FIRST: Dave Cesari updated the Photo shoot page with some great photos of a Cerulean Warbler.  If you want to see a Cerulean, you sure better click the “Photo Shoot Page” in the left column.

Be sure to check “Members – Out and About” – See Jim Dick loving to do what he does every day.

5/26/2019 update – TGO Photo Club members and friends receive Club communications via our our e-mail list. If you want to be on that list contact Susan Hubbard at rone_sue@bellsouth.net or txt Jim Brubaker at 321-693-0597.

MY EXPLANATION: Onward with my story about “Knowing why the photo was a real success:”

The quality (goodness) of a photo is judged by how well it accomplishes the reason the photo was taken. If you did not check out the 54 reasons I told you about in the last post,  click the “older posts” at the bottom of this page to see the last post.

In the Photo Club, we talk about photo perfection and of learning more about perfect composition, background, tone , color, and sharpness…………

I want to emphasize  – DO NOT LET ALL THAT TALK OF PERFECTION GET IN THE WAY OF YOU SNAPPING  YOUR PHOTOS YOUR WAY and having fun doing it.

For this post, I selected two reasons why my family and I whip out the camera, with little thought to photo perfection:

12. SHARE YOUR PERSPECTIVE:  The way you see the world is unique, and photography lets you share that unique perspective of life.

14. TELL A STORY:  Photography is a fantastic story-telling medium.  Whether you’re telling a story with one image, a sequence, a series, or an entire portfolio, the possibilities are endless.

I love my family and we enjoy life according to our unique family culture and history – we text multiple times per week with photos – showing photos that tell a story of what we did and thought about that day – Are the photos a perfect?  Is their composition just right? – I doubt it.  Are they all clear and  sharp?   I doubt it – but they sure make us happy to be able to tell each other of our days.

Here are a few recent text photos that came my way:

Here are two videos that I have received – they communicate family culture stories – hope you can view them on your screen:

CLICK HERE: A story of Heather’s love for life, animals, and the early morning

CLICK HERE: A story of Gloria’s personality and her passion for art.

Oh my, this week, I sent them the following just to show them my day in sunny Florida – our candidate for Florida’s state bug:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If sharing with family is one of your reasons – snap often and txt often – it will be one of your joys. Of course, participate in our (the TGO Photo Club’s) focus on learning more about photo perfection but do not let it get in the way of just having fun with your camera.

When you point your camera at a subject, you are focused on the subject.  It might be a deer, a flower, your family, or your spouse’s crazy antics.  Now the big question – how much did you focus on the background?

A great subject photograph requires a great background. So, when we photograph, do we consider all the elements that make up the scene.  If we do not, the final result may be far from what you want – You may not have that great photo of your subject.

The background is fundamental to the composition of the image -they can not be separated – together they emphasize the subject, prevent distractions, make it pleasing to the viewer, and help tell the story of your photograph.

A pure black back ground may not distract the viewer from your subject but it may be boring and it will not help tell the story you wanted to tell about your subject.  An element properly placed in the background can contribute significantly to the balance of the image, it can interact with your subject, and tell the story you want your photograph to tell.

TGO Photo Club members – tell us what you want in our “Education” and our “Birds of a Feather” sessions this fall – if “Learning more about background”  is your want, I am sure we can find someone to educate us.

The following images are presented here – not to suggest which is the greatest background for the subject – but they are presented here to show you differences.  It is my hope that  they trigger your mind to think about backgrounds:

 

YOU MIGHT ENJOY MY NEW RAMBLING – CLICK HERE or CLICK #4 (Jim’s Ramblings) IN LEFT SIDE PANEL.

“Do you see what I see?”

“Why are you a photographer?” Oh my! If you are not sure, ask your computer. How  to ask your computer? – well, just Google “54 Reasons to be a photographer.”  

