On a Forklift

I took this picture on Thanksgiving day, 2009.  My model here is a Captain from my Squadron.  I used a forklift to lift him up over the fence and give him a view of the mountains.  We had to take advantage of the opportunity that the sky was actually pretty clear... doesn't happen very often in Kabul.  You have to appreciate this kind of effort just to take a picture.

Review: Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson

In Understanding Exposure, Bryan Peterson's strategy is to teach the definitions of aperture, shutter speed, ISO and their relationship in the photographic triangle.  Bryan teaches you how to use this foundation of knowledge to make technically correct exposures.  But that isn't the point of this book, his main intent is for you to take the technical knowledge and mold and shape it into "creatively correct exposures."

ISO is not discussed very much in this book and with what I believe is good cause.  If at all possible, Bryan recommends keeping your ISO as low as possible to reduce the effects of noise.  Ignoring ISO, Bryan talks about how most photographic situations have at least six technically correct exposures.  If you were to set your camera to full program mode and meter a shot the camera would give you the "correct" aperture and shutter speed based on your ISO.  You can then go into manual mode or shutter/aperture priority and increase your shutter speed by a set number of stops and decrease your aperture by the same number of stops.  Decreasing your shutter speed and increasing your aperture works the same way.  What determines the "creatively correct" exposure is the combination of shutter speed and aperture that delivers the message you're trying to portray.  Bryan sums up his intent of the book with this quote, "It's always the first priority of every successful photographer to determine what kind of exposure opportunity he or she is facing: one that requires great depth of field or shall depth of field, or one that requires freezing the action, implying motion, or panning.  Once this has been determined, the real question isn't 'What should my exposure be?' but 'From where do I take my meter reading?'"

The second main focus of Understanding Exposure is light, which Bryan describes as icing on the cake.  He discusses all basic lighting conditions - frontlight, overcast frontlight, sidelight and backlight.  He also discussing the different available metering techniques - in camera vs. off camera, spot vs. matrix and center-weighted.

After discussing light and metering, Bryan discusses specialized techniques like panning, implying motion with zoom and making rain.  Some of these topics don't really seem to belong in the book but I'd say you can take them as an added bonus.

Understanding Exposure then ends by discussing more broad topics like filters and their uses and film vs. digital photography.  Again, I can't say that these topics necessarily belong in a book about exposure but the information is all good and very useful.

Things I learned:
18% Reflectance - Basically this means that camera light meters do not see the world in black and white, they see the world as gray.  So, long story short, if you're taking a picture of something black you need to underexpose compared to what your camera tells you is the correct exposure (so you're going from the grey the camera sees to black) and if you're taking a picture of something white you need to overexpose (to get from gray to white).  The easiest way to make sure you get it right is to buy a gray card from any photo shop.

The Sky Brothers - Bryan uses the "Sky Brothers" as a rule of thumb for dealing with outdoor situations where you might have a hard time deciding where to aim for metering.  Situations can include sunny days, backlit sunrise and sunset landscapes, city or country scenes at dusk and coastal scenes or lake reflections at sunrise or sunset.

Mr. Green Jeans - Bryan doesn't really explain why this works but claims that in situations where your scene is predominately green you should manually expose 2/3rds of a stop lower than what your camera's light meter says.

Low-light Shutter Speed Calculations - As part of the photographic triangle, aperture, shutter speed and ISO are all inversely related.  This means that increasing one requires you to decrease another to keep an equal exposure.  So if my camera tells me a correct exposure is an aperture of f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/250 sec I can also achieve a correct exposure by increasing my exposure to f/4 and decreasing my shutter speed to 1/500.

Where this can really come in handy is in taking a photo in very low light when you want a great depth of field (a very small aperture, say f/22).  Start by setting your aperture to its largest value, say f/2.8 and you may see that your camera tells you the correct shutter speed is 1/2 sec.  To get from f/2.8 to f/22 you need to decrease your aperture by 7 stops (f/2.8 to f/4 to f/5.6 to f/8 to f/11 to f/16 to f/22) and to keep a correct exposure you need to increase your shutter speed by the same number of stops (1/2 sec to 1 sec to 2 sec to 4 sec to 8 sec to 16 sec to 32 sec to 64 sec).  Now you can just set your camera to f/22 and a shutter speed of bulb and keep an eye on your watch.  Once the shutter hits 64 seconds you know you'll have the perfect exposure.

Summary:
In the end, I'd call this book nothing short of fantastic.  Bryan's writing style is very laid back and full of cheesy analogies but they all work.  He has several exercises throughout the book to help give you real life examples that will solidify what he is teaching.  The book is also jam packed with beautiful pictures that perfectly highlight what he is teaching.  He even has many images that show you what changes were made and how they effected the final image.

If you could only buy one book to get you started in photography, I'd recommend Understanding Exposure over anything else I've read.  And it's not just for beginners, I think every level of photographer could learn a lot from this book.

Ratings (out of 10):
Content - 9
Images - 8
Writing Style - 9
Overall - 9

If you'd like to see more of Bryan Peterson you can check out his online photography school, The Perfect Picture School of Photography here.  PPSOP offers online photography classes in just about any topic you can think of, a blog and numerous free video tutorials.

