlarge it, it is very apparent. The soultion is a TRIPOD. The tripod is the most overlooked accessory in the photographers arsenal of equipment. There are many types and styles and price ranges of tripods, and the trick is to match the size and capacity to your camera. If you are using a good SLR with a medium range zoom lens, you can't get by with a $39.95 tripod. This is one place where you don't try and get by cheap. If you buy a good tripod in the first place, it should last you for many years, and improve your photography. If you buy a cheap tripod, you will have to replace it many times, so buy a good one the first time, and you save money in the long run

Drawing for Don's Old Camera Collection

Hello again
Many of you have been asking about my old camera collection that was on display in our old location. Well, here is the scoop. It is going to be given away in a random drawing.
It consists of approximately 100 old cameras dating back to the early 1900's. There are Autographics, Brownies, Rollies, box cameras, a Hassleblad, Kodak Instant, 120, 620, 116, 616, 127, 135 film cameras, Polaroid. Many makes, many models. Some work, some don't.
The deal is this. You send your Name & e-mail to info@firstphoto.biz. The drawing will be held on JUNE 10TH. The winner gets the entire collection. All or nothing. It will be picked up at the store, or can be shipped at the winners expense to your location. I WILL NOT RESPOND to questions regarding what models are in the collection. It was something that I collected for over 20 years. There are very few if any duplicates. Just things that I thought were different and cool. No SLR's.
Good luck!!!!
Don

Ramblings After The Show

Well the PMA show is finished and we managed to fill our brains with as much information as we possibly could. It has been interesting to see the changes the show has taken on. Over the last few years the number of exhibitors that have been attending has slowly declined. Digital technology has had a major impact on the world of photography. Many manufacturers have gone out of business because there is just not enough demand for their products. In the not too distant future film manufacturers will have to make some tough decisions about what films to keep in their lines and which ones to discontinue. They may even have to decide if they are going to continue making film all together. I am not saying that film is dead but don’t be shocked to see the prices rise as the laws of supply and demand take over.

One thing is clear though. Digital photography has made things much more complicated. We have been given a new lease on life so to speak. The options and capabilities on the new cameras and digital printing are much more advanced than we used to have with film. This translates into power. But with power comes responsibility. I think the photographic manufacturers are acting a lot like children again; they are having lots of fun but not being very responsible yet.

Mike

Photo Marketing Show

Don and I are sitting in our hotel room in Las Vegas waiting to take a bus to the third day of the Photo Marketing Association annual trade show. PMA has this show once a year to show dealers and professional photographers all the new products in the world of photography.

So far there are lots of new and exciting products in the compact digital camera market. In the Digital SLR market, Sony has once again come up with some very innovative products that are really causing a stir among both the entry level and the serious photographers. They have definitely solidified their position as a major contender in the marketplace.

We will be bringing home information about many things such as Action Fast Straps, a simplified data back-up system and many more new must have products.

COLD WEATHER PROTECTION

If you are outside on a cold day, and take your gear inside to a warm humid environment, condensation can form both inside and outside your camera and lenses. This is bad enough, but if you go back out into the cold before the condensation evaporates, ice can form inside and outside your gear. This can be disastrous especially to todays sophisticated electronics. Before you enter a warm car or building, seal your equipment in a zip lock plastic bag or a tight sealing camera bag and let it warm up to room temp before you open it.

BATTERIES IN COLD WEATHER
Nothing is more frustrating than your batteries going "dead" in cold weather. They actually don't die, they just temporarilly lose power. Once they warm up, they will work fine. Make sure you carry a spare set at all times anyway, but in winter, carry them in an inside pocket, so, when your batteries lose power, you can rotate the cold ones to your pocket and the warm ones to your camera. That way you will always have power available. Just make sure you don't keep your batteries in a pocket with change, because they can short out causing a nasty burn.

Don't Forget To Make Prints

I know we are all suffering from the current recession but don't do things that you will regret later. Make sure that you are continually make prints of your images to have a hard copy of the important things in life. After we get through these tough times and things get back to normal, you don't want to have a span of time where you have no pictures.

