Recently I took a photography expedition to Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas for some classic shots of paradise. I’d never done this before. I’m not a cruise goer but I got a deal I couldn’t turn down and went strictly for the photography. We all know what we expect: the perfect island in the commercials. What I found was a desolate third world country in tatters in the best of times, but recently devastated by a hurricane and the US and global economies. Their main industry is tourism, with the second largest portion being offshore banking with their tax haven laws. As they say there, “When America blows its nose, The Bahamas catch the cold.”

You all know how important it is to do your research on a place you’re going to visit, so naturally I went with printouts of maps and a long list of sites to hit. Much more importantly, the best thing you can do is stick that list in your back pocket and ask the locals what you should see that the tourists normally are unaware of.

To preface this story, I hadn’t been able to sleep the last couple days due to my roommate’s snoring, and I was extremely tired and sore from hauling equipment and other activities around the ship related to the photo excursion with the group. I was up first thing in the morning, wearing my Dr prescribed Tens Unit with electrodes on my back. The weather was heavy rain most of the time with some breaks of only heavy cloud cover, not what you want to deal with on a photography expedition in the Bahamas, while I am backpacking heavy gear plus two cameras on my shoulders through waves of torrential downpours with only a trash bag to cover my cameras, while the umbrella brought with me was already destroyed by the wind on the walk off the ship.

This was only a 12 hour port of call and given the weather I decided my first stop off the boat was now The Queen’s Staircase which could be enhanced by both the wet look and the clouds and provide a shortcut to Bennet’s Hill where the fort sits. The Queen’s Staircase is a gorgeous, narrow, 65 step, 102ft high staircase hand-carved out of a solid piece of limestone by what were first Britain’s African Slaves, and then later when Queen Victoria freed them and released sovereignty of the island to the people and freed the slaves they finished construction in her honor, thus the Queen’s Staircase. It is covered in a canopy of Banyon trees that grow straight up looking for sunlight until they reach the top and only then do they branch out. The result is spectacular. Huge, bare, dark walls of limestone pockmarked by the natural texture of the material with a ceiling of lush green that nearly blocks out the sky.

Lining the entrance, and the street above are all plywood shacks along the roadside used by street vendors to sell wares to tourists. The vendors’ livelihoods are totally dependant on the number of ships in and out of port any given day, and more importantly, the weather. As you approach the base of the stairs, a very animated local jumps out and gives a history lesson on the staircase to get the tourists to stop long enough to check the vendors’ wares, one of whom is his wife. I took some shots with lenses covered in water droplets and fog from the AC on the ship trapped in my camera bag against the humid heat of the tropics.

I spent some time at the top of the staircase shooting Fort Fincastle and Fort Fincastle Lighthouse, aka The Water Tower. Unfortunately due to the failure of the elevator in the lighthouse combined with a refusal of anyone to climb the internal staircase, the high vantage point was closed off. As the fort closed for the day I made my way down The Queen’s Staircase to reshoot without the crowd when I ran into Tony, the local historian from earlier. For his detailed knowledge of the island I asked him to show me around and since it was such a slow business day due to weather he was anxious to share his knowledge with someone genuinely interested.

We took off at a fast pace hiking though the streets (in soaked shoes) of Nassau, New Providence stopping at several destroyed buildings, the grave of the founder of the country, museaums, churches several hundred years old, museums which used to be government buildings, sites of famous high profile governemt murders, and much more. Several of the areas I video recorded him on my SLR talking about the history of the site for later when I edit the pictures.

He enjoyed bragging about his upcoming marriage and showed me his marriage license application with name, address, etc, and later his voter card with the same info (I never asked for it, he just wanted me to know.) As I was reaching my limit my tour guide offered to carry my pack. I had a good feeling about him so I agreed and kept him in view out of the corner of my eye, giving him several great opportunities to try to make off with it, which he never did.

As we left Fort Charolette with the daylight dwindling, we got on bus 10 to stop at McDonald’s to eat and wait out the daylight, with the final ring of the tour planned to be night shots of the several amazing historic churches and other areas I wanted night spots. The bus driver stopped, my guide grabbed my bag of lenses, lighting, tripod and more, instructed me to pay the driver, and jumped off the bus. For a fare of $2.50 US or Bohemian for us both, I only had $2 and a $20 bill so the bus driver decided he did not want to make change and risk a parking ticket at a non bus stop, and took off with me pleading for him to stop as he drove away from all my gear.

