Smalltown rodeos are great for photography. Because they are smaller, you can get closer to the action more easily than at a larger rodeo. I went to a rodeo on a late August Sunday afternoon in St-Albert, a short drive outside Ottawa Ontario. This event was scheduled through the Rawhide Rodeo Company and was part of the St-Albert Curd Festival.

Although the shooting conditions looked less than ideal because it was a bit rainy.  The overcast sky actually provided good even lighting as opposed to the harsh/contrasty lighting conditions of a sunny day. Less light however means shooting at higher ISOs than on a sunny day. All photos were shot with a Canon 40D with a 100-300 5.6L lens. Most photos were shot at ISOs ranging between 400-800 in order to be able to shoot at acceptable shutter speeds for this slow lens. In order to help with stability, I used a monopod.  The monopod helps to get better panned shots as some of the included shots

In order to protect the camera and lens I made myself a protective cover using a large Ziploc bag and an elastic band. This worked well because the rain was quite light. As with any rain cover however, it works better when your lens is an internally focusing lens. In this case, the lens was not an internally focusing lens, so focusing caused the plastic bag to twist with focus which can prevent achieving the right focus…

One of the problems with shooting this type of event is getting a good backgroud. Using a fast shutter speed and freezing the action would mostly yield photos with a subject having very little definition with respect with the background.  The subject would blend in with the background.   In order to prevent having clear views of spectators as a background, I like to use a panning technique to get a relatively clear image with a blurred background.

Here are some examples.  The first three photos were shot using parallel panning where you follow the subject’s motion while using a slower shutter speed.  Because of the relatively fast speed of the running horses, a slow shutter speed in this case means 1/125 sec.

Cowgirl on the run

Cowboy on the run

For more information on panning techniques refer to my article on ‘Slow shutter panning bike race photos‘

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I really enjoyed reading ‘Understanding Close-up Photography by Bryan Peterson’

Understanding Close Up Photography by Bryan Peterson

Whether you’re a beginner that wants to learn the basics of close-up photography or an advanced macro shooter wanting to learn new techniques and ideas, this is a great book for all.

The book starts by describing the difference with ‘Close-up vs Macro Photography’. One third of the book covers the different ‘Equipment’ options available to photographers wanting to get into close-up/macro photography (macros lens vs extension tubes vs closeup lens vs Canon 500D lens). A section of the book covers Depth of Field and Aperture which every photographer wanting to do macro photography should be aware of. The last sections of the book cover ‘Close-up Tips’ and a section giving inspiring subject shooting ideas titled ‘Up Close Indoors’.

The book is well written, very interesting, inspiring and filled with beautiful photographs. I recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about Close-up photography. Not all books you read as a photographer have to be about Photoshop! This is a book about photography techniques.
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No flash allowed. No tripods allowed.

These two rules make it challenging to capture images within the Biodome, but certainly not impossible.

Many areas of the building receive light from the outside through glass ceilings. The birds area is a good example were you will get more available light.
The aquarium area is quite dark and does not offer much light.
Another challenge is that in many areas, including the Antartica and Arctic ecosystems, are located behind glass. When shooting through glass, you have to be aware of reflections in the glass. Try to minimize these reflections, otherwise your images will loose contrast and detail.

Suggested equipment:

- DSLR
- The fastest lens that you can get! This means preferably f2.8 or faster.
- A 70-200mm f2.8 lens would be the best lens to use. A fast lens with a good range that will allow you to get close to pretty much everything at the Biodôme. I used only my 100mm f2.8 macro lens when I was there and that was not long enough to capture a pair of Lynx that would stay far from the visitors.

Shooting Tips:

- Set you camera ISO at 400 or above. Use the highest ISO that you can with a noise level that you can live with. With many of today’s last generation digital cameras you can easily set you ISO at 800 or above without being too concerned about noise.

- Set your camera to RAW file format in order to get more flexibility in setting the photo’s white balance in post-processing. You are dealing with mixed lighting sources which will make it problematic to select an appropriate white balance setting if you select JPG file format.

- When shooting through glass at the penguin display, it’s best to shoot directly against the glass. If your entire lens is resting against the glass that should basically eliminate reflections from the glass.

- Using a polarizing filter would also be useful in removing glass reflections if you want to step back from the glass, however because there isn’t much light available, you probably don’t want to loose precious f-stops of light by using the polarizing filter. So unless it is your intent to capture the visitor reflections in the glass, get close to the glass.

