I think you will all enjoy the insight June’s featured blogger gives into her photography and her life. Everyone meet Judi Clark! I am a big fan of her blog and how she uses it to demonstrate and learn new techniques. I love that she plays with her camera settings and processing techniques and then shows us the differences. I have learned so much from her posts and also I just enjoy the beauty of her images! I also love how Judi is living proof that you don’t need a DSLR to create gorgeous images. Let’s welcome Judi….
1. Tell us a little bit about you.
Hi. My name is Judi Clark. I’m 53 years old and I’m a photoholic. I take pictures almost every day now that I’ve joined this fabulous photo blogging group. My blog can be found here: http://www.mostlyfiction.com/2010photowalk/
I have time to devote to this addictive hobby because I only work part-time as a Work Camper at an RV park. During the high season I work in the office and in the off-season (meaning too hot for sane people to be here) I get to clean the facilities (yes, toilets too…). I used to have real jobs, some might even call it a career.
When not taking photos, or working part-time, I work on my book review site MostlyFiction.com. I started this site in 1998 as an exercise to learn to code websites. If you read fiction, you should visit my site (http://bookreview.mostlyfiction.com) — I have an excellent team of reviewers and great support from the publishing world, meaning they send us the books we want to read.
2. Where do you live?
I currently live in Quartzsite, AZ with my significant other of 17 years whose name is Carl. We’ve been here since December 2008. I’m from New Hampshire/Maine and lived there most my life except for a couple years when Carl and I lived on our sailboat in the Florida Keys.
3. What kind of photography / art background do you have?
None. My background is 100% hacking with no formal training in either the technical or the artistic side. Although, I’ve had bouts of being serious about my photography, this time is different because I’m taking the time to really explore the technical side; I give credit to the 2010 Virtual Photowalk for helping me focus on this goal.
Photography is so fundamental to me. Although I’ve owned a camera all my life (starting with a Brownie when I was in elementary school), I never had the money to freely use film or if I had the film, I couldn’t afford to develop it. Or when I finally could afford to develop it, I was too busy to drop it off… or pick it up. I bought my first serious camera, a Canon A1, with a few lenses when I was in my mid-twenties. And then another, and another. My life was adventurous enough back then that my cameras kept finding themselves under salt water. My last film camera was a waterproof point & shoot that we took with us on the sailboat. By the time we were back on land, digital cameras were affordable and I haven’t stopped shooting since.
I have had two distinct jobs that involved photography — first when I was 20 and worked for the detective unit in a NH police department for 6 months and I was responsible for developing their film (one murder and one suicide included). Then most recently, for five years it was my job to take photos of plush toys (“stuffed animals” to the lay person) for our catalogs. I had a lot of other responsibilities as well, like putting the catalogs together and managing the product line… still, I did take photos nearly every day and got a really good handle on PSE to fix my mistakes. Plus, I got to go to China a few times.
4. Have you ever participated in this type of photography project before?
No I haven’t. I did do a travel blog (http://travelblog.mostlyfiction.com) for 4 months while we were “homeless” in the fall of 2008… that is after we left NH to seek out our new home, which we thought was going to be in Portland, Oregon. We wanted to see the Southwest before we got seriously caught up in jobs again. You can see how that worked out.
5. What do you hope to gain from the 2010 Virtual Photowalk?
When I joined, I thought this was just going to be a chance to share some of my existing photos matching or editing them to certain themes. Looking back at my blog, this is what I did most of January.
Then, I figured out that it was meant to be a “live” Photo Walk, not a “walk down memory lane” and thus I finally shot my first photos with the themes in mind. It gave a whole new meaning to picture taking! I still shoot whatever appeals to me but sometimes I see things I wouldn’t have because I’m trying so hard to do the themes or exercises.
So, what I have gained and hope to continue to gain is a reason to explore every aspect of my cameras, software techniques and to finally have a solid knowledge of why one photo works better than another — and the hardest part — to take such a photo every time. The tips and exercises are invaluable. It’s one thing to read, and a whole other to try it out. The peer comments are priceless as they give both confidence and helpful nudges. Finally, participating in the peer reviews is worth the effort because it is so inspiring. When I see something I like, it makes me really look at the photo in order to try to comment somewhat intelligently as to why I like it (or not). If all I did was look at photos and leave comments, it would be worth the effort since I always learn something in the process.
I have already begun to be a better photographer by being part of this group. I thought I was photo crazy before; but now I’m obsessed. So, thanks everyone!
