John Keedy Photography: Blog https://www.johnkeedyphotography.com/blog en-us (C)JohnKeedyPhotography [email protected] (John Keedy Photography) Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:03:00 GMT Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:03:00 GMT https://www.johnkeedyphotography.com/img/s/v-12/u557267427-o890454497-50.jpg John Keedy Photography: Blog https://www.johnkeedyphotography.com/blog 120 120 Fall/Winter 2016 Blog https://www.johnkeedyphotography.com/blog/2016/11/fall/winter-2016-blog Fall/ Winter Photo Blog   

 

The cooler weather is upon us with nice temps mid-day and cool nights.  The Thanksgiving feast is digesting and all the stores are competing for the Black Friday, Saturday , Sunday and Monday sales.  Sure stretched out. 

Looking forward to Hanukah, Christmas and New Years celebrations coming up when we all will be making images to remember the holidays,  Here’s a challenge for you.  In the pictures you’ll be making, concentrate on getting lots of emotion in them.   You may have to ham it up a bit or get everyone to wave, or toast the event or any other way you can get your audience to show more emotion in your images.  Try to take more shots of kids and adults playing, celebrating in special ways or enjoying the wonderful meals that will be prepared.  Some families have a fire pit in the back yard; try shooting that.  Anyway, have fun with your photography this holiday season.

I am planning a few photo trips after the first of the year.  I’ll have more details in a week or so, but here’s what I am planning.  January 28-29 weekend go to Wilcox and shoot the Sand hill cranes, Snow Geese, ducks and other wild life on the Wilcox Playa.  Planning to drive down on Saturday morning, get some photos of feeding birds in afternoon, check in to a motel and then go out to get the big birds coming in to roost for the night (the fly in).  