Shooting Models

There are a lot of things I would like to improve on in photography. The main two are post processing and shooting models. while I know the first one can be accomplished with study, the second one only improves from experience. I have much more experience shooting landscapes and wildlife than I do people. Here are some of the landscapes I have shot in the past. Unfortunately I had to pull these off of Facebook due to deleting or losing old memory cards, so the resolution and sharpness has been dulled quite a bit.

Lake Murray, SC

Gervais Street Bridge over the Broad River, Columbia, SC

City Scape of Columbia, SC

Dandelion on a beautiful day, Gilbert, SC 

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love finding new and creative ways to capture landscapes. But getting more experience with models is just another way to build versatility. Sometimes the best model shots can happen when people aren't "modeling" at all, just just are shot candid.

Friends visiting Lake Murray, SC

1/250sec - f/5 - ISO125

1/250sec - f/5.6 - ISO125

I can't wait until I have more experience shooting models, because more experience means more creativity. If you enjoyed reading and looking at my photographs today, make sure to LIKE ME ON FACEBOOK and add some of your own shots of models (remember, models can include self portraits and pets too!). Until next time......

- Jarvis Creative

Photography Lesson: What is Aperture?

So you want to get into photography but don't know much about it. Or maybe you've been taking pictures for awhile, and have heard of aperture, but don't really know what it is or how it applies to pictures. Chances are, if you have used a camera for more than just posting cell phone pictures on Instagram, you've at least heard the word aperture before. But what is it? Well.....

Aperture is basically the opening and closing of your lens, or how much light your lens is currently letting in. Sounds simple enough, right? Well it is, but it does take practice to make sure you're using it correctly in photographs. This would be a good time to start learning, as aperture is one of the most important things in proper photo composition.

Have you ever looked at a SLR (or DSLR) lens and noticed a tiny number that looks like 1:X.X-X.X? (Ex: 1:2.8-5.6)  The first number after the 1: (2.8) is the maximum aperture of your lens and the second number (5.6) is the minimum aperture. This is where it gets confusing, as you notice 5.6 is a significantly larger number than 2.8. But actually, the smaller the number the larger the aperture.

Aperture is almost always written with an f/ before the number. This is called an F Stop. An F Stop is the numeric value that decides the size of your aperture. The smaller the F Stop value the wider the opening of your lens. For example, a lens that has a maximum aperture of f/2.0 would let in much more light than a lens that has a maximum aperture 5.6.

It used to be thought that there was no such thing as a larger aperture than f/2.0. But with increases in technology and capability, here is the updated true f stop values, from largest to smallest (if you're new to photography these will seem backwards).

True Aperture: f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4. f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32, f/45, f/64, f/90

Now, unless you want to shell out a large portion of your life savings you will never own a lens with an aperture of f/1, and you will probably never see a lens that has a range that goes anywhere near f/90, because it wouldn't serve any good in most situations.

I'm not going to tell you how to change the aperture settings on your camera, since all cameras are different. For example, Canon (which I shoot with) has their aperture priority mode labeled Av, but Nikon has their aperture priority mode simply A. It will be up to you to find out how to adjust your aperture, but I will show you some examples of different apertures. It might be helpful to click the first picture to expand it, then use the arrows to scroll through to see all the images in a row.

1/160sec - f/4 - ISO800

1/80sec - f/5.6 - ISO800

1/40sec - f/8 - ISO800

1/20sec - f/11 - ISO800

One thing you'll notice is that as the aperture gets smaller (f stop value gets larger) the salt shaker becomes more in focus. This shows that a larger aperture keeps your subject in focus but the background blurred. This is why lenses with an aperture of f/2.8 and larger are great for portrait photography (and usually more expensive).

The second thing you'll notice is the shutter speed was slower as the aperture got smaller. This is because the lens is not as open, so the shutter speed must be slowed to gather more light. If you don't quite understand this part, that's ok. I'll do a lesson on shutter speed soon enough. Hopefully this helped you gain more knowledge of aperture, and photography in general. If this helped, please LIKE ME ON FACEBOOK and post pictures of your new found aperture skills on the wall! Until next time.....

- Jarvis Creative

Rainstorms can be beautiful

Living in the south can be brutal in the summer. Not only does it get to 90+ degrees everyday, but the all-too-well-known thunderstorm usually brews up like clockwork in between 2:00 and 6:00pm. Usually by mid July or August the daily storms have stopped, so in June I like to take full advantage of them. They can be beautiful, and the images after the storm can be stunning.


1/80sec - f5.6 - ISO200

It's always a treat to find flowers still in the height of their bloom in late June. Tiger Lilies are some of my favorite flowers to photograph due to their flawless beauty. The water droplets after the storm adds a nice effect.

1/80sec - f5.6 - ISO100

I've never really felt comfortable photographing during a storm. Maybe it's my mom in my ear warning about lightning strikes. Maybe it's the fact that up until recently I've never had a camera that was weatherproofed. I don't know, but if I ever get brave enough to go out into the rain (instead of just shooting post rain) I'll make sure I document it. Don't forget to "like" my Facebook page before you go! LIKE ME HERE! Until next time......

- Jarvis Creative