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Your Photography is Lousy. (Hand-holding your camera like a Pro Edition)

Perhaps you found this post on your own, In which case congratulations on starting your journey to better photography. Perhaps someone forwarded you this post, in which case you probably need to pay extra close attention.

A common problem with amateur photographers’ pictures is blur. There are two main causes for blur: Motion Blur and Camera Shake.

Motion Blur is cause by movement of your subject in the frame. As this isn’t the subject of discussion we will gloss over it now.

In my opinion, THE problem most damaging to amateurs photography is Camera Shake. Lucky for you I have the solution. If your Pictures look like this picture I found on Greg’s Incredible Journey

Then You need my Expertise in hand-holding a camera. I come from a different school of thought than most photographers I see around. Based on my experience it seems that more photographers need to go out and shoot a rifle… I lost you didn’t I.

Shooting a rifle and Shooting a picture are more similar than you would think. When I am taking a long range shot my experience with guns comes back to help me in my hour of need.

SO shooting a gun. For those of you inexperienced in such things, If you aren’t stable when taking a picture it is blurry, Whearas if you are unstable shooting a rifle (or a shotgun) you will get knocked to the ground. (I exaggerate slightly because when I learned to shoot in Boy Scouts a shotgun could knock me down).

Now that you understand why… let’s tackle how.

First, The stance. If standing you want to spread your feet a about shoulder width( or preferably just slightly wider). Then, take your left foot and slide it about one foot ahead and toward the subject, twisting your body slightly to match.

Second, the grip. You want to keep your arms as close to your body as possible. If your arms are long enough you should go so far as placing your Forward Elbow against your Ribs. (now you see why we have our body turned.)

AND Finally where I differ most from the standard, conventional, tired, needs to be replaced, school of thought. The standard reply is to exhale completely and then take take the picture. This is not inherently flawed… But for many people will backfire. Many people frame their shot before they are quite ready for the shot. This leaves them with empty lungs straining not to breathe until the shot is perfect.

My variation eliminates that problem and allows you to wait for that finicky two year old to make eye contact. I say that when you are focused and framed you begin to exhale steadily and slowly. This allows for nearly all of the stability of a full exhale but allows you the flexibility of a few seconds to get the shot just right. The following example were shot in an arena from the stands (floor was closed to all but the school sponsored Photographer) at 300mm(35mm equivalent) Focal length and a speed of 1/80 seconds. Common knowledge is hand-holding is not feasible with the focal length past the shutter speed. In theory I should have been limited to 80mm. It seems that the proof is in the pudding so check out the pudding below.

This

Can become

Otterbox

So my Iphone has been put through alot. If you are like me you might check out Mrs. Moneysaver because she is giving away 2 otterboxes on her blog.

Flip Video

And another link to Mrs. moneysaver. This is a way to win one of those neat little pocket camcorders Clicky Clicky

Another deal

Mrs. Moneysaver is on top of things today… here is a way to win a sony reader

DEALS ! ! !

Everybody wants something for nothing right? Well head over to Mrs. Moneysaver And enter her giveaway for a free giftcard.

Blogging is Hard !

Well… Not really.

The actual writing of a blog post is far easier than anything you might run across in a college composition course. But those came with deadlines. And grades you would miss out on without turning them in.

Blogging… now that is a different story altogether. Blogs lack such defined grammar rules. For Example, I can put an ellipses (…) anywhere… I… Feel… Like it. See the purpose of a blog is to convey thoughts and emotion. If I take long pauses between words the best way to convey that is with … an ellipses.

BUT,  as with rules against creative capitalization, Blogging lack inbuilt deadlines.
YOU HAVE NOW REACHED YOUR RAMBLING QUOTA FOR THE POST — Sincerely, WordPress.

Well it appears to be time for content, Step 1 on the agenda: Apology.

Sorry to both readers… the post have not been forthcoming recently. I have been very busy (yep a cop out but actually true.) I finally found time to make a post as my editing computer is busy churning out the most recent batch of images. between my aging computer and my not quite blazing internet connection, 2 Gb of pictures take a long time to upload.

Second on the adgenda. I got samples of a new product. THEY ARE AMAZING ! !

Sorry if I got a little excited, but these these are wonderful. They are a new photographic product my Printing company has started to offer.

I had a hard time believing their claims, because to be honest they are a little absurd.

• Waterproof
  • To test this I took the picture into the pool with me. This is not only water but water full of corrosive chemicals.
• Scratch-resistant
  • I tossed (yes sir, Tossed) the picture out of the pool onto concrete deck picture-side down. That wasn’t enough for me. I got out kicked it a few feet, then took it inside and scrubbed it with a dish scrubber in the sink.
• Luminescent
  • AFTER this torture test, I inspected the print. Inside the thing still looked fabulous. Outside we go to see the real damage, Still perfect ! In Fact, outside the print finally showed its true Power.
    • In strong lighting you get a reflection from the aluminum behind the inks. The highlights can almost be said to glow.
• Vibrant
  • After all this the colors and contrast were still far higher than most of the gloss prints I see coming out of most professional print labs.

I was going to post pictures of before and after but I will have to get the darn thing back before I can get the after shot. Right now it is in the possession of a two year old. Let’s see if he can succeed in its destruction where I failed.

– Blake