Ezi Pix Blog

Three Tips for Capturing Nature Images

Based on a conversation with Nature (and other) photographers

George and Gail Hardy

Get down and dirty! Well…this isn’t really a tip, but you need to know that this is sometimes what it takes to get a great nature shot. Nature photography is an art form in itself and this is emphasised by the number of competitions that have special sections for this category. You may have taken a great shot in your backyard of a kookaburra and think this will count as a great nature shot. But…is the eye completely in focus? Can you see every feather in the lighter sections and every feather in the shadows and dark areas? Have you correctly blurred out the background to eliminate anything to distract the viewer from the main subject? And did you catch that kookaburra in mid flight, with food in its beak and chicks waiting to be fed.

If you did get that shot…then you’re already an expert. But if you missed all of that, then perhaps these three tips will help you understand what it takes to capture that perfect nature image. In our conversation George and Gail discussed birds, insects, plants and fungi. Not to mention reptiles!   

These tips should give you a good head start on what to do to ensure you don’t sink. As consumers have more and more choice about what marketing they view, when they view it and how they view it, you need to make sure you don’t miss the boat.

1. Observation

You simply cannot get the best shot without getting out there into the wild and observing what is going on with the wildlife around you. What is out there, what do they do and where do they go? There is nothing new about this step. It has always been the key to successful Nature and wildlife shots. What better way to enjoy your photography than to be in the great outdoors with the sounds and sights of nature all around you. Whether it’s birds, fungi or landscapes, this is definitely one of the most enjoyable forms of photography for those who enjoy exploring. Don’t forget to look under your feet. What is growing and what insects could you be missing if you don’t look down.

Once you fully understand the subject you are targeting, the next step is to look at the best ways to shoot them (photographically speaking). Do some further research about them before you go out, such as what are their fears and who are their predators? You may even decide that the predator is more interesting shot. Will they leave the area if you get too close or pick up on your scent?

A good way to start is to break up the season into the types of photos you want to take. Depending on where in the world you are, you can have your Fungi season, your bird season and your insect season. This is where the observation and research comes into it. You may need to do quite a bit of walking and this may include asking permission to go onto private property. Don’t be afraid to ask as you may be pleasantly surprised how many people won’t mind photographers on their land.

2. Patience

You’re going to need plenty of this! In fact (and I don’t mean to put you off), unless you are being paid to take the photos or you’re retired, you may just not have the time for nature and wildlife photography.

You may need to watch birds for a few months before you will notice them with nesting material, which indicates that they will soon have chicks to feed. Follow them and make note of their habits to find the best time and place to get your shot. This means going back to the same place day after day, week after week and watching and following them. Patience!

For fungi, it sometimes takes a little while to evolve in the morning and some of them don’t like the sun very much at all. In NSW, March is a good time of the year to start looking for the more elaborate species. When you see the ground is very wet and you start to have leeches crawling on you and sucking your blood, then you know you’re in the right spot. Here’s where you will often need to get down very low, even if it means lying in the mud, to get your shot. You may also have to return to the same site at various times of the day to find out when the lighting is at its best to make certain you get the best possible shot. Patience!

Around May is the time to look out for the eagles and that type of thing, because eagles nest earlier than most other birds in a lot of areas. Sea Eagles can be seen as far inland as Maitland to nest and they don’t only eat seafood. There’s nothin’ like a good rabbit, another bird, a snake or even a pelican, they’ll eat the lot. Fledging time of a sea eagle or a wedge tail eagle (they’re very similar) is approx 100 to 110 days from when that bird is hatched before it leaves the nest. They would be in a nest, probably a hundred foot up in the air on a tree that would be approx 8 foot in diameter and hoping Mum and Dad will come and give them a feed each afternoon. Patience!

Next up you get the smaller birds like the robins and the honey eaters. They start around September as Spring is their best nesting time, with the water birds being best around March. 

In between times, insects tend to come out when the weather is warmer, around November, which makes for good tucker for the chicks. You may be able to get some quite interesting insects in your own back yard. Make sure when you are lining up your shot that there are no man made objects in the background, such as houses, fences, power lines etc. It will not only spoil the shot, but it will not be eligible to be entered into a nature competition. Many flies and insects will actually eat each other and these make great nature shots.  Look out for caterpillars and by watching closely, you may then catch a butterfly being hatched or follow the butterfly to watch them hatching their eggs. Patience!