At the official bus stop area of the road I got out with ruined knees, back and feet and ran as hard as could back towards the McDonald’s, trying to hold my 2 cameras still around my neck from smacking me in the hips. As I was buzzed into McDonald’s, the security guard said he hadn’t seen anyone with a backpack come in. I went up and down the street thinking he may have been looking for me while asking everyone in the street if they had seen a Bohemian with a backpack.

In front of the US Embassy I asked the same question of a Bohemian police officer who called for a patrol car to come drive me around and look for him. As I waited I gave the officer all the information on my guide: name, work place, wife’s car, and showed him one of the videos. The officer did not recognize him, and the wheels in my head were turning in overdrive. He knows I know where he works, who he is, that I have his face and voice on video; he’s way too smart of a guy to steal this knowing that, except why isn’t he at McDonald’s?

I went to sit on a set of stairs when my ziplock of 800mg motrin fell out of my pocket, and the officer felt that it resembled an illegal substance and convinced himself I was trying to throw it away. Now I’ve lost a thousands of dollars of camera gear and my boat is leaving in a few hours, most likely without me while they hold me to test my meds for a few weeks as I rot in a Bohemian prison. I’m really thinking hard at this point of making a run to the US Embassy gate about 20 feet away.

The patrol car arrived, took one look at my baggy and told the officer on guard at the US Embassy that it was not illegal and I played the video for him. The following comment is not what someone in my state of mind wants to ever hear. “Oh yeah I know him, everyone on the island knows him. I don’t think he would steal it, he’s trying to be Christian now since he got out of prison.” I was very clear repeatedly with the officer that I agreed and this was all the bus driver’s fault, except where is he?

We drove around the immediate area and not finding him, started doing police work. We started by circling the area to see if he was looking for me, then on through the straw market. We couldn’t find him and when I asked, the officer said pretty much anyone here could and would fence stolen camera gear, there are many pro photographers who live on the island plus a steady stream of hungry tourists. We visited his known hangouts, and at The Queen’s Staircase someone said he worked nights for a guard dog company. 

We went to the hospital to track him down, why a hospital need guard dogs, I have no idea, but behind the barbed wire, the security in the parking lot was unsure who my officer was referring to, and as soon as I played them the video they said no, he didn’t work there. We visited his cousin’s house, explained that he isn’t in trouble but it is direly time sensitive. At this point my boat is leaving in just a couple hours. She gave us an address to try and the officer gave her his cell phone number to call when she found out what his cell phone number was.

As we were leaving his cousin’s house, we got an emergency call and suddenly I was in the front seat of a high speed police chase. Now I should make a point of saying that The Bahamas are a left-hand operation, right-hand drive country (opposite of the US), so the driver sits on the normal side of the car but drives on the left side of the road. Every time a car came around a corner I was bracing for impact. Now we were drifting into power slides through corners of wet, extremely narrow pitching and winding roads barely big enough for 2 cars to pass each other before you consider the cars parked on both sides of the street.

After that dispute at the gas station was resolved, knowing I really don’t want to know the answer, I asked what he was in trouble for. I found out he was an ex security specialist and black belt who was attacked, and in self defense subdued his attacker. Due to his martial arts background, the court system felt he was excessive in force and imprisoned him, the victim. Great, now he’s a good guy too? Where is he?!

Soon after, we got a call from the cousin that my he was waiting at the port terminal for me. He tried McDonald’s after I left and the guard told him I was looking for him, he immediately took at bus to the police station and filed a report (Why that wasn’t relayed to the officer I was with, who knows), the defense force, port authority, and and finally was waiting at the terminal. On the way there I asked the officer to be sure to give him a ride home. When we arrived, the authorities had me inspect the bag which he was adamant he had not opened (I had no doubt of that), and as it was very important to me that he knew, I made sure the officer told him that I never accused him, always the bus driver. I gave him what I could afford for his service as a tour guide, we exchanged contact information, took a few pictures together (he kept making me laugh the entire time), and parted ways.

I decided to call it a day and give up on the night shots of Parliament Square and all the historic churches, as there was no way I could make the walk again, and just returned to my ship to dry my shoes. As I was clearing customs at the base of my ship and regaling the guards with the story of what had just happened, the person behind me in line was from the same tiny town in North Carolina that my next photoshoot was located, which I had to from Florida as soon as the ship docked. Guess who’s my next local guide! 