6. How do you stay motivated for a years worth of photos?
What? I’m doing this for a year! Kidding, sort of. I guess I’m not really thinking about the whole year, just worrying about the month to month commitment, or I should say each two-month commitment. When I look at the themes at the beginning of the month I worry as to how I’m going to come up with anything. June is proving to be the hardest month for me. A beach scene? Downtown? Seaside? The City? Heck, I live in the desert! I’ll be amazed if I pull this one off without stretching a theme to the of point of breaking. I trust, as in previous months, bit by bit the themes will get covered. I think between the themes, the mini-assignments, the Friday Tips, the guest bloogers… and getting new ideas from looking at everyone’s photos… I don’t lack for motivation, just the time to do it all.
7. What is the inspiration behind your images? I’m not so sure you call it inspiration… but here goes…
When I was photographing plush toys, I sometimes would have to take photos for 8 hours straight. To keep the pictures fresh, I developed a “running dialog” technique in which I thought of a story that I wanted to convey and try to bring them to life by staging them with props and working on their pose. I did this for even the short daily shoots as I found it helped me look at all aspects of the picture… so that I didn’t have to later crop out or clone out the scissors left on the table or clone the fur from the eye. I still had slip-ups but this was my best secret weapon. When I trained my replacement, I finally told her this secret and finally, her pictures came to life. So, I have proof that it works.
I find these days, that if I concentrate and listen to my running dialog, they my pictures are better for it. When I “see the story” I have confidence that its going to be a good photo.
8. What type of photography equipment are you using (camera,lens,etc)?
I have two Point and Shoot cameras now:
Until recently, everything on the Photoblog was taken with a Canon PowerShot SD950S Elph with 12.1 megapixels. I think you can tell from my photos that this is a great little camera and I highly recommend it. It’s best feature is that it is so small it is easy to carry, thus I’m rarely without it. Even when I use it in manual mode (which is what I prefer) it isn’t complicated to use. The secret behind the quality shots, in my opinion, is the size of the sensor. It is larger than almost every other point and shoot camera out there, including my new camera.
My new camera is a Canon PowerShot SX10 IS, a 10 megapixel camera. The sensor on this is fairly standard size for the better point and shoot cameras. Since the sensor is smaller in this camera than my Canon Elph, I figured that having 10 megapixels would be smarter than having 12 megapixels, as is featured in the newest model. With the new camera I get 20X zoom lens (5mm to 100mm) and more controls: Focus, Aperture priority, Shutter Speed priority, Manual mode, and Fill Flash adjustment.
Sure, I’d have rather have purchased a DSLR camera but my current lifestyle dictates that I learn to make do with the tools available to my budget.
9. What special challenges do you find in shooting with a point and shoot (P&S)camera?
They put so many features in these point and shoot cameras that it really isn’t so very hard to get a decent picture out of them. I’ve owned many over the years, and until joining this challenge, I didn’t miss the SLR camera.
The most challenging part of using the P&S is that you don’t have control over the aperture or shutter speed. Also, the aperture is limited. Both my cameras range between f/2.8 and f/8.0. I suspect that the size of the sensor in the P&S cameras is the reason that the aperture is limited to f/8.0.
My SX10 lets me set the aperture; my Digital Elph does not. But, it does display the aperture, shutter speed and ISO information when I depress the shutter button halfway. Most times I accept what I get. Other times I play around to see if I can get it to change. I find that even though I don’t have control over the settings, the camera makes smart decisions when I change the things that I can change.
I have learned that the best way to use my camera is in Manual mode, with ISO 80 or 100 and I always take the time to set the focus distance, which is either infinity, normal or macro. If I really want a macro picture, I use the built in digital macro feature available through the menu.
I don’t often use the pre-configured Scenes… although, if I have time, I will experiment with them to see if I can get the desired aperture or shutter speed. For most of the Scenes, the aperture is at 2.8, but in a couple it is 8.0. Zooming seems to change aperture. Scenes mostly changes the Shutter Speed — thus a way to cheat at Shutter priority. When in Scenes mode, there is no control over ISO; but like Manual mode, I can still select one of the 3 focal points. So the challenge here is to remember which “short cuts” will work when you need them. As I say, I don’t usually use Scenes.
Although I have the option to select the ISO with both cameras, the nature of the sensor in the P&S camera operates best at ISO 80 or ISO 100. But sometimes I run the camera in Auto ISO mode, just to see what the results will be.
The most challenging part of my Canonl Elph is that it doesn’t let me choose where to focus. It does central focusing or what is called A1AF, where it picks the focus. I find if I depress the shutter button half way and release it and try again, sometimes the focus will change spots and sometimes it is even where I want it.