On the web site that pops up, each of the 54 reasons has a paragraph explaining the reason.  I will only list a few of the titles here:

1. CAPTURE A MEMORY THAT YOU CAN HAVE FOREVER

2. NOTICE THE DETAILS

3. SEE THE BEAUTY IN THE EVERY DAY

4. LIVE IN THE PRESENT

5. FORGET YOUR WORRIES

6. SHARE IT WITH THE IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE

7. DOCUMENT YOUR FAMILY

8. CAPTURE THE AMAZING RANGE OF LOVE AND EMOTION IN KIDS

9. IT’S A CREATIVE OUTLET

10. MAKE ART

11. A GREAT CHALLENGE

12. SHARE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

13. EXPRESS YOURSELF

14. TELL A STORY

15. CAPTURE AN ADVENTURE

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49. HELP PEOPLE

50. EXPERIENCE DIFFERENT EMOTIONS FROM THE SAME PHOTO

51. TRAVEL IN TIME

52. COMMUNICATE ACROSS LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

53. MAKE MONEY

54. DEVELOP A LOVE FOR LIFE

I think my strongest reasons for being involved in photography are #9 thru #14 and I like to help (#49) club members.  I hope in some way these blogs are helpful. 

Reason #9 “As A Creative Outlet” is where I really have fun with  Photography and Photoshop. 

There is a book I recommend by Bryan Peterson “Learning to See Creatively.  From the Amazon Kindle store you can read a sample of this book for free.

If you read Bryan’s, book, You will have more fun with photography – regardless which of the 54 reasons are important to you. He (Bryan Peterson) helps you advance your personal vision. He offers exercises that promise to unleash the visionary in you.

Henry David Thoreau said, “The question is not what you look at but what you see”

Jim Brubaker said “Don’t worry about making the right image. If it is your image and making it was fun, how can it be a wrong image”

TGO Photo Club members – tell us what you want in our “Education” and our “Birds of a Feather” sessions this fall – if “Learning to See Creatively”  is your want, I am sure we can find someone to educate us.

So the other morning – thinking of this blog, I said to myself – get your cell phone and take a few creative photos.

Two links have been updated today (click in left-hand column):  “Jim’s Ramblings” and “Photo shoot images” by Gary Wittstock. After you look at them come back and read on.

You noticed that Gary talked of DOF – that prompted me to say, the art of photography is knowing what you want your photograph to look like.  Most likely it is not a view of reality – not a view as your eye saw it – it is a view that you think is pleasing to the mind of the viewer – in short it is art.

Well, DoF in photography stands for “Depth of Field” and it helps you make your photo truly your statement of your art of photography.

So which one the following two images is most pleasing to your mind – you the viewer?

The difference is depth of field (DoF).

Depth of field (DoF) is the distance between the nearest and furthest elements in a scene that appear to be “acceptably sharp” in an image. The distance between the camera and the first element that is considered to be acceptably sharp is called DoF “near limit.”

Three main factors that will affect how you control the depth of field of your images are: aperture (f-stop), distance from the subject to the camera, and focal length of the lens on your camera.

A large aperture gives a shallow depth of field (top). A small aperture gives greater depth of field (bottom).

But there is more to it than that:  As sensor size increases, the depth of field will decrease for a given aperture (when filling the frame with a subject of the same size and distance). This is because larger sensors require one to get closer to their subject, or to use a longer focal length in order to fill the frame with that subject.

But for now let us think only about what we want th depth of field to be in the photos we take (or make).  Before we study how to control depth we must know why we want to control it.

TGO Photo Club members – tell us what you want in our” Education” and our “Birds of a Feather” sessions this fall – if DoF is your want, I am sure we can find someone to educate us.

 

 

 

Dave Cesari posted a new set of photos on #2 Photo shoot images (See the side panel for the link.) These photos of Dave’s are not cell phone images.

Today I continue to think about the camera in my pocket – my cell phone –  Those cell phones are something – Did you know that you can trigger the shutter on them remotely – several different ways – If you are interested, let me know via a comment – I want to do more on these pages to help you leave comments cause those club members that post here love to get comments – For now you can always leave a comm on this page! I will see that the person who posted the photos you commented on get your comments.

Back to cell phones – I down loaded an ABC  App and now I can watch ABC news on my phone – no need to sit in front of a tv needed.

Thoughts on photography:

Wildlife photography requires thinking beyond the shutter speed, f-numbers, telephoto, white balance, etc.   Dave Cesari wrote a little of his thinking on how his blind saves him on equipment lugging effort. (See the bottom of this page.)  I wanted to get you thinking about why have a blind in the first place.

