Choosing My First Lens

New dilemmas and new questions, What kind of lenses do I wanted to have? The list was long, I wanted a telephoto lens, I wanted fast prime lenses, I was dreaming of everything, yes but which ones?  Nikon, another brand less expensive like Tamron or Sigma? I really couldn’t tell and actually, even on the web I couldn’t find any help, as it happened before, too much information, in some blogs  Tamron and Sigma were excellent lenses with attractive prices, while others were affirming exactly the opposite. For someone that was starting photography I was lost, so what I did? I looked for the only person I was trusting in, my “friend” John Greengo,  in his course “Fundamentals of Photography” there was an entire chapter about objectives and lenses. Obviously, during the course Mr. Greengo is never telling which one you have to buy, however his advice was:

 “Try to have the best lens possible taking to account price and quality, as your lens will be your eyes and your pictures will depend a lot on the quality of your lens”.

So,  I translate it into this: if a good lens cost $ 1000 and the same of a less quality brand cost $100, I think that there could be problems or some lacks of quality somewhere in the cheapest one. So, as I decided to buy a good camera, I decided to invest in excellent lenses. The mission was a little bit trickier compared to when I bought my gear, because there were different kind of lenses with the same focal length from the same brand, so which one was the best compromise between price and quality? Even my friend Francesa could not help me, so I started to google for reviews, and I  found someone awesome: Ken Rockwell. This guy is amazing, (I call his website my Photo-Bible) it’s the most useful site I have ever used. Ken reviewed so many lenses and cameras of multiple brands that I’m pretty sure you’ll find all the information that you need. So, My advice is, if you don’t know what lens to buy, and you don’t know anyone to help you, have a look at Ken rockwell website.

My firsts lens I bought was a 55 -200 mm and I paid 80€, I knew that It was not the sharpest lens on the market, but I was still learning, right? So,  there were no scratches at all, it was working correctly, I could afford the price, I was totally happy! Finally, the total amount of my expenses were: 650€  for the gear (D5300) + my new lens. My bag had now two lenses: an 18-55 and the 55-200, and It was still cheaper compared to the shops prices.

So, my final piece of advice is to buy the best lenses you can. Lenses are important, but when you start you can always use old versions or second-hand ones and still reach your goals, learn, and continue to improve yourself!

Photo Credit by Cheddarcheez

December 3, 2015February 19, 2016 by lucyjhamilton Categories: Inspiration, photography, Photography TipsTags: become a photographer, beginners, blog, choosing lenses, lenses, nikon, photo, photo tips, photographer, photographie, photography, photography challenge, photography for beginners, photography tip, tips Leave a comment

Now I Have a Camera, so What?

I don’t know if you read my two previous posts: How I became a Photographer and How I’ve chosen my First DSLR camera that I published, so, in case you read me for the first time, this is the third one where I share my story of how Photography changed my life. I hope I could inspire you a little and give you some useful advice.

… €600 later I was finally home keeping that beloved gear in my hands. when I realized that, I didn’t know how to shoot.  Except the automatic mode. So, I started to read the manual that was in the box,  was that useful? Not really as I could not understand a clue, I could clarify my some fog concerning some buttons, but not really when I was supposed to use them, so what?

I needed a course, a school,  a book, youtube, or someone patient that could explain me from A to Z of digital photography. Here in Brussels, I knew an academy of arts where I had already followed painting and sculpture, and I knew that there were also photography classes. My i-first move was to look at their program,  there were classes on Wednesday evening from 5 PM to 9 PM, I was so happy, at least until I saw the program.  I realized that the course was not a class for beginners or people like me,  someone who already had done photography the old way but was holding a DSLR camera in her hands for the first time.

I suddenly realised another little problem;  I have an 18 months daughter at home with me, and my husband who is in the scientific researches field had such irregular working hours, that it was too just impossible to regularly attend classes. So, the only thing left was my best friends Internet.  I started looking for tutorials on youtube, but I didn’t find anything that corresponded to myself until I arrived on the Creative Live website. There were live courses which were for free, and then in their courses list, I’ve seen this one: Fundamentals of Digital Photography 2014 with John Greengo. $99 ( Now you’ll find Fundamentals of Digital Photography 2015) . That was almost the price of one year at the academy, and at the end of the course I had not even a piece of paper telling that I followed a course, moreover, who was that Mr. Greengo? Was that a useful class? I looked at Mr. Greengo website, actually yes, there were beautiful photographs, and then I looked at reviews ( a thing that I learned to do almost on everything I buy on the internet). I checked to see if someone was disappointed about that creative live website, and there were no negative articles, comments or reviews, then I looked in the Creative Live discussions about the Fundamentals of Photography course, and there were only a few, and a woman wrote this:

“This has been probably the best introduction course to digital photography that I’ve ever viewed. It blows away all the other courses I’ve taken, including NYIP.”