Although my older camera does have a fairly decent zoom lens, it is really just a tool for better framing. The new camera with its 100mm zoom is good for capturing things at a distance (as I’ve demonstrated in my blog). It’s very exciting. We picked up this used camera on e-bay for far less than a decent lens would cost if we did own a DSLR. (I’d have preferred to buy the lens but then we’d have to add in the cost of the body… and you know it doesn’t stop there.) Of course, the built in lens is not ideal, 100mm isn’t very far and the digital zoom works best with a tripod, which is never with me when I’m riding my bike and shooting nature.
That brings me to image stabilization. I love the built in image stabilizer. Love, love, love it. Unfortunately, I owned an earlier Canon without image stabilizer on my first trip to China. Because we worked all day, we didn’t arrive at The Great Wall of China until late in the day and thus we quickly lost day light and then it was dark. My pictures are so blurry that if the subject matter wasn’t The Great Wall of China, I’d have deleted them years ago. A camera with Image stabilizer would have shot perfect pics, even at night. A camera with Image stabilizer makes me a better photographer than I really am.
10. Are you a Mac or PC lover and what editing programs are you currently using? Any favorite filters, actions, etc
After 25 years of being a PC user, I switched to a Mac during the July 4th weekend of 2008. I bought the dummy book and felt like a dummy for two days. The third day I woke up with a Mac brain and have been a Mac lover ever since.
Over the years, I have used a LOT of different photo editing programs. When I interviewed at Wishpets, I was asked if I knew how to use Photoshop Elements. I answered yes, I had so many different ones under my belt I was confident, I’d “get it” if I had to. When I was offered the job later that day, I went out and bought my first copy of PSE and gave myself a crash course so that by the time I showed up at the job 5 days later, it was true, I did know how to use it.
I like PSE and bought a copy for my Mac without hesitation. My copy of PSE is now a bit behind and when I have some spare money I will upgrade. I figure there is still so much that I can do with it that I wanted to invest in a new direction.
So, I recently bought Aperture 3, which is very similar to Lightroom, but a little less money and of course, it is designed for a Mac. By now you have figured out that I love to challenge myself with new software. Aperture is so different than any other photo editing program that I’ve used previously… it took me a bit to wrap my head around it. In fact, there are a lot of new PSE tricks that this group has demonstrated and I would like to try each one, but I’ve promised myself that I am not going to get distracted until I feel that I really understand how to use Aperture. Then, I hope to use PSE for the things that can’t be done in Aperture.
What I like best about Aperture is that everything/anything that you do to edit a photo is non-destructive to the image. I can make all kinds of tweaks, keep that photo and start over again with a new master. I can do this twenty times and it barely uses disk space. I can turn off something I’ve added and turn it back on.
Oh, and I like that all I have to do is click on a number from 0 to 5 and it rates my photos… and then I can use smart folders to single out the better photos and then choose from these as to which to post on my photo blog.
11. What is your best advise concerning photography?
Take your camera everywhere and don’t be embarrassed to stop and take a picture. Leave it in Auto or P mode so that you are ready for anything. Try not to feel rushed. Think before you shoot. (Unless it is an allusive Quail or other form of fleeting wildlife or human life.) Move and shoot again. Don’t be lazy. Get down at eye level with your subject. Remember, don’t be lazy. There is probably a better shot that you haven’t seen yet.
These are the things I tell myself all the time. As well as reminding myself to look out for snakes, scorpions, and a new devil that I recently learned about, spider wasps.
12. Name 3 words that describe your photography style.
Not sure yet.
13. What is your favorite picture you ever took and why? (please attach picture)
Isn’t this an impossible task? Of the 11,000 or so photos I’m to pick just one? I was going to choose one of my favorites from a China trip, but it was taken with a Sony P&S camera and I don’t even remember which one. (Carl doesn’t either… that says something about how many digital cameras we’ve gone through over the years.)
The one I am choosing I took approximately one year ago on our way back from a trip to Rapid City, South Dakota. I am standing at the border of South Dakota and Wyoming, out in the distance is Nebraska. Isn’t it amazing that his photo came out of the Digital Elph?
If you want to see my favorite China picture, let me know and I’ll post it on my blog.
14. Any other words of wisdom you would like to leave us with?
Image stabilization in a Point and Shoot camera is essential for road trips. I have taken some great photos from the passenger seat of a moving car. (Don’t tell anyone, but I did try this from the driver’s seat in Tucson… I don’t advise this.) When everything is new and stimulating, the driver will most certainly leave you on the side of the road after you have asked him to stop twenty times in as many miles. Tripods are great, but most often not practical. My last words of wisdom : image stabilization.
A special Thank You out to Judi! Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself!
To visit Judi’s blog, go to: Judi’s 2010 Photowalk
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