Knapp Imaging

This weekend was a great weekend for outdoor photos. The leaves are in full bloom in Northern VA, and we made it through without a hint of rain!

I spent Sunday afternoon doing a photo shoot at a local state park, the highlight of which was taking some pictures of Noah and his best friend (a dog named Luke). Animals are notoriously difficult to pose, and Luke was no exception. However, given enough time and a bit of luck, I got a few great shots with Noah and his best buddy.

– BK

Saturday turned out to be just as miserable a day as the weatherman predicted - at least on the outside!  Inside Josh and Melissa had a truly magical wedding day, and I was lucky enough to be there to share it with them, and to help them record their memories.

Although things got started a bit late (is there a wedding that ever starts on time?) we were able to get through everything, including the part people hate the most - the formals.  Everyone was a trooper and made the entire shoot a breeze, despite the tight schedule.

This event was my first opportunity to try out my new Nikon D700, which performed like a champ.  I really made use of the High-ISO/Low-noise feature of the D700, sometimes shooting at has high as ISO 3200 with no noticeable graininess.

Thanks again Josh and Melissa for allowing me to share this special day with you.

Below are a few photos from the wedding.

Today I took the day off because I was a bit under the weather, but my girls ended up convincing me that we should head out to Cox Farms for the afternoon, which we did.  Since I haven’t been posting much on this blog, I decided I would take the camera with me and capture the day.

I am typically a reactive shooter when it comes to informal events, such as this was.  I don’t plan what I am going to photograph like I do with a wedding, for instance.  However, in this case there was a shot that I decided ahead of time that I really wanted to get.

Cox Farms has a series of slides, one in particular that both my girls love.  It is a 6-lane side slide that you can ride a burlap bag down, and it is very fast due to the wax they spray on it.

My thought was to pick a lane next to one of my girls and launch a second ahead of them, turn around, and fire away while they were coming down after me.  Given that the side is pretty quick, I only got a couple of shots off before I had to turn around in order to keep from falling over.

Here’s what I ended up with - two very interesting shots from a very unique perspective.

Camera settings:  ISO100, Aperture Priority mode @ f4.5, Continuous Focus mode

– BK

Yesterday was a very challenging day for me and the couple who I photographed.  We travelled to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA with a 40% change of rain and overcast skies.  As it turned out, we were all wishing for rain before the shoot was over!

It was very hot and very muggy and extremely buggy, and so despite the beautiful surroundings, it was very difficult for Josh and Melissa to get comfortable.  However, they both did a fantastic job despite the difficult environment we found ourselves in.

I look forward to the wedding in a little over a month, and hope for cooler weather.

Thanks so much Josh and Melissa for letting me share in this most special event with you!

– BK

No matter how good a photographer you are, there will always be photos that are less than what you hope for in quality.  When shooting sports, the problem is often blurriness.  In some cases, in fact, the only thing wrong with a given photo is that it is blurry.  The composition, exposure, etc. may be completely fine, but the shutter speed was set too low, or you didn’t hold quite as still as you should have.

In this case, there are a variety of approaches you can use to “recover” a photo.  For instance, there are sharpening tools that give you some level of recovery, but cannot overcome a really blurry image.

Another entirely different approach is to “embrace” the blurriness of the image by way of a special-effect.  Many such effects are available as “actions” in PhotoShop, and one such supplier of these actions is Addicted To Design.

Take a look at the “before” and “after” images below, to see what a well-designed special effect can achieve!

– Before –

– After –

– BK

Today was the first soccer game for my youngest, and I was at the game with camera in-tow!

Here are some tips for sports photography:

- Fast shutter speed is a must if you want to capture action - 1/1000 sec or faster is best.  I used shutter-priority mode and let the camera dynamically determine the appropriate aperture.

- In order to get that fast a shutter speed, you might have to bump the ISO up a bit depending on how bright it is out.  I was able to get away with an ISO of 200 because it was full sun today, and hot!

- Continuous auto-focus is also a must, especially if your little soccer star is running towards you or away from you (i.e. the distance is changing faster than if they were running past you).  Most DSLRs have this as an option.

- A long lens is a must.  I used my 70-200mm f/2.8 with VR.

- A monopod is also helpful to add that extra bit of stability.

Even with all of this effort, you are probably going to have more throw-away shots then you would if you were just shooting a bunch of kids playing around.  I shot around 330 pictures, and ended up with 38 that I thought were worth keeping.

Some sample shots are below …

– BK