Please join us for the first SLO Coast CA State Parks Adventures with Nature “Digital Photo Walk” Sunday February 10, 2008,  8:30 AM, Morro Bay State Park Marina parking lot.  See http://photomorrobay.com/SLO-IPT/ for a complete description and history of this new walk series (also pasted below).

Digital Photo Walk (Morro Bay State Park Marina).  Bring your digital camera if you have one, on this outing on a peninsula by the Morro Bay State Park Marina, just below the Museum of Natural History.  All photographic skill levels are welcome.   At least one experienced docent photographer will conduct a mini-instructional photo tour (IPT) with handouts, enabling you to improve your outdoor and nature photography skills.  After you return home, you may participate in a related easy and free online photo-sharing and learning activity. Meet at the far east end of the Marina parking lot. See http://photomorrobay.com  for more information. (*E) 0.5 mi., 2 hrs.

Docents:  Mike Baird, Kevin Cole, Jerry Kirkhart, Joyce Cory, Garry Johnson.

Schedule: Sunday February 10, 2008  8:30 AM

 

Mike Baird  mike [at} mikebaird dot com  http://morro-bay.com -  Recent photos at http://bairdphotos.com, http://picasa.bairdphotos.com, http://flickr.bairdphotos.com, http://digitalchocolate.org, http://stealthispicture.com, http://PhotoMorroBay.com; http://mikebaird.com.  Surf shots at http://surf.morro-bay.com/ Morro Bay, CA  home (805) 772-2044; cell (805) 704-0069  To assure I receive your e-mail, add "must read" to the subject line.

 

Digital Photo Walk – a new Adventures with Nature (AWN) activity
This material can be found from a link at photomorrobay.com

Digital Photo Walk (Morro Bay State Park Marina).  Bring your digital camera if you have one, on this outing on a peninsula by the Morro Bay State Park Marina, just below the Museum of Natural History.  All photographic skill levels are welcome.   At least one experienced docent photographer will conduct a mini-instructional photo tour (IPT) with handouts, enabling you to improve your outdoor and nature photography skills.  After you return home, you may participate in a related easy and free online photo-sharing and learning activity. Meet at the far east end of the Marina parking lot.  (*E) 0.5 mi., 2 hrs. See photomorrobay.com for more information.

Docents:  Mike Baird, Kevin Cole, Jerry Kirkhart, Joyce Cory, Garry Johnson

Schedule: Sunday February 10, 2008  8:30 AM

Detailed Outline for AWN committee approval

Digital Photo Walks can be given at a wide number of local SLO Coastal State Park locations, depending on the season, migrating subjects, lighting, and accessibility factors.  A Digital Photo Walk is intended to be like a mini (typically two hours) Instructional Photo Tour (IPT) - whereby participants receive instruction in photography while experiencing the many dimensions of our State Park properties.  Novice photographers are especial welcomed.  If you don't have a digital camera but were thinking about getting one, now is the time.

Theme: We gain inspiration and more fully appreciate nature by photographing what we see in a group setting, engaging in critique and instruction, and pooling insights with like-minded companions.

Each Photo Walk consists of six elements:

(1) Welcome participants and introduce docent leaders.  This kind of personalized instructional activity may be best-served by having multiple docent leaders.  Discover individual interests, inventory available cameras (observe availability of point-and-shoots, Single-Lens-Reflex (SLR)s, tripods, etc), skill levels... and adjust the program to optimize the visitor experience.  It is recommended that docent leaders make available a loaner digital camera or two for those visitors without equipment.  There are no doubt many unused digital cameras available, just as there are old cell phones... all one has to do is ask around to acquire some - just like we do with binoculars for other walks.

(2) Explain your particular walk's objectives, distance, duration, and desired results and interactions.  Encourage visitors to ask questions, offer advice, and make suggestions for improving the experience.  Describe possible interesting nature elements we may encounter (sea otters, migrating birds, water scenes, micro/macro subjects, animal habitats, etc.) and define some of the possible subjects of the "hunt."

(3) Provide handouts (see below) with (a) educational content (e.g., tips for taking better nature photos) and (b) process for participating in an optional after-the-event online photo sharing and critique session.  This includes an invitation to join a local related discussion group at Yahoo! Groups a and photo sharing and collaboration site at Flickr groups/pools.

(4) Teach one new technique from the handout list about every 15 minutes.  Participants should come away not only with photos that are much better than they might have gotten on their own, but also they should internalize the tips and tricks to the point where they themselves become teachers to the other participants.  Repeat the lessons by pointing out in the real world how the tip or trick is working, to the point where the participant acts like it was his or her original idea.

(5) Agree on a subjects as they are encountered, determine the best approach (get close? get low?, wait for subject to move closer?).  Agree what would make the best photo (angle, habitat, behavior, action, interaction, feeding, head and eye position), what equipment would serve best (flash? tripod/monopod/).  Position for the photo.  Take some shots.  Discuss desired camera technical parameters (focal length, shutter speed, aperture, ISO speed, focus, exposure, flash settings and offsets, burst modes, auto-focus tracking modes, etc.  Use histograms to test in real-time camera settings.  Every member of the tour takes one photo of each subject if practicable.