I wish I could say insanity like this doesn’t happen very often, but when you’re chasing down the perfect shot or trying to see everything with no time, sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone and, let’s face it, its not a successful trip without a story to tell. All’s well that ends well, so with my feet bleeding, knees & back in unbelievable pain, and likely a few years of my life taken from me in stress, I left with a sense of pride and renewed faith in humanity, along with a new friend I can’t wait to see again, back at his home or mine. 

Today I’m going to take you through how easy it is to shoot tethered in Photoshop CS5′s Adobe Lightroom 3. We did a special shoot just for this Chris Haber Photography blog with Cher & Joe just to show you how to do an entire photoshoot without even touching the camera.

Be sure you have enough room on your hard drive for the shoot before you get started. The photos will NOT be recorded in the camera memory card. Plug your compatible camera into your computer’s USB port, get all the drivers installed and you’re ready to go. Depending on your camera there may be extra steps involved, turning on settings within the body. Consult your instruction manual.

AFTER your camera is recognized by the computer open up Lightroom and click File > Tethered Capture > Start Tethered Capture . You can select the metadata profile you want to use, name your session, where to save the pics on the hard drive, even change how the files are numbered. For those shooting HDR or continuous, there is even an option to Segment Photos By Shots. This stacks all pics together that were taken in less than 2 seconds. IMPORTANT: Whichever file quality settings your camera is set to will be what is transferred into Lightroom. If you’re using Raw + Highest quality jpg be prepared to wait a few seconds between shots.

Get your camera set up, lights ready, and do your test shots. Once you’re dialed in, all you have to do is press the shutter button on the screen. After you start shooting, the way the pros and cons weigh out are obvious. You have an exponentially larger screen to view your work in, and if your monitor is already color calibrated, it should match the setup of your editing computer. You already know exactly what the final product looks like vs guessing at the tiny and uncalibrated screen on the back of the camera. The main con is definitely the USB transfer speed.

Now you have full resolution, full size preview capability, you can zoom in and out as needed, choose whether you want a single preview, side by side comparison, 4 tile, or 20 tile. Also, whatever image you have your cursor on will show up in the preview window in the upper left.

With Cher’s shot in the can and the fire extinguisher close at hand we went to work on the second shoot – Joe’s anti smoking shot.

For the sake of the shoot he smoked the entire pack and a half down to the butts to get in as many shutter clicks as possible. After it was all over we went out by the pool to hang out for a few minutes before leaving where Joe had a smoke LOL!!!! In the end everyone had a blast and went home with some cool pictures.

Tutorial Skill Level: Mixed Basic & Intermediate

This tutorial covers:

• Lasso Tool
• Brush Tool
• Crop Tool basic use
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Layers
• Layer Masks
• Quick Mask
• Hiding Toolbars
• Brightness/Contrast layer
• Zooming Methods
• Snap Fit Canvas to Screen Size Command
• Flipping Entire Image
• Flipping an Object
• Removing a Subject from the Background
• Inserting Objects as Layers
• Free Transform Mode
• Locking Transform Resizing Ratio

Here is the final image. We are going to go through step by step how it was created.

Below is the original image. With special cooperation from Melbourne Greyhound Park, my local racetrack, we spent the day shooting the races before the racing season at this park ends, possibly for the last time. You can see the dogs chasing “Rocky”, the mechanical “rabbit” lure. A couple weeks later, I was watching a friend’s dog, Ash, as he was out of town. He was feeling down one day, so to give him a laugh I decided to do a series of pics “The Adventures Of Ash”, which are posted on our Facebook Page. We’re not going to spend a lot of time worrying about color and other things, since this image is just for laughs we are only concerned about the list above.

The first step was to snap a picture of Ash to send out on these adventures. This turned out to be a two person job, needing someone to keep him standing up and turned sideways to the camera. You should be shooting Camera Raw format. The most typical formats are Nikon Electronic Format .NEF, Canon Raw .CR2, and Sony Raw Format .SRF . If you don’t shoot that way, or don’t have a camera that is capable, it’s no big deal. We’re not covering Raw Processing in this tutorial. Once you have the image looking the way you want it, go ahead and open it.

To start out, let’s flip the entire image canvas by hitting Image > Image Rotation > Flip Canvas Horizontal

Now let’s crop this as tightly as possible. It will cut down the amount of work we need to do later and make the file size smaller for storage and use as an inserted object. Press C on the keyboard or click the Crop Tool icon. Hold your left mouse button to drag across the area you want to crop and hit ENTER on the keyboard when done.

As you can see, the picture is still at the same zoom level it was before. To keep things easy, let’s Snap the zoom to screen size by pressing CONTROL + + the number zero 0on the keyboard.