For successful wildlife photography, there are things to think about even if you do not have a blind – but they may prompt you to build one. . You must think about how you smell, to the animal, that is. You must think about the animal’s constant fear because other animals are out searching for food.  Yipes, says the first animal “I am the food.” 

Photographers have to think about the inner makeup of animals if they want to get close enough for a good photograph.

For example, some animals see mostly in black and white. If the photographer does not move, in black and white, the photographer blends right in to the background. So, the animal thinks – no problem – that thing I see is just a 5’8” tree stump or a tall skinny rock.

But move just a twitch, let the wind send your human smell, rustle your camera case cover, vibrate the ground with a heavy footstep and the animal now knows you are not just a 5’8” tree stump. The animal is gone, because they can hear, see movement, smell, and feel vibrations so much better than we do. Photographers need to think about hiding all that from the targeted subject so that the animal sees only a tree stump or a rock.

The blind is just like a big rock sitting there.  The animal says “No problem” rocks will not hurt me.  Most of your smell stays inside, your movements are not seen, and your sounds do not really leave the blind. So, say I, to get a good wildlife photo you have to be lucky or you have to hide inside a rock.

Dave Cesari wrote: Jim, Here are some pictures I thought  you might use on your new blog. They are a kind of a how to or how I did it. This is what we use to shoot the Wood Ducks and Ring-necked Duck I sent you. (Click  “2. Photo shoot images” in left sidebar  then to “older posts” at bottom of the page.) This is the photo blind we built a few years ago. I thought a few shots of the blind and the interior would be interesting. I got tired of lugging a heavy tripod out there. I got  the idea to mount tripod heads directly to 2X4s screwed to the front  wall. Works great. No more need to carry a tripod out there. There is also a shot of a friend in the blind behind his camera.  Cold and windy here today only 35 degrees F. with snow flurries on and off all day.   Dave

On the sidebar there are links that you can go to. Each of the four links  has recent updates.

I will try to devote this page to thoughts on photography and the TGO Photo Club.  I will attempt to update it weekly.  Please send me your thoughts on photography topics I could research and write about.

Photography has so many opportunities for different focus. Consider just a few:  Competing with other photographers, selling photographs, for sharing with family, for sharing through galleries and blogs,  as illustrations for a writer, as a digital art form, for documenting nature, for recording history, or just to learn something new – the list goes on. The list even includes “Just to have something to do.”

We can use expensive long telephoto lens or we use simple snap and shoot equipment.  Some of us will never post process – they want to show it as the camera saw it. Others may want to use the computer to create truly fake images from the photograph they snapped.

The TGO Photo Club will try to serve the interests and foci of all these people.  We will  hold  meetings for all.   Then, we my have smaller groups meet to serve “birds of a feather.”  That is my current thinking – but I sure need your thoughts.

So, let us all think about club activities for when we return to TGO in the fall.

Send to me at    jimbrubaker@earthlink.net        these three items:

1.  Your summer photos for me to post and share
2. Things you want me to research and print here on this page
3. Your thoughts on our 2019/2020 meetings and photo shoots

 

 

Note –  Bob Hazlett added photos to “What are we doing” but read on before going there.

My answer is: “Art and photography are essential to the human spirit for many reasons – Here are 3 reasons:

Photos makes you look: It’s hard to walk by a photo and not look at it. And then it makes you really look at it and wonder…everything from “what were they thinking?” to “who were they?” and “what are they doing?” them maybe wonder,  “why did they do that?” Look at Susan’s snapshots of a family event.

They give you a connection with the photographer and the subjects – what was their feeling at that moment – joy, laughter, empathy, desire,  wonderment……..

 Photos take you places: Look at the colors in Davids Wood Ducks, the eyes staring at you, the droplets of water from the beak. You can almost taste cool moist air from the lake, sense the stillness, and the see the emerging spring.  So, again, photos give you a connection with the photographer.  You will almost be there and sense the feeling of the photographer at that moment – joy, peace,  wonderment…….

