Shutter Mike Photography

Bouillon School – Miami, AZ

(Yes, there is a Miami in AZ too – minus the ocean)

f/5.6 – ISO 100 – Focal Length 55 mm

If you sell on eBay and take the time and effort to produce photographs of your auction items there is a new policy coming down the line that you should be aware of.  The official eBay statement reads as follows:

Starting September 1, 2009, eBay will begin selecting sellers’ photos for inclusion in the eBay product catalog. If your photo is chosen, an attribution including your user ID and a link to your profile page will be included on the product details page under your picture each time it’s displayed. This attribution can give you significant additional exposure.

If you’d rather opt out of this program, please do so through My eBay as described here. To ensure your pictures are not considered for inclusion in the eBay product catalog starting September 1, you need to opt out by August 31, 2009 at 23:59:59 PT.

You can opt out any time after that as well, but any pictures we select starting September 1 during a time you are not opted out may continue to be used in the catalog at our discretion.

To some people the potential link traffic and exposure is a good thing and this will not be a problem.  The key here is, if you do have an issue with it, you have to opt out or your photos are up for grabs for eBay to use.  However, if your photos have a watermark it has been said that they will not be used in the eBay catalog.

Just in case you might have missed the fine print when signing up for eBay here is their policy on who owns the photos you post in an auction:

When you give us content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright, trademark, publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future.

It takes a lawyer to understand all of that.  Just something to keep in mind when you are posting your photography on eBay or most any other website.

Photographing certain bridges (but not all bridges) in the New York City area is prohibited.  They include the Triborough Bridge, Verazano Bridge, Whitestone Bridge and Throgs Neck Bridge.  I’m not familiar enough with NYC to know the significance of these bridges over say the Brooklyn Bridge or the George Washington Bridge.

What is interesting is that a search of Google Images for Verazano Bridge results in over 55,000 images and the Metropolitan Transit Authority website has a picture of the bridge.  It looks like the genie is already out of the bottle on this one.

There has been a lot of buzz lately about “Photographer’s Rights,” i.e. what am I allowed to shoot and who, if anyone, has a right to stop me or confiscate my equipment or photos?   If you are a photographer, especially since 9/11, with anything more than a point-and-shoot camera you could potentially find yourself in a situation where your right to photograph something is questioned.

Not too long ago I was in downtown Phoenix and was stopped twice in one day.   Once by a security guard and once by a Maricopa County Sheriff.  The security guard had undoubtedly seen me on a security camera as I was photographing the exterior of the Bank of America building on a Sunday.  She was very polite when she approached me and simply asked what I was doing and told me “They don’t like you taking pictures of the buildings.” I did not argue the point at the time but thought it was strange since it was a public plaza (Collier) and a skyscraper in downtown Phoenix that had certainly been photographed before.  A simple search on Google results in its own Wikipedia page and a street view of the building on Google maps.

For the second incident later that day I was photographing some public art outside the Maricopa County Courthouse when a sheriff officer pulled over.  Again, he was very polite (and a little bothered because they made him stop on his way to lunch). He asked what I was doing, if it was for business or personal use and to see my identification.  Again, I was not taking pictures of anything secret or not meant for public view.  In fact, the new court house tower has a live web cam watching the construction process.

My encounters with the “law” were minor, but they have certainly made me cautious and think twice about what I am photographing.  So I did some research to get the facts straight.

There are two very good sources available that explain your rights as a photographer and what  you can and cannot do.  Print, read and carry one or both of these in your camera bag.

The Photographer’s Rights by Bert P. Krages (Attorney)

Legal Rights of Photographer’s  by Andrew Kantor

Here is a brief recap of your rights as a photographer in the US.

• In general, if you can see it, you can photograph it.
• Public places are fair game to photograph.
• You are free to photograph private property as long as you are standing on public property.
• You can photograph people, including children, without their permission as long as they are in a public place and do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
• Private property used as public property such as malls, churches, and office lobbies are acceptable to photograph.
• Public infrastructure (except where expressly prohibited by law) such as bridges, airports, public utilities and transportation are all fair game.  There are some exceptions when it comes to military bases adn nuclear power facilities.
• Police and security guards cannot require you to delete your photos or confiscate your equipment (if you are being arrested there are exceptions).  This requires a court order.
• The Patriot Act, Homeland Security rulings and anything related to “9/11″ do not prohibit photography.
• These rules apply to taking photographs, publishing and selling them after the fact gets a little more complicated.  But this is covered in the two documents above.

