Nikon D3100

Nikon D90 & D3100 DSLR Photography Lesson with Bill and Ria in St. Petersburg Florida

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Ria & Bill with their Nikons during our first DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaOnce again due to the Honda Grand Prix going on in downtown St. Petersburg, I used the small park at the end of Coffee Part Bayou as the location for a DSLR Photography Lesson with husband and wife Bill & Ria and their pair of Nikons.  It was my first time to see a vivid red Nikon D3100 body!  It looked pretty cool.  That was the DSLR Ria used during the lesson and Bill wielded the Nikon D90.  Though I market my photography lessons as 1-on-1, they are available to pairs as well.  It is actually nice teaching two people because that means I do not have to be the model for practice shots!

Being very familiar with Nikon menu settings it was no problem to get both their D90 and D3100 setup and ready to start making shots in the manner I do with my own Nikon D300.  During the lesson we practiced how to frame a portrait shot to make best use of space and put the person in a flattering composition (i.e. not having the horizon bisecting their head).  Many people's instinct is to center the subject, but putting the subject just off center even, like in the photo above, adds more interest and better use of negative space.  

It was a real fun time introducing Bill and Ria to the manual DSLR world, where before they were just using the D90 in auto-mode.  We already have our next lesson scheduled!

Nikon D3100 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Kyle

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Kyle with his Nikon D3100 in Straub Park with Proline tripod product placementI had been in e-mail contact with Kyle for awhile, giving him tripod buying advice, etc.  This morning I met him for a DSLR Photography Lesson in the usual downtown St. Petersburg spot.  Even though the calendar said December 22nd, it felt more like May 22nd as the Florida sun continued to shine on full force.  

As usual during a first lesson, we covered a wide range of photography topics starting out with my 4-step process for getting the settings right for any given type of shot followed by simply how to best hold a DSLR for maximum stability and efficiency.  Kyle kept his Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8G lens on his D3100 as we went from making shots with bokeh, to controling DoF for group shots, to how to compose and take shots using a tripod, before ending with some flash portrait practice.  

I hope Kyle can put all we covered today to use to produce his best holiday photographs ever.  He already had two of his photographs published in a local credit union's calendar, maybe next year he can go national!

DSLR Photography Lesson Basics with Jeff & his Nikon D3100

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Jeff with his Nikon D3100 in Vinoy Park; The Pier of St. Petersburg in the background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm lens @ f/2.8 ISO 200 1/250th natural lightNew DSLR Photography Lesson student Jeff was a referral from old high school friend and one-time photo lesson student himself, Mark.  Jeff has an impressive traveling resume and wants to be able to make better photographs on future trips, like one soon to Sydney, Australia.  Thus, he upgraded from a point & shoot camera to a new Nikon D3100.  

As I went through my four step process of setting a DSLR for any type of shot, Jeff seemed to be catching on quick and soon we were leaving aperture priority behind during the lesson and moving onto manual mode.  Having the lesson late in the evening helped hasten our transition to manual mode as the fading light did not allow aperture priority mode to produce acceptable exposures for very long, especially when we practiced photographing moving objects.  

Jeff also took a lot of handwritten notes during the lesson, which is something I recommend unless one has a photographic memory!

I look forward to introducing more advanced photography topics in our future lessons.

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    DSLR Photography Lesson with Lisa & her Nikon D3100 in Vinoy Park

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    Vinoy Park St. Petersburg - Lisa with her Nikon D3100 & Tampa Bay in the backgroundI found out during our first DSLR Photography Lesson that Lisa is a very interesting person with many unique interests.  One interest she wanted to increase her knowledge on was photography and specifically how to better use her Nikon D3100 to photograph all the details and textures that catch her eye.  We met at the usual downtown St. Petersburg spot on a great Florida spring afternoon.

    Living in Ybor City Lisa is never short of interesting places and things to go out and photograph.  I told her that my default settings for just heading out the door in usual Florida weather and walking around are:  f/5.6 ISO 200 (lowest for my DSLR) WB-sunny AF-S.  After going shooting in any type of situation it is a good practice to return your DSLR to these settings before storing it in your camera bag.  

    Lisa was a fast learner and my pop quizzes asking her to tell me from memory what her D3100 was currently set to were all passes.  Knowing without looking what your camera is set to is key for catching a shot that has only a few seconds of opportunity.  Then of course being able to change the necessary settings in under five seconds is also key.  

