Tag Archives: tips

3 Simple Tips for Photographing Action

Dan Bailey's Adventure Photography Blog Posted on by
Kayaking Tunnel Falls, Gore Canyon, Colorado River

Kayaking Tunnel Falls, Gore Canyon, Colorado River

You show up at the river in your twenty year old (Choose one: Toyota or Subaru) with a pack full of camera gear, a case of blank memory cards and enough energy and excitement to power a small city. Your adrenaline rises as you scramble down the rocky trail in your Tevas with the faded nylon straps, grasping at small bushes and branches as if they might help steady your footing as you skid over loose dirt and pebbles on your way down to the bank.

The roar of the class V rapid grows in your ears and blocks out nearly every other sound as you get closer. You can almost smell the frothy mountain water, the same water that you were skiing on sixty miles up canyon just a few weeks ago. Every couple of minutes, a few stray drops cut loose from the river and land on your bare arms that are ripped from carrying heavy camera gear and adventuring in the outdoors.

A hundred yards upstream, a group of kayakers are just putting in to run the rapid. You quickly drop your pack and pull out your camera, slap on your big lens and make a few test shots until you’re confident about your exposure, making sure that you’re shutter speed is high enough to freeze the action.

So how do you ensure that you get the shot? Better hurry with your analysis of the scene because here they come!! Don’t worry, I’ve done this before- I’ll give you some quick pointers. Here are three simple tips for photographing action. Yes, you can apply these techniques to other sports besides kayaking. Now good luck and have fun!

1. Get Closer

Don’t be afraid to zoom that big lens all the way in, that’s what they’re made for! Use it like you mean it. Bring that action right up close!! Let your viewers feel like they can almost smell and drink that water! Get them right into the middle of the whole mess and show them the tight details. Let them think that they’re about to trip over your subject! I guarantee, it will take their breath away.

Kayaking Upper Narrows, Cache la Poudre River, Colorado

2. Zoom Out

Ok, enough of the close stuff, now zoom out and give us the whole scene. Let us see your subject in context of their entire environment. Adventure sports are as much, if not more, about the adventure, than the sport itself, so let us get a feel for the dramatic expanse of the natural world where these people are enjoying their time in the outdoors. After all, you love it here just as much; show us what’s so great about this place or this activity.

Whitewater kayaking, Cache La Poudre River, near Fort Collins, Colorado

Whitewater kayaking, Cache La Poudre River, near Fort Collins, Colorado

 

3. Keep Shooting

Feeling good? Think you’ve got some awesome shots so far? You’re doing great, but don’t stop yet, keep that motor drive working. Keep burning frames until either your subject is gone or the light is gone, or both. Chances are good that as good as the stuff you’ve already shot might be, there’s a totally killer image just waiting for you to grab, only you won’t know when it’s going to appear until it jumps right in front of your eyes.

It will probably take you buy surprise, so you’ll have to keep your eye trained on the subject and your finger at the ready, because it will only happen once. You won’t actually know when (or if) it will even happen until it’s staring you right in the face for a mere spit second. It’s that moment that separates the big boy and big girl photographers from the amateurs. You either get he shot or you don’t

Dave Zinn kayaking Poudre Falls, Cache la Poudre River, Colorado

Dave Zinn kayaking Poudre Falls, Cache la Poudre River, Colorado

 

Did you get it? Awesome!! Great job! Feels good doesn’t it? Now pack up, head on down the canyon and meet me at the (insert favorite watering hole.) The first pitcher is on me!

10 Ways to Get Your Blog Read

Dan Bailey's Adventure Photography Blog Posted on by

Telemark skiing, Turnagain Pass, Alaska

Blogs are a great way to bring extra traffic to your website, and they’re an awesome way to feature your newest imagery. They can also be a great outlet for photographers who enjoy writing. In fact, some photographers, *ahem* create blogs that are, in effect, online magazines.

And regardless of what you hear, blogs still have relevance, even this ultra modern era of Google+, because they allow for unique branding and a personality, both of which help attract and retain a following.

How can you make sure that people are actually reading your blog? How can you draw strong and consistent traffic that helps increase your overall online visibility, credibility, and in some cases, your income?

Here are 10 sure fire ways that you can get people excited about your blog so that they not only read it, they bookmark it, share it, stumble it and tweet it to the masses. Of course, this is in addition to all the important SEO stuff that you’ll also have to do. We’ll address that in a future post.

1. Post awesome content: Content is king. Period. Post something cool or and it will get seen.

2. Post useful content: Give your readers something that helps them. If there is a problem or issue that you have resolved in your photography, whether it’s technical, artistic, industry or gear related, then you’re in a position to help others, because I guarantee, you’re not the only one who had questions about that particular issue. This is the number one way your posts will be found and shared. If you just post images, then also consider posting the “how to info” for your shots.

3. Write with personality: Don’t be vanilla. Don’t be what you or others think you need to be. Be yourself. Bring forth the real you into your posts, because ultimately, what people like and trust is not perfect, it’s genuine.

4. Post regularly: The more often you post, and the more content that you place into the interwebs, the more likely you are to be found, seen and remembered. Would you subscribe to a magazine that only came out once or twice a year?

5. Be an expert: Surely there’s something that you’re really good at. Working your expertise about a particular subject into your blog posts will increase your credibility and your readership. This goes hand in hand with #2.

6. Be focused: David Hobby’s Strobist blog gets 3 million visitors a month. Why? Because it’s a focused site about one thing- off camera flash. Again, this goes with #2 and #5.

7. Be Diverse: Would you read a magazine that always ran the same type of article? Mix it up. Give your readers variety.

8. Be Concise: Don’t ramble on and make your readers wade through lots of irrelevant content. They’re busy. They don’t have time to waste. Edit ruthlessly. This doesn’t mean that you can’t occasionally write longer, more introspective or detailed posts, just don’t do it every day.

9. Engage your audience: Google+ is so popular because it lends itself well to easy interaction. Blogs take a little more effort to achieve this, but in the end, if your blog is going to succeed, it’s vital that you forge a strong and lasting relationship with your readers.

10. Make it easy to read: Format your posts so that they’re clearly written and easy to navigate. Break text into short paragraphs that tie into the main point, which you need to deliver early in the text.

Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list on how to write a great blog, but hopefully it will give you some direction. Here’s some more great advice about blogging from Chris Brogan. If you’re really interested in creating a powerful blog that draws strong traffic, then you should definitely check out the best blogging resource ever, Darren Rowse’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog eBook, which has just been updated with brand new content for 2012.

Oh, and don’t forget to retweet or stumble this post if you found it useful.

Thanks!

How to Open a Beer Bottle with a Nikon FM2

Dan Bailey's Adventure Photography Blog Posted on by

How to open up a beer bottle with a Nikon FM2 from Tobias Brabanski on Vimeo.

Now This is something they should teach in photography school, it’s probably one of the more valuable skills a photographer can have. I just wish I’d known this trick back when I used to shoot with the FM2. The thing is built like a tank, and having dropped it numerous times, I remember just how durable the hot shoe actually is.