Remember the point of what we’re doing in here is to have our subject, Ash, as an object to be inserted into another picture. We could insert this picture as is and brush out the background using layer masks, but since we have the luxury of doing this ahead of time when it is easier we’re going to delete the background using the Photoshop Lasso Tool. Hit L on your keyboard or click the Lasso tool icon. Holding your left mouse button, draw the area you want to delete, and hit DELETEon the keyboard. You will see the Fill Menu pop up asking you how you want the area you are deleting to be filled in. In this case we don’t want it filled in, we just want to delete it completely. That’s not an option, so we have to take one more step to trick Photoshop into doing what we want, so let’s cancel the delete Fill Menu.

To trick Photoshop into deleting the background completely, and more importantly to preserve the original image data before we make any permanent changes, we’re going to duplicate the background layer. To do this to any layer, Right Click the layer you want to duplicate and click Duplicate Layer. You can also do this through the menu system by clicking Layer > Duplicate Layer. It will pop up giving you the option to name the background anything you want, we will leave it as is (name of original layer + “”Copy”).

Now that we have both layers, let’s turn off the original background by unchecking the eye next to the layer.

Before we start deleting with the Lasso Tool, just to make things a little less visually cluttered and easier to work with, we’re going to use the Paintbrush Tool by either pressing B on the keyboard or clicking the Paint Brush Tool icon, selecting the color you want, and simply brushing away what you don’t want in there. Don’t spend much time on this, we will be deleting our work here in the next step, so a quick once over will do fine.

To get that fine detail in the hair, let’s zoom in to 100%. There are several ways to do that. The easiest is the keyboard shortcut, just push CONTROL + 1. After that you can click the dropdown and choose from 25%, 50%, 100%, or 200%. You can do another keyboard shortcut CONTROL + + to zoom in and CONTROL + - to zoom out (For Mac use option key) to go through preset zoom levels of 16.7%, 25%, 33.3%, 50%, 66.7%, 100%, 200%, 300%, etc, so you see there are a few more options this way. The other way is to click next to the zoom dropdown and type in any number you want. If you’re going straight to 100% the quickest and easiest way is to just tap the 1key.

Once we are zoomed in to 100%, click on the copy layer to tell Photoshop that is the one we are currently working on, grab your Lasso tool and start drawing and deleting. This is where having a drawing tablet makes things much easier. If you don’t have one, no worries, you can still do this with your mouse, trackball, or laptop touchpad. Do small areas! Nothing is more frustrating than spending a ton of time drawing then losing all that hard work because of a tiny slip. Now when we hit delete, Photoshop is simply deleting the selected areas. When we do this, it will reveal the layer underneath. Since we turned off the original background, there is now nothing under this layer, so we now get the blank grid, making it totally clear when we use it later.

Now just go all the way around and delete the background until you have nothing but the subject showing.

And of course, if you haven’t yet, save your work as a .PSD Photoshop file.

Now the tedious parts are over, let’s the Insert the Object we just created as a new layer by hitting File > Placeand then pointing the browser to where we just saved the file.

The inserted object will create a new layer popped up in Free Transform Mode already. If you start clicking in the corners and resizing you will stretch the image out of proportion, so hold down the SHIFT key as you resize to lock the proportion sizing ratio. You can also grab the object by the corners to freely rotate it. Once you have it the way you want it, press the ENTERkey.

Now that everything is in place, I just don’t like how it looks. Ash is supposed to be hanging by the pole, but instead it looks like he is standing on the ground, so let’s go back into Free Transform mode by hitting CONTROL + T or Edit > Free Transform

Once we are in Free Transform Mode we can flip Ash upside down by Right Clicking within the object and hitting Flip Vertical.

Now while we are still in transform, let’s get Ash resized just right to cover up Rocky completely without looking like a giant compared to the greyhounds. When you’re done just hit ENTER

After this I hunted through a few free stock photography sites for a picture of some rope. Once again, we insert it as another object by using the Place command and resizing it and placing it exactly where we want it. This is done best at either 100% zoom, or zoomed in so that the area you are working on is fitting in the screen. If you ever need more room to work, you can temporarily hide all the toolbars on the screen by pressing TAB. Hitting it again will turn them back on.

Now let’s add a layer mask by clicking the mask button at the bottom of the Layers window.