(6) Conclusion.  Thank each participant individually and by name in the group setting, before people scatter, for their participation.  If possible, acknowledge, for each person, what comments, ideas, questions, or actions were valuable.  Encourage visitors to return to future tours, and to invite their friends.  Refer to the handouts and make sure everyone who is interested knows how to join the related photomorrobay Yahoo! Group (via http://photomorrobay.com ) and related Flickr photo upload and collaboration service http://Flickr.com and photomorrobay group/pool there http://flickr.com/groups/slo-ipt/ .  Explain that after the tour, when one gets home, one can post one's best images, and give and receive comments on any or all the photos submitted from today's walk.  If someone needs software to process digital images, you can recommend Google's free Picasa http://picasa.google.com/;  Adobe's Photoshop Elements;  the software that came with the camera; or to use http://picnik.com 's free online services (this can be done on the Flickr site after uploading one's unprocessed images, and before adding them to the http://flickr.com/groups/slo-ipt/ group). 

Background notes:

Docent instructors:  Mike Baird, Garry Johnson, Kevin Cole, Joyce Cory, Jerry Kirkhart. 

Possible locations:
* Morro Bay State Park Marina peninsula (good accessibility)
* Montana de Oro Bluff (poor accessibility)
* Morro Rock (walk around the base, and all along the Coleman Ave. new boardwalk) (good accessibility)
* Morro Strand State Beach, Azure Street parking lot

Comments are welcome - send to mike [at} mikebaird d o t com

Handout #1 - copy and paste this and print in a format as desired (ref. content at http://howto.digitalchocolate.org/ )

How to Take Better Wildlife and Nature Photos

1. Always have your camera with you and ready to take an opportunistic photo.
2. Be patient and spend more time in the field.
3. For wildlife, get closer, and set focus on the subject's eyes.
4. Lead a moving subject so that there is space in front of it.  To the extent that you were not close enough when you took the picture, or in haste you had to set focus at the center of the frame, you can frequently post-process your image and crop it to achieve this effect.
5. Capture action or movement by using your burst mode to get a sequence of images to pick from. The days of high film costs are over, and it costs nothing but time to take more pictures.
6. Be aware of the background -- does it enhance or detract from your subject?
7. Look for interesting reflections in water.
8. Get the sun behind you -- maximize the light on the "face" of your subject.
9. Use your flash to "fill" shadows, even in bright daylight.
10. Steady the camera with some kind of support (tripod, monopod, tree, strap...).
11. Set your camera to record at maximum resolution and quality -- use RAW if your equipment supports it.  Use the optical zoom capabilities of your camera, but forget the "digital" zoom which simply replicates pixels.
12. Shoot small subjects from a low angle... consider a wide-angle lens for effect.
13. Compose the image into "thirds" so that not all images are centered. Again, you can frequently post-process your image and crop it to achieve this effect.
14. Use "vertical" shots for appropriate subjects.
15. Getting Technical:  Use the fastest shutter speed possible.  One rule-of-thumb is that shutter speed should be equal to or faster than the ratio one over the focal length of your lens -- i.e., if you are using a 200 mm lens, the slowest shutter speed should be 1/250th of a second.   Of course you can overdo it -- shutter speed comes at the expense of depth-of-field (aperture setting) and ISO "film" speed (which will effect graininess).  Try to keep the aperture setting at the numerical value of f/11 to f/16 or even higher, and ISO speeds at the numerical value of 400 or lower.  Another rule-of-thumb is that shutter speed should be about one over your ISO,  so, if  your ISO is set to 400, your shutter speed would be 1/400th of a second.  Obtaining good depth-of-field, for many scenes, will make the difference between a good shot and a snapshot. The higher you set the f-stop numerical value, the smaller will be your lens aperture opening, and the greater will be the depth if field.  An exception -- when your subject deserves to be the central focus of your image, and you want the background to be blurred, shoot it at f/5.6 or f/8.
16. Invest in higher quality camera and optics, and Photoshop software, if you find yourself enjoying photography.
17. Homework: Before your next Digital Photo Walk, read the extensive self-tutorial material at howto.digitalchocolate.org entitled "San Luis Obispo County California Nature Photographers -- Their Works and Techniques: Interviews with local nature photographers about how they take such great photos" - Edited by Docent Mike Baird -- mike [at} mikebaird d o t com, photomorrobay.com.  Come to the next session with at least one new idea to try.

 

Handout #2 - copy and paste this and print in a format as desired

Share your photos and give and receive comments from the instructor and other participants.  After the tour, go home and participate in a free online social network photo-sharing and learning activity.  Get a free account at http://Flickr.com and add your images to the group at http://flickr.com/groups/slo-ipt/, where you can give and receive comments.  If you need software to process your digital images, use Google's free Picasa http://picasa.google.com/; Adobe's Photoshop Elements; the software that came with your camera; or use http://picnik.com 's free online services (this can be done on the Flickr site after uploading one's unprocessed images, and before adding them to the http://flickr.com/groups/slo-ipt/ group;  see http://flickr.com/help/picnik/ for more information).  Join our free photomorrobay Yahoo! Group.  Go to http://photomorrobay.com to find it and sign-up.