Today's Awesome Guest Blogger: Rob Knight

My friend Rob Knight is today's awesome guest blogger. Today he shares his five tips for successful pix your next tropical trip. Take it away, Rob.

Summer is here and I’m excited about hitting the road! I take two big trips to shoot and teach in Costa Rica each year, and I’m getting ready for the first of the two in June. As I prepare for my trip I thought I would share a couple of tips that might help you during your next trip to the rain forest.

1.  Keep your eyes peeled. It’s a good idea to do research ahead of time and plan for shots you would like to make, but don’t let your plans get in the way of unexpected opportunities. There is so much going on in the rain forest that it’s easy to focus on one subject and miss a hundred others. A good guide can act as a second set of eyes and help you make the most of every situation.

2.  Bring your flash. Even if you’re going somewhere sunny, it’s a good idea to bring along some light of your own. You can use daylight fill-in flash to control contrast during the day, or use flash at night when you couldn’t make a frame otherwise. I also use a flash for almost all of my wildlife and macro photography.

3.  Aperture Priority mode. The light can change quickly in the rain forest. I like to shoot in aperture priority mode so I can control the depth of field, and I let the camera worry about the shutter speed unless I specifically need to freeze or show motion. This is a really quick way to work in rapidly changing light. I don’t have anything against manual exposure mode, but I’d hate to miss a shot because I was trying to decide on the right shutter speed. (Hey Rob, I agree - Rick)

4.  Exposure compensation. When I let my camera choose the shutter speed I still want to decide how my images will look. With zero compensation the camera will overexpose the dark canopy of the rain forest. I usually start with -1EV to capture the saturated colors in the forest or a beautiful sunset. If you’re shooting a bright scene like a tropical beach you might need to dial in +1EV or more so the image isn’t underexposed.

5.  Review your photos each day. If at all possible, you should download your photos each night and give them a quick look. Chances are if you didn’t get the shot you wanted you can go back the next day and try it again. The last thing you want to find out when you return home from a trip abroad is that the shot you thought you nailed is out of focus.

Costa Rica is one of my favorite places to shoot. There are so many opportunities to shoot wildlife, people, landscapes, you name it! I’d be happy to show you around sometime and help you improve your photography. As I write this I have a couple of cabins available for my all-inclusive Costa Rica workshop this September. Visit my site  for more information and to register online.

Thanks again to Rick for having me on his blog. I hope to see you soon!

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Close Encounters with Force Fields and Spaceships on Photo Workshops

At the first photo shoot on the first day of most photo workshops, photographers show up and something interesting usually happens: invisible force fields are produced. The photographers set up their tripods at about the same place and about at the same height. Basically, everyone is locked into about the same position – taking about the same shot. 

Of course, there are times when there is a "best place" to take the "iconic" shot. But after taking that iconic shot, I suggest to my workshop students that they use a camera like a spaceship – moving it left and right (sometimes inches, feet, yards and so on), up and down, and back and forth – for unique photo positions. Often times, the workshop participants come up with images that make them smile more so than the iconic image.

Here is a link to some of their images taken on my workshops. Good stuff. No?

I also suggest to the students that they envision a final crop - because cropping gives us a second chance at creative composition.  

If you need some hints on creative composition, check out my Kelby Training class: Composition - the strongest way of seeing on my On-line Classes page.

Of course, I also suggest thinking like painter and shooting like an artist - with creative plug-in effects in mind. If you are new to the idea of using plug-ins, you can download and save a few-bucks on my favorite plug-ins here.

I am planning "Think Like a Painter and Shoot/Process Like an Artist" workshops here in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. The workshops will be designed around creative shooting and Photoshop/plug-in processing. Shoot me an email to get on the info list. 

So my friends, the next time you go on a workshop, use your camera like a spaceship and avoid force fields. :-) 

Explore the light,
Rick

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We Have a Ton of Fun My Photo Workshops

If you are new to my digital photography workshops, here's the thing: sure, we work hard at making and processing our pictures. But we also have a ton of fun, as illustrated by this group shot from my Oregon Coast Photo Caravan.

We have plenty of time to shoot and process our images. That processing time, by the way, is very, very important. It's a great way to learn and to grow as a photographer and image-maker. In those sessions, you see what you are doing right and doing wrong.

What's more, you can look over the shoulders of the other photographers in the group to see how they are shooting and processing. Of course, I am there to share with you my digital darkroom tips, tricks and techniques.

You may have heard of workshops where there are no processing sessions (or maybe just 1). That's a big missed opportunity for learning. So, if you attend one of my workshops, I encourage you to attend all those sessions. But, if you are tired and have jet lag, take a nap and we'll catch you later.

I will be with you most of the time - from dawn to dusk and beyond. If you are traveling alone, you will always have someone to hang out with - if you so choose. Again, you may have heard of workshops where the leader drops the group off and says, "We'll meet back here in three hours." I know of one workshop where that actually happened three times! That will not happen on my workshops.

You will be part of a team, working toward the same goal: to make great pictures and to have fun doing just that!

We have a welcome dinner during which we'll all get to know each other. We also have a goodbye dinner and a group slide show.

That group slide show is, for me personally, the highlight of a workshop. That's when we all see the fruits of our hard work.

Finally, I have found that the more one puts into a workshop, the more one gets out of the workshop. So ask questions, make friends, get to know the other workshop participants. Have fun. Be fun.

I hope to see you on one of my workshops. 

Explore the light,
Rick

New Gallery: Camargue Horses

I just created a new gallery on my site for my new Camargue Horses images. Enjoy!

Just click on Galleries on the left to view the images, and all the images in my different Galleries. All images for sale. Signed and shipped flat.

Hey, did you know that when you create a new Squarespace gallery and have the Squarespace iPhone and iPad app your images are automatically transferred to your mobile device? How cool.  Read about that here.

Explore the light, 
Rick

Another Camargue Horses Image

Here's another favorite - perhaps my favorite - Camargue horses image.

Tips:
– Separation is the key. I got kinda lucky here, but I was watching for it and moved back and forth to get it.
– The background can make or break the shot. I got down low to isolate the two main horses from the background.

I teach this kinda stuff on my workshops (listed on the left side of this page). I hope you can join the photo fun someday.

Explore the light,
Rick

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