Also look for dam areas where there are reeds because not only do many birds lay their eggs in the water but a lot of the damsel flies and the dragon flies actually lay their eggs in the water too. Then, they turn into little nymphs which climb onto the stems and hatch out and they become the mature damsel flies and dragon flies again…so it’s just an evolution from one to the other all the way through. I think that covers the fungi, the birds and the insects. Patience!

3. Reaction

This is about preparing yourself for how you will react when you have the shot lined up and what you have to do to get yourself in the position to take the shot, without scaring the subject away.

You may need to be up to 75 to 100 feet away from the actual nest. Have your camera close, but not yourself. Use a cable release that you can extend out to up to 100 feet away from the nest. Then you hide and wait, without taking your eye off the nest, for the perfect shot. None of these birds are going to say “Hey, here I am, look at me!” You need to be ready to react in an instant because if you miss-time it, you miss the shot. It’s likely that you’ll miss more shots than you get.

Sometimes you can get closer and the birds won’t worry about you. You may need to be up a step ladder to get the right angle and you could be there for up to six hours waiting for the shot. George says that when offering Gail lunch while she is up the ladder her reaction is usually “I’m busy!” So, they’re the sort of things you have to do and put up with. You may be in a swamp getting Grieves or Reed Warblers and you’re getting into water maybe a foot to two foot deep with a hide (camouflage tent) set up, it’s 40 degrees and the mosquito’s are ‘round everywhere and you just cannot move out of the hide. Once you do and the birds see you, they’re gone! You don’t get any more shots that day. So you have to get in the hide early and you stay there, watching and ready to react.

To stop birds in flight you have to have a lot of light. If you’re using available light you have to get enough light so that you can use your lens at almost 2000^th second to stop the wings. Otherwise they’ll just be blurred and you can see parts of other images through them.

The other way is to use artificial light, such as a flash. You really need a flash that can be set to manual. If you can get within a metre or so of the nest with your camera and two flashes and set your camera on manual at around f11, 125^th second and your flashes anything from a 16^th to a 64^th power, it will stop the wings and they’ll just be frozen in time. You need to time it right and react as the birds are coming in and the wings are open and birds breaking (they’re wings are always laid back and open when they’re breaking and they’re legs are outstretched). This will allow you to see all the feathers in detail. And that’s how you do it.

I hope you’ve learned from this article, Let me remind you that there are camera clubs all over the world and they are one of the best ways to learn more practical ways to improve your photography.

Engagement Marketing

Three Tips for a Successful Engagement Marketing Plan

By Julie Watson

Based on a conversation with Marketing Consultant

Patrick Zuluaga of “PMZ Marketing”

You may not be getting married, but these days you need to be ‘Engaged’! It’s the new buzz word being used to describe a type of relationship building with your potential customers and works with all of the new social media that we hear about and use today. Engagement Marketing is basically building a relationship one to one with a potential customer, having dialogue and interaction, all prior to them buying or referring your product or service.

Patrick says that the key to the best use of engagement marketing is to guide them to your automated online presence and it can be quite easy. I have put together three tips based on our conversation to help you gain better marketing results. Beware! The tide of online networking and social interaction and sharing is rising and you may drown if you don’t have a plan of action. To stay afloat you need an online presence to market yourself or your business.  

These tips should give you a good head start on what to do to ensure you don’t sink. As consumers have more and more choice about what marketing they view, when they view it and how they view it, you need to make sure you don’t miss the boat.

• Multi-Channel Plan

You need to understand your target market. Who are they, what do they want and where are they looking? There is nothing new about this step. It has always been the key to running a successful marketing campaign. You need to be very specific so that you can be most effective. If you have a wide audience that you can target, break it into smaller segments so that you can achieve better results by being more relevant to each group. A portrait photographer may think that every person is a possible prospective client. By breaking it down into segments, the photographer can then choose different mediums to target different groups. They may choose to specialise in ‘Baby Portraits’, so they need to target new Mums.

