Pushing Through

The last time I went out to shoot some music photos, the lineup consisted of four bands I have never seen before. The first two went well. When the third band started playing I got REALLY frustrated really quickly. Everyone out front in the band were flying around the stage in erratic movements like bats chasing bugs at night. I started shooting and every image was either open space as the singer had ducked down or the top of the guitar players head because he rapidly bent over. It was frustrating. I shut my camera off and took a walk back to some friends who were at the venue, I was done!

I took a deep breath of the fog laden, alcohol tainted air, turned my camera back on and pushed my way through the pit to get back to the stage. I ended up getting quite a few good shots after relaxing and analyzing their movements. ( Nikon D5300, Nikon 50mm f1.8)

 




















The other night, I pulled into the driveway and thought, wow, that's a bright moon! I grabbed my camera and broke out the tripod I had gotten earlier this month in a great used deal package. I used my Nikon D5300 and my longest lens a Nikon 55-300mm f4.5-5.6. I went outside and set up the shot and "click". "Wow, that's horrible" were the exact words I said out loud to nobody. I than adjusted the settings, I was shooting in manual mode by the way which is all I shoot in, and "click" "Yikes" was the second quote. I remembered I had gotten a shutter control cord in the package deal so I found that and set it p on the camera. "click" not much better. I continued to adjust the settings, learning all the way, until I got the image I liked.  It took about 25 shots and the final setup was completely different than I had anticipated. ( Nikond D5300 in manual mode, Nikon 55-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens, shot at 300mm, 100 ISO f8 1/160 shutter speed, manual focus)  I did not do my usual research on how to shoot the moon before I actually shot the moon this time and had to push through the thoughts of "why isn't this working?"

When I bought my first DSLR it was swim season for my daughter and I took the camera to the pool every night for practice. The first month I got some pretty crummy shots. 

I am pretty much a self taught photographer. I have never been to school for photography and everything I have learned has been either reading articles, talking with a photographer friend or following photographers on social media or information from websites or YouTube videos. 

I kept shooting day after day and practicing day after day and learning what settings should be used. I had to push through the "WTF" moments and the "Wow! That's junk!" It took a while but I figured out the "pool shoots" just before the Swim Championships and everything fell into place.

I also have some moments on social media where I have had a "What happened?" feeling but have "pushed through" the negative thoughts and "just kept swimming".  (a Finding Nemo reference there, in case ya didn't get it) Some posts just fall flat and some blow up but again I am learning the proper content and timing for this tool as well.

We all have times when we need to "push through" the pain or overcome some disappointing moment but this makes us all stronger. Continue to push through

P ersist

U ntil

S omething

H appens

As always, thanks for playing along.

E

Kappy's Keepers

Opportunities

Opportunities. It's not an easy word to spell. Sometimes you only get one opportunity to get the right shot but you have to have something on you to take that shot.

Recently I was headed to work where we had a child whose Mom who had been away in the Military for 11 months. She came back home and was coming to the school to surprise him. I debated taking my Nikon but finally decide to take the camera to work. Boy am I glad I did! It was quite an emotional scene, a boy seeing his Mom for the first time in almost a year, and I was able to capture those moments in pictures. An event like this doesn't come along everyday and to be able to be a part of it was an amazing experience.

A couple of winters ago, we were headed to my daughters Swimming Championships in Longmeadow Massachusetts. We had a pretty big snow storm that morning and as we were driving though town we saw the First Church on the green covered in snow. As we drove by I shoved my GoPro out the window and captured an amazing shot of the snow covered scene.

On our first trip to the Florida Keys in 2014 we made an impromptu stop at a place called Anne's Beach in Islamorada while the sun was coming down. This is the spot where I captured what I consider to be my best sunset image, with a cell phone. This image was actually in a special digital exhibit in the Louvre in Paris and I am very proud of that accomplishment.

I have another shot I am extremely proud of and I was just trying to get some shots of my daughter in the wave pool at Six Flags New England. She did a hair flip on a whim which I happened to capture and it turns out the sun was framed by her hair and the water. This is my most awarded, most viewed and most liked image on a photography website named ViewBug.

Basically what I am saying is, if you like to capture life's little moments make sure you always have the means to do so with you at all times. Whenever I leave the house I have my cellphone, which can get some pretty amazing shots but is limited. I usually have a GoPro within reach of the drivers seat and you would be surprised what kind of images you can capture with the GoPro while moving. Now I take one of my two Nikon cameras with me whenever I can.

