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May 17, 2016 by PhotoKen

Creative Kit XXL – Macphun’s BEST Bundle

Macphun have drawn together an amazing bundle of Software, Resources and Training in this year’s Creative Kit.

I was honored that they approached me to include my EasyDSLR Blue Photography Course along with training from a handful of other highly respectable photographers.

The Photo editing Software that they have included in the bundle are all Mac based but they have made 2 Versions of the bundle – One for Mac (including Software) and one for PC users (at a lower price – excluding Mac software).

Click one of the images below for more details.

Mac version:

PC version:

Macphun have raised the bar on value with this bundle – it is for a LIMITED TIME so click one of the images above to see all the wonderful ‘goodies’ that are included in the bundles.

P.S. I may be a little biased – with my EasyDSLR couse being included in the bundle – but even without my course I feel there is way more value than the asking price – get in before the deadline runs out (the image above is a screen shot – there will be less time left on the bundle – ends at the end of May 2016).

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March 12, 2016 by PhotoKen

Photography is a Journey not a Destination

Photography has always been about enjoying the journey for me, I guess that’s why I have a camera on every trip 🙂

As part of my journey and as a way to share what I’ve learned with others I am opening up My New Digital Photography Program…

It’s called Digital Photography Insiders (DPinsiders) and is going to be a Journey of Photography Discovery where members get weekly video training and inspiration as well as Live monthly Q&A calls.

I am excited to to bring this program to people and give them an opportunity to embark on this Journey with me – I have spent a couple of years thinking through how I can make this program most effective.

The essence has been distilled into 3 main strategies I use to help enthusiasts and beginners progress in their photography:

The Power of Triangles (Power of 3)
Kaizen – small achievable steps
80:20 – the Pareto Principle where 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts

I did an inside launch early this year and am getting great feedback from the early members and I am confident now to have the public launch.

Click the link below to learn more and Register for the Launch (you will get the significant launch discount as well).

Click here to find out more about DPinsiders

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November 24, 2015 by PhotoKen

Bringing in the Horses – fairly High ISO

Sunset Photo – “Bringing in the horses” – Canon 5D Mark III at ISO 6400

Sometimes you just need to use a higher ISO (in this case ISO 6400) to get the Shutter Speed you want…

Shutter Speed was set at 1/160 sec as I wanted the horses to be fairly sharply focused (and not motion blurred).

I did need to get fairly aggressive with the noise reduction in Adobe Lightroom (Luminance 52 and Color 36) – it results in a little softness – bordering on ‘painterly’ when zoomed in. I chose to have a little softness through noise reduction rather than a LOT of motion blur that would have resulted from a slower shutter speed.

Usually, I would keep ISO around 1600 or lower if I want really low noise on my images but that’s not always possible if light is low and subjects are moving.

When it comes to ‘ideal settings’ Photography is often a trade off in quality. What will result in the best possible image?

It’s also about removing the biggest obstacles in your photography. In most cases people can improve their images dramatically be removing the biggest photography hurdle first – the thing is – the number one hurdle is different for different people – Click here to find out Your # Photography Hurdle

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May 10, 2015 by PhotoKen

Happy Mother’s Day and a Chance Capture…

Merganser bird photo

Happy Mother’s Day! – this photo is dedicated to all those mother’s out there who seem to be able to ‘run on water’ with their amazing ability to manage the kids, the household, careers and hobbies all with a smile 🙂

I took this photo the other day at the creek near my house.

Totally unplanned…

I had just taken some creek photos and was relaxing looking over the water when I saw this colorful bird cruising on the surface at the corner of my eye.

I slowly reached for my camera so as not to startle the bird (fortunately I had my 70-200mm f/28L lens on my Canon 5D Mark III at the time).

By the time I had my right hand on the camera, ready to pick it up, I saw our dog Bali (the Australian Shepard / Border Collie mix) charging towards the creek in the left corner of my view…

She had spotted the Common Merganser on the water – leaving me all of 1 or 2 seconds to get the camera to my eye and snap off a few shots.

I managed to get 4 shots as the bird took flight from the water. The one above was the best.

The ISO was really low – set at 100. Typically for action photography I would choose an ISO of 400-1600 to get a faster Shutter Speed.

As it turns out my camera was set to Aperture priority (which I recommend leaving your camera on) and set to Aperture f/3.5 and the Meganser was in the sun so I had a Shutter Speed of 1/320 sec. This gave me a reasonably fast shutter speed but you can still notice some movement blur as I was zoomed in at 200mm.

Panning with the bird, as it ran on the water, did help keep it in fairly good focus. But you will notice some blurring which I find gives a better feeling of motion.

This is the track and pan method I describe in my “Shutter Speed” video of the DSLR Basics Module in my EasyDSLR Digital Photography Course (Blue Membership).

If you want to learn this method…

OR are just a little curious about what else is in the course then head over to my >Special for Blue Membership here< This Special is for limited time – click the link to see how much time is remaining.