Spring 2020 Basic Photography Class in Kingsport

My Spring 2020 Basic Photography Class has been scheduled for March 5, 10, 12, and 17.   The class will start out with learning the basics of photography - light, shutter speed, aperture and how to use them on your camera.  From there we will get into color, composition, lighting, techniques and photographic gear selection.  We'll talk about some common photography challenges and how to overcome them. We will go over different photo editing packages, organizing photos, printing, and sharing online.   The class will be a combination of classroom teaching, practicing our new photography skills, and reviews of photography assignments.

The class is designed for photographers of all ages who have a DSLR, mirrorless camera, or advanced compact camera. 

Classroom sessions are March 5, 10, 12 and 17 from 6:00 PM– 8:00 PM in the Eastman Employee Center.   There will be one field trip on Saturday, March 14 to practice what we have learned.  The Saturday time will depend on what works best for the majority of the students.

In every class we will have time for:
• Review of Homework – yes, we are in school again.
• Problem Solving - Bring your camera and problem photos to class
• Question and Answer

The class is open to Eastman Camera Club members.  The good news is anyone can join the club by going to https://eastmancameraclub.net/ and clicking on About near the upper left of the page.

Cost - $45/person.   Maximum of 14 people per class.  Please sign-up at the Toy F. Reid Eastman Employee Center (229-3771)

Contact – rcsiggins@gmail.com
423-416-1258

Registration is open for the next Basic Photography Class

I teach a basic photography class about 3 - 4 times a year.  The next one has been scheduled for:

Thursday, Nov. 7    6 - 8 PM
Tuesday, Nov. 12   6 - 8 PM
Thursday, Nov. 14   6 - 8 PM
Saturday, Nov. 16   TBD  - outing time depends on what works best for the class.
Tuesday, Nov 19     6 - 8 PM

That's 10 hours of instruction!

The class will start out with learning the basics of photography - light, shutter speed, aperture and how to use them on your camera.  From there we will get into color, composition, lighting, techniques and photographic gear selection.  We'll talk about some common photography challenges and how to overcome them. We will go over different photo editing packages, organizing photos, printing, and sharing online.   The class will be a combination of classroom teaching, practicing our new photography skills, and reviews of photography assignments.

The class is designed for photographers of all ages who have a DSLR, mirrorless camera, or advanced compact camera.

Classroom sessions are November 7, 12, 14 and 19 from 6:00 PM– 8:00 PM in the Eastman Employee Center.



 There will be one field trip on Saturday, November 16 to practice what we have learned.  The Saturday time will depend on what works best for the majority of the students.



In every class we will have time for:

• Review of Homework – yes, we are in school again.
• Problem Solving - Bring your camera and problem photos to class
• Question and Answer

The class is open to Eastman Camera Club members.  The good news is anyone can join the club by going to https://eastmancameraclub.net/ and clicking on About near the upper left of the page.

Cost - $45/person.   Maximum of 14 people per class.  Please sign-up at the Toy F. Reid Eastman Employee Center (229-3771)

Contact me if you have questions – richard@thesiggins.com
                   423-416-1258

Basic Photography Class March 28, April 2, 4 and 9.

I will be teaching my Basic Photography Class starting on March 28, 2019.  The class will start out with learning the basics of photography - light, shutter speed, aperture and how to use them on your camera.  From there we will get into color, composition, lighting, techniques and photographic gear selection.  We'll talk about some common photography

challenges and how to overcome them. We will go over different photo editing packages, organizing photos, printing, and sharing online.   The class will be a combination of classroom teaching, practicing our new photography skills, and reviews of photography assignments.

The class is designed for a photographer who has a DSLR, mirrorless camera, or advanced compact camera.

Classroom sessions are March 28, April 2, 4 and 9 from 6:00 PM– 8:00 PM in the Eastman Employee Center.   There will be one field trip on Saturday, April 6 to practice what we have learned.  The Saturday time will depend on what works best for the majority of the students.

In every Class we will have time for:

• Review of Homework – yes, we are in school again.
• Teaching
• Problem Solving - Bring your camera and problem photos to class
• Questions and Answers

The class is open to Eastman Camera Club members.  The good news is anyone can join the club by going to http://eastmancameraclub.com/ and clicking on About near the upper left of the page.

Cost - $45/person.   Maximum of 14 people per class.  Call Eastman Recreation Office at 423-229-3771 to sign up.   This is a popular class and always fills up so don't wait.  Contact me if you have any questions.

Registration Open For Next Basic Photography Class

I will be teaching my Basic Photography Class starting November 8.  This is a popular class and always fills up.  The class will start out with learning the basics of photography - light, shutter speed, aperture and how to use them on your camera.  From there we will get into color, composition, lighting, techniques and photographic gear selection.  We'll talk about some common photography challenges and how to overcome them. We will go over different photo editing packages, organizing photos, printing, and sharing online.   The class will be a combination of classroom teaching, practicing our new photography skills, and reviews of photography assignments.

The class is designed for a photographer who has a DSLR, mirrorless camera, or advanced compact camera.

Classroom sessions are November 8, 13, 15 and 20 from 6:00 PM– 8:00 PM in the Eastman Employee Center.   There will be one field trip on Saturday, November 17 to practice what we have learned.  The Saturday time will depend on what works best for the majority of the students.

In every Class we will have time for:

• Review of Homework – yes, we are in school again.
• Problem Solving - Bring your camera and problem photos to class
• Questions and Answers

The class is open to Eastman Camera Club members.  The good news is anyone can join the club by going to http://eastmancameraclub.com/ and clicking on About near the upper left of the page.

Cost - $45/person.   Maximum of 14 people per class.  Call Eastman Recreation Office at 423-229-3771 to sign up.   Contact me if you have any questions.

Richard Siggins
rcsiggins@gmail.com
423-416-1258

Finding Art

I had an early appointment in downtown Kingsport this morning and thought about heading up to Bays Mountain to make some photos of fall foliage. The morning skies were clear and bright, which is not great light for landscape photos so I decided to skip the park.  As I was driving through town I came across this massive mountain of ladders on the lawn of the Kingsport Renaissance Center.

I had my camera in the car and couldn't resist stopping.  This massive collection of ladders, all tied together at multiple heights and angles is a community art project called Rise Together Kingsport.  What I found is a sculpture celebrating the combined hopes and dreams that are the community of Kingsport.  It is a project by the City of Kingsport Office of Cultural Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission and artist Charlie Brouwer. The project provides an opportunity for anyone in the community to participate in creating a sculpture signifying the combined hopes and dreams that depend on, build upon and support each other in Kingsport.  People and organizations came together to loan or donate ladders.  Some were obviously used, others were made just for this purpose.  There were really long extension ladders, step ladders, stools, and even ladders made of cloth and pipe cleaners.

Photographing this sculpture was a little challenging.  First, it is BIG, stretching across the lawn and a couple stories high.  Second, it appears to be very random with no central point to capture a viewers interest.  Photos of the entire web of ladders can show the massive size, but don't give the viewer a point of interest to focus on.

At first, I shot up from what is more or less the center, trying to capture the height.

I also tried playing with the sunlight.  Bright contrasty sunlight is not good for landscape photography but it can help a subject that is made up of high contrast elements.

As I walked around within the sculpture, I found individual pieces of art donated by the community. 

Musical

I was talking with one of the ladder donors while I was there.  He showed me the ladder he made, what he called "An Asian Kingsport Ladder". It was made of bamboo grown in Colonial Heights and boards broken by his daughter in her Tae Kwon Do class. He compared it to another bamboo ladder made by a friend that was similar, yet unique pieces of art.

DB HIgh School Art & Design Classes

It is these details that help tell the story behind the sculpture.  In fact, there are many stories from the community hidden in the apparent randomness.  I wonder what the story is behind the ladder made of walking canes or the multi-colored fabric.

Walking Canes Reaching Higher

Community Climbing Ladders

Someone had taken time to create a string of pipe cleaner people that snaked in and through the entire mountain of ladders.

Inspire, Believe, Celebrate!

A Ladder of Colors

As photographers, we are storytellers. Our photos need to help people understand and want to know more about the subject in our photos.  Sometimes we need to get up close to find the stories hidden right in front of us.

Know Someone Interested In Nature Photography?

Are you interested in nature photography?  Do you know someone who might be interested in taking photos like these?  Read on...

All photos from 2016 walk

Each year I do a one hour program on nature photography followed by a casual walk/stroll through the woods at Warriors Path photographing nature.  These free programs are part of the 38th Annual Spring Nature Festival at Warriors Path State Park in Kingsport April 21 - 23, 2017.  My talk is Saturday, April 22 from 9 - 10 AM in the Recreation Building on Duck Island.  The walk is 10 - 11:30 in the park.  

The program is suitable for beginner photographers with any kind of camera, including a cell phone. The walk is along a stream where we will find wildflowers and other things to photograph.

No need to register.  Just show up.

Be sure to check out the other programs Friday - Sunday.

Pass this along.  Spread the word.

A Personal Creativity Challenge

I tend to get in a photographic rut.  I take my camera out to some really cool places and come back with photos that are similar to what I have taken many times before at other places.   I shoot from a comfortable place where I compose similar shots using the same lens.  Not good and definitely not very creative.  Every once in a while I need something to bump me out of that rut.

Today I took my camera and one lens on a little hike at Bays Mountain Park in Kingsport.  The lens is a Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 manual lens on a Fuji X-T2 mirrorless camera.  This lens is completely manual.  No automatic aperture and no automatic focusing.  It is also a wide angle prime lens (18mm full frame equivalent), meaning the only way I can zoom is with my feet.  My creativity challenge to myself was to see what photos I could come up with using only that lens.

I found this lens is very sharp when focused properly.  At 12mm I can get a nice deep depth of field, making everything from the sign post to the far trees in sharp focus.

I was lucky enough to have some cool clouds building up while I was there.  These looked good reflected on the surface of the lake.

Spring has not really gotten started yet at Bays Mountain. When there is not a lot of colors, I like to remove all color and convert to black and white.

Despite the clouds, there was enough light to make it difficult to get an exposure long enough to blur the water.  One-half second was the slowest exposure I could get.

1/2 second exposure, f/22

Ruts are not fun.  Challenges like this are what I need to make myself tackle from time to time to get bumped out of the rut.  I am also participating in the Petapixed 52-week photography challenge where I have a new challenge each week for an entire year. I find I have to stretch my creativity muscles to come up with new photos to meet the weekly challenge.  

Solving Color Problems in Photos

Selective colorization of a photo is not something I typically do.  In fact, I'm pretty sure this is only the second time I've ever done it.  In this case, it solved some serious color issues and made the story of this photo more dramatic at the same time.

Original

When you have strong lights of dramatically different colors it can make it almost impossible to make a photo with realistic colors.   The blue lights from the patrol car and the yellow street lights made this scene appear like something from The Twilight Zone.   I don't know how I could have fixed these colors.  Converting the image to black & white removes those color problems.

Black and White

This conversion caused another issue.  The red and blue of the flag were now gone and it just sort of blends into the photo.  The key to the story in this photo is the man preparing to carry the flag in the race that was to start in just a few minutes.   I want to draw the viewers attention to the man with the flag.   Bringing back the colors in the flag can do that.

Final

The blue lights made some of the red stripes appear purple and I had to use Photoshop to edit out some of that purple in the flag.  In addition, I turned down the brightest spots, increased the contrast and cropped a little off the left to remove some people that added distractions and took away from the scene. 

What do you think?   Do you like the original or final version better?   Leave a comment and let me know.

Want To Get Pumped Up This Weekend?

Something is happening in Kingsport Tennessee this weekend that few communities have.  There is an event that will get your heart pumping and juices flowing.  It's not a sporting event or the appearance of a rock star.  What it is is the Liberty Celebration 2016 Concert, A Musical Extravaganza Honoring God and Country.

Since 1997 volunteers from our communities have come together biannually for Liberty Celebration, a patriotic musical celebrating Independence Day. The event provides an opportunity to celebrate freedom in a family atmosphere with emphasis on the traditional values of God and Country.  The show features a large adult choir, children’s choir, full orchestra, soloists, dance groups, dramatic presentations, along with a strong military presence emphasizing and recognizing our service men and women all combine to anchor Liberty Celebration.

This year I have been blessed to get to take photos of the volunteers rehearsing and preparing for this weekend.   Tonight I had a blast photographing the dress rehearsal in the Eastman Employee Center.  

This event will make you proud to be an American.   The music is rousing, upbeat, fun and best of all it highlights the best of what makes America great.   Little of what we hear or the radio, YouTube, or the internet today will make you feel good like this music performed by a choir of over 100 voices, an orchestra, and very talented soloists.













The shows are

July 1 at 7:30pm
July 2 at 2:30 and 7:30pm
Auditorium at the Eastman Employee Center
Tickets are $5 at the door.

I have really enjoyed being the "Official Photographer".   I took over 1,200 in about 2 hours this evening.   I'll be narrowing those down to a manageable number to share with the volunteers that make this show so great.  Here's a few I picked out tonight.

Patience

This has been a good weekend.   I got to spend most of it with June and taking pictures.

On Saturday June and I spent a few hours taking sunrise photos in downtown Kingsport, eating breakfast at The Bagel Exchange, and then making photos of the pianos that have been painted and placed around downtown.

Downtown is not a place I would have thought to go for sunrise.  We were there to drop my car off for service while we photographed the pianos.  Wanting to get close to the front of the line we dropped the car off before sunrise.  It was too early to eat so we wandered around trying to find a good vantage spot to see the sunrise.

The sunrise colors were spectacular and we did find some nice shots before breakfast.

The pianos turned out to be more fun that I ever imagined.  I made a lot of shots and spent most of Saturday editing.

I'm planning to take my favorite piano photos and make a slide show.  For now, here's a couple for you to preview.

I almost missed the photo below.  We had seen this piano earlier and passed it up because we were on our way to breakfast.  It was much later when June reminded me we hadn't gone back to this one.   I wasn't real excited because I hadn't seen any compelling compositions the first time around.  It was still a beautiful morning and we were enjoying our time too much to cut it short so why not walk back and see if there were any shots hiding there.

What a shot we found!   The glass panels reflected the brightly painted piano, creating what I call a Pianorama.   This was a fun photo to make.  The hardest thing was finding a composition where I wasn't also reflected in the glass.

Day two of our weekend.   Again we got up before sunrise and this time we headed down the road to Warrior's Path State Park to see if we could catch another sunrise and fall colors.   No sunrise today, but the overcast skies made the fall colors pop right out of the photo.

There were many photo opportunities, such as the Blue Heron across the lake posing among the fall colors.

Near the end of our morning in the park the smooth reflections in the lake were disturbed by a couple fishermen in a big hurry to get to their favorite spot in the lake.   Because I was set up to take long exposure landscape shots from a tripod I wasn't set up to photograph a fast moving boat.  I did the best I could in a couple seconds and got an OK shot.  

I little later another boater arrived and unloaded his boat into the lake about 50 years away.   I was hoping he would come across in front of me like the last guy so I set up my camera for an action shot and waited.   He took his time and I about gave up when he started his motor and took off in the opposite direction!  This time I wanted a boat to come by and disturb the smooth surface and he goes the other way.

In the end my patience paid off and I got a different shot that also tells a story.

No matter how much we plan, there are things out of our control and we end up in situations where we didn't expect to be.   Be patient, make the best of it, know that someone else greater than us is in control, and His plans are even better!

Evolution of a Composition

I haven't been out shooting much lately.  Winter in East Tennessee does not provide many opportunities for beautiful landscapes.  The colors are grey or muted brown.   It does not snow often and when it does I'm usually at work. 

Today was different.  I checked the weather forecast last night and saw that they were calling for 30% cloud cover at dawn.   You have to have some clouds to get a good colorful sunrise, but not so much that the sky becomes overcast.  Thirty percent sounded pretty good to me so I set the alarm. 

It was worth it!  Here's what June and I witnessed this morning.

Pretty special, huh?  

Afterwards we drove around a bit looking for other opportunities and found ourselves at the shore of Patrick Henry Lake.  I was hoping the sunrise would light up the fog on the lake but it didn't happen.  At June's suggestion I shot this.

 

 

I always listen to June's suggestions.   My photography is better when she is with me. 

The photo above is cropped and a little tone adjustments were added.    The colors are too blah but the contrast between the bare trees on the left and the fog is interesting.   When there is little color but interesting contrasts it's a good idea to convert to black and white and see how it comes out.

I think this is more interesting than the color version, but the real interesting part of this shot is the branch sticking out of the fog on the left side.   This was shot at 200mm.  I really needed to zoom in closer to isolate that section.  I could have gotten my 300 and 1.4 teleconverter to more than double to focal length but I was too lazy to walk back to the car. 

I decided to crop the photo to isolate what I thought was the interesting part.  The problem is this reduced my 21 megapixel original down to a 1.9 megapixel photo.  OK for a small version on facebook, but too small for anything else. 

I got a copy of Perfect Resize for Christmas.  Using that software I was able to enlarge it back to 16 megapixels, more than big enough for most anything I want to do with it.

This composition evolved from the original as shot, to a wide crop, to a black and white, to an extreme crop black and white.   I like the last one, but each one is different and conveys a different mood.

This has been a pretty good day for shooting.

Unexpected

Several weeks ago I went to a Revolutionary War Reenactment with plans of shooting some action shots of the battle.   Before all the action started I was wandering around the fort mostly looking for shots of the actors.  If you've not been to one of these events you don't know what you're missing.  It's like being transported back hundreds of years.  These people are very good at what they do and seem to enjoy it immensely . 

Being primarily a landscape photographer, I almost always travel with my tripod but that day I didn't have it.   I needed to be able to wander around and a tripod would only get in the way.

Then I looked in one of the windows at the fort and saw that a table had been set with period items.  I was outside in bright sun and the inside was very dark (no electric lights in 1776).  No way I was going to be able to capture the entire range of light with a single exposure.   I needed to take multiple shots at different exposures to be able to blend time together using HDR software.   I always use a tripod when shooting for HDR so that the camera does not move.  Any camera movement will make an HDR image useless.   I decided, what the heck.  I have the time and it's only pixels.  I'll give it a try.

When I got home and started processing the images the result I got was totally unexpected. 

My three exposures were at 1/6, 1/13, 1/25 of a second, really too slow to hand hold and
I never expected the the shots to line up, but they did!

One of my sayings is "You'll never get the shot if you don't go".  That usually involves getting up around 3 AM and driving to get a sunrise that may or may not work.   My new saying is "You never know what you'll get until you try".  Conventional photography wisdom said this shot was a waste of time.  If I had followed conventional wisdom I never wold have gotten this photo.

This has become one of my favorite shots.   Maybe because I never expected it to work or maybe because it is different from what I usually shoot.   I don't know if anyone else will like it at all, but I went and printed it and it is for sale at the Star Trails Downtown Gallery in Kingsport.   Stop by the gallery and check out all the artwork that is on display.  It's really a nice gallery and some very talented people are represented.

Star Trail Gallery
246 Broad Street, Kingsport, TN 37660
Tuesday – Thursday  |  11 AM – 7 PM
Friday & Saturday  |  11 AM – 8 PM