- In cases where you have to set your lens at an angle to the glass, you can reduce reflections by setting the lens against the glass and using your hand to act as a lens hood to prevent reflections from showing up in your camera’s field of view.

- The Biodome is divided into five different ecosystem: Tropical Forest,Laurentian Forest,St. Lawrence Marine ecosystem,Arctic,Antarctica. Please note that the Tropical Forest has a very high level of humidity. You might want to place your camera in a plastic bag before entering this area and wait a few minutes for the camera to warm up before you take it out and start shooting. This will also reduce the chance of condensation buildup in your camera which could be problematic.

Here are a few sample images from my visit to the Biodome:

King Penguin at Montreal Biodome - ISO 800, 1/160, f4.0, 100mm Canon macro lens. Shot through glass

I came across an article on DIYPhotography.net – DIY – Create your own Bokeh that explains how you can easily create a custom shaped bokeh from your lens.  I seemed like a fun  and easy project so I gave it a try!

Have a look at this video that walks you through building of a hood and bokeh filter holder DIY bokeh by Eirik Solheim. from eirikso.com In this case the cutouts are made with custom shaped paper cutters which will certainly give you better results than hand-cutting your own. The only problem with these paper cutters is that the created cutout may not be the right size for your lens.

To help you determine right the size of the cutout based on the focal length and maximum aperture of your lens, refer to this article. Removing The Mystery From The Heart Shaped Bokeh Thing
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Learn how to add a sense of motion in your sports photography by learning tips on slow shutter panning techniques.
I went out to photograph a Bike Race during the 2008 Italian Week in Ottawa (ItalianWeekOttawa.com) last weekend. The race, and my photography was unfortunately cut short because of a thunder storm with heavy rain. I did manage to get a few shots before the downpour.

In order to give a sense of motion in the photographs, I used panning at slow shutter speed. To be effective, these types of photographs usually need to have some parts of the image in focus, but you can also get interesting abstracts where nothing is in focus.

1 – Panning
Panning consists of following your subject during the exposure.
Start by following the moving subject in your viewfinder, press the shutter and keep following you subject with the camera until the exposure is complete. With an SLR, after pressing the shutter the viewfinder is blacked out during exposure so it may be difficult to follow through.
You can practice the panning technique by bringing up the camera but looking above it as you follow your subject, press the shutter and follow through.
Fortunately with digital cameras you can practice this technique and and make adjustments based on the results you see on your display.
There is a lot of hit and miss with panning so if you get a few good photos for every 20 shots you take, you’re doing ok.

2 - Slow Shutter speed
In order for the panning technique to be effective you will need to use a slow shutter speed on your camera. A good starting point is a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second. The slower the shutter, the longer the streaks from the background will be but the harder it will be to have your moving subject in focus. Depending on the subject speed, your distance from the subject and the focal length of your lens you may have to adjust your shutter speed.

Tip 1: Make sure that you set your camera to Shutter priority (Tv) so that you select and control the shutter speed.

Tip 2: When panning avoid having white or bright objects in the background or foreground. Bright foreground objects can cause bright streaks into which your subject will disappear. For best results avoid objects in the foreground relative to your subject and try to position yourself so that you have a dark background throughout your panning landscape.

Tip 3: If your subject is within your flash range, you can underexpose your image and let your flash properly expose your moving subject. This should give you a sharp subject against a darker background.

Tip 4: When using flash you will have a ghost image of your subject when panning. To get more realistic results always set your flash for 2nd curtain sync. This will place the ghost image behind your subject rather than in front of it. (Ghost image in front of the subject looks odd)

Tip 5: If you want your panned subject to be in focus, make sure that you are panning parallel to your subject’s trajectory.

Tip 6: If your camera’s autofocus cannot focus on the moving subject fast enough, set it in manual mode and pre-focus to a point where you expect your subject to be at the start of the panning.

Here are some sample photographs taken during the event.
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The Moment It Clicks by Joe McNally

This is a link to a 70 minute video by Photographer Joe McNally talking about his latest photography book ‘THE MOMENT IT CLICKS‘. This video was presented as part of a series to lucky employees at Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters. (continue reading…)

Watch ‘Confessions of a Photographer – Episode 1′ from a series of short videos, by Belgian photographer Bert Stephani. (continue reading…)

This is a great TV series featuring nature photographer Art Wolfe. The 13 part HD series airs on PBS. You can check you local listings here. You can also visit the Travels to the Edge website for videos, photos and photography tips from Art Wolfe.”