When using layer masks, whatever is in black is not being shown in the layer, and whatever area in the mask that is painted white is shown. As you can see, by default the layer mask is filled in with white. Remember WHITE REVEALS, BLACK CONCEALS We are going to select the Brush Tool just like before, but this time pick use black. You can click on the pallet color to change the colors, or hit X to switch quickly between background and foreground colors. To help you see what you are doing, you can turn on the Quick Mask Mode by hitting \on the keyboard. This brings up the red you see below, showing that that part of the object is being hidden because we painted it out in black. As you can see, we painted out the back side of the ball of rope. Now that only the front is shown from the ball shape, it appears to be wrapping around Ashie and holding him on the pole.

He still doesn’t quite look like he’s in the air, so the final step here will be to create a shadow using a Brightness/Contrast layer by hitting the button in the adjustments panel, or in the menus going to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast

All adjustment layers open with a white filled layer mask, meaning the entire image is being affected by your changes. We are going to Fill this in with black. Since black is the foreground color on the pallet, let’s hit ALT + BACKSPACE to fill the layer mask with the foreground color. To fill the layer mask with the background color, hit CONTROL + BACKSPACE (Windows) or OPTION + BACKSPACEon a Mac.

Now using the Brush Tool, we are going to change to white and paint in an area below Ash where we want the shadow to appear. Let’s make it rough for a little realism. Next we just use those brightness and contrast sliders until we add a shadow fairly natural looking, and watch as only the area we painted white is affected. If we really wanted to add realism, we could add shadows under each dog as well, but this is just a fun pic, so we’re all done.

With Supertramp’s Logical Song in mind, I watched a baby playing with a toy today at my doctor’s office. I found him especially expressive, probably more than most, but maybe not. I’m single without kids, so I’m not in the custom of being around them regularly. His mother picked up a sock puppet, held it off to the side away from her, and made some baby talk, and I particularly noticed how he was so entranced by the puppet it never occurred to him that the voice was coming from his right, not in front of him.

I often contemplate the sheer wonderment of babies and toddlers. I watch them intuitively performing experiments to see what will happen in situations we take for granted because we did it already so long ago we can’t remember. I reflect on how the world is so new and amazing to them, and consider how it will begin to systematically crush him in the next few years. He’ll likely never be this happy again, and he won’t even get to remember it. I’ve always believed I need to approach photography with that newborn’s sense of wonderment. Even Pablo Picasso understood this, saying ?”It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” speaking of the famous Italian  painter and architect of the High Renaissance Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino. Picasso was also famously quoted as saying “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”, proving this same subject weighed on him greatly.

One of the oldest things I can remember is trying to figure out an old split screen manual focus. My dad couldn’t understand why I couldn’t do it. He explained it to me very simply. The answer was simple: I was blind. Literally, legally, blind. I was well into grade school before it was caught. It turns out my eyes could have been much better had they been corrected years before. The doctor that performed my eye exam actually threatened to call Child Services on my father (this back when you could do that sort of thing and not have to worry about getting fired because someone complained to corporate.)  He had to explain he’d had my eyes checked before, more than one doctor said they were fine.

We waited around, one hour glasses were a brand new concept, and on the ride home (I’m told) I had the silliest look on my face, staring in amazement at everything we drove by, taken in by the simplest of things like signs that I could read for the first time. It was like being a baby and seeing the world brand new again.

Since I carry a camera I’ve made it a habit to force myself to look upon things in different ways. Sometimes even forcing myself to revisit a spot I’ve already shot a long time ago just to see how I would shoot it differently this time. We’ve become bored and jaded by a lifetime of seeing the same things daily. Life has us too busy to notice the amazing scenes we drive right by on our way to being late for things we don’t want to do.

I love showing people pictures of the town they’ve lived in their entire lives and watch their reaction to things they see every day but don’t look at. I think when I show others the way I see all the beauty we’re surrounded by it will help them stop for an extra 5 seconds to take in that bird or sunset or insect or human interest. It takes less than 5 seconds to truly appreciate a sight you’ve beheld. As soon as realize you’ve appreciated it your entire mental state has relaxed and slowed. You feel calmed and you naturally start taking in other sites all around you. In an instant you’ve become a child again, seeing the world with newborn eyes.

The sad fact is its short lived. Inevitably life catches up and beats that out of you. Something needs your attention, and you don’t have the time any more. That I know this, it pains me that I have to make such a conscious effort. There’s a certain cognitive dissonance in knowing that I know I would stop if I ever put down the camera. Appreciating life is hard work. Robert Henri, a famous painter, said “If a certain activity, such as painting, becomes the habitual mode of expression, it may follow that taking up the painting materials and beginning work with them will act suggestively and so presently evoke a flight into the higher state.” I cerataintly consider myself an artist, I simply chose a different medium of expression.

