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On the Road to Yakima

Took a nice trip between Yakima to Portland on Sunday.

Packed my Canon 60D and 3 lenses: 16-35mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8. The Multnomah Falls looked great – a lot of Spring runoff combined with an awesome day. The 16-35mm really came in handy to fit the waterfall in the frame.

Composition rules and Nature tips from my EasyDSLR course will help for these kinds of photos- and, of course, exposure settings…

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The MOST Dangerous setting of Your DSLR

This Sample tip from EASYDSLR Course – http://easydslr.com gives you the answer.

My Vote for the most dangerous setting in the DSLR menu system is… *insert drum roll*

  • “Release shutter without card” (DISABLE this) in Nikon DSLR cameras it can be hidden in the custom functions as “Release enable”

Format and Delete on your Digital Camera are certainly dangerous too. But they are more obvious – the reason I chose the above feature is because a lot of DSLR owners may not realize it’s an option.

Imagine the dread after you finish an important shoot – like your best friend’s graduation, or worse, a destination wedding ceremony – and reach in to grab the memory card and find that the slot is empty – YOU HAVE NO CARD IN THE CAMERA!

That is what that setting can result in. Sure – you get warnings popping up on the LCD but I know that in those situations 90% of the time you are looking through the viewfinder not wanting to miss a single moment.

My advice (ignore at your peril): Make sure it is DISABLED on your Canon and set to “Release locked” on your Nikon (this is the Default for Custom setting no. f4 for the Nikon D5100 for example).

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Magnolias in Downtown Seattle

Some amazing Magnolias I photographed in Downtown Seattle using a Canon 60D and a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. It was bright sunlight and a regular exposure did not bring out the color in the flowers.Too much lighting contrast and range.

Solution: I took a series of 3 exposures for each photo and used Photomatix Pro to combine the images into single HDR (High Dynamic Range) Images. There is a Video on HDR imaging in the Gold Membership of EasyDSLR Digital Photography Course. HDR can be used with more subtlety to get closer to how we see the moment.

Sometimes it can be fun getting the ‘Other-worldly’ looks using HDR … it can get really crazy and overdone. I’m more of a fan of using HDR to make a scene look more natural – they way we ‘see’ it in our mind.

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Hidden Panorama – Part 2

Cannon Beach Panorama with Canon 60DI took this photo at Cannon Beach, Oregon, a week ago.

(Click on the image once then again to get a larger view).

It’s another good example of a ‘Hidden Panorama’ taken with my Canon 60D. I used a fairly slow shutter speed of 1/10 sec (on a tripod) which gave a bit of a ‘painterly’ effect on the moving water and Gulls.

Processed with Florabella Classic Color and Soft Warmth to bring back a little of the warmth in the sand.

I will have the Video available soon giving you some more examples of Hidden Panoramas and some tips to extract them.

Nature Photos are a great source of Hidden Panoramas – I have a Video dedicated to Nature Photos in the Gold Membership of my EASYDSLR Course.