I heard this from a photographer I follow, Jared Polin, aka Fro Knows Photo, "A good photo is a good photo is a good photo." Meaning you can capture a good photo with just about any type of camera providing you are set up right. Whether it be a point and shoot, a cellphone, an old film camera or a new professional DSLR, they all are capable of producing great images.

So remember, always bring a camera and never let the opportunity to capture that memory pass you by.

As always, Thank you for reading and see you next week!

E

Kappy's Keepers

My Gear

This is a bit early on in my quest to become a better photographer but I will take a little bit of time to  talk about what equipment I use right now. I am going to talk about my basic equipment and I will get into the lenses at a later date

I started with a GoPro Hero 3+ Black edition camera. This action camera, in my opinion, helped me with my composition and got me started on the trail to taking better pictures. The 3+ Black has no LCD screen or, for those of you who have never used a GoPro they don't have viewfinders either. Whatever I was looking at was what I was going to get, so I had to "picture" the picture.

GoPro cameras are extremely versatile and very rugged. You can mount them just about anywhere and capture some really great angles and perspectives. They are extremely small and lightweight and take some incredible photos. The video is fantastic as some of them can shoot video in 4K. There are so many accessories for the GoPro it's dizzying. Mounts, harnesses, cases, selfie sticks, straps, dome ports, handles shall I keep going? There is a mount or harness for just about anything you can think of and it is a great photography or video tool..

GoPros are kind of like an addiction, once you get one and use it you want more. So, a year after I got my first one I picked up the GoPro Hero 4 Silver camera.

The 4 Silver has a touch LCD screen on the back which is pretty cool and useful to compose your shot. Both the 3+ Black and 4 Silver shoot 12 megapixel images and are capable of 4K video. They will also shoot an astounding 30 shot burst of pictures in 1 second. This is how I capture most of my action shots. The time lapse is a pretty cool function as well. You can capture some pretty neat time lapse footage, just remember to figure out the math correctly. The only drawback to the GoPro is they do not zoom at all. These cameras will always be a favorite of mine and I will probably never be without one. I take one everywhere.

I pretty much maxed out all the GoPro equipment that I needed and I wanted to move forward with photography so I started looking into purchasing a "real" camera. After my research I decided the camera that fit both my needs and my budget was the Nikon D5300. I purchased the camera as a kit with 2 lenses and started taking pictures. This camera is a great start and should be in my camera bag for quite a while. I put a battery grip on it to beef it up a little and add some extra battery life to the camera as well.

About two and a half months later I than found a screaming deal on a Nikon D90 and bought that camera with a bunch of other gear at a fantastic price. I am now getting used to the D90 and it's menu setup as it is different then the D5300. The D90 has a battery grip as well which I do like and it is a solid workhorse. 

                              

Between the 2 Gopros and the 2 Nikons I should be set for a while and now have a good start on basic equipment. I need to add some specific lenses to my arsenal and I have not started shooting with a flash as of yet. I need to learn one thing at a time so the flash stuff will come later. For now I am full steam ahead with what I have and I am learning all the while.

See ya next week.

E

Kappys Keepers

Finding Yourself

Did you ever have one of those moments when...

You realize you were at exactly the right place at exactly the right time doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing? I just did!

A friend of ours posted on Facebook he was hosting an event at a local bar, Maximum Capacity in Chicopee, Massachusetts to introduce a new musical act he was working with, "The Shady Experience".  I asked if he wouldn't mind if I shot some pictures there to gain some experience. He said he would not mind so I then began to do some research on how to shoot a band at a bar type venue. This was on a Tuesday and the "gig" was Friday.

While doing my research I came to the conclusion that I needed a different lens to capture the images I needed with the light I was most likely going to be working with. Again, back to the web I went and found a used Nikon AF-S 50mm f1.8 lens on a website and ordered it with expedited shipping so I could have it for my shoot. In the meantime I continued to pour over articles on how to shoot concerts, how to shoot in low light, how to shoot with your eyes closed or any information on the subject. I tried to soak up as much info as I could in those 4 days.

Thursday comes. Our friend has a VIP event that night which we can not make it to at the same venue and his sister posts some cell phone pictures of the event. I stumble upon the pictures and immediately become horrified. There are 3 five foot tall by eight feet long LED light walls on stage that the performers will be in front of! This was going to be harder than I thought.

