How To Keep A Photography Journal…

One of the most valuable things that I have done is to keep a photography journal. Here I write down when and where I went and what the weather was like i.e. 4-6 am, 72°; very windy; Heald Street apple orchard or 7:45-9pm 96°humid, very foggy on the Squannacook downstream from the grist mill in Townsend Harbor. Then I jot down what I I photographed like what flowers were in bloom, any animals that were around; was it a successful shoot.

If you are photographing a body of water, does it have significantly different water levels over the course of the year, record those as well? This can have a major impact on the water flow like waterfalls and the size and width of a brook or river.

Later if you are going to a certain location, you can go back and see what you successfully photographed and what time of day was good. Speaking of the time you may want to take into consideration how close to sunrise or sunset you were there. This is because the time alone can throw things off. If you decided to go to a certain place where you had been at 8pm in the middle of the summer, but now it was the autumn; it would be pitch dark in the fall. Think reasonably.

In your journal you may find that certain places tend to be windy or early morning in the fall by a specific pond has that touch of fog to give your photos that special atmosphere you like..

Keeping your journal for your local areas pays off big time in the long run. Whenever you are thinking about shooting pictures in a certain spot where you have taken notes before, you can go to your journal and see what worked best. This way you cut down on your time experimenting with various areas and can focus on the places that worked best for you before.

Good luck and see you on location…

P.S. Check out these....

Photos and Parades

Now is the time to take photos of parades. The weather is warm and steamy and all sorts of characters come out to watch parades. In the USA, I find the Fourth of July Parades the most well attended along with those individual parades where towns or cities celebrate their individual identity like the 'Foxborough Founders' Day Parade' or Hometown Days or cultural or religious events like the Boston's North End's St. Anthony's Feast Day Parade.

You can get pics of kids, families, or people OR vendors OR floats OR music bands and groups OR old or new fire engines, trucks, tractors or cars OR clowns OR horses Or different cultural icons like Chinese dragons or religious figures. You get the idea. There is always something to photograph. Just keep shooting. You can always save the images to your computer and come back later to pull them up to use.

My MOST IMPORTANT suggestion is to always keep your original image. Make copies of that original to work with and alter whether it be cropping, changing the exposure or color, or whatever. KEEP the original unaltered.

See the pictures here for how I took one picture of the New Hampshire Governor's Horse Guard (the original is the bottom photo) when they were lining up for a parade and used several portions of the original to come up with even more pictures of interest. I know the photos are not very clear, but this is just to give you the idea.

I remember one time I altered a photo because I thought that I would never want to use it again, then about a year later I was kicking myself for not saving the original; it had a photo of a very dear friend who passed away in the unsaved portion.

Try this technique and you will not regret ruining an original image ever again.