Introducing Rick Sammon's Butterfly Wonders – an interactive iPad app for nature lovers & close-up photographers

Rick Sammon's Butterfly Wonders – my interactive iPad app for nature lovers and close-up photographers, is here! The interactive iPad app features my favorite photographs of living butterflies – exotic species from around the world.

To celebrate the app, I am giving away 10 free redeem codes. Scroll down for info.

Co-developed with wildlife photographer Juan Pons, the app was designed to convey the beauty of the butterfly, and to share with butterfly enthusiasts – and nature photographers – fascinating facts about these amazing creatures. Fifty-five photographs, each accompanied by detailed camera/exposure information, illustrate the Butterfly Wonders section.

To help photographers capture their own beautiful close-up pictures of butterflies, Butterfly Wonders includes a comprehensive Photographing Butterflies section. Twenty-eight images illustrate my tips, trick and techniques. I was going to produce a separate app on close-up photography, but I decided to include this how-to information as a bonus in Butterfly Wonders.

Butterfly expert Alan Chin Lee supplied the scientific information, as well as fun facts, for each butterfly (and moth). For example, did you know that once a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis it never grows any larger? And did you know that silk moths have no mouth with which to feed?

In the Emersion section, the app illustrates one of Mother Nature’s miracles of transformation – an animal that starts out life as a crawling sack of goo and changes into a beautiful flying flower.

The app also takes the viewer on a visual journey, via the Migration section, to Sierra Chinqua in Michoacan, Mexico, where I photographed in a colony of more than 30 million monarchs during their annual migration. In this app, Dr. Thomas Emmel, a world-renowned butterfly expert, writes about this journey in a beautiful essay. Both Dr. Emmel and Mr. Lee were with me in Sierra Chinqua when I photographed the monarchs.


The butterfly, with its amazing metamorphosis from a crawling caterpillar into a vivid and graceful winged creature, symbolizes the infinite potential within every living creature to evolve: from darkness into light, ugliness into beauty, and lethargy into activity.

Rick Sammon's Butterfly Wonders, and the life of a butterfly, is a coming-of-age-story in the most profound sense. As an exotic metaphor for transcendence and renewal, the butterfly has been celebrated in art, literature, dance, fashion, myth, and spirituality throughout history and in cultures around the world. Now, the butterfly is celebrated in the first iPad app on living butterflies.

How did I get so many close-up shots of butterflies? Well, I captured the butterflies with my Canon digital SLR cameras, Canon macro lenses and Canon ring lights. The ability to see every shot immediately on my camera's LCD monitor allowed me to make critical exposure and lighting adjustments on site. That was of the utmost importance, due to subject movement, changing lighting conditions and the reflectivity of some of the butterflies.

Here’s what Maria Morris Hambourg, former Curator, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, said in a review about my butterfly photographs: “For their inclusive vision, sumptuous textures and colors, and the sheer wonder these finely detailed descriptions of butterflies awaken in us, I think Rick Sammon’s photographs are marvels.”

Thanks Maria!

For more info and to order, click here.

Click here to see my other apps.

To celebrate the app, I am giving away 10 free redeem codes:

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Note: To redeem a code, go to the home screen of the App Store and click "Redeem" in the upper right hand corner. Enter your redemption code and sync your iPad (in this case). Make sure to do so immediately as promo codes do expire and cannot be replaced if this occurs. Sorry friends around the globe, but the codes only work in the US App Store. Also note that the process for redeeming a code is Apple's standard process, not ours.


That's me on the left and Alan on the right.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. Is this cosmic or what? I found this butterfly chair shortly before the app was approved!

DSLR HD Videos: Steady Shooting and Superb Sound are Key

When it comes to shooting HD videos with your digital SLR, steady shooting and superb sound quality are super important. Of course, if you want your video to look like Hurt Locker, you can hand-hold your camera as you run down the street at top speed. For steady results, however, you'll need some sort of camera support.

In the above photograph, the videographer is using a shoulder mount (Cavision RS5DM2SET-F Shoulder Mount Package) to steady his camera – actually my Canon 7D :-)

The shoulder mount is very effective and gives you mobility while shooting in the field. However, for super steady shots, you'll want a very sturdy tripod with a video head that is designed specifically for movies, such as the Manfroto 701HDV Pro Fluid Video Mini Head shown below. Ahhhhh, don't ya just love smooth pans and tilts.


When shooting videos, you'll get less camera shake with wide-angles lenses than you will with telephoto lenses – which is also true for still photographs.

Also note that you can reduce some camera shake in Final Cut Pro by using the Smooth Cam feature.

Sound - it's more important than you may think. In fact, great sound can save a poor quality video – but not vice versa.

First off, you want to use an accessory mic, such as the Rode Video shotgun mic – shown in the opening photo with a Pearson Fuzzy Windjammer.

