Fotos by Carlos

Joel Sartore's Fundamentals of Photography series for The Great Courses has me trying to be more intentional about backgrounds in my fotos. One of the tricks I've been practicing for this is to use the sky as background. The beach was too crowded to get a clean background, so I pointed the camera up. This sign has loomed over a shopping center in Hialeah, FL (my favorite city!), since before I was born. It's pretty much instantly recognizable to anybody familiar with the area.

As I work my way through National Geographic's Fundamentals of Photography course, I'm learning to be much more intentional in composing a shot. Below, some examples of shots that I feel are relatively well composed. Some are better than others, but all show something I was trying to make happen. This slash pine is small, and there's so much going on in the background that it's hard to get a sense of it. Changing my perspective lowers the horizon line, cleans up the background and lends drama to this small tree. Here again, a low horizon and lots of sky behind the royal palm communicates height and drama. The roofline and posts, along with railing and bars on the doors, all add structure and frame this shot nicely. This ended up being one of my fave shots from a recent Bahamas cruise. Wish I could have caught more of the goats, but I like the way the fencing frames the shot, and rule of thirds draws your eye to the girls, who were fascinated by a f...

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. I've had limited access to my computer over the last few days, and trying to update via iPhone is an exercise in frustration. I'll try to get back to a more regular schedule this week. Meantime, let's talk white balance. If you've read my previous posts, you know that I've benefitted greatly from watching National Geographic's Great Courses DVD on fundamental photography. I can't recommend this course enough, as it's made me think about the fotos I'm taking in ways that have noticeably improved my photography. Most recently, I've watched the lessons regarding lighting, which have some great tips on how to light a subject using both ambient and introduced light. The host, photographer Joel Sartore, also mentioned white balance, about which I've thought very little before now. Sartore mentions that auto white balance (which I used basically all the time) tries to mimic our eyes' adjustment to d...

It's been raining in SoFla for days with no break, so it was a relief when today turned out to be scattered thunderstorms instead of constant thunderstorms. Gave me a chance to do some work stuff I've needed to do, plus I got to take a few fotos. I focused on exposure and trying to set up shots so that I don't clip highlights, after covering that in the National Geographic course I've been watching. Turns out, a cloudy day can be great for shooting, but it's a little tricky to shoot in a way where clouds don't wash out, which is where exposure compensation came in for me. I used to think you needed a circular polarizing filter for this sort of shooting (and having one IS helpful), but you can get pleasing shots without one, if you know your camera. Anyway, below are my two favorite pics, in untouched form and with chrome filter applied and saturation increased, because it pleased me. Apologies for the low-res, but I find that for daily shooting, it's not alw...

A while back, my father bought me a set of DVDs from National Geographic on photography, hoping to encourage my interest. Because I was pretty sure I understood the basics of manual mode on my camera, they languished on the shelf, another of those things I'll get around to eventually. I was sure there was some good information for someone who is clearly not much trained in photography, but figured the front end of the course would be loaded with stuff too basic for me. Eventually, I did pop the first disc into the player and watch. I'm very glad I did. A lot of the information is basic, but host and photographer Joel Sartore does a good job of getting you to think about what you want your fotos to communicate (fair warning, tho: he makes constant dad jokes; I find them charming, but YMMV). Anyway, I watched the lesson on shutter speed, thinking I wouldn't get much out of it. I've always read that you should shoot in either manual or aperture priority mode and focus o...