Now it is Friday, that was quick, about 4:00PM and no lens. I tracked the shipment and the lens is in Chicopee but I can not get it. It arrived too late to be sorted and won't be sorted until 2:00AM. Great! Now I have to scramble. The lenses I have are not really that great for low light situations. My wife suggested Hunts Photo so after whining like a baby I gave them a call and they had the lens I was looking for. I packed up Rylee and took off for Hunts. On the trip there, we rounded a corner in Holyoke to see a fire engine pull out in front of me followed by another. The drove about half a city block and and stopped and blocked the road. Great! We circumnavigated the scene and proceeded to the shop. I finally had the lens I needed in hand. We started driving back home and once again rounded a corner to heavy traffic in a spot where there is never traffic.  We finally round a corner and I was able to see a car accident blocking two lanes of traffic. More delays! We eventually got home and I had time to snap off two pictures with the new lens. I packed and off I went.

I got to Maximum Capacity for the sound checks and was able to get some good pictures of "The Shady Experience" before the lighting went to crap.

When the lights finally went down the "JDX Band" a Bob Marley tribute came on.
This was the time. Everything fell into place. I was able to get some amazing shots showing the singers emotions and it was at that moment I realized photography is for me. I had been told I have a "good eye", my images are good but this was the space in time where I realized for myself that this is what I need to do. It was actually a very moving and emotional experience for me. I now know what I want to be when I grow up! Life is funny sometimes.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Walt Disney

As always, thanks for reading.

E

Kappy's Keeperrs

Where do I go from here

Where do I go from here?

Short answer...not sure.

This past Sunday, I attended the Frank Maratta's Car Show and Race A Rama at the Eastern States Exposition grounds in West Springfield Massachusetts. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and speaking to the car owners about their rides and I shot more than 150 pictures.

Side note; It's kind of funny when the owners invite you under the rope when they think you are a professional photographer because of your gear.

So I get home Sunday night, import, edit and export all of said images from the car show. I felt really good about the images and was quite pleased with the quality of my work...until...

I am trying to figure out where I fit in the whole photography thing. I don't really feel like I want to be the wedding guy or do the portrait studio type thing. I do enjoy event photography (such as car shows, Pipes In The Valley, etc) landscape, scenic, macro, you know, shots I can capture for other people to enjoy, and maybe make a little money at it.

Do I build a website for just a gallery? Do I spend more money on an e commerce site so I can sell my images? Do I stay on Fine Art America with millions of artists where I can sell images for a minuscule commission? These are only some of the questions I have. 

Getting into a gallery or shop is not as easy as it seems either. That's one spot I know I would like to be but where? 

So, getting back to the car show. Like I said I was pretty happy with my work so I posted not 1, not 5 but 40 of my images to Kappy's Keepers on Facebook. I thought they were all pretty cool shots. I shared on my wall, my wife shared on her wall, my mother shared on her wall and boom, 2 likes of the images. I had trouble sleeping that night as mind mind went crazy trying to figure out why. I have over 450 friends on Facebook, Kappy's Keepers has over 120 followers, my wife has over 600 friends and my mother has almost 150. So that's potentially more than 1300 impressions and to receive only 2 likes is pretty disheartening. It is hard to stay motivated without the validation of knowing someone appreciates your work but I will push on through.

I have had a Kappy's Keepers Facebook page for just about a year now and it has slowly grown to about 120 followers. I recently started an Instagram account for Keepers as well. I am on Spotlight, Twitter, Pinterist, EyeEm, Google+, Periscope, Fine Art America, pixels.com, View Bug and more. It's gets frustrating as I'm an administrator on a Facebook page for my fishing club where basically nothing gets posted and it has grown to almost 500 followers with almost no content. Where as I try to post content daily such as images, the Kappy's Keepers blog, youtube videos I have made, artwork from Fine Art America for sale etc on Kappy's Keepers and it just hit 120 followers after a full year.

 I don't want this to sound like a pity party so I will tell you there will be a website at some point. There will be a store at some point. I just have to figure this whole thing out.I will continue to shoot what I like and figure out where I fit in this equation.

Kind of pumped though, this Friday, I will be shooting a band "The Shady Experience" for the first time at Maximum Capacity in Chicopee Massachusetts. I am looking forward to it, it should be fun and also a learning experience. If you are in the area and have some spare time, stop on in and say hi. I will be the guy wearing a camera!

Thanks for reading!

E