Fortunately, the spotlight was on the presentation.  I turned off the flash, found the ISO settings – those control the light sensitivity of the digital flash card –  and set it for a high sensitivity level,  pushed my telephoto out to the maximum to get the reading and frame the shot, and went for it.

The light sensitivity reading was high enough to cause the camera to set a fast shutter speed.  That froze the action.  There was enough light on the people surrounding the presentation to give a good sense of what was going on.  The internal light meter in the camera read the light on the demonstration, so that stood out.

In order to do this, you need to find three topics in your camera manual and learn how to use them:  the icon settings – chosing one that will give you a fast shutter speed, such as sports or portrait, the telephoto controls, and the ISO controls in the menu options.  Those three options will allow you to take control of your camera.

Taking photos of flowers seems like it should be easy.  After all, don’t you just drive along the road, stop when you see a pretty scene, and get out and shoot?  Well…..yes…. driving along and noticing pretty scenes is certainly what gets you there.  When flowers are this prolific, though, getting a shot that has interest and dynamic qualities takes some observation.

Look at this scene for a minute.  What do you notice?  Here’s what I saw.  The contrast of yellow flowers against the white salty field and  blue shadows on the hills certainly makes the flowers stand out.  Still, though, as a sea of flowers, they looked flat and uninteresting.  I could see a few curves in the floral landscape, but nothing strong enough to stand out.  I could tell if we drove down the road to look for angles in the pattern of flowers, I was going to lose the light and the shot.  I studied this scene for a while before I saw the one yellow flower sticking up above all the rest, standing out against the white background.  That lone flower added the dynamic quality and interest I wanted.  That was the shot that told the story of the flowers.

Along with a few hundred other people that spring, my husband and I went on a wildflower search. We were doing roadside photography to get an overview of the Park, and weren’t walking on any trails for our views.

No flower shot is simple, but this one was especially challenging.  These are tiny white flowers that grow close to the ground.  We had been photographing the flowers spread across the valley in front of the hills when I spotted them.  I tried several ways to photograph them, but they were too tiny to stand out against the brown hills.  Finally, I decided to see if I could position myself close enough to create a line of flowers against the blue sky in the background.  I set the camera for landscape shots, laid down on a blanket I had spread in front of the flowers, and tipped my camera up until the hills in the background were spread along the bottom of the frame and the flowers were positioned against the blue sky.  Lines create a sense of motion, and angled lines create the strongest sense of action.  I wanted an angled line of flowers against the blue sky to bring out the delicate flowers and create a strong sense of action. 

When you are looking for strong nature shots, looks for lines and angles.  If you can’t find them, position yourself so you create them.

One day, our guides offered a walk through a valley and along a river called Moose Creek.  As we walked along this gorgeous river valley scene, I looked for ways to show it off in a photograph.  The first problem to solve was positioning the river and mountains so they looked dynamic.  The second problem was managing the light so both the detail in the river as well as in the valley would be present in the photograph.  This was the early 2000’s and digital cameras were not yet at the quality I wanted for a price I wanted to pay, so I was shooting film.  That meant I couldn’t try and check my results and then try again if I didn’t get it.  We also weren’t coming back any time soon. 

Lines and angles in a photograph give it a dynamic feel.  I positioned myself so the river created one predominate angled line, positioned against the folding angles of the mountains in the background.  I used a landscape setting, wanting the whole photograph to be in focus, but also needing a fast enough shutter speed to get some freezing of the action in the flowing river.  I trained the light meter and focus area on the green of the hills in the background, with the objective of blending the light from the sky with the light from the dark green to achieve a good average.  Halfway down on the shutter button, hold it, and reframe to get the angle I wanted.  I took several shots to ensure that I had one good one.  This was it.

Still, we were here, and I wasn’t going home without a few shots.  As we walked on the over look above Fort Mason, approaching the Bridge, I began to see the photograph emerge.  I used my telephoto to focus and take the light reading on the brown buildings at the Fort, and then, holding the shutter button half way down, reframed to include part of the bridge and the water.  The fog is there, in all its glory, creeping through the Gate and into the Bay.  The mood is somber, but the detail shows up and it tells at least one story of the weather in San Francisco.

The key to this problem is taking the exposure reading deliberately on a medium dark neutral element of the photograph.  This technique evens out the light reading for the camera, and will show detail in the structures in the image.  If I had wanted the Bridge and Fort to silhouette, I would have left the camera on a wide angle and shot.  The camera would have picked up the ambient light, and the Bridge and Fort would have been in shadow. 

Decide what you want before you shoot, and then control your camera.

The fog comes in many forms and sweeps across the Bridge in many patterns.  On this particular day, we were approaching San Francisco from the Marin overlooks along the Bay shore and could see the fog creeping northward.  The north tower was till in sunlight.  I wanted the color of the bridge and the Marin Headlands, and so I used the telephoto lens to frame down and pointed my little focusing and light meter square at the brown hills, held the shutter button half way down to hold the reading, and then recomposed the shot.  The results showed the fog moving northward, but retained the color of the Bridge and the headlands, and also picked up some of the sunlight illuminating the fog and turning it into a rosy glow.