This comment was what gave me confidence in buying the course, this what pushed me to choose it, and I was right.  I love John Greengo way of teaching, I love his course, couldn’t stop to watching the classes, every day as soon as the baby was at the nap,  I was in front of my computer watching his classes, doing the exercises and having fun.

30 hours later, what did I learn from that course? It’s simple: everything. How to use my camera in manual mode (exactly what I was looking for). I also discovered that I had a crop sensor and not a full frame, I learned how to choose my lenses, how to set the exposition, the ISO, the focus, how to have a shallow depth of field or the opposite and how to have sharp photos. All the technical knowledge that you need to start using your camera and the firsts steps of the composition.

What happened next? It’s not really difficult to guess, as soon as I begun to understand how my camera was working and what I could do with it I felt the need of having a new lens. Because suddenly I was too limited with only my 18-55 mm, and that was the beginning of a great buying & selling lenses love story.

November 19, 2015February 19, 2016 by lucyjhamilton Categories: A Story, Inspiration, photography, Photography TipsTags: beginners, canon, course, inspiraiton, nikon, photo, photographer, photographie, photography, photography challenge, photography courses, photography tip, start, starting photography, story Leave a comment

The Fishermen’s Nets Repairer

When your job is more than a passion it’s impossible to stop even because of age. That’s what happened at Salvatore, he worked all his life as a sailor man and now at more than 80 years old, too old to be boarded on a ship, he walks every morning helped by his cane through the village to his dark and fresh cellar,  where he fixes fisherman’s nets. With the only company of the radio’s music he sits there during hours repairing, assembling, reinforcing fishermen’s nets.  He’s one of the last persons in the village that still has the knowledge of how to knit a net, as I was taking the photos, he explained to me, he even asked me if I wanted to try, but the apparently simple gestures he showed me, were in reality far too complicated to repeat, I was better in taking pictures.  What is certain is that I will never forget him, and each time I’ll look at the piece of net hanging on my study wall that that morning he cut for me and offered me as souvenir, I’ll remember the most important lesson he gave me. It isn’t how to repair a net, but it’s  his passion and his patience, it’s NEVER ABANDON YOUR DREAMS, but continue pursuing them, because age is not an excuse, be faithful and LIVE YOUR PASSIONS.

PLEASE FIND ALL THE REPORTAGE PHOTOGRAPHIES HERE.

November 13, 2015December 27, 2015 by lucyjhamilton Categories: A Story, Inspiration, Interview, photographyTags: attualità, disappearing jobs, fisherman, photographer, photographie, photography, photos, reportage photo, sea, seaside, story Leave a comment

How I’ve Chosen my First DSLR Camera and 6 TIPS for you

Nowadays, when you are starting digital photography and you know barely nothing about it, choosing a camera  can be quite tricky. There are thousands of articles, blogs posts and you tube videos that finally, when I had to buy mine, the more I was reading, the more I was watching videos, the more I was confused. So, what helped me? My best friend Fran who’s also passionate of photography. I remember she was using a Nikon D5000 and was completely fulfilled. So,  started to ask myself, why that one? Why she chose that brand? So there I started, eliminating a lot of other brands and I circled down my choices to Canon or Nikon. That was the eternal and infinite dilemma, which one is the best? Really, I still don’t know, I think that both are good gears. I choose a Nikon, Why? Because my friend had one, she was really happy and I was counting on her to help me if I had questions.

TIP 1 – I’m sure you certainly have friends that already have a DSLR camera, ask them if you can borrow it, even just for an afternoon, or go shooting with them, so you can see if you like it, you can check the menu, and realise how do you feel about it.

Moreover, You can also ask them a piece of advice, why did they choose that camera? What they like about it? What they don’t like?. I love internet but sometimes is still easier to have a face to face talk with someone than reading dozen posts by yourself.