I was in San Diego last week and wanted to try some more night time photography.  Since one of my favorite subjects in architecture I thought the historic architecture at Balboa Park would be a good place to try out some long exposures and see what I could get.  Many of the buildings, especially those along the El Prado walk, are well lit at night.  Their Spanish style architecture makes for a great subject against the dark night sky.

Before I get to the photos, here are a few things I learned that are key to producing good night photography:

• It is very difficult to do without a good tripod.  The one I had at the time was broken and would not extend all the way up.  Crouching down to try to see through the view finder is both uncomfortable and makes getting a good shot harder.  (But my new Induro AB2 has since arrived. I am anxious to try it out and will let you know how it goes.)
• In addition to the tripod, a shutter remote is an invaluable tool to help avoid camera shake.  They can be found online for very little money.
• Take a flashlight, or some source of light.  I did not and it would have been very helpful for seeing the tripod’s level and camera settings.
• Experiment with different shutter speeds and apertures.  Take the camera off automatic. I am working with digital photography so the cost of film and developing are not an issue.  Take as many as you need to get the few good ones.
• Watch a tutorial video such as this before you go out shooting.  I didn’t, but it would have been helpful.

Casa del Prado Theater

Casa del Prado

Botanical Building

I realize I am late to the party – and far beyond fashionably late. But I have recently discovered Twitter. Well, I of course knew it existed; I just never really understood it and could not imagine how it might be useful to me. FaceBook has provided me with all the play by play updates of my Internet circle that I needed.

But I can now say “I was wrong,” and the usefulness of Twitter is becoming more and more clear to me. Although I am pretty certain that I have not even scratched the surface as to all it potentially has to offer. But I can see it looming…

My recent venture into Twitterdom got me to thinking about how Twitter and other bits of the Internet can help me improve my photography and get a better understanding of the fundamentals and techniques of photography.

So here are my Twitter and General Internet Tips for improving your photography skills (I am sure these can be expanded, to some degree, to any hobby or obsession):

It is all about the Who!
With Twitter, who you are following and subsequently who is following you is critical. It is easy to get carried away and start following people willy-nilly. I have gotten off track already, but the majority of those I follow are related to photography or design.

Read, Read, Read
I didn’t make this connection at the beginning, but what better way to expand my photography knowledge than to surround myself with others that do what I do. It can get addicting and a bit daunting to try to keep up with all the twitted information. But in just a few days I have already found so many resources and sites and bits of information on the web that I would not have stumbled upon on my own just by reading the tweets of people involved in what I am interested in, photography.

Use Your Tweeps
Don’t just read what everyone else is posting. Contribute. Post your photos and ask for feedback (or don’t ask, but someone is bound to offer it anyway). Ask questions, inquire. Most of these people are twittering because they have something to say (although some have way too much to say and some a lot of nothing to say) and enjoy saying it. Try posting your latest shot with TwitPic and see what advice or critiques people offer.

Beyond Twitter
Forums are a great way to connect to other people that share your interests. No matter what you are into there is certainly a forum out there focusing on it. I came across my first forum through Twitter. I just started using it but so far I got some suggestions for a new tripod and have a photography assignment I’m going to try.

Flickr is another great way to share your work with your fellow photographers. There are more groups than you could ever explore. Find a few that are common to your interests and share some photos. See what people say and what advice they offer. Be sure to offer the same advice to others that post.

After photographing the fireworks last week I decided to try some more night time photography.  South Mountain in Phoenix is known for its sunset and city lights views.  A short drive up to the 2600 foot summit gets you to a great lookout over the city perfect for photographing the sky and city below.

This was definitely a trial and error process for me as I am taking the camera off the auto mode and manually adjusting the settings.  For this shoot I played with shutter speed to see what I got and hopefully learn something in the process.  Ideally I should not be focusing on one setting in the “Exposure Triangle” and leaving the others to default, but I am trying one step at a time.