Placing a mic on boom (such as the Rode Mini Boompole) is even an better idea than using an camera-mounted mic – because the mic is closer to the subject.

Another option is to use wireless lapel mics, such as the Sennheiser EW112-0 G3 system. The Sennheiser receivers for a two-mic set up, along with a BeachTek mixer, are shown in the photo below. In that photo, the sound is being recorded directly to the CF card.


Sure, you can record directly to the CF card in the camera. The results are okay. For best results, however, you'll want to use an external recorded, such as the Zoom H4n, which is attached to the rig in the opening photo with several rubber bands. Yes, mounting brackets are available, but hey, if pros can use duck tape, you can use rubber bands.

Note: You still need to record the sound to the CF card, as you'll need that sound track to sync your off-camera mic recording.

One more thought, for now, on sound: You must wear good headphones when shooting. Not only do you want to check the volume and quality of your sound, but you want to VERY carefully listen for background noise and audio "hits." These hits can be caused by everything from fabric rubbing on the mic to an HD signal (depending on which channel you have selected for your mic) to an iPhone.

I have heard these hits/clicks on several recordings. They ranged from being barely noticeable to being so obvious that they ruined the video.

Let me know here if you'd like to see more posts on shooting videos with you digital SLR camera.

If you want to see a cool digital SLR HD video by my friend/co-founder of the Digital Photo Experience, Juan Pons, click here. Now that is steady!

For a list of the DSLR video gear I recommend, click here.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. As you noticed, the videographer in the opening photo has both eyes open. If you learn how to shoot with both eyes open, you'll have a better chance of keeping an eye (so to speak) on what's happening around the main action in your viewfinder. This technique could save you from tripping while walking and shooting, and could save your shot by letting you know if something or someone is about to enter/ruin the scene.

Fashion Week Day 2: Try the KIS Lighting Technique

When I'm shooting on location, I like to keep the lighting simple and easy – using only one light whenever possible. It's called the Keep It Simple (KIS) technique. My graffiti wall shot is an example. It's amazing what one can do with just one light!

For the main added light, I used my Canon Speedlite 580EX II in a Westcott softbox. I fired the flash remotely with my Pocket Wizard. I say added light because the daylight also played a major role in the lighting.

My goal was to use a mix of the two light sources. Setting my camera on manual, I controlled that mix. As I increased the shutter speed, the amount of natural light entering the camera decreased – increasing the effect of the added light . . . and therefore increasing the shadows in the image.

You will notice some shadows in the opening image for this post. Look closely at the model's face. Below you see the effect of balancing the light from the flash to the available light: virtually no shadows. Again, look at her face.

When shooting with only one added light source, I always have reflectors and diffusers on hand.

Below, my good friend/excellent photographer, Vered Koshlano, who found the model and who styled the shoot, is holding a reflector. In this case, the reflector helps to fill in the shadows that were caused by the added light falling on the face of the model, Minyoung Cheong.

Vered is using the reflector from my Rick Sammon's Light Controller and Tote, produced by Westcott.

I use a diffuser when strong, natural light needs to be diffused.

Re using a soft box (or any light source):
• The closer the light, the softer the light.
• The larger the light, the softer the light.
• For a softer light, don't aim the light directly at the subject. Rather, feather it (tilt it away from the subject) so that the light "spills" onto the subject.

Tomorrow's topic: Styling.

For more on lighting, see my book, co-authored with Vered, Studio and On-Location Lighting Secrets.

To see more of Vered's work, click here.

For a list of my gear, click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

For this shoot, I used my Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 24-105mm IS lens.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. If you are a scuba diver, you may have noticed a wight belt on the base of the light stand. When using a soft box or umbrella outdoors, using a weight of some sort may save your light (which can become a sail) from crashing to the ground in a gust of wind. Weights are a good idea indoors, too.

Fashion Week – Day 1: Background/Setting is Key

One of the elements that adds impact to the picture in the previous post is the totally cool background. I chose it after driving around Queens, New York for three hours – checking out different backgrounds and settings for the model shoot.

The "hip" wall was perfect for the shoot, because it complemented the "hip" model. What's more, the wall was in the shade, which made controlling the light easier than had the wall been in harsh sunlight.

Positioning the model in just the right spot took some time, because I wanted the viewer's attention to go directly to the model's face.

You see my basic lighting setup in the behind-the-scenes photograph. Basic lighting is tomorrow's topic.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. Here are three more examples of how the background/setting complements the subject. Your assignment: Find a background that complements the subject, take a shot, and post a link in the Comments section of this post.

I guess I have a thing for graffiti!

Fashion Week This Week on My Blog

Starting tomorrow, I will post a picture from a recent shoot – along with a tip –every day here on my blog.

As you will see, you don't need a lot of expensive gear to get cool photographs.

I hope you tune in!

Explore the light,
Rick