As, I was shooting with my dad old canon reflex camera, for me it wasn’t really a new thing buying a new gear, in a certain way knew what i would have liked to have,  I just could decide between the different brands or models. Was a canon? A Nikon, A sony? Or something else? And what model? What was the difference between the nikon D5000 and D7000 serie? or Between the Nikon D and the Canon Mark I II or III? So, I started reading tons of blogs, and articles, comparing models within a same brand, and then comparing different brands. To simplify my quest I restricted my choice to a mirror camera from Canon or Nikon. As I was shooting with an old argentine, I didn’t know anything about full frame sensor or cropped ones, mirrorless, etc. So I asked again to my friend, and to people that were using digital DSLR camera, and I decided to look for a Nikon D5000 series.

Now, another big question, new or used one? That’ s a matter of chance, what I can say is that today there are many websites or groups of photography passionates where you can easily find good used gears in good conditions. I new that here in Belgium the prices for the last model of Nikon D5000 seire ( at the time was the Nikon D5300) was around € 600-750 depending on the lenses or other gadgets etc. The previous model Nikon D5200 was still available in shops and was a little cheaper, around €400-500. Now, budget is really important, so I fixed it at €500 for a new, but I decided to look for a used first.

TIP 2 –  Always fix a budget, it will help you screening.

I Started to look for it during my trip in UK searching on www.gumtree.com (which is a great website) but all the camera I found were too far from us, so finally it didn’t worked. I didn’t trust eBay enough to buy it on their website, because there were no seller in Belgium and I wanted to check the camera before paying.

TIP 3 –  If you want to buy a used camera, always check it and try it before buying it.

Talking again about budget, I thought that I could spend something around €300 for a second hand gear of Nikon D5000 series, so I fixed my used gear budget at €300-350. The two websites I searched for it were two local platform were Belgian people sells their goods www.kapaza.be and www.2ememain.be. Nice websites, I took different stuff there and I’ve never being deceived. So, each day I was screening the announces hoping for a good news and as soon as something interesting was there I contacted the person. However, I was surprised of how many people were looking for buying a camera and that the prices were a little bit higher than expected, (which actually was a good news but at the time I didn’t realise it). I was almost giving up and go buying a new one when, I finally read a message from someone selling his Nikon D5300 with a 18-55 mm lens, 6 months old, used only twice, still under warranty for 570€. That was a good occasion, the last model €200 cheaper compared to shops prices. I contacted the guy and asked why he was selling it.

TIP 4 – Always ask why the person is selling, it gives you interesting piece of information.

This seller wanted to buy a nikon 1 because he founded that the D5300 was too big and heavy to carry around, so he wanted to sell it fast because he was leaving for holiday the week after and would have liked to buy the other camera before leaving ( that’s the reason of the price). Obviously, I wasn’t the only one interested in his camera and I had to decide quickly, I really wanted that gear but at the same time it was almost of the double of my used camera budget, and I was feeling so guilty to spend all that money! I mean almost 600€ here in Brussels it can be a small apartment rent, a month of grocery store shopping for my family, taxes to pay, and I was spending all that money on a camera? Actually, it was my husband who convinced me telling me that yes it was a lot of money, but the gear was still under warranty, so if there were any problem It would have been easier compared to a 300€ one without any warranty at all. So, I called the guy and fixed a meeting. I went to his house a couple of days later, I was really excited, the camera was on the table with his original box and all the papers, we talked a little bit his wife served a tea and he asked me to try it. Well… I didn’t know what to do, actually my friend Fran during summer lent me his camera and I shoot a couple of pictures but I could not remember a clue about it … So, what? I took the camera in my hands I looked at it and I faked that I knew perfectly what I was doing. I checked that there were any scratches, and then he asked me, do you have a memory card, so you can try it? A memory card? Oh shit, I completely forgot that, so he gently put in one of his own and fired a couple of photos in his house to show me, the pictures were there and seemed fine, so I trusted him and bought it.

TIP 5 – If you do not know how to use a SLDR camera, and want to buy a used one, go test it with a friend who know how to do it.

TIP 6 – remember to bring a memory card.

That was quite an adventure and now if I had to do it again, I would go with someone that knew cameras and could check if it is really working well. Let’s say that I was lucky because I’ve never had any problems with that camera and I sold it later for €500 to someone else, so finally my first DSLR camera costed €70!

Interesting Photography readings

• if you are about to buy a new camera and you really don’t know what to buy, follow this course on Creativelive: How to Choose your First DSLR camera for Beginners It’s a free download at the moment!
• This Website: Ken Rockwell, is the best reviews, information, advice, website on lenses and gears that I know.

