Jim Larson Photography

You’ve probably noticed that it’s been a few days since my last post. We’ve been vacationing in the San Juan Islands in Washington, so my focus was on other things.

We love to walk the boat docks at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Even though it is the middle of Winter we took the opportunity of doing the same thing.

There is a fish vendor on one of the docks and about 10 feet away was a very tame seal.  The vendor said it is like a pet.  This seal just hangs around hoping for treats from people wanting to see it eat.  It wasn’t disappointed on this morning, as a man and his son bought a small package of fish and proceeded to supply breakfast to the seal.

The image to the right shows the seal taking a little post-breakfast snooze.

Canon 40D, Canon 24-105 f4L IS at 105mm, 1/25 at f6.3, ISO 100

A month or so ago we were dog sitting for some friends of ours. We thought it would be nice to get more practice with new subjects in the studio, so out popped the camera and in came the dogs.

They are both very curious creatures. It was very fun to make little noises and watch their heads. Sometimes they were both tilting the same direction, other times they gave us a rather hilarious opposite tilt.

Lighting was very simple using 2 strobes with umbrellas. The background was black seamless paper.

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, try to position the camera at the eye level of the subject. It helps to connect with the subject a bit better.

Next time you are dog or kid sitting, get out the camera and take an photograph that the parents would love to have. Of course, there is always the danger that they may not let you watch them again.

Canon 40D, Canon 24-70 f2.8 L at 30mm, 1/100 at f8, ISO 100

This photograph was taken just after a very heavy rainstorm while we were sailing in the San Juan Islands in Washington. My crew and I had just anchored and we were down below listening to the rain.

A short while later the sound of the rain had let up and the sun was nearly ready to go down. I went up on deck to get one last look around. The image to the right is what presented itself to me.

Keep your eyes open for those unexpected events. Had I waited just 10 minutes later to take a peek, I would have missed the whole show.

Canon 20D, Canon 24-70 f2.8 L at 70mm, 1/80 at f3.2, ISO 100

Something to look for when you are out with your camera are repeating shapes. These could be in a picket fence, steps, arches, or in this case a bunch of watercraft sitting side by side.

This particular image was taken up at lake Coeur d’Alene, in northern Idaho. The sun was getting low in the sky which gave some interesting shadows on the seats. I also cropped this quite a bit to give the effect I was looking for. Without any cropping, it was very obvious what I was shooting. One point about abstracts is to keep the viewer’s mind wondering just what they are viewing.

Keep your eyes open for repeating shapes.

Canon 20D, Canon 24-70 f2.8 L at 70mm, 1/200 at f8, ISO 200

Do you have kids in sports? If you do, be sure to take the camera along to the games. We don’t have any kids in sports, but were invited to a little league game by some friends of ours. The camera came along too of course.

This particular young guy was goofing off at 3rd base waiting for some action. Well, he was making action of his own, so I captured the event. It made a great portrait that the parents loved.

Try to get pictures of all the players on the field and share them with the parents. They will appreciate the shots.

Canon 20D, Canon 70-200 f2.8 L IS at 200mm, 1/1600 at f4, ISO 200

Earlier in the spring I was down at one of the local parks in Boise. There were baby Canada geese all around. They were not particularly scared of people either, so I put the longer lens on the camera, moved close to the birds and started shooting.

I like this image because it looks like one of the babies was being a lookout for the rest of the gaggle.

Whenever I shoot creatures, whether it be birds, animals or man, I try to take some shots at their eye level. I had to be somewhat careful on this day as there were droppings all over the place.

Canon 20D, Canon 70-200 f2.8 L IS at 200mm, 1/1250 at f4, ISO 200

My wife has a passion for classical guitar. I have a passion for photography. When one of her former students inquired about taking some portraits of him, I jumped at the opportunity.

The light setup is pretty simple. To the right of the performer is a 2×4 foot softbox about 6 feet away from his face. A softbox is a light modifier that takes a bulb that is the size of a golf ball and makes the light appear to be very large and soft, kind of like you would see coming through a window with a shier shade over it.

A second light was placed above the performer, shining down on his head and shoulders. This light gives some shine to his hair and lights up his shoulders slightly to give some separation between the black tuxedo and the black background.

The background was simply black seamless paper.

When you are asked to take a portrait for someone, give it a try. There are many good books and online sources available to teach you various lighting techniques and how to pose the subject.

Canon 40D, Canon 24-70 f2.8 L at 59mm, 1/100 at f11, ISO 100

During the same trip to Austin as my prior blog post, I saw this very interesting flock of flamingos. This flock has been in existence for several years confirmed due to sighting on a prior trip. When I spotted them again on this trip, I had time to stop and take a few shots.

Since the flamingos stood anywhere from 3 feet to 50 feet from the camera, I needed to increase what appears in focus. To do this I used a smaller aperture in the lens (stopped down) which increases depth of field.

Keep you eyes open for interesting or strange subjects. Sometimes they are both.

Canon 20D, Canon 24-70 f2.8 L at 135mm, 1/50 at f16, ISO 100

A few years ago my wife and I were visiting Austin, the state capitol of Texas. It is always fun to go into capitol buildings because it seems like no expense has been saved in their design and construction.This image was taken by standing directly in the middle of the rotunda and pointing the camera skyward. I was looking for a very symmetrical pattern and I was not disappointed.Every state has a capitol building. Next time you are near one, stop by and try some different angles shooting the rotunda. Try some centered like my example, other standing off to the side for a more asymmetrical shot.Canon 20D, Canon 24-70 f2.8 L at 24mm, 1/80 at f4.5, ISO 400

As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, quite a few of the images I capture are of athletes. This particular woman is performing in the long jump. Shooting with her coming directly at me gives an interesting perspective. I had the camera take a series of about 5 shots during her “flight” and subsequent “landing.” I liked this one the best due to her hair being in the action as well.

Lighting in this indoor track and field facility was not very good and I ended up with what is referred to as a “noisy” image. Digital cameras have sensors in them that collect light (photons) and convert them into numbers that the can be written to the memory card. The fewer photons that reach the sensor, the more sensitive you have to make the sensor to see them. Increasing sensitivity is accomplished by an adjustment on most cameras called ISO. The higher the ISO setting, then more sensitive your sensor is to photons, but the more noise you will see. If you have this setting available on your camera, turn up the ISO, don’t use your flash and shoot in somewhat dimly lit room.

Without being able to make the sensor more sensitive by increasing the ISO setting, I would have had to expose the sensor to more light by either making the aperture larger in the lens (lower f-stop number), or lengthening the time the shutter is exposed to the light. With sports, you must shoot with a quick enough shutter or the athlete will be blurred by their motion, sometimes leading to a cool effect.

Canon 20D, Canon 70-200 f2.8 L IS at 80mm, 1/500 at f2.8, ISO 1600