A dear friend and my photography mentor, Robert Vanelli, says you should go watch the sun set sometime without your camera to get excited about the one that got away. Perhaps I’m not mature enough, but I’m quite sure I just couldn’t handle that knowing I did it intentionally. I’ve sat through too many mediocre sunsets and non-sunsets (totally clouded out) with camera on tripod, got there early setup my shot, and spent hours for nothing. I’ve seen too many amazing sunsets when I was away from my camera, or stuck in a situation I couldn’t get away from to get the shot. If you leave the camera at home to go to the store you start to get separation anxiety “What if I’m out and…” In photography, and life in general, I’ve had had more than my share of ones that got away.

Ar’alani wrote “One of a Million Reasons” in which he said “Picture this. I’m in a car with two other photographers, and we’re driving through an ever-darkening, ever-purpling storm. Out of the corner of my eye, I see this tree with a rainbow building behind it. I start to inarticulately flap, then screech, “Stop, Gary, stop! Turn around!” Gary (who was in Yellowstone with me and is now at least prepared for my antics) pulls an illegal u-turn, pulls over, and I erupt from the car, jump the ditch and drop into this field. A few breaths later, the quickly-flying clouds opened up and a tiny sunbreak hit the hills and my tree lit up. It lasted about 10 seconds. I emerged from the ditch, muddy and giddy out of my mind. This, my friends, is one of my favorite shots ever. This is what photography is all about. Capturing those precious moments that will never come again, just as they are. This fleeting moment will now last longer than 10 seconds for me because I had a camera. Photographers are such a blessed bunch.”

If you took a picture and never showed to anyone, never even looked at it yourself, and just stuck it on a hard drive somewhere never to be seen again, I think you would feel better just knowing you had it. You somehow even remember it more clearly and accurately. You can recall every detail of that picture, and even the events surrounding it. The mind seems to preserve that memory just because you took the picture, and seeing that picture brings back the most vivid details you couldn’t recall on your own even though they weren’t in that shot.

Right now try to do that with any scene that stood out to you a few years ago. Think hard and try to remember a nice sunset a few years ago. What were you doing? Why did you notice it? Where were you? What did you do before and after? What did it look like in detail?

Looking at the world through a lens totally changes your viewpoint. First you start seeing shots everywhere you go, not all of them you want to take, but something inside clicks and you start mentally composing your shot when you don’t even have your camera with you. One would think becoming more analytical of things would make it less special, but its quite the opposite. You start noticing things you never would have seen before, and you gain a deeper appreciation for everything. More importantly, while you’re going through this mental exercise, you’re spending much longer looking at that scene. You’re intently taking it all in, not just glancing at it thinking “that’s nice.” If everyone carried a camera everywhere for a year like it was their job, and got excited when saw a shot they HAD to have, it would make them better people, not morally, but spiritually whole, or closer to it at least.

Anyone who has shot with me in studio or on location knows I’m a true lover of the Nikon Creative Lighting System’s light controlled wireless flashes. You don’t have to be a Nikonian to appreciate the portability of wireless flash technology, just grab some radio flash triggers and go play anywhere. I’m also a fan of Manfroto gear, and I love the idea of the Justin Clamp, but $60 for that just isn’t in my budget. So of course I’ve been on the lookot for quite some time for a suitable alternative.

I found one, tried it, and I’m in love. I was expecting a tiny, flimsy piece of junk that would do the job as long as I babied it. What arrived was hefty, but still light, nearly all-plastic, fairly large and well designed with suprising features that is ALWAYS in my camera bag everywhere I go. The mouth of the clamp opens a full 2.5″, with a V groove to make it attachable to a pole and the flat of the C top along with the clamping screw are covered with a heavy textured rubber to help protect whatever you’re clamping to. Also the threads on the clamping screw are wide and steeply pitched, so it opens and closes very quickly. I attached it to many surfaces at every imaginable angle including a tripod, with the flash attached of course, and had no slippage issues. The clamp adjustment screw also features a ball join to help it attach to surfaces at an angle, and its rated to hold over 5 kilos (10.5 pounds).