Once you fully understand who you are targeting, the next step is to look at multichannels to reach them. It’s no longer your choice as to how you want to reach out to them. You have to find where they are and use those channels. What other websites might be targeting the same crowd as you? Join in on their forums and as you do this you will begin to form relationships with them, gain their trust and understand what it is they want. Once you have started dialogue with them, you can interact so they become interested in what you have to offer and want to know more about your own services or products that may help them with their needs. Twitter, FaceBook, emails, blogging, forums…all of these could be used as part of your multichannel plan to reach out to your audience and drive them back to your marketing message (your website).

Remember that at this stage you are only making conversation to find out the type of people you are dealing with. Never try to sell anyone anything through a forum or blog or on your social media or you will loose friends very quickly. Build the relationship and make sure that you only offer your webpage after the conversation has become relative to what you have to offer.

• Web Presence

Now that you know that the information, products or services you provide is relevant to your prospective customers needs, you need to reach out to them and show them what you have to offer. Your most important medium is your web presence, as statistics are now showing that people are in front of their computer for longer per day than their TV.

Your web presence should be the centre of all your marketing messages. This is where you can capture those people and engage them to take action in preparation to buy and influence others through referral marketing. You can educate and inform then and convince them of your products and services and then use a call to action to get them to buy. Make sure you offer great value to them when they visit your site or they will soon leave.

• Call to Action

Your messages need to be transaction driven. Once you gain visitors to your site or presence and you give them the information that is relevant and valuable to them, you need to have a call to action so that they are more likely to respond and interact or buy your product or service. Some typical action driven messages might be; “Buy Now”, “Limited Time”, “half price for one week only”, “click here to register”, “visit our blog for more information” or “click here to view my portfolio” and all of these messages give the customer an action to take to get further information or make a purchase. You are basically telling them what the next step is that they need to take to get the offer and when they need to do it. Your website is a marketing engine and, as control is being lost to marketers, it becomes all the more important that you capture these buyers who now control everything regarding their purchasing experience.

Many people will visit and purchase from a site that has been referred to them by a friend. Adding a link to share your site or information with others is a relatively new and exciting way to introduce visitors to your marketing message. You are not simply ‘sending to a friend’ through an email, but able to automatically share your page to their social media and forum friends. By adding a call to action ‘share this’, you have your interested prospect saying to all their friends “hey, look at this great site I found with interesting information about………” and it will link directly to your website/presence, blog or portfolio.

You will multiply your sales by automating the process, so that selling one product becomes as easy as selling thousands of products. If you are selling photographic images, then the process should be automated so that the customer receives their print or downloadable image quickly and with a minimum of fuss. The process is the same for every customer, no matter how many sales you make, keeping your costs and time to a minimum.

The three main areas that you want to engage your target market into are; engaging to dialogue, engaging to buy and engaging to refer and I wish you all the best in doing this by using the three steps in this article.

Three (and a half) Tips for Posing Your Subject for Portrait Shots

Three Tips to Successful Blogging and Social Networking

Based on a conversation with Online Marketing Professional Belinda Jackson of Web Chameleon

Now days when someone says “A little birdie told me” then it’s not because they heard a whisper around the office. It’s more likely that they have been twittering or tweeting!

To be good at anything you do you need to be educated. It’s never going to be easy at first and you will save a lot of time and frustration if you learn a little about these media before you use them. There are many sites on the internet where you can pick up free information about Blogging and Social Networking.  The latest interview with Belinda Jackson on Ezi Pix is a great start. By becoming educated you will have confidence and not be so overwhelmed by where to start. There is so much information out there you need to make sure you don’t continue to read about it and never get anything started. Check Web Chameleons free information and also blogbybelinda.com. I found a couple of great videos, free on this blog which helped me understand Twitter, and now I am a Twitter Bug! It gave me the confidence to just jump in and get started. There is also great info about how to set up a blog.

If you’re not sure about blogging, you can also learn a lot about them on the internet. You will need even more education before you can build your own blog, but it really is easy once you know how. Check out a few blogs and then start making some comments. Of course, once you have your own web presence, you will leave a link back to your own blog, website or portfolio.

Whatever you do, don’t miss out on this massive opportunity to build your customer list or gain traffic to your own portfolio or website. Just do it!

