To Beach Or Not To Beach

It's not rocket science to realise why taking your camera to the beach might be a bad idea. I can pretty much sum it up in one word: SAND. Well... maybe two: SAND & WATER. There is an abundance of both of them, which makes taking your camera to the beach kind of dangerous.

The danger of water is two-fold. There is the water that makes up the ocean (ie. Do not take your camera into the water with you unless you have a waterproof cover for it) and then there is the mist that is thrown up by the wind that can cause about as much damage as, well, mist! Moisture is not a good thing for your camera. You don't want it!

The danger of sand is slightly less obvious, but makes sense if you think about it. Sand gets everywhere. Anyone who has spent any amount of time at the beach will have realised this. You spend the days after visiting the beach discovering the new and exciting places where the sand has hidden itself. And you do not want your sand to hide itself anywhere near your camera. A grain of sand, as small as it is, can cause a lot of damage when it gets into the wrong place and, with the addition of wind, can be really harmful to your camera. You don't want the sand to get into the zoom mechanism. You don't want it blowing against your lens or getting into the crevices of your lens cap. When I say you don't want sand, I really really mean it! Keep it far far far away!

And yet, the benefits of taking your camera to the beach are clear. Just look at the amazing photos of the beach and you will see what they are. Those aspects that are a threat to your camera are a dream for your photography! So, the real question would be: Is it worth the risk?

I decided to take my chances last week when a public holiday presented itself and I found myself with nothing to do. The weather was supposed to be perfect, so some friends decided that it was the perfect opportunity to drive to Kenton on Sea, about an hour outside of Grahamstown, and take advantage of it. I hmmed and haaed about whether to bring my camera along and eventually decided to go for it. I packed it in my small bag (not wanting to take my full kit with me) along with a spare lens and headed off.



At first, there was no doubt in my mind that bringing the camera had been a great idea. The sky was the perfect shade of blue, the water was stunning and everything was just coming together to create great photo opportunities. We walked up dunes, down sand banks, around cliffs and eventually found ourselves in a secluded paradise. The water was turquoise and relatively warm considering the time of year. We found ourselves a nice spot out of the way and left our stuff behind while we ran into the open arms of the ocean. (Which reminds me - another negative about taking your camera to the beach can be safety if everyone you know is heading away from your stuff, leaving it susceptible.)

And then, from nowhere, the weather turned. The wind picked up into a minor storm and people raced from the beach as fast as they could manage. Having driven an hour to get there and only having had about 5 minutes of beach time, we were reluctant to give up. Instead, we wandered through the sandstorm trying to find a shaded spot. Which we eventually found. But, remember what I said about your camera + sand + wind? Not a good combination! I tried to keep it in the shelter of my handbag, but alas there was sand in there too. Once the wind died down a bit, I retrieved the camera once again and, lo and behold, there was sand on the lens and pretty much everywhere else. And yet, that didn't stop me. I managed to wipe off most of the sand from the camera itself and used my blower to get rid of the grains that were residing on my lens, and I kept shooting. And I got some great shots! I was really happy with the photos that came out of the day!

So was it worth it? To be honest, I am in two minds. I am thrilled with the pictures that were taken, so much so that I want to go back as soon as possible. And yet, I am still worried about my camera and the wear and tear that it may have taken from the outing. Taking your camera to the beach with you is a risk. If you are prepared for that risk and for anything to happen, then I would highly recommend taking it, particularly if you are heading somewhere picturesque. But don't take your camera with you unprepared. Bring your cleaning kit, bring an extra (sand-friendly) bag and if any dangers present themselves, run like the wind. Or hide your camera and keep enjoying yourself. Either way will work :)

What dangerous circumstances has your camera faced recently?

Rant

There is nothing that annoys me more in terms of photography than people taking the photographer for granted.

I was at a dinner party last night and it was a wonderful party and a wonderful reason for me to bring my camera out. I haven't been taking too many random photos recently, and I felt like doing a bit of photography. In any case, we were sitting around the dinner table and my camera was beside me, and my friend decided to say to the rest of the guests: "Please excuse Lara. She loves taking photos of everything." Which was absolutely fine, and very true and one of the guests responded by saying that she didn't mind as long as the photos were good. To which my friend replied, "They will be. She has a very nice camera."

