Top Ten Tips for Photographing Fall Colors.

1.      Golden Hour.  Light can make all the difference in your pictures and videos.   Try shooting early in the morning or late in the afternoon to get that great ‘golden’  light.   The color of the light will accentuate the color of the leaves even more.   You can sometimes get great mist, dew and fog in the early hours too.

2.      Don’t discount the cloudy days.  Sometimes the soft light of a cloudy day can create a great mood for fall work.  Just try to avoid the grey sky and focus on the leaves, tree trunks or lower brush and ground.

3.      Use a variety of lens.  Wide lens are great for big scenes and lots of depth of field, but the zooms and macros can pull in tight detail and drop the background out of focus to give a complete different look.

4.      Perspective.  Don’t just stand up and point and shoot.  Try looking up, crouching down and seeing your subject from angles you might have not considered before.   Reflections in standing water or rivers can create great backdrops.

5.      Add contrast.  In the middle of the day, the light is harsh, but it also gives brilliant blue skies and the contrast of the golden leaves or snow capped mountains can be very dramatic.

6.      Keep it simple.  Grand scenics are great, but usually, the simpler the subject, the more dramatic the image can be.  Try focusing on trees trunks or single leaves.   Get in close.

7.      Use a tripod.  Flowing rivers or cloudy, windy days can give motion to images that you might not get otherwise.   By using a tripod, you can extend your exposures to show that motion without the blur of camera shake.   Especially when shooting video, tripods can make the difference in making the shots viewable without the common shake of hand holding your camera.  

8.      Remember composition rules.  Turn the camera vertical for portraits and get in close with soft light to make great shots of kids and family.   The rule of thirds is always good to remember.  Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid on your lens.  Put your subjects where the lines cross, or horizons on the upper or lower third for more impact.   Too many people put the subject right in the middle. Foreground, middle ground, background.  If you can incorporate something in each of these areas, it will help to tell your story better.   Leading lines. Try to include fences, roads, or any other line that takes the eye into the image.

9.      Add a little brilliance in post production.  Even if you don’t have photoshop, most image manipulation programs have the option to add saturation.  Just be very careful not to overdo it!  It’s easy to get carried away.

10.  Get off the grid.  Get out of your car.  Take a hike, a bike ride or even a four wheel road to a less traveled spot.  While things like Maroon Bells are great, to make your images uniquely yours, get off the beaten path and find your own paradise this fall.

This is some of the best advice I've ever heard, from Art Streiber!

Art Streiber’s advice for emerging photographers

Diego Cuevara, a Miami-based art director, designer, and photographer, recently did a Q&A with Art Streiber for his TheeBlog that covers how Art fell in love with photography, his approach to celebrity portraiture, and collaborating with clients, among other subjects. Clickhere for the full interview, which also includes the following—Art’s advice to aspiring photographers.

.   

TheeBlog: What would be your advice to all those photographers out there trying to get discovered and featured by big publications or studios?

Art Streiber:

• Immerse yourself in the genre of photography that you’re interested in pursuing.

• Go to bookstores and stare at the photography section.

• Go to the newsstand and open EVERY SINGLE magazine that is of remote interest to you.

• Make a list of your dream clients, your nearly accessible clients and your easily accessible clients.

• Tear the mastheads out of your target magazines and put them on the wall.

• Focus your energy and break up the big tasks into bite-size pieces.

• Do incredible work.

• Make 4×6 or 3×5 prints of that incredible work and put it on the wall so you can see what you’re up to and how your work is developing.

• Keep your website CONSTANTLY updated and fresh.

• Remember that you take yourself to the next level and it’s up to you to figure out what that next level is and how to get there.

• Make sure that you have a strong sense of your own aesthetic.

• Self assign.

• Take advantage of your downtime. It’s a gift.

• Ask for help. Ask for other opinions of your work and then weigh their merit.

• Surround yourself with incredibly supportive and hardworking people and then support them in return.

• Custom Print your digital images the way we used to custom print our negatives in the darkroom. The Canon jpeg algorithms are excellent, but they shouldn’t be the last word on how you present your photograhy to the world.

.

TheeBlog: Any tips on what NOT to do?

Art:

• Don’t let your website get old and musty.

• Don’t be a pest to your potential clients.

• Don’t make excuses.

• Don’t beat yourself up for an extended period of time.

• Don’t make the mistake of including an image in your portfolio or on your website that isn’t AMAZING, just because the process of creating that image was exceptionally difficult.

.

Shooting in Florida!

I'm not sure how people in sweltering, humid places do it really, all the time.  We are lucky here in Southern California near the beach, because it never really gets too hot or sticky.   I recently spent a few days in Tampa shooting outdoor lifestyle work.  The work itself wasn't toooo labor intensive as most it required very little, if any, extra lighting.  

The issue was the hot, sticky weather.  Don't get me wrong, I had a great time and met some amazing people, but I think I also lost about eight pounds in sweat equity!   By the time you start your early to late days, it's already over 90 with 100% humidity.  Good times.  We spent most of every day outside, going place to place, shooting a wide variety of the neighborhoods lifestyle.  

In the end, I think we got some fun work out of it and I was happy for it.  I can handle most any situation on a shoot, get through it and keep a smile on my face for a few days, but arriving home here in San Diego makes you realize just what a great city we live in.    Thanks to my clients at Newland Communites, the people of Mira Bay and Fishhawk and all the people that did the little things to make the shoot run efficiently and smoothly.   I'd love to come back!

Your Local Union 101

We recently completed a shoot for the Union Kitchen and Tap, a great new restaurant here in Encinitas, CA.   By combining exposures and layers,  we try to create a sense of motion and action in the restaurant, while still having some of the people remain crisp and sharp.  This technique allows natural looking people in the space and still gives a feeling of the place being busy and full.  Isn't digital great!

Busy!

The first ten days of a busy three weeks are in the books.  Although, not without a certain amount of stress, they were very successful.  I'm looking forward to the next ten days!    Being busy is so much better than not being busy!  In the early part of my career, I never had to market at all.  Work just showed up on my doorstep.   In the last couple of years, it's become very evident that, there is still work out there,  you just have to hustle more to get it.  

New promos set to hit the streets tomorrow!

Here are my two latest promotional mailers.   The emails go out tomorrow and the snail next week.  Enjoy!   The top two going to all my architecture/interior designer contacts, from the Peak 8 Penthouse job in Breckenridge, CO.   The bottom are front and back for all hospitality contacts from the Marriott Gaslamp job here in San Diego, CA

Classic San Diego!

I've always wanted to get this classic shot of downtown.  It has to be shot on a crystal clear night to get the mountains in the back.   After 12 years here, I finally got in the car and found the spot!  Enjoy!