2. Make Time

3. Consistent

Once you decide to go ahead and start a blog, then you need to be consistent. This strategy is not a one hit wonder or overnight success. If you decide you are bored with it, and don’t keep posting information on a regular basis, then it just won’t work. Social media also needs to be consistent or people will become bored with you. At first these strategies seem a little complicated because you are not sure what you are doing. You must persist, even if it’s only to log in and say “Hi” and then log out again. This will help you familiarise yourself with the site/blog and you will soon be able to quickly and easily log on and add quick comments and post articles. Before you know it you will have a following of people and visitors. Hopefully, this will increase your sales and ultimately your profits.

So if you make the decision to use one of these media, you need to be consistent. Use one at a time if you are time poor so that you gain maximum benefit from it. For blogging it does take a bit of time to start to get a profile built up so you need to get out and look at other blogs in your industry and start commenting on those so you start driving people back to your blog and getting people commenting on yours. The only way you can do that is by building ongoing relationships with people online and being consistent in posting content to your blog and also being consistent in using the social media which may also lead back to your blog.

So whether you blog, twitter or facebook, you can always be a ‘friend’ of mine by searching for me now. See you on the other side.

Three Tips for Breathtaking Panoramic Landscapes

Based on a conversation with professional Landscape Photographer Geoff White of Landscape Decor

I just spent 30 minutes in the great outdoors, photographing a fence! I’m learning to take breathtaking Panorama’s. Yes, you heard me right. In my conversation with Geoff White, I learned this is a great trick to making sure you know what aperture settings are right for your camera/lens, before you even get to your place of interest. Geoff is incredibly knowledgeable in the subject of landscapes and as he say’s “I really only see in panorama!”

What’s that, you want the opportunity to do some ‘doors off’ shots from a helicopter?

This is a must read article for you with a very special opportunity to do just that. The excitement, the vista’s, the adrenalin rush, and of course the images. Geoff can take you on a magical tour of some of his favourite places and teach you many more exciting tricks than shooting fences. You will be on location, hands on in his workshops. Check out my three top tips to taking breathtaking panoramic landscapes which I discovered during my conversation with Geoff.

1.    Steady on.

Use a tripod. It is impossible to get a good landscape shot without a tripod. Today's digital cameras, in their compact and ultra compact forms, may look ridiculous perched atop a huge tripod, but don’t let that stop you using one. There are many fine companies that make lightweight, easily transportable tripods. Lightweight is important because, if you walk all day or night looking for those special shots, a tripod can get very heavy very fast. There are also tiny table top tripods that you can use on the roof of your car or on top of a wall.

Tripods are a necessary evil, but anytime your shutter speed needs to be slower than 1/60 sec. at wide-angle, you should be using a tripod to prevent camera shake and a blurry picture. If you are fully zooming in without a tripod, you will probably need to have 1/125 sec. or faster.

To understand what the best aperture is for your lens try setting up your camera on a tripod against a textured surface like a wooden fence. Then manually focus on that wooden fence and shoot an image at every available aperture from 2.8 through to the maximum aperture of the lens. Have a real good look at those on your computer screen, particularly out at the edges and the corners of the shot and you will find that the edges and the corners will be quite soft at f2.8 and as you go through you might find that the optimum aperture for your lens is f11 or f16. By doing those tests, whatever the optimum aperture is, that’s what you need to be shooting your landscapes at.

2.   Simplicity

K.I.S.S. (Keep It Super Simple). Make your images as simple as possible. It’s the simplest images that are the ones that are the best. Have you ever taken a shot just on sunset with nothing but the stunning colours in the sky and just one tree, or even one person as a silhouette and nothing else? These simple shots are the ones with the ‘wow’ factor.

Often times when you look at a landscape image it’s not particularly evident what the subject of the image is and it’s the simplest images that really stand out the most. It can be a winding creek in the foreground that leads your eye gently to the mountain ranges in the background or a paddock of canola taken at just the right angle to make your eyes want to wander over the flower tops and onto the lone gum tree in the middle of the crop. Simple, but stunning and effective.

3.    I see the light!

You may see the light, but are you shooting at the appropriate time of day for the shot you are taking. If you’re shooting a rainforest shot or a waterfall, you definitely don’t want to do this when there’s sunshine. You want to do this when there’s a leaden overcast sky. As heavy overcast as you can get and you’ll get beautiful rich greens and you’ll get fantastic shadow detail. On the other hand if you’re shooting beach landscapes and stuff like that you don’t want overcast, you want sunshine. So choose your subject according to the light you’ve got for that day. Geoff recommends planning ahead and having a couple of options so that no matter what the weather, you can still go out and get your shots.

