Joanne's Blog

Welcome to Joanne’s Blog. What a great way to keep in touch with you and let you know what great things I have been photographing including things like Kadooment and pantomimes.

I believe that as people we should always be growing and always learning and with that in mind I intend to share some of the things that I learn with you in the form of photo tips or whatever. If you learn stuff that you want to share pass it on.

Pictures are a great way of preserving memories and keeping the family together and my first tip to you is – always have your camera ready, batteries charged and card with lots of space. More pictures are lost because – you left your camera at home or your batteries are dead– than any other reason.

Last Sunday at polo I was standing in front of the stands taking pictures and I started talking to the people next to me. Charmaine said, “isn’t this perfect”. She was right, the breeze that blew across the field was the perfect temperature as the sun was starting to go down. Some people were watching the game and cheering on the players and other were chatting and laughing and had no idea what was happing on the polo field.

Here are some pictures.

Polo in Barbados had a slow start this year because of the rain. As soon as we had a good day, everyone came out. The Australians came all the way from down under and only got to play one game. We also had visiting teams from Canada and the USA.

With many more teams to come, we are going to have a great polo season.

Enjoy the pictures below and visit www.barbadosphotos.com

to see and order more pictures.

light

· The first thing I consider is the light:

For polo I do not want to be shooting into the sun, I want the sun behind me or over my shoulder as much as possible but when I am shooting from the goal posts I know that some of the shots will be into the sun but very few.

· I also take into consideration the time of day.

Polo is usually played when the shadows are long and not as dark as they are at midday so I can get away with some shadows.

· CAMERA SETTINGS

· Shutter speed –

I use the setting shutter priority and set the shutter speed to 800, the camera chooses the f-stop. (When the players are going straight across my lens I need a very fast shutter speed, if they are coming towards me I can get away with a slower shutter speed).

· ISO (The lower the ISO the clearer the picture will be)

I want the lowest ISO possible but my priority has to be the shutter speed because I am shooting fast action and at that shutter speed and with the light fading I can’t always get a low ISO. I set my ISO to auto; that way it I need a higher ISO my camera will increase it.

· Focus meter

I set the focus meter to C, that way the focus in the camera will follow the subject and that subject will stay in focus even when it moves.

METERING MANUALLY

I’ll compare it to filling up a bucket. Let me know if it makes sense bip@caribsurf.com

Tap - Let’s say you were filling a container with water and you wanted to get it to the top, not overflowing and not under, exactly to the top.

Camera - Now let’s say you were taking a picture and you wanted to get the exact light on to the sensor, not too much and not too little.

Tap - You can turn the tap on really hard the water will go in quickly and with lots of splashes and it might even overflow before you had a chance to stop it.

Camera – you can open the f-stop (f-2.8 or F5.6) really wide and let in light, lots and lots of light. The light will come in really fast and you will not have as much depth of field (less range in the picture will be in focus).

Tap – you can decide that you want the bucket to fill for a long time so that the water can go in as smooth as possible.

Camera – you can decide that you want the shutter speed to be open for a longer time so that you can get more depth of field (more range in the picture will be in focus) and make moving water look misty.

Let’s put them together. You have to work with the tap and the time that the bucket is under the tap to get it exact. It’s a compromise. You can change the amount of water coming in or the amount of time that the container is under the water.

Let’s put it together –You have to work with the shutter speed to let in the light for a certain amount of time and open the f-stop to let in the right amount of light. It’s a compromise. You can change the amount of light coming in by changing the f-stop (f-4 = lots of light and f-16 is a little amount of light) or the amount of time that the shutter is open 800 is a short time, 15 is a long time. Your meter might look like 125 f7.1.

You can change the speed and f-stop by rotating the main dials on the right hand side of a Nikon camera. One by your thumb and the other by your index finger.

You have a meter in your camera that you can see when you look through the lens. In my Nikon it looks a little like this.

My Brother, Alan in Venezuela

My brother, Alan Highton, has been a tour guide and photographer in Venezuela for more than 20 years, he has recently set up his own place, which is the best place in the world to take pictures of lightning.

He takes people on tours through Venezuela and takes the most amazing nature pictures. Here are a few of his pics.

His web site is http://www.cocolight.com/ . He has been away for a long time and would love to hear from anyone who he used to be friendly with here. His e-mail address is alanhighton@yahoo.com

St. Winifred's Pantomime Pictures

I had a request to put the St. Winifred’s pantomime pictures back on line so that everyone can see them and I have bumped into a few people who have told me that they did not have the time to choose the pics during pantomime time so here is another chance before we get into the Christmas rush.
They are also a great Christmas present for Granny.
For those who have not had a chance to see a St. Winifred’s pantomime, look out for the next one it is always a great production, performed by children, some as young as four. The costumes, dances and plot are absolutely wonderful. It is an extremely professional production that is definitely worth seeing.

Convent Pantomime