Note: Images credits: Flickr

November 3, 2015November 19, 2015 by lucyjhamilton Categories: photography, Photography TipsTags: become a photographer, beginners, buy, buying, camera, canon, dslr, first, nikon, photo, photo tips, photographer, photographie, photography, photography tip, photography tips, photos, used Leave a comment

5 Ideas for your Halloween photography

I’m a little bit late for this post because I’ve being working on some Photography courses & workshop that will available soon here in Brussels! Yep, I’m sooooo excited about that! However I think I’m still on time for giving you a few ideas for shooting some terrific Halloween images.

1 Levitation

Have you ever dreamt to be able to fly? Or to photogaph a flying person? I did, and actually with the correct moods levitation can transform a normal image into something creepy exactly what we like for Halloween. The first time I’ve seen those pictures I thought that it was the most difficult thing to do, but actually it isn’t. It’s obvious that you need patience, a nice locaiton, and a great composition (it’s not because you master your technique that your picture will be nice). In this levitation photography post, you’ll find videos tutorials you’ll find all the tips and explanations you need for your first trial and a bunch of inspiring images! So, once you have your theme (remeber that your pic has to tell a story to the people who are looking at it), don’t be afraid shoot and try, it’s just awesome!

2. Fog

Fog, mysterious white, gray smoke that change immediately the feeling of any place, is something you can’t miss on Halloweed. Add it at your favourite location and you’ll have a complete different atmosphere. I understand that you can’t wait to have a foggy day to take your picture, that’s why there is a really easy way to add fog to your pictures using photoshop, and it’s very well explained in this 6 minutes photoshop tutorial, Photoshop:  how to create realistic fog and mist. It’s really easy, so, just take your photos, open them in Photoshop, follow the tutorial step by step and you’ll gave a scary foggy image.

3. Light painting

Olives Jar
Credits: Lucy J Hamilton
105 mm
ISO: 100
f/4.5
30 sec

I think that light painting can be adapted to many  occasions. Basically it depends what you are painting, imagine creepy old bloody masks, or broken dolls or anything that could tell a scary story. If you are new to light painting check this article I’ve posted, photography: light painting tips, you’ll find the direction needed to shoot in the dark, then just give freedom to your creativity and  take the dark path and paint your most scariest images!

4. Night Photography

Isn’t night scary? everything  change during the night, the shadows and sounds became suddenly creepy creatures that come from another world. So, go out after sunset, try to catch shadows, moods, look for mysterious locations, solitary houses, barns,empty shops, Look for images that will tell scaring stories. Ask to your friends to come with you, they could be perfect subsets for nights portraits!

5. Urbex photography

Do you know any abandoned location near you? If not  look for them, take a tour in your neighbourhood and look for those creepy abandoned houses that are waiting for being photographed. However please pay attention, there are a few rules to follow.

FIRST please  pay attention! Abandoned buildings could be dangerous, even if fascinating, floors can be instables,  walls could fall apart, so my advice is NEVER GO EXPLORING ALONE, be at least with a friend, or a couple of people.

SECOND choose you gear and one lenses (max two), take your tripod  and go light, sometimes you’ll need to run, because there could be animals, or other people, or junkies, or maybe the place it’s just to small to pass through and you can’t have too much weight on you.

THIRD is not always legal, is not always possible to ask for permissions to enter into an abandoned place, so if you do not have permission but you’re about to get into a private doamin, please be careful, remember you are there to take pictures and not to ruin the place. Do not take anything away from the de site, do not leave garbage, respect your environment. If you really do not know where to go for your first Urban Exploration experience, or you don’t want to go alone and your friends don’t want to come with you, you’ll have here a list of nice websites that are sharing the locations and some communities that you can join.

http://www.forbidden-places.net/explo1.php

http://www.uer.ca/locations/newlist.asp

http://urbexobsession.com/

https://www.facebook.com/UrbanExplorationUS

https://instagram.com/urbexpeople/?hl=en

If you are looking for some inspiration,  Jonny Joo website is full of beautiful photographies that can help you.

So, the end of the month is almost there, are you ready for taking scaring terrifying halloween phtotos? Please do not hesitate to post them here, or on my Facebook page, I’ll be happy to see them and sharing  them 😉

Photo credits: Flickr

October 27, 2015October 27, 2015 by lucyjhamilton Categories: photography, Photography TipsTags: art, artist, beginners, compositing photography, halloween, photo, photo tips, photographer, photography, photography challenge, photography tip, photography tips, photos, photoshop, phtoto tips Leave a comment

6 tips and 1 mistake in compositing my photo in Photoshop

I’m writing this post to share my first experience of compositing a fine art photography that I create.