It is a common misconception that a number of people have that the camera is everything. While my camera is good, it's not what makes the photographs that I take good. I like to think that I have an eye for a good photo and wait for good moments to take photos. I also have a steady hand and know which apertures and shutter speeds to use for which situations. This means that it is more than just the camera that is good. It's the photographer as well and people have a tendency to forget this fact.

Another thing that annoyed me was that one of the friends of this friend that was having the dinner party then asked to play around with my camera. I agreed rather reluctantly, but without showing any reluctance, and the girl then complained that she had to stand back because my lens didn't have a zoom and what a stupid lens it was because she couldn't zoom out. Nevermind that it is one of my favourite lenses and the best for the light that was provided in the room, nevermind that I offered to let her use the kit lens that was in my bag. No, this girl didn't want to change anything, but wanted to complain because the lens wasn't to her satisfaction.

I should now mention that while there are people who annoy me when it comes to my photography, there are also those who astound me (in a good way). There are people like my friend Jestine, who has been encouraging me to start standing up for myself when it comes to photography and charging when I should and refusing to take jobs that don't come with pay unless they are jobs that I actually want to take. There are also people like Mike and Vicky, who try to insist on paying me for the wedding shots that I did even though I have already informed them that I will not be charging them, since they were my first wedding shoot and since the camera died halfway through their wedding. No matter, they still pester me occasionally to give them my banking details, which I will refuse to do because I think that there are times when charging is appropriate and there are times when it is not, and my first wedding shoot is not something that I want to charge for.

In any case, these were just a couple of things that I wanted to get off my chest and I am rather glad that I have now. Rant over.

Starting out

I have been reading a lot of photography blogs, as usual, and started thinking to myself today that this blog is not what I want it to be anymore.

I started the blog as a way to post the pictures from my 365 day challenge, and when the challenge started failing earlier this year, the blog ended up becoming a sideline and more of a place to post the photo shoots that I have been doing. While that is great and I am happy to continue using this blog to post the photos from my shoots, I also think that there should be more to it.

I don't just want to have a blog that I post to once a month or once in awhile. I want this to be a photography blog - not just in terms of posting my own photography, but in terms of helping other people along with their photography. Since it is something that I am passionate about, and writing is something that I am passionate about, I want to join the two together to form a blog that other photographers would enjoy, not just the people whose photos I shoot. And so, I have decided that I am going to start writing articles about photography, starting from today. To ease into the transition from photographer to photo blogger, I want to discuss a subject that can be easily understood by looking at this blog from it's conception to this point.

When you are starting out as a photographer, people are going to give you a lot of advice, and that advice will vary from photographer to photographer, from blog to blog. But there is one piece of advice that always stays the same regardless of who you talk to - you need to get to know your camera.

Let me explain a little what I mean here. You can read your camera's manual inside and out, you can read every blog in existence, but if you have not picked up your camera and played around with it, I don't think you can say that you know your camera. While you know about the technical details of how your camera works, while you know the theory, there is a vital aspect missing from your knowledge of your camera, and that is experience. I would say the same thing for people who pick up their camera from the get-go and shoot in automatic mode for months, not reading a blog, not picking up a book, not even looking at the settings that are being used when a photograph is taken. There needs to be a good medium of theory and practice. If you only have the theory, you are going to be lacking in experience. If you only have the practice, you are going to be lacking in knowledge.

So what should you do as a beginner photographer? First of all, I would highly recommend at least flipping through your manual. It will tell you some of the aspects about your camera that will be finicky to learn, even through experience. I speak from experience here. When I first got my Canon EOS 550D, I had very little idea about what the various buttons did. I had played around with a Canon before, but never this model and there were a number of new buttons that made no sense to me. I automatically turned to manual mode and tried to change the aperture. I couldn't. I turned the dial that I had turned on the previous Canons that I had used, I pushed buttons and nothing happened. This is where my manual came in handy. I would never have guessed that the little button that looked like a magnifying glass could be used to switch between settings, allowing me to change them one at a time. Different models have different buttons, different methods and different features. Looking over your manual will at least tell you what some of these features are and how to use them.