Of course, light is the most important part of any photo. Even if the composition and focus are out, the image will still be pleasing to look at if the lighting is good. Is the light falling at the right time of day and at the right angles? This gives the image its artistic elements.

At the end of the day, most people don’t get that great shot they are after because they are not out there practicing and doing it. So in the words of Sir Richard Brandson “Screw it, Lets do it!”

Three Tips to a Better Work/Life Balance

1.    Go For What You Love.

 Are you constantly caught up in the daily grind of working so much that there is no time left to play? Do you really love what you are doing? We all hear the stories of people working too hard and missing out on quality time with their kids and family. If you feel like this then maybe you need to re-focus.

Take some time to sit and think about the important things in your life. What is it you truly love doing. Who do you want to spend most of your time with? Most of us spend more of our weekdays with our work colleagues than our families so it makes sense to be in a job or business that we love. This may mean changing jobs (not easy in the current economic climate) or better still, changing your attitude towards your job. If you work for yourself, choose the people that you network with so that you enjoy their company at the same time as learning from them and giving a receiving support. Make some time to socialise with friends and work colleagues so that some of the stress of the day/week/month is lifted as you let your hair down and communicate at a different level.

2.   Get Rid of the Clutter

Keep it simple. Start with a big clean up of the physical clutter. Let’s face it…we all feel better after a good clean out of the wardrobe. The Smith Family love it too! You already know what you love in life and what you need to do to get it. You just need to remind yourself. Be intuitive and then simply work out what adjustments need to be made to de-clutter your days. If you have too much on your plate, learn to say “no”. Make a list of the things you do and then prioritise them. Now you can leave out the ones at the bottom of the list and keep focused on the ones at the top. Learn to love what you’re doing and just go with your instincts.

Of course if you are truly serious about a better life/work balance and not just wanting someone else to take responsibility…you may consider talking to a Life Coach like Christine. This way you have someone who understands you and can support you over a coffee or during a walk through the park. Now that’s simple (and the first chat is free).

3.    Destress Through Laughter and Fun!

How do yo have fun? Is it hanging out with friends, walking through a forest, taking photos of your favourite place, or seeing your favourite band? Make the time to relax and enjoy yourself. If your schedule is busy, make yourself an appointment to get together with friends or go to a restaurant on a regular basis. Book a time in your diary every week for leisure/fun. This is just as important as making the next business decision or getting your newsletter out in time. If you are not healthy physically, mentally and emotionally, your work will suffer in the long run.

If you have no work/life balance, then what’s it all for? Some people have regular Friday Night drinks to catch up and unwind. Chris calls this Thank God It’s Friday and finds it a great way to catch up, relax, let your hair down and have a good laugh with friends.

So enjoy life to the full, make the most of every moment and never miss an opportunity to have some downtime.

At the end of the day…don’t just work…LIVE!

The one thing about coming home from holidays that everyone looks forward to is to SHOW OFF the photos. It’s also the one thing your family and friends DREAD. Let’s face it, holiday snaps can be pretty boring.

Check out these 5 steps to go from boring to incredible, creative and even interesting holiday memories that you and your friends will want to see over and over again.

1. Composition

This is really the most important part of taking a great picture instead of a boring one. Take a little time to consider what you are trying to capture.

The scene needs to have a subject, be it a boat, sunset sky, land mark, tree or building. This is because you are aiming to a) show off your photo and b) remember what caught your attention. What is the subject of interest in the shot you are about to take? If there isn’t one, then there will be no interest in the printed image!

Work out the best angle to capture the subject by moving around, getting up high or down low and tying both horizontal and vertical options in the viewfinder. Always look up, down and behind you. This can help make a much more dramatic image and sometimes you will see things you didn’t notice. I was once taking some nice sunset shots over a lake, only to turn around just in time to catch a massive orange moon rising up behind me. Find the scene, find the light, and then put your subject into it. Location, location, location.