You can cut costs by being a little bit more selective in what prints you choose to make but don't give up. Prints are relatively inexpensive and represent memories that can last a lifetime. When you look at a print it can take you right back to that special occasion and make you feel like you are there again. Make prints and relive the fun.

Shooting Hockey

Shooting hockey can be very difficult. Because of the brightness of the ice and boards, your pictures have a tendancy to be dark and the action blurred. Hopefully this will help you get better photos of your kids.

Set ISO to 800

Set your camera to TV or shutter priority depending on brand.

Set the shutter speed to 250

Take a meter reading of just the ice, and note what F-Stop the camera reads.

Set you camera to MANUAL, and set the shutter speed at 250, and the F-Stop to what the camera told you when reading the ice. ( If you are shooting little kids that don't skate fast, you can set shutter speed to 125)

Turn the F-Stop down(open wider) 2 F-Stops. Example, if F-Stop reads 11, open up to 5.6. Most zoom lenses will only open to a maximum of 5.6 when fully zoomed, so you must be aware that you CANNOT open (set) any wider than 5.6

If when you meter the ice, the camera does not read an F-Stop above 8, set your ISO to 1600 instead of 800. This will make it harder to do big enlargements, but will do a pretty good 5x7.

ALL OF THIS DEPENDS ON WHICH ARENA YOU SHOOT IN, AS SOME ARE DARKER THAN OTHERS. DARKER ARENAS NEED ISO1600.

You are trying to photograph one of the most difficult things, so it WILL be a learning experience. BE PATIENT.

If you have any questions, stop in at First Photo.

Ideas For Discussion

We would love to receive some ideas for topics that you would like us to talk about. We have created this blog to help people better understand Digital Photography and to put some fun back into shooting. Please let us know what you want to do with this site.

Save It Then Back It Up

If you are like many of us in the photographic world you have made the leap into "Digital Photography". You have your camera and you are learning the basics of shooting and dealing with digital images. We are finding that there is one common issue with all of our customers. How do you organize and store your files?

We recommend that you keep it simple. Most of the digital cameras come with software that lets you move the images from your camera to your computer. There is usually also a program that will let you organize these images into groups and sub-groups. Adobe makes a good image editing program called "Photoshop". The full blown version is expensive and has many features that the average person would never use but the "Baby Brother" version called "Photoshop Elements" sells for under $100 and has great editing capabilities and a very good structure for organizing your images.

Once you have things organized the thing we find that most people fail to do is back-up their images. If you are just keeping the pictures on your camera memory card or if you just load them into your computer, you are running the risk of loosing these files if the card or computer hard drive fails.

We have all heard horror stories of hard drives crashing. If the drive in your computer stops working you will loose all of the images you have stored there. Devise a back-up strategy to make sure that you have your pictures stored in more than one place. You might want to put a second hard drive into your computer and copy all the files from one hard drive to the other so that you have a second copy on the other hard drive. Or you may want to use an external hard drive that would let you back-up the images but move the drive from PC to PC. Or maybe it is easier for you to just make a copy of all of the files on a number of CD's or DVD's. A data CD usually store about 700 megs of information and a data DVD stores about 4.7 gigs.

The point is to make sure that you have at least two copies of every digital image that you want to save. Taking a little bit of time now to figure out a storage and back-up plan will pay off big dividends if your system ever crashes and you loose your primary source of storage.

Introducing Us

Hello - We decided to start this blog so that we could share our love of photography with our fellow photographers, customers and friends. We hope people will find the things we write about to be useful in their pursuit of creating better images. We do not claim to know all there is to know about photography but we have learned a lot over our years in the photo business. We feel that no mater what your level of photography, we can still all learn from each other.


We will try to post useful articles and information as least once a week and we welcome your suggestions for topics. Let's learn from each other and share the beauty and enjoyment of photography.