NATURE
The countryside fulfills me, it helps me relax.
I seek the country to get out of my everyday hasty routine.
The shooting is a bonus of sorts.
When I see a good scene with great light, I try to capture it and show it to others, too.
MACROPHOTOGRAPHY When I see a good scene with great light, I try to capture it and show it to others, too.
Apart from the scenery as a whole that I like to shoot, I enjoy photographing the tiny things, too.
Insects, flowers, the fine part of the landscape.
Macro means the miniature world that many people aren’t even aware of.
For example, in spring, there are lots of flowers in bloom in the forest, the anemones, the liverwort etc.
And I really love to capture the beauty of the blooms or the tiny insects that climb onto the flowers et cetera.
The extension tubes are in fact a cheap substitute for people who want to try the macro out for themselves.
But if you are really serious about macro photography, you get yourself a proper macro lens.
This will let you shoot the objects with beautiful, blurred background from up close.
The D90 has dual pixel auto focus.
It is the new mode of focus of these new cameras.
when I shoot macro with live view, you can just tap the display and the camera quickly focuses what you need.
It’s super-fast, it’s easy, just great.
It’s good to think of the background in a photo, too.
You want it blurry, the picture comes out really soft like that.
Because if I keep everything that’s in the forest, the trees, the branches, it’s really disturbing and the gentle flower won’t stand out the way you want.
2,8 aperture is good for the blurry background.
Unless it’s windy, you can go for longer exposure time.
Now, I have it set to 1/30.
I check if it’s sharp.
It’s not bad but I rather increase the ISO in order to cut the exposure time
I’m fine with ISO 1000.
Sometimes I even use flash.
The reason is when the natural light isn’t ideal, it’s a safe choice.
You can use it at home of course, but outside.
I use remote-controlled flash.
And I use it when it gets dark .
But I found some nice flower and I want to get the maximum out of a certain place.
I use the flash and it lets me do the photo a bit differently.
the flash...
For one, I choose the light exactly as I need it, I’m not dependent on what nature offers me.
Second, it lets me light the flower in a way that might be impossible for the natural sun.
Macro photography is a completely different view of the world.
It’s a view up close; many people don’t see it that way, they don’t see it at all,
and for me, it’s completely different, unlike the landscape.
You see the landscape all the time, but the macro is something...
that it’s a different world.
ANIMAL PHOTOGRAPHY
ANIMAL PHOTOGRAPHY When you’re shooting a dog, it’s good to choose one that is at least a bit obedient,
When you’re shooting a dog, it’s good to choose one that is at least a bit obedient,
because when the dog doesn’t listen to you, it’s pretty hard to shoot.
You may need to shoot it with a leash or on leash and that’s not great, it’s very different from when you let the dog loose.
It’s good to have a telephoto lens, it gives you a completely different,
more natural perspective.
It’s useful to use continual focus, because as the animal moves, the camera keeps focusing,
and when the dog gets closer, you can just push the shutter release
and the camera focuses on its own, depending on the distance, as the dog gets closer.
It’s good to use the sequence photo mode, with Canon D90, it means 10 photos per second.
Meaning the more photos, the more frames of the dog in motion you get
and you have plenty to choose from.
When shooting animals, it’s useful to study or observe the natural behaviour of the animal
Its natural environment, this can be interesting for example when shooting mating frogs etc.
It’s good to be able to predict the behaviour of the animal.
It’s the same with shooting sports,
it’s good to know the rules of the sport.
With the animals, it’s the same, you get to predict what it will do next.
LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY Good photography isn’t just about going out and finding a nice place to shoot.
It has to do with patience and sometimes,
you need to make sacrifices, set out early in the morning or late in the evening
and to get back to your spot
to capture it in the conditions you want.
I used to come to this one spot in the Krkonoše mountains over and over again until it worked.
In total, I came back 7 times.
Now we’re shooting at sunset.
I’d like the sun on the horizon to make a little star, so I set the aperture to f11.
The lowest ISO I can do, ISO 100 will have to do.
Exposure time ¼.
and I use the bracketing,
because I have a great dynamic difference between the front that would be very dark and the sky would be too light.
I shoot 3 frames that I later combine in the computer.
Camera sensors tend to have smaller dynamic range than the human eye that can see everything.
I come back to a number of places because rarely the conditions work out as you need.
For example, today, there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.
It’s ideal when you have a few clouds here and there, it’s much prettier, sometimes even dramatic.
So, when you are serious about shooting,
it’s good to come back to your spots in order for you photo to be strong and to capture the exact conditions you want.
You think of it in your head.
Apart from the photo, you may want to play with the time lapse function,
it’s built-in in the new cameras.
The older cameras don’t have this option, so you can just use this time release.
Basically, you set the interval of shooting,
then the camera just happily clicks away
and you get a great show out of this.
It’s sort of a fast film capturing the landscape, the sun moves, the clouds and shadows move quickly.
Today, the technology lets you do the unthinkable,
we have small and large sensors, expensive cameras, various lenses
nd in the end, it’s down to the author,
to the photographer who lives with the landscape, who returns there
and who imprints much of himself into the photo.