Stuff You’ll Like

A weekly compendium of stuff I found I thought you’d like. If you do, let me know, so I know to find more of it for you.

• Better Habits for Better Photography: Today over on twitter someone reminded me of something Galen Rowell taught me many years ago, and I realized the subject required more than 140 characters to explain. The basic idea sounds simple to start with: Essentially, after you shoot, the idea is to leave the camera back at some “default” set of settings. In my case, that’s typically auto-focus, ISO 100, aperture-priority, f/16, RAW, mirror lockup enabled. (Except when it’s something else.)
• How to get better control of autofocus: Normally, your camera will auto focus when you press the shutter button halfway, but with back-button autofocusing, you have to press a button on the back of the camera instead, giving you complete control of when autofocus is initiated.
• How to be Lucky: 3) don’t blow a great shot with technical issues – that’s just mickey mouse – get that crap out of the way through lots of practice and careful routines, even check lists and being careful – and if hand holding under borderline conditions, take several shots so at least one will be sharp.
• Advice: Style is a voice, not a prop or an action. If you can buy it, borrow it, download it, or steal it, it is not a style. Don’t look outward for your style; look inward. Never apologize for your own sense of beauty. Nobody can tell you what you should love. Do what you do brazenly and unapologetically. You cannot build your sense of aesthetics on a concensus. Learn to say “I’m a photographer” out loud with a straight face. If you can’t say it and believe it, you can’t expect anyone else to, either.
• Birding at the Edge of the Bay: I’ve pointed to birding location guides for a number of counties, but never Santa Clara County for some reason. Gordon Barrett has done a nice job of building one for Santa Clara County with his birding on the edge of the bay maps.

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