The important part of this is determing what you want the final shot to look like.  If I had wanted the bridge and headlands to be dark, I would have pointed the metering poing at the fog itself.  The fog would have provided a white background against a dark Bridge and hill outline.

A group of women were in the shade catching up on their knitting, an important task when stores weren’t available to provide warm socks.  Full length shots didn’t get the detail of their handiwork.  After several attempts to show the “whole person,”  I decided to use the telephoto to frame the hands at work.  The exercise taught me a valuable lesson that I have practiced many times since when trying to photograph what people were doing.  The craft itself is a big part of the story.  I also made sure she was in even light.  The light created some texture and deminsional shadows, but theydon’t distract or cover her work.

This workshop took place many years ago, before the invention of digital cameras.  All of our work was with slide film, so we could show it in the workshop.  Slide film is quite sensitive to exposure errors and therefore a very unforgiving teacher, and we couldn’t evaluate our results until we got the film back.  Today, I might crop this further, to remove the neck and hat strings and just show the hands.  However, I didn’t do that for this commentary because I wanted to demonstrate that many interpretations are possible.

This man was one of the docent participants, playing the role of one of the gold seekers stopping off at the Fort for provisions.  I loved his hat and the character in his face.  The problem was that the hat threw a huge shaddow on his face, intensified by the sunny day.  What to do?  I couldn’t ask him to remove his hat or tip it back to reduce the shaddows.  I finally got down low, since he was sitting, and focused the exposure reading on his face.  I cropped down with my zoom lens, hoping to even out the light between his face and hat so I wouldn’t lose too much detail in that wonderful hat. 

This workshop was years ago, and I was shooting slide film with an analog camera.  Slide film is a good teacher.  There is very little room for error.  When I reviewed the developed film, I was delighted to find I had achieved my goal.  Today, I could brighten up his face in photoshop, but I didn’t.  My purpose has always been to get the shot in the first place.

   My book, The Accidental Photographer:  Enhancing Your Travels With a Camera, is now available for purchase online!  Click on the link above to go directly to the store.  Take advantage of the free download, and while you are there, also click on the green banner on the side and have a look at the photos for sale through a group of talented, aspiring photographers.

            I think just about anyone who takes a camera on a trip wants to travel with it unencumbered and come home with good photos that can be shared with friends and family.  My book illustrates how to use the camera effortlessly and take good pictures that reflect the passion of travel.  The book is aimed at the casual photographer and the techniques described are basic and can be mastered with a little practice and used with any camera. 

 Many thanks to all of the people who have helped me with this project.  Marco Zecchin and JD Savelli of Marketing4Artists helped me define my photographic niche and helped me develop the goal of writing this book.   Linda Watanabe McFerrin and my writing workshop friends helped me think through many approaches to this topic before we came up with one that worked.   They, along with my traveling and photo buddies encouraged me to finish and get it published through many discouraging efforts. Left Coast Writers, sponsored by The Book Passage in Corte Madera,  gave me the social and educational forum to keep going.  Cheryl McLaughlin was instrumental in getting the online strategy going.  Marie Teixeira and Steve Kimbrough, talented webmasters, put all of the creative ideas into my website, blog page and store.  My dear husband, Dale Black, supported me through this effort and never questioned my sanity. 

Here’s what one of my Photography friends says about The Accidental Photographer:

“I have recently reviewed The Accidental Photographer, and find this to be an excellent piece of work. It is well written, contains some very useful information for the non technical photographer, and is well illustrated with the authors’ personal photos. A great many people could benefit from reading this, and in so doing be able to shoot and better organize photos of their trips and vacations.” – Larry R. Van Etten – Owner – Aspiring Photographers of The World – http://goapow.com

Larry R. Van Etten
LVE@GOAPOW.COM

 Here’s what Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author, travel writer, instructor, says about The Accidental Photographer: 

 If you have a camera and haven’t spent plenty of time and money on classes, this is the book for you. The Accidental Photographer: Enhancing Your Travels with a Camera is excellent on-the-fly, hands-on training in how to use the ubiquitous tool. Marsha Black’s eye-opening tips are so simple and clear that even the technically challenged will have no trouble following them. Every  traveler armed with a camera should leave a small space in their bags for this book.

Linda Watanabe McFerrin

 So, check it out, enjoy, and please, help me spread the word.

Lake and Clouds in Scotland

When the sky is dark and stormy, how do you manage the scenic shots? We were near the end of the third week of a five week driving trip through the UK late one May. The days that were sunny were freezing cold, and those that weren’t, were either rainy or a storm had just come through.

Things didn’t improve when we reached Pitlochry, Scotland. This area is known for its rivers and scenic drives, and so one afternoon, after a storm seemed to be breaking, we went for it. At the fish ladder, this scenic vista caught my eye, but how to capture it with its dark and shining glory showing off?

I aimed the light metering square in the viewfinder at the neutral grey in the river, using my telephoto lens to bear down on it, held the shutter half way down and then brought the telephoto back and composed the shot. This time, I left the sky in because the cloud reflections brought the river to life, and one complemented the other.