Get down

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO. -- I'm here in Colorado Springs on a commercial assignment. Yesterday I had the chance to visit the US Air Force Cadet Chapel again. I was looking for a different way to shoot a subject I've shot many times before. Remembering a time-tested formula, I just dropped to the floor and shot from an ant's perspective.


All my other past images were from standard eye height. Literally putting my camera on the floor gave me a couple advantages.


First, having it rest right on the floor eliminated the need for a tripod. I was able to brace the body on the floor. I clenched a fist and held the lense tight against it to elevate the front of the camera just slightly.


Having a steady platform is essential for getting sharp images in low light situations and believe me, this was low light.


Secondly, I gained a great reflective image in the foreground by being so close to the floor. I obviously lost some height by aiming lower, but I consider this a worthwhile tradeoff.


In most any situation, you'll be surprised by the interesting new perspective of shooting from ground level. Give it a try.

Welcome

Got photos? Got lenses? Got the photography or video bug? Got milk? If you've got at least three of the four, you've come to the right place.

If you can't stop shooting... if you want your images to do more than fill your harddrive... if you want to have more fun while reading fewer manuals - you've come to the right place.

In the weeks to come, I'll be sharing the wealth of information available for photographers and videographers who want to do more than take an occassional birthday shot. I'll be covering industry news, gear and accessories, new product introductions and even events where you can improve your skill or get inspired. In short, if I think it might be helpful, I'll be including it here.

This isn't a beginning photographer's blog, but we aren't aiming for the professionals either. You know who you are - the non-professionals who strive to make your shots every bit as good as the professionals do. That's not too much to expect, and you've arrived at the right place. I'll try to help you meet that goal. So let's dive in....

LIGHTROOM v2.3
If you take hundreds of photos per shoot, invariably you'll have lots of reviewing to do selecting the keepers. Keeping every shot you take can fill your hard drive in no time. While disk space is getting cheaper all the time, it still makes sense to keep your archive down to a manageable size. I've tried numerous software tools to review my days shoot, grading them as keepers or not. My hands-down favorite tool for the job is Adobe Lightroom version 2.

Lightroom version 1 was good, but it really came alive with version 2. If you haven't upgraded, you'll be glad you did. If you've never even tried Lightroom, download the free 30 day trial version from Adobe. If you have version 2 already, be aware they have released version 2.3, available now as a free upgrade for version 2 users.

HARD DRIVE BARGAINS
Speaking of hard drive space, you can't have too much storage. No matter what you have now, it tends to grow exponentially. I've tried many hard drive brands over the years (they all will fail eventually) but my choice now for best value and dependability is Iomega brand drives. They offer a great small form, metal cased unit that's great for backups while traveling.
I'd also suggest signing up for their newsletter. You'll get probably one email a week but that's the only way you'll see some really incredible sale items. I recently just bought three 1.25 Terrabyte drives from them for a mere $159.00 each. They work great, look good and bring storage prices down to an amazing 7.8 gigabytes for only $1.00.