The universal 1/4″-20 tripod mounting screw’s base also has the same rubber coating. Attached to a double articulated arm, but with a single adjustment screw for both, you can angle the flash a full 360 degrees with complete upper hemisphere coverage, and a large portion of the lower hemisphere, really only being restricted by the C clamp itself. The ball joints on both ends let you easily rotate the flash around without changing the angle to get the wireless sensor eye on your flash facing you. Most importantly, you don’t have to torque the adjustment screw to death, it actually works right, with zero slippage.

The metal tripod legs go from hiding inside the clamp body to extended out to a very wide angle, and lock into place to keep from collapsing and sending your flash falling to the ground. The metal legs also feature smooth plastic ball type feet to not scratch whatever you place this stand on, and the clamp adjustment screw, acting as a third leg, with rubber cushion foot, acts as a height adjustment, perfect for setting up on angled slopes.

It doesn’t come with a shoe to mount the flash, but every flash you can buy already comes with one anyway. I’ll leave my AS-19 speedlight shoe floor and tripod stand attached, I already own it (it came with the flash, why buy another shoe mount?) At a mere half inch wide and 130 grams, it packs up and away tiny. It does the job I bought it for and SO much more. Why stow this away with the studio gear? No, this is going in my camera bag, for last minute location shoots. there’s no telling what I’m going to attach it to next. The only thing its missing is an umbrella hole, and I’m seriously considering trying to modify it to take one. Its brilliantly designed. Add the number of flashes and cameras you own, that’s how many of these you need.

This clamp is perfect for anything with 1/4″-20 threads, including binoculars, point-and-shoot cameras, and EVEN SLRs!!!

I am now happy to offer these for sale. You can send me an email from the contact page of ChrisHaber.com or post a comment to me on my Facebook page

A couple days ago I was invited out by a friend to check out Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach. There’s nothing better than a local who knows the best shooting spots showing you around, so I always get excited at those types of offers. In this case the friend had to haul my camera gear around as I still couldn’t do much from an auto accudent about 6 weeks prior. We never even made it to the beach because of all the interesting things we kept spotting along the way. I was doing some macro shots of ants, and as I walked away I spotted a fly on a leaf. Since my brain was still in macro mode, and my macro lens was on, I decided why not. As I clicked the shutter, the flash sent the fly into takeoff by reflex, and my shutter was still in 1/40. The second I played the shot back I knew I had my shot for the day. A green & yellow streak leading up to a crystal clear shot of the midair fly. No matter what happens the rest of the day, it was a success for that one shot.

You have to fight the temptation to call it a day and leave on that high note. There’s no telling what you will see so you push forward hoping to get several shots you think are good enough for sale or show, and sure enough, we ran into an entire family of racoons and spent quite a while on them. There are some beautiful shots, but I’m still partial to the fly because its so unusual. Later that night was a fireworks show at the local college campus. I know ahead of time there is a beautiful large lake with a backing of woods to frame out the walmart behind it, so earlier that week, I planned the shot. When I got there they were firing off the side of the school. I was mad, but I Was there. I took all the pics I could, playing with settings as I went. They came out fine, but they were snapshots, not photographs. Perfectly exposed, times, everything, but there was no composition. I thought I had followed V’s first P, and planned the shot out, but if I really had done that, I would have made some calls and found out where they were launching from. I had to be flexible and come up with a new plan. The best I could do with what I had was pulling back on the framing and letting the fireworks light people up as silhouettes while catching a little reflection of the bursts on the wet parking lot. I’d probably like the pictures better if I was a bit more unbiased about them, but its not what I went there for.

  Fly Pic

The next day was july 4. I had planned a trip to Lake Eola with a shot of the lake, the Chinese temple and the firework bursts. Some pretty major storm cells were moving through the entire day and it wasn’t worth the drive, so I decided on an alternate shot of the Melbourne display. Since I’m planning on opening a shop in the Melbourne flea market, I decided a shot OF Melbourne would be better, and braved across the river for a shot of the causeway + fireworks. I did my shots, and, as I always do with crowds, I stayed behind to avoid the traffic fight.

I turned the focus of my camera behind me to shots of the shoreline with people setting off their own personal fireworks stash . I was taking a series of bulb exposures, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a boat on someone’s back yard dock. There was a party with a DJ going on next door to it, maybe it was a fog machine, maybe it was a bunch of smoke from the civilians’ fireworks, but for just about a minute it was a beautiful foggy scene lit by it’s own sodium vapor light. I zoomed in, did about 10 or so shots in different exposure times and f/stops. By the last few shots the fog had long been gone and I was just seeing if the pics would look better clear instead of foggy. It didn’t, and flipping through the shots in camera I could see it was the money shot for the day. I came out and braved the masses of people to take fireworks shots, and this was the one I was excited over, not the fireworks.