Photos help you learn:  Observational learning is the process of learning through watching others and then being influenced by the behavior’s that were observed.   By looking at the photos of others we obverse all kinds of things – From learning what mastering the skills of photography can produce – like a perfect image, to learning how others have better enjoyed social interactions with family by sharing snapshots  with each other and friends – like Club members.

The TGO Photo Club, in the winter in Florida, helps us better enjoy this human-spirit essential. But we have at least 6 months without meetings.   So, I said I would help members continue to share during the summer through my blog.

Here is my new format to this blog:

1. “What are we doing” – Many of these photos will be shot with little set-up time.  It is an unplanned happening that tells the story. Here, even the cell phone camera is a wonderful tool to help you socialize with friends and neighbors by showing them “what they were doing”.  Through the web, Club members should be encouraged to share stories about what they are doing – Including photos taken with cell phone cameras and pocket-size cameras at any summer activity.  Sort of a Wheel of Fortune “What are we doing”?  Skills of art like composition, tone, texture, etc. are always important but what I want to encourage here is to tell a story of your activity when it happens.
2.  “Photo shoot images” – Some photos I deemed to have been shot while waiting for it to happen – maybe sitting in a  blind, maybe with tripods, and  complex equipment.  The camera is a wonderful tool to help you socialize with friends and neighbors by sharing “what they saw”.   Through the web members should be encouraged to development and improve their skills with “planned” photo shoots –  produce beautiful photographs of natural and man-made objects.  A planned photo shoot where you have time to practice skills of art like patients, composition, tone, texture, etc.
3.  “Digital photo art”   Some examples of photos that succumbed to the extremes of post processing!  Since I enjoy learning to create my own mental (maybe demented) version of digital art using photographs and PhotoShop – I can not help but try to make this website encourage Club members to develop better skills in digital post processing.

Therefore, send me images to share:  Send them to jimbrubaker@earthlink.net  If you can resize them to be 600 pixels high, it will make my job easier.  And send 6 or less per e-mail.  If re-sizing is not easy at your end – send them anyway – I am sure I can deal with it.    THANKS – Lets see where all this will take the Club this summer.

 

 

 

As TGO Photo Club members migrate to their spring/summer/fall activities I am going to attempt to offer a forum for members to share the joy of their activities with other club members. I want to help them tell their story through photos – stories snapped with their cell phones – or stories snapped on the spur of the moment using their cameras that just happened to be with them.

I will try to have two Club pages on this website throughout the summer – 1. The TGO Photo Page that you can click on in the left hand column and 2. The TGO Story Page that for right now will be this page that you are reading.

First click on the TGO Photo Page to see Dave Cesari’s NY spring snow and birds enjoying the snow at his feeders.  Dave wrote: “Hi Jim, A lovely spring day here in upstate NY. The plus side is it makes birds come to the feeders. A Cardinal, Fox Sparrows & a Morning Dove.  Dave”

Then scroll down – In the future, I hope to get photos from Club members so that I never have to use my own photos again.  I want to provide this space for club members to tell their story with each other.

To get started,  I will post a few cell phone photos that tell you my story of last week -seeing things in the great outdoors right here around the Great Outdoors – all taken within the last week or so with my cell phone while I spend most of my spare time enjoying The Great Outdoors’ great outdoors.

 

 

Over the next 6 months, I am hoping to post slide shows, once every two weeks,  with photos from TGO Photo Club members as they enjoy their summers.  Being that you all are residents of The Great Outdoors (TGO) – an RV, Golf, & Nature Resort – The TGO Photo Club is betting, during the summer, your travels and experiences offer some great photos to share.  The Club wants to provide you a new on-line way to do that sharing.

As a test of one approach, I created a 1 minute 30 second slide show using my own photos from summers on Drummond Island.  Tell me if you can view it on your computer, phone, and iPad,   (jimbrubaker@earthlink.net).  If this approach works, you could send me photos, and like “Show and Tell” at our winter meetings, we could continue to “Show and Tell” during the summer.

First check out Dave Cesari’s Nuthatches and Woodpeckers – click TGO Photo Club link in left hand column.

Then com back here and see a “Show and Tell” of a  DRUMMOND SUMMER: