Photography...The Way I See It!

Sorry about not getting out a real post today.  I've been a little busy setting up a site over at SmugMug.com  If you're interested in checking it out jump on over to www.mariejohnphotography.com.

I do plan on a real post in a day or two, most likely talking about SmugMug.

Sorry it's been a week sense I've posted anything.  I have some really exciting news.  For anyone who doesn't already know, I am starting a new job on Monday.  A new 9 to 5 job.  And no it's not a photography related.  As a very short notice get away my decided to book us a place in the Canadian Rocky Mountains for a couple of nights.  (And this time I was aloud to take my camera and laptop).

Just to set your mind at ease I'm not going to go into details about how great the hotel was or what the scenery looked like.  I do plan on posting some of the pictures later on this week.  No, for this post I would like to talk about packing for a photo trip.

Now I'm not going to tell you how many pairs of underwear to pack or what the 'dress code' at the hotels restaurant means.  One thing I will recommend when packing, take at least one more pair of socks then you think you'll need.  Nothing will ruin a day out with the camera quicker then damp or wet feet.  Packing an extra pair of socks in the camera bag really doesn't take up a lot of space or weigh all that much.

Memory card are an other thing you can't really pack too many of.  For me I always take twice as much memory as I think I might need.  If I think I might make 100 pictures I'll take enough memory cards for 200 pictures.  I guess you can say I don't ever want to me in a position where i have to delete pictures before they get transferred to my computer.  As cheap as memory cards are these days it might not be a bad idea to even take three times as much as you feel you'll need.

Something else I've learned from not only this trip as well as other tips.  Don't rely on on hotel when it comes to a wireless internet connection.  For what ever reason my laptop just would NOT connect.  If I had more time to pack (and I'm not complaining) I would have packs both a network cable and a wireless router.  I personally would rather have my own password protected router so not only can I use my laptop any where in the room I choose, I also get a wireless connection that I am the only one with access.  Not only does my own router give me a little bit faster wireless connection then you normally get in most hotels, having a password also gives a little (and I do mean little) bit of added security.

If you are unlucky (or lucky) enough to be staying somewhere that doesn't offer internet at all and you really have to have access to email or the ability to up load photographs to website tethering might be an option for you.  Tethering is connecting a device such as a laptop to the internet through a smartphone.  Rules, prices and methods of connecting can be a varied as the number of mobile phone carriers and smart phone models so I'm not going to go into details on tethering.  I will say as someone who has used tethering in the past, I'm glad that the option for it is there.

I know there are a lot of other things that need to be taken along when traveling, so I am going to end by asking this.

What do you take on photo trips that others may not of thought about?

Busy weekend around our house this weekend.  With my birthday on Monday and wedding anniversary Tuesday my wife decided to whisk us off to a nice surprise stay at a very nice hotel here in Calgary.  She only had two simple rules, no camera and no laptop.  At first I thought she had asked me to cut off my right arm or something.  I have to be honest here, not only did I get along fine with out either one I had a really good time.  Only down side is I really haven't had time to get much work done on a blog post, so I thought I'd simple post some of the pictures I took Saturday Saturday morning.

Bridge

Drop of Water

One in a Million

Wet

Rest

Up Up and Away

Water Fall

Purple In The Middle

Purple Bell

Purple

Top of Water Fall

Bridge Over Water

In one of my earlier post I talked about aperture and how it affects depth of field.  So this time around I thought I'd talk a little more about DOF.

Just to make sure we are all on the same page, depth of is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects that appear acceptable in focus in a picture.

Instead of trying to get into all the technical stuff, I think the easiest way to show what that definition really means is to show it in pictures.

For all these pictures I shot in Aperture priority mode, meaning that the only camera setting I controlled was the aperture.  The camera looked after the rest of the settings for me.  I set the manual focus on the 24 inch mark on the tape measure.

f/5.6

f/11

f/38