While you are reading through your manual, I would highly recommend picking up your camera and testing out the settings that you are reading about. Reading is one thing, practicing is another. Sometimes you need to try your hand at something to completely understand it. Once again, understanding the theory of how it works does not mean that it will come across in your photography. Test your camera out.

Next, I would highly recommend finding some blogs to subscribe to. There is a wealth of knowledge available online from experienced photographers, and a number of people going through the same thing that you are. You can learn from both the experienced and the experiencing. It can help having someone to chat to about the problems that you are experiencing, particularly when that someone has experienced the same problem in the past. At the bottom of this post you can find a list of the photography blogs that I have subscribed to. Make sure that you find one that speaks to you. I subscribed to a large number of photography blogs at the start that either never posted anything of use (or never posted at all), posted articles that were far too advanced for my level of photography, or posted blogs that made me want to fall asleep. Everyone has their own personalities, and you need to find a blog that suits yours. I would also highly recommend looking at other people's photography. By doing this, you accustom yourself to good photography and you will find pictures that will inspire you to greater heights in your own photography.

Finally, I recommend taking up a project. For me, it was a 365 project - a photo a day for a year. This meant that, even when I didn't particularly want to, I felt that I had to pick up my camera and take a photo. I learned a lot this way. For example, I learned how to take photos in a number of different lighting situations - how to juggle shutter speed, aperture and ISO, when to use my flash and when not to, how best to use the light sources that I had. I look back on some of the photos that I took in the beginning that I thought were great at the time, and cringe now and all the mistakes that were made. But I also know that my mistakes back then influenced the photography that I do now. Now, I am not saying that everyone should take up a 365 day project, but I do think that you should set yourself projects and goals, even if it is trying to take a photo a day for a week, or a photo a week for a month, or trying to take pictures related to a particular theme or a particular feature that your camera has. But essentially, I highly recommend that you pick up your camera as often as possible and practice as much as you can using the different functions that your camera has so that, after a few months, you will no longer need to think about the settings that you use - they will just come naturally.

As promised, some of the blogs that I follow. I use Google Reader to follow my blogs, as I find that it allows for a great reading platform and means that I am integrating my photography blogs in with my friends blogs, my news blogs and my humour blogs. Please note that the links below are to the RSS Feeds for the sites. This means that if you use Google Reader, adding them to your reader will automatically let you follow their posts.

Beyond Megapixels is a photography blog that is run by Tiffany Joyce and Steve Russell and occasionally features guest writers on a variety of subjects. I find it useful as Tiffany and Steve cover a large range of topics and often have differing opinions on how things should be done, which makes for both interesting and educational reading.

Digital Photography School is a school run by Darren Rowse mainly, but featuring a large number of guest contributor posts on a range of subjects, camera and lens reviews by a number of experts in the field and challenges and competitions that can be both challenging and educational when you are starting out and just plain fun once you have got the hang of things.

Photofocus is entirely run by Scott Bourne, who has a wealth of knowledge that he is ready to dole out. He is an expert and well known in his field, and does occasional giveaways. While these are usually not open to South African readers, as the prizes need to be delivered to an address in the States, I personally would not mind paying for the shipping and customs tax to have a brand new Canon 7D sent from my Aunt in the States to here.

Through the Lens of Kimberly Gauthier is a blog written by an amateur photographer that I have recently started following. She has a number of insights into starting your own photography business and her blogs are both easy to read and fairly entertaining. While it is extremely handy learning from the experts in the field, sometimes you want to hear form someone a little more on your level, and Kimberly is great in that way. She takes great photos and can share the ups and downs that she has experienced in trying to get her feet off the ground as a photographer.

What the Duck is just a fun comic that I recently stumbled across and absolutely love. LOVE! Very cute, very witty, very funny and often very true.