    Linda and I ended up in Vinoy Park where its seawall offers a chance to use S-curve composition.  Having an S-shaped line composed in your frame gives the viewer's eye something to follow throughout your image.  Most often you see roads used as S-curves.  

    I look forward to seeing what photographs Lisa produces in Ybor City and later on her trip to Costa Rica! 

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    • DSLR Photography Lesson at John's Pass Village Nikon D3100

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    Linda photographs a shark at John's Pass Village with her Nikon D3100 during our DSLR Photography Lesson #4At John's Pass Village Linda continued her torrid pace of taking DSLR Photography Lessons.  For our fourth lesson together (1st, 2nd, 3rd) we concentrated more on composition and seeing photographs when walking around a given tourist or travel area.  John's Pass Village is definitely a touristy place, but one I actually like a lot myself as it is heavier on nostalgia than kitsch.  

    I had not had a lesson at this location in awhile, so it was nice to go back and spend time along its quaint shops and candy stores.  However, a lot had changed since my last visit, including installation of many street light poles that were unwelcome intruders into scenes that were once free of such objects, as well as an artistic staircase losing some of its art appeal.  

    For followers of my flickr photostream, you may recognize that shark.  There is now a light post making it impossible to get the same composition I did two years ago (photo here).  Hopefully Linda will like her shark photo as much as I do mine.  Now when I go back there I feel like the shark is an old friend.

    The above photo is titled off horizontal axis on purpose since I could not otherwise fit both Linda and the shark in the frame.  This was the main composition tip I had Linda practice during the lesson.  Sometimes the best composition is not with everything in a straight line.  Sometimes you cannot fit all you want to in a level composition.  In these cases, off level composing can be very effective.  Of course as with all techniques, one should not become too reliant upon it, but rather maintain a variety of composition styles. 

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    • 1st Avenue North St. Petersburg DSLR Photography Lesson

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    Linda & her Nikon D3100 on our 3rd DSLR Photography Lesson - 1st Ave North, St. PetersburgLinda's intensive DSLR Photography Lessons continued this morning once again in downtown St. Petersburg.  This was her third lesson in seven days (1st, 2nd).  If only all my students were that frequent I could finally get that Porsche 911 Carrera S I have been wanting.  Speaking of Porsches, I find out that Linda has quite the knowledge of cars as she even knew a 911 from 1999 would still be the air-cooled version.  I was impressed.  

    For this 2-hour lesson block we mostly setup shop on 1st Avenue North around the 2nd Street North cross street.  This stretch of 1st Avenue North is lined with multiple storefronts all displaying different, vibrant colors (see photo above).  It is my favorite place to photograph people in downtown St. Pete.  

    We had practiced flash portrait photographs last time, so today I had Linda focus more on composition and style.  I introduced her to the wonders that can happen if you purposefully tilt the horizontal axis in your viewfinder and push the shutter.  The off center shot is not a style one would want to do a majority of the time, but I do like to toss in a few of this style of shot every now and then to spice things up.  

    I also had Linda shoot from a lower than eye-level perspective with her Nikon D3100 to produce a creative forced perspective portrait.  

    Having covered a most of the areas I like to shoot at in downtown St. Petersburg, our fourth lesson, already scheduled for Friday morning, will be at John's Pass Village! 

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    • External Flash Nikon SB-600 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg

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    Making use of the excellent columns at the Museum of Fine Arts in downtown St. PetersburgJust three shorts days after her first DSLR Photography Lesson, I once again met Linda in downtown St. Petersburg.  In that time she had gotten some new gear, a Nikon SB-600 Speedlight!  She wanted to be able to make portraits of her family when they visit her from Minnesota.  So with the SB-600 and her still new Nikon D3100 we practiced on the front porch of the Museum of Fine Arts how to take advantage of the directional aspects of her new external flash.

    The top of the SB-600 can swivel around and angle forwards and backwards.  I told Linda my preferred method of bouncing the flash for the most part is in this order:  a wall behind me, a wall to the side of me, the ceiling.  Then we tried each way from the same spot and Linda could see the benefits/disadvantages/differences of each bounce direction.  

    One of the famous banyan trees in downtown St. Petersburg provides a shady backdrop for portraits.

    I also continued to teach her how to read and understand the histogram displayed on the back of her Nikon D3100.  With the very useful "show highlights" menu option enabled, any blown out areas of the image flash on the display alerting us that we need to adjust settings or flash direction to produce a properly exposed image.  

    Linda has already booked her third lesson!  I look forward to building on what she has already learned in the lessons over the past week. 

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