The New Year 2022

The New Year 2022

by William Lulow

Well, in spite of the pandemic of the last two years now, we have resumed our annual trek to longboat Key, Florida. We will be trying our best to keep safe in a state that doesn’t seem to care much about the health of its citizens, many of whom are older retirees, by getting vaccinated (we have just had our Covid-19 boosters) and wearing masks in all indoor, public places. We will be visiting restaurants but mostly dining outside and on a limited basis.

Sarasota Bay at sunset.

With this being said, I am looking forward to making some additional samples I can use to illustrate the many fine points of teaching photography to beginners and experts alike. I have seen a surge of students at my studio back in Livingston in recent months and it looks like the new year will begin with at least three new people dying to learn some of the secrets of successful image-making that I have been teaching for the last several years now. The shot above was made just before dusk from a spot on the Sarasota side of the bridge we take to our rental condo on Longboat Key. My Canon EOS 90D camera was on a tripod, ISO 400, f/8 @ 1/125th of a second. The two-stop increase in ISO allowed me to shoot at f/8 which yielded enough depth-of-field to get everything in focus.

For the past several years we have been spending the month of January in the same spot. I am familiar with the lay of the land so this year, I want to look for other types of images, maybe tighter compositions that are indicative of the area, perhaps like colors of buildings and houses. I will be trying to come up with a theme for my images. When you travel to a location for the first time, it’s easy to just look for compositions that are more all-encompassing in order to show the place off a bit. Once you have re-visited a location a number of times, you can then look for other types of images such as unusual lightings or photographing familiar places at different times of day or night.

This is one I have used as an example before. It’s a shot of a couple toasting their engagement with a Gulf-of-Mexico sunset. I just asked them if they wanted me to do a shot of them and the agreed. Their silhouettes with the champagne glasses just worked well for this composition.

This year, I have done quite a bit of iPhone photography as well as with my regular camera. Here is an example:

A shot of my granddaughter, Haylie, searching for shells on the Gulf of Mexico beach. This shot was obtained by carefully holding the iPhone and tapping the screen to control the exposure. Most people, when they use their camera-phones, don’t use them carefully and therefore can’t use them to make good enlargements.

Here’s another example:

This one was made from our boat which was standing still, but still rocking a bit from the waves. So, the camera had to be held very still which is often difficult for most people who are holding it at arm’s length. If you keep your elbows to your sides as you compose the shot, you have a better chance of getting a clearer shot. The best idea, sometimes not always possible, it to get a device that enables the iPhone to be mounted on a tripod. This is the device:

The bottom part has a hole that fits most tripods, or you can attach a quick-release mount so that it can be attached or released in a second.

Tripods for iPhones will greatly improve your images. Also, read instructions on the internet for getting optimum exposures and doing other things with your camera phone.

Happy New Year and we will see you in the new year.