2. Self Timer

Get yourself in the picture. Don’t come home without PLENTY of shots with YOU IN THEM! This happens all the time. Don’t forget, if they wanted to see a photo of the Eiffel Tower, they could buy a postcard. It’s much more exciting when you’re in the picture.  

Learn how to use the self timer before you go on holidays, and then get into the picture with your friends or family. Don’t set the timer pause for too long or you’ll have everyone looking in different directions by the time the shot is taken. You need just enough time to get yourself back into the scene.

3. Travel Tripod

Why use a tripod? I’m glad you asked…because understanding this will give you an amazing advantage over other photographers that don’t see the necessity. When you take a photo in low light such as sunrise, twilight, sunset, evening shots and also fireworks, you need the shutter speed to be slow to allow more light onto the sensor to enable the scene to be visible in your image. This also means the camera will capture any movement and blur the shot if it’s not held still and it is virtually impossible to hold the camera steady for the length of time required for these low light shots.

One tripod known as Fozi Tripod is plastic and will fold down to fit into your wallet. There are also stronger metal mini tripods that fold to about the size of a ruler and mini fold down versions of the larger standard tripods. Do your research and check the internet and local camera shops for more info before you go away.

4. Get in Close

You want to show some emotion on faces, details in the architecture and the beauty of a tropical flower. It’s not always about where you were, but what you were doing. Was there dancing with local tribal people? Was there a warm fireplace? Did you relax on a tropical beach? Why not try taking a close up of some deck chairs and a palm tree with the water and sand in the background, and not worry about getting the entire scene into the picture.

Do you really need to show the entire scene to portray cocktails were being consumed? Get in close and show only the umbrella and fruit on the top of the glass. These close up shots will make a stunning collage and tell a great story when you get home.

5. Copy the Pros

This one is simple. Check the postcards in the shops nearby and then imitate what they have done. The professionals know when and where to get the best shots so use them as a guide. You need to put your own flair into the shot to make it personal.

Don’t forget: Keep the story of your holiday exciting and never boring. Pick out the most interesting shots and file the rest away just for yourself. Choose the photos that have lots of people in them and put them into an album or make a coffee table book. Let the images tell the story of your trip of a lifetime!

So…here’s to the holiday of a lifetime and the reward of wanting to show off the photos for years to come.

Of course there is much more to photography than I have explained in these 5 steps so for more information on how to improve your photography, to find out about workshops, to enter photos in a local camera club competition or even to sell some of your fantastic images online, go to www.ezipix.com.au

Light is the most important part of any photo. Even if the composition and focus are out, the image will still be pleasing to look at if the lighting is good. You see, photography is all about light and colour and tonality and you need to get to know the colour of the light, the quality of the light and the angle of the light. Are there any blotchy shadows? Is the light falling at the right time of day and at the right angles? This gives the image it’s artistic elements.

Bright, midday sun makes a scene very high-contrast, and can add sparkle and great colour, but will deepen shadows. Early morning or late afternoon sunlight gives much lower contrast resulting in, softer and varying hues. On cloudy days, the sun's rays are peeking through the clouds and this creates either a dark or light "soft box" effect, depending on the clouds' brightness and luminosity. Remember these lighting tips and use them to make the most out of any lighting conditions by matching the subject to the light source

Midday sun is the worst possible setting for photographing people. The sunlight being directly above the subject's face will be casting deep shadows around the eyes and every wrinkle in the face will be well defined. You may not be asked back! Look for shaded areas and use fill-in flash if needed to lighten the shadows and even out the exposure.

It is always ideal to try and keep the sun at your back to reduce lens flare and prevent an incorrect light meter reading. If you cannot avoid your subject being backlit by strong sunlight you do have some options. If your camera has an Exposure Lock (AEL) button, move in close to your subject and fill the viewfinder with their face. Take the meter reading and press the button to lock the exposure. Then when you move back to your original position to take the shot you require, the camera will not be fooled by the backlight. This will achieve the correct exposure.

Another option is to use the Spot Metering mode which allows you to take a reading from only the very centre of the frame, and not the entire area covered in the viewfinder. You can meter your subject in the centre of the frame, lock the exposure and take the picture, reframing the subject if necessary.

I hope this helps and if anyone has any questions or further information to add to this blog post, I would love to hear from you. Cheers Julie