I got some fair pictures but better yet learned a few things in the process…

• As with shooting fireworks timing is everything.  Lesson learned: get to the destination early enough (in this case before the sun starts setting) to stake out a good spot and get everything set up.  For photographing city lights twilight is ideal rather than when the sky is completely dark.
• Tripod, tripod, tripod.  My camera has image stabilization built into the body.  But at slow shutter speed a tripod is critical.  A remote would have helped too.
• Underexposure and overexposure are very easy to do.  If I had adjusted the aperture and ISO as well as the shutter speed I’m sure I could have improved exposure greatly.  Otherwise I need to experiment more to find a happy medium.  Or there are some Photoshop tricks to adjust this after the fact.  But I prefer to get it right without having to do too much editing.

Original Image             Corrected in PhotoShop

Click the images to see larger versions.

This post is by no means a “how to” on photographing fireworks.  For that, do what I did and read “How to Photograph Fireworks Displays” from the Digital Photography School.  They are a great resource with a lot of good advice and tips.

I attempted photographing fireworks for the first time last night, the Fourth of July.  I was happy with a few of my shots, but that is a few out of 135.  Here are some of the tricks I picked up from DPS’s post and trial and error while out shooting last night.

Location, location, location. Scout out a good location to set up early. If you are too far away you are not going to get good photographs unless you have a really good telephoto lens .  Also keep in mind  you are going to need someplace to set up your tripod.

Timing is everything. I do not have this mastered yet, but it takes some practice to know just when to hit the shutter button.  Too early and all you get is the trail of the rocket going up (like this one).  Too late and you get a nice shot of smoke.  I found that after watching a few rockets you can anticipate what the half way point is between being launched and exploding.  That seemed to be the best time to hit the button.

Experiment. Photography is all about trying different things to get the shot you want.  This was especially the case with photographing fireworks.  Here are some of the things I tried (some worked and others didn’t):

1. Shutter speed – I started out at 5 seconds and tried various speeds down to 2 seconds.  I think somewhere between 2.5 and 5 worked best for me.
2. Aiming the lens – It is very hard to know exactly where to aim into the dark to get the shot you want.  I found aiming in the direction of the fireworks display and then tilting the camera on the tripod slightly up and down to keep the show in frame worked fairly well.  Sometimes I missed.
3. Focus – How do you focus on something that is there for only seconds and you can’t touch the camera?  Not easy to do, but I used the manual focus (keep auto focus off for this) and focused on something in the direction of the show and then left it alone.
4. Aperture – I read that an aperture range of f/8 to f/16 works best for fireworks photography.  So I trusted the experts and did not experiment with this setting leaving it at f/8.

Equipment. There are a few essentials that will make photographing fireworks much easier.  First, a tripod.  It is critical to fireworks photography to keep the camera steady.  No matter how unnerved you are or how steady handed, no one can keep the camera absolutely still at the longer shutter speeds.  Second is a shutter release cable or remote.  This is a great tool when taking pictures with long shutter times.  It allows you to keep your hands off the camera completely eliminating any movement.  A self timer could also work, but you need to be very good at your timing since you need to set it to go off right before the explosion which is hard to anticipate.

Keep Shooting. The great thing about digital photography is that it costs the same to shoot 10 photographs as it does 100.  So in the case of something like a fast action fireworks display just keep shooting.  You can sort through the photos later to eliminate the ones that did not work and Photoshop as necessary.

I suppose a little shameless self promotion never hurt.  I have had my first photograph published by someone other than myself (and not a friend or family).  I have a Flickr account where I post many of the same photos I put on shuttermike.com.  The other day I got an email through Flickr from a company called Schmap.com saying they selected one of my Tucson photos for the “short list” to be in the next edition of their Tucson Guide.  Then today I got another email from them saying they had selected the photo and it was now published in the new Tucson guide on schmaps.com.  Pretty cool.

Located on 7th Ave. in Phoenix, the First Christian Church was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 1950s.  But it was not built until after his death in 1971.

Click on the images to see a larger version.