Tip 2: shooting through fences

 This is the backstop fence at Fifth Third Field. String is medium thickness. 

    Tip 2: Did you know you can shoot through a fence as if it wasn't there? It's not a miracle; you just have to consider the following things:

1. It depends what lens length you're using. Wide lenses, like a 35mm, won't work, even at 2.8. Long lenses are the key. I recently shot these photos to illustrate this point:

16mm lens shot @ 2.8, 1/2700 of a second, 400 ISO

300 mm lens @ f3.2, 1/1600 of a second, 800 ISO

   2. It also depends on the aperture. Using a long lens, set your f/stop to around f2.8 and put it right up against the fence and focus on the subject on the field. The closer you are to the fence, the more invisible the fence will be. (Don't forget to set the shutter speed accordingly.) If the lens is not close to the fence, you will end up with faint lines, like on the photo below:

      This was taken with a 300 mm lens at f2.8, but the fence was about 20 feet or so from the pitcher.

   3. It also depends on the thickness of the fence. A thick fence might not be completely invisible, so you'll have to look through the lens and place your subject in the middle of the fence lines.
   So, next time you think a fence is an obstacle, experiment with different lens lengths and f/stops to solve this problem.
  

Tip 1: Grap that camera when you need it!

Sunset beyond the I280 turnpike (Photo by Lori King)

   Tip 1. This is a beautiful reason of why you should always carry your cameras with you. If you're worried about theft, keep the cameras in a camera case in the trunk, not in your front or back seat where they can be seen!
   Photographers never know when a moment will happen in front of them. For this shot, I was driving on the turnpike and noticed the sun setting rather quickly. I knew I only had a short amount of time to take this photo, so I pulled over and took the shot. Within minutes the moment was gone.
   Lesson here: Be prepared. This includes keeping a loaded, fully-charged camera nearby. That doesn't mean you have to have it hanging off of your shoulder every second. The trunk is fine, as long as you don't have vanity plates that give you away.
   Sunset pix metadata: Lens = 300mm  ISO = 640 / Aperture = 5 / Shutter = 1/1250  / Exp. Comp.: 0.0

  
  

Hear that? It's a tweet!

    It's a new semester, which means a new crop of students. There are nine enrolled in this course, which is nearly double from last semester!
    In a few weeks this blog will feature an updated student blog roll, as soon as they create their blogs. Believe it or not, not a single student has a blog they currently maintain. That has been the case for all four PHO245 classes.  
    In the meantime, yesterday they created Twitter accounts. They will have their individual accounts, but the primary course username is @PHO245, managed by me. All PHO245 tweets will be hash-marked with #PHO245. Have something to share with them? Drop them a tweet. 
    Next up:

• How to manage social media, which includes being ethical and responsible with these public, power communication tools;
• Learning about the history of journalism, and what news is.

Welcome back!

    Greetings scholastic journalists! 
    Prepare to be educated about the field of photojournalism and the growing role social media plays in our lives. Here are a few highlights from the course:

• Learn how to shoot feature, portrait and sports assignments;
• Know your law, ethics and photographer's rights;
• Use social media to share yours stories and lessons learned;
• Work as a team to document an event and produce a Soundslides story;
• Build a portfolio.

    New to the course this semester is the requirement to tweet. Blogging and tweeting are essential skills to learn in a very competitive market. 
    I struggled with the decision on whether to add Twitter to the curriculum, considering this is only an intro class. Since my goal as an instructor is to prepare the next generation of citizen communicators, how could I not include it? But tweeting is not an additional lesson; it simply replaces the discussion board, which students were required to use last semester. The discussion board is a good tool to practice writing skills, but their comments were enclosed in a bubble. That changes with Twitter, a micro-blogging tool that is a nice addition to the storytelling toolbox.
    So, let's get to work, shall we?