I’m quite proud of the work done, even if I made some mistakes that I’m sharing with you here.

So, here you gave the original photos I used

As I learned in Brooke Shadon courses ( that I loved) I took a pictures of the empty location, I was shooting at sunset (not the best idea I had, I’ll explain you why later) so, I took one photo a the beginning of the shooting session and one at the end before leaving (maybe the difference is not so strong now, but when you paste from one to another you’ll see it).

Why Shooting at sunset could not be the best idea you have ever had?

Because the light is changing too fast. Actually for this picture I planned to start shooting just after the sunset, at twilight, but that day was extremely cold, the location quite dangerous, we forgot the lamp in the car trunk, the person that was with me wanted to do it quite fast because he was freezing, we had walked all afternoon and wanted to go back home.

Tip 1 If you decide to shoot something for a compositing photography, try not to forget things in the car.

Tip 2 if the weather conditions are not the easiest ones (like sunny and a good 25°C/77°F) then, plan only the compositing shooting and nothing else.

Tip 3 if you decide to shoot at sunset, no problem, plan well your photography before, keep the image of what you want in mind, because as the light is changing fast you have to do it fast, and take multiple shots of the same photo so you’ll have more possibilities to combine them later.

Tip 4  be the more flexible that you can. I always sketch my ideas in a notebook just to be sure I’m not forgetting them, and I also add there all the details I need. However, sometimes what you have in your mind is different from what you will find in the reality, or in the location you’ve chosen. For exemple, when I’ve imagined this photo first,  my idea was to lie down more than one sleeping girl, I thought to put a standing one with a cape on, and finally a last standing one levitating with the lighting lamp. As you see in the finished image, nothing of that happened, why? Because it wasn’t possible to add all that in the location I’ve chosen. So, the day I was out there I took all the photos I had planned to take (some of my non-used images are just here below), and once at home i assembled them trying to keep my original idea but adapting it to the location to create the most natural image possible. I wanted to give a mysterious, magical, fairy-tale atmosphere at my photo, but I didn’t want to be completely incoherent. I wanted the light in the same direction, coherent shadows, borders, colors etc.

Not Used images:

My mistake: Once I’ve chosen the background, I selected the photographs that I wanted to add in it. But, what I did not do was “refine edges” while pasting the standing up girl. So, her feet’s edges were completely screwed up. The problem concerning my photo is that I noticed it only after I’ve merged all the layers together and finished all the colors and textures modifications. Could i change it? Yes but that would have meant go back in the history before merging (5 hours of work earlier), or start everything again. Sincerely, I didn’t wanted to do it, so what I did was trying to adjust that, I’m satisfied of the result, but I passed so much time to fix my error that It’s really worthy to be sure to do the right thing at the right moment instead of correcting mistakes. In the picture below you can see what I’m talking about

Tip 5 when you want to paste an object into another picture, remember to smooth the edges or refine edges.

Once errors fixed, looking at the picture above, I decided that the sky was too bright and not really interesting. So, I looked for something more dramatic in my sky stock photos and added the clouds.

Tip 6 When you add different skies to your photos, be sure that the light comes from the same direction as the background you want to stitch them in!

Once everything was done and I was satisfied of the mood of my final photo, I worked on the candle light, obviously it wasn’t so bright when I photographed it, but thank to this  Brooke Shaden tutorial : Add believable glow to your images, it took me 15 minutes to get this result that I love so much! So, here it is, the final compositing image with all my mistakes corrected.

If you are interested in following some fine arts portraits courses, I followed on Creative live (super website for photography or other creative courses) Brooke Shaden ones and I’m so glad because I’ve learn so much! So, Enjoy the links below.

Fine art portraits with Brooke Shaden

How to transform a Photoshoot for $10 or less with Brooke Shaden

Master your craft with Brooke Shaden

Fine art compositing with Brooke Shaden

October 21, 2015October 22, 2015 by lucyjhamilton Categories: Inspiration, photography, Photography TipsTags: art, artist, compositing photography, fairy tale photography, fine art, fine art photography, photography manipulation, photoshop, photoshop compositing, surrealism phtography Leave a comment