San Diego Wild Animal Park

Yesterday was an amazing day. Me and two friends ventured off to actually Escondido to the Wild Animal Park. None of us had ever been there before so it was a new and excited adventure for all of us. We arrived at about 10:30 in the morning and before beginning our outdoor excursion, we all did the noble thing and used the ladies room. I mean really, who wants to be interrupted by having to do such a tedious act while exploring. But after finishing up with the absolute important stuff, we moved on to bigger and better things, like admiring all of the amazing Elephants. We watched them move around, play, and even pose for us - well, I'm not sure if you would call it posing . . . just ask and I'll tell ya what they did, but without words, just use your imagination :)) We then moved on to see lions, tigers, cheetas, giraff's, apes, and even some pretty cool looking birds. I loved taking all of the photos. However, lugging around a big camera bag with all of the lenses that I "thought" I might need did play havick on my shoulders and back. Thank God for good friends who felt sorry for me and after about 3 hours offered to help carry the bag. What I did realize from this venture, is that although I have a fair collection of lenses, I need to obtain a good telephoto lense. The one I used to shoot the lions, tigers, elephants, cheeta's and actually most of the shots, was my canon 70-300 IS. The lense is ok but the f stop on it is only 4, which made it quite challenging when having to shoot in low light. Thank God for flash. But after some good research, the next recommended lense that I will pick up is the canon 70-200 f/2.8 along with the 1.4 extender. The extender will take the focal length all the way to 448 mm, which for shooting wild life and animals will be quit helpful. The flexibility plays the biggest role in this decision since purchasing a prime 300 or even 400 L lense would be less versatile and just as if not more expensive. So for me right now, it's all about getting the most for your money. I am sure many others can relate with that. But just to give you a little preview of some of the real dangerous animals that we encountered, the picture to the top left I hope does not scare you too much . . . :)) To view all other photos for this outing, please visit www. photographygarage.com and look under nature and animals in the portfolio section.

Engagement Party

Well, shot my first engagement party yesterday, (check out the good looking couple on the left). Had an amazing time and was able to practice some of the new techniques that I have been learning over these last couple weeks. For example, yesterday morning before the party I attended a simple photography class. Much of the information I had already read about before but it is always good to be reminded. Such as the lower the f stop the greater the aperture, which is important when it comes to lighting and depth of field. But it is also important because when you use a higher f stop, the lower the aperture, which also means a slower shutter speed, and if you are like me and hold your camera most of the time, then a slow shutter speed doesn't work real well. With a slow shutter speed, you need to have your camera on a tripod in order to avoid that disturbing unwanted blur that I am sure many of you have experienced in the past. I know I have. But of course, I am still practicing and still learning with all of this and I am having a great time being able to go and just shoot various events and people. It does help however when the people are your friends :))

Photoshoot

Hey everyone, did a really fun photoshoot with some amazing ladies today. It was alot of fun and I just thought I would post one of the photos here. If you want to see a few more check out photographygarage website.

Just played with some more photos from the shoot - here is another one to the left, but go and check them all out at photography garage website!!!!

Masking

Well, today has been an interesting day trying to keep up with my nose. Yes, I have encountered a wonderful glorious cold. But in the mean time, one aspect of photography editing that I have been wanting to dive into a bit concerns masking. I was first introduced to it years back when I took a beginning photoshop class, but of course with anything, unless used, it will eventually be forgotten. So of course, I forgot!!! So I am glad that last night I was able to take some time to read up on it a little bit and scratch the surface on re-learning some of it, and then this afternoon I took one of my photos and created a layer mask with it. The photo on the top is the original and then one below it is the masked photo. Take a look at the difference between the two photos. I think I am going to really like this little tool that I have now been able to dabble a little bit with.