I couldn’t wait to get home, but I still didn’t. There’s still a half hour to an hour of waiting in traffic and people were still setting off their own, so why not? I can afford the film (its digital). I got home, and ignoring my regular workflow of dumping my memory cards into a special transition folder on my external drive, I stuck the card right in my PS3 so I could see it on the big screen in high-def. I flipped through, picked the best one, brough it back to the computer and looked again and picked a different best one that wasn’t upconverted to 1080.

The moral of the story is stick to the P’s but remember that your eyes are wide angle lesnes, so always look around in between shots to see what else is going on. Shoot with both eyes open (takes practice), and wander around looking for the next shot during time exposures. The money shot is almost never the one you set out for. But also don’t go home because you think you have it, the next one might be it instead. Let’s face it, if you’re out looking for nature shots, a fly probably isn’t what you had in mind, and neither is a smoky boat dock where the rest of the scene is blacked out rather than being lit up by fireworks, but if you get more excited about something you see than what you’re shooting, that’s what you should be shooting.

Hunters set traps. Not necessarily a trap that catches the prey, but more commonly one that lures it in. Sounds simple enough right? Its not. They have to consider the environment. They have to consider their prey. Their wants, needs, and habits. They also need to consider themselves, the angle of their attack when their prey falls into their trap. So it is with you.

My aunt in Arizona has deer and roadrunners in her yard quite frequently since she put in a watering hole. Here in Florida my neighborhood has retention ponds on both sides, opening me up to turtles, freshwater creatures, and everything they attract, like the endangered Sandhill Cranes that freely walk the neighborhood. Those without fences in their yards consider them a nuisance. The cranes, trying to eat the sunbathing lizards, destroy their screens. They invite people like me chasing them down the street with cameras to walk right into people’s yards I don’t even know. I don’t know how many people I’ve met by walking into their back yards chasing birds or turtles. Most of the time a smile and wave will suffice here. They understand. If the waters were not fenced off it could easily attract gators as well. When I lived in different areas of Virginia and Germany, the wildlife scenery was different in each of those places. So consider your environment. Consider the prey available to you that you could possibly lure in.

Wouldn’t it be easier to build a trap to increase your chances of attracting wildlife? Sure you could go chasing it naturally, but you lose control of your composition. Common landscaping like a simple flower bed or flowering shrubs like Hibiscus work will bring in all sorts of beauty from bees burying themselves in the flower to an array of butterflies and open the world of macro photography to you without ever leaving your home. Every day is an adventure when you wander your yard seeing what you can find, and the gas is free.

So first consider your prey. What do you want to attract? What species are available to you? What do you see in your yard every day anyway? What can you use to lure them into a composition friendly area that lends itself to your personal style to create a target rich environment? If you REALLY wanted to, you could even consider what colors would work best in a photo of a really specific animal in a shot you’re after.

Next, what plants do well in your setting? Do they need to be replanted yearly or will they come back each season on their own. What kind of plants will thrive in the area where you’re putting them? How much light does the spot get throughout the day? What’s the average rainfall? How much care will the plant species need? If it’s a low water plant, will your sprinklers be too much for it?

The next thing to consider is how to organize it all, and you need to consider the angle of your attack. Traditionally, landscaping beds go from the tallest in the middle, medium height in front of that, and finally the plants that stay low to the ground are planted around the edges. If I wanted to shoot butterflies, I would consider bright colored flowers in the middle row, with something thick and not flowering in the top and bottom. Lure the butterfly into the area that provides the best photo op while making the other areas unattractive to it. The top and bottom can provide thick backgrounds that won’t show your neighbor’s house or the car parked in the street. No matter how soft your f/stop, we can still see it. Bear the composition in mind when planning your trap.

Staying on the subject of the angle of attack, consider yourself and photography style. I would plant them in the area with the most even light (consistent shade) at the time of day I would normally be out there hunting. Why fight nasty specular highlights when you’re setting it up from scratch?

Some people believe the picture doesn’t count if you take it in a controlled setting, especially a zoo. While I wholeheartedly disagree, there is a difference between taking a picture and making a picture. If you compose your image so it looks like it could have been taken in a natural setting, if it’s pleasing your eye and sensibilities, then you’ve made a good picture and you should be proud, and sometimes fighting obstacles to accomplish that composition make it even more so.