You can also find his other books on Amazon, like Understanding Shutter Speed,  Understanding Close-up Photography, Learning to See Creatively and Beyond Portraiture by clicking here.  Please note that by using the amazon links to make your purchases you help keep this page up and running :)

Kujo Hanging Around FB Thomas

Note:  I've seen a lot of traffic to this site based on this picture.  If you're looking up FB Thomas, I assume this isn't what you're looking for.  I recently posted a lot more information and pictures under Shindand Airfield Tower Complex.  Please check it out and let me know if you have any questions.   

We had a dog while I was in Shindand, Afghanistan, named Kujo.  We lived on FB (firebase) Thomas and he liked to walk around and hang out with the other dogs.  He lived in our rooms, if you could call them rooms.  What a crazy summer, 110+ every day with no air conditioning!

The Best of Charleston

I really like this picture out in front of the USS Yorktown in Charleston.  The Ravenel Bridge joins Charleston and Mt Pleasant and is in the background.  I think the green sweet grass on the right gives the picture a nice balance.

The Biltmore

Meg and I visited the Biltmore in Asheville, NC on our way back from TN.  The house was beautiful, the grounds and gardens were magnificent and the wine was awesome!  September 30, 2009 was a perfect day :)

Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Beautiful view from a lookout point at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Gatlinburg, TN.  Picture was taken September 29, 2009.

Midtour Mountain View

After 7 months in Afghanistan I got to take my midtour.  I came back to Charleston for 15 days with Meg and we went to an AMAZING bed and breakfast near Gatlinburg, TN.  This was our view from the house's backyard, talk about breathtaking.  It was such an amazing way to spend our first anniversary.  This picture was taken September 27, 2009.

Shindand Sunset

I took this picture on the roof from the same place I took the previous picture.  Once again, photo was taken on August 18, 2009 in Shindand.  

Shindand Bunker at Sunset

I really love this picture for its content.  I love how the beauty of the mountains and the sunset contrast the bunker on the roof.  It reminds me how even though I was surrounded by such beauty I was still at war.  There is the obvious problem with the picture that the highlights are blown out... I would have loved to have my DSLR with a graduated neutral density filter for this one!  Oh well, at least I know how I would have taken it.  This shot was taken on August 18, 2009.

Shindand Boneyard

This is nothing but a bunch of aircraft and building wreckage from when the US attacked Shindand during the assault on the Taliban.  I would have loved to get in closer for more pictures but the area is full of unexploded ordinances!  Picture was taken July 14, 2009

Shindand Office

This picture was taken in Shindand, Afghanistan, which is in western Afghanistan, near Iran.  Overall I like the different aspects of this picture - the HESCO barriers in the bottom, left corner which are used all over military bases overseas, the dilapidated building which was an office for Afghan translators and the couch on the roof where the interpreters would hang out and eat meals.  This picture was taken July 13, 2009.

Rug Salesman

I caught a sleeping rug salesman at the weekly bazaar at the KAIA ISAF compound :)  This picture was taken on May 9, 2009.  Local Afghans would come to sell things like rugs, jewelry, bootleg CDs and DVDs, etc to NATO forces.

Itsi

This picture was taken April 22, 2009.  I named this cat Itsi after the name of the contractor that built the Afghan National Army Air Corps compound at Kabul International Airport.  She lived and always hung around my office.  It's sad to see such a sweet animal surrounded by garbage and filth like the cigarette butts in the picture.

Propane Bottles

Picture was taken on April 9, 2009.  These are the propane bottles that are used in the Afghan kitchen at Kabul International Airport (KAIA).

On the Road from Bagram

This picture was taken on my second day in Afghanistan on a convoy from Bagram Air Field to Camp Eggers, Kabul.  It was taken through the window of my Humvee.  My introduction to Afghanistan was a real eyeopener... seeing the conditions that many Afghans live in was incredibly humbling.

Aquarium

Here's a picture of some fish at the Charleston Aquarium on November 9, 2008.  Great description to get things started, huh?

It has Begun

Hey Everyone,

Welcome to my photography blog!  I've created this site for several reasons - first, to share my passion for photography with my friends, family and visitors to the page.  Second, I hope this blog will help keep me motivated to continue to strive to make technically, artistically and creatively better pictures.  I also plan on sharing knowledge, tips and tricks that I pick up along the way and I will review all of the products I can get my hands on.

Here's a bit about myself...  I'm a 26-year-old civil engineer in the US Air Force.  I've been married to my best friend, Meaghan, for a little over a year.  I'm originally from Hampshire, IL and I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006 with a BS in Civil Engineering.  I've always been interested in taking pictures but I've just recently decided that I'm ready to invest the time, money and effort to take strides toward becoming a 'real' photographer.  If I'm able to realize my dream, I will someday be able to make a living in photography.

I recently purchased my first DSLR, a Nikon D300s, and I can't wait to use it.  Unfortunately, I'm currently serving a 365 day deployment in Afghanistan and the weather conditions scare me just a little too much to send my camera out here.  So, it will be waiting for me when I get home in February.  Until that point, I'll post some of my favorite pictures taken this year with my Sony point-and-shoot.

Please feel free to leave any compliments or constructive criticism on my images.  Your input will help guide me toward better images.  Also, feel free to drop me a line.  Thanks for visiting and enjoy!