Here are the first twenty (or so) tips....
Baydog from 829 south drive explained the most fundamental tip: Have your camera (or iPhone) with you at all times ... even in the toilet.
On Tuesday, Mitch at Bone in Its Teeth told us that, speaking of cameras, Any old thing will do, but make sure you always have it with you.
And then on Wednesday, Mitch promised us a whole series of posts on photo tips for watery bloggers. In the Introduction he told us a little about his photographic background, and listed the 15 topics he intends to cover in the series.
On Thursday he continued the Introduction with more information about his "photo chops".
Also on Thursday he told us in Getting the shot that you need to have your camera with you at all times, you need to be familiar with it, and the camera needs to be prepped for instant shooting.
And on the same day in Supermodel Bodies he went into details on the question of what brand/type of photo gear you should have/use/buy.
Then Mitch rounded out the week on Friday with some advice on lenses in It's all about the glass.
Captain JP gave us a double feature with a picture puzzle and a tip that pictures with both something in the foreground and background are usually more interesting than just having one of them.
Bonnie of Frogma in BRING OUT YER DEAD! gave us a sad photo that proved her point that, "Cameras are replaceable." Apparently you can buy waterproof cameras but you can't get ones that are 100% guaranteed bonnie-proof!
Joe Rouse of the horse's mouth seems more excited about this group writing project than he has been about some of our other ones. Joe is usually a man of few words and he has realized that a "tip" only needs to be one sentence, and that such a tip is even more effective if you have a photo to illustrate it. So far he has contributed...
Always have a camera with you.
There are some things that shouldn't be photographed.
And You can't go wrong taking a photograph of a wahine.
I look forward to reading more tips from you this week. Remember you don't need to write an essay. Be like Bonnie and Joe if you want. A one sentence tip and a photo to illustrate it will be fine. Post your tip (or essay) on your blog and send me an email with a link to it. Full details at Photography for Bloggers 101.
14 comments:
This blogger (me) doesn't need photographic tips as much as he needs a new camera!
Why is that Doc? What's wrong with your current camera? What kind of camera would you like to have? How would that improve your photos? Could you take some kind of shots that your current camera can't? Would it improve the quality of the kind of subjects you do take now? If so, how?
Please do write us a post on your blog to answer these burning questions? Millions of your faithful readers are demanding answers.
Look at this photo. Two dark blurs appear in the middle of the photo. This is an intermittent error: doesn't appear on all shots. But it ruins the shots whenever it appears. Clearly, the lens is damaged, needs cleaning. But my experience with these type (can't find mine at the moment) is that it is cheaper to replace them than service them.
Wrong link. This shot.
Doc, if I had to guess I'd say that is dirt or water drops on the lens (it could be beer or tequila drops, too, but that would require further research).
The blobs would be more or less noticeable depending on how far out the lens is zoomed, how far away the subject is, and lens aperture (which varies with brightness of the scene and some other factors).
Dirt on the lens is probably responsible for more UFO and ghost sightings every year than anything else.
Tequila drops on the lens!
Extra credit for the first blogger who writes a post with this title.
Interesting things about the deaths of the last two Optio WP's - they both died just as the lenses were getting just scratched-up enough that I was thinking about replacing them. They come from the factory with lenses so smooth that water droplets don't form easily, and when they do, a quick dip in the water clears it off. However, they haven't got any sort of lens cover so after a couple of years being stuffed into lifejacket pockets, they end up with scratches - not enough to even show up in the pictures, but enough that water droplets can anchor themselves on them. When you tend to take your camera into surf zones and out in the rain or are just habitually out in a kayak or a dinghy where there's just a lot of water on you, this actually makes the camera really hard to use.
My friend Steve H, the Paddling Chef, has made himself a very nice little case out of closed-cell phone - this serves both to protect the lens and to keep the camera floating if dropped in the water. I do always have a float on mine & that's actually saved me SEVERAL cameras - I really should make one for whatever I get to replace the W80.
I am really hard on my cameras, though. I follow the suggestion that Baydog and others made of always taking it with me. Only one of the 3 died a more or less natural death. W1 died when I took a chance & took it out in a surf session even though I knew the battery compartment hinge might be bent (later editions the compartment cover changed from hinged to sliding, so I must not have been the only person to do that). The middle one (not sure what generation that was) just started freezing up & eventually died on a perfectly calm day. W80 was starting to do that but I hastened the demise by involving it in in a situation weekend before last where I had to board a motorboat in five-foot chop.
I was actually very happy that my camera was the only thing that got broken that day.
The Lumix G-1 gets coddled though. Cushy case, lens covers, on-land or keelboat use only...that one, I don't regard as replaceable.
Good, good, good...I hope you have something like a DiCAPac for taking it sailing on a keelboat.
O Swami of Sacramento please bless us your wisdom on taking good pics. (you don't want the public depending on hacks like me)
Joe, I like your fish photos better than anything I've ever taken.
Uh oh. What's a DiCAPac, do I need to get one before I go to Estonia, and would the average gigantic camera store carry one?
O Swami of San Francisco please bless us your wisdom on how you get all those lovely young ladies to take off their clothes and hold big fish while you photograph them.
Good news tonight! I was going to go get a replacement for the W80 tomorrow or Wednesday, but tonight I ran across the battery as I was rummaging through my backpack looking for something else. I wasn't expecting anything to happen but since I had it in hand I figured that I'd just try it one more time. It worked!
I will probably not assume that it's actually waterproof until I send it to the Pentax repair center to see if the gasket needs replacing (like drysuits, you're supposed to have that done once every couple of years) or the door got pushed off-kilter during the Sandy Hook situation, but I think it'll do as a pocket-sized point-and-shoot if we have any days in Estonia that are rainy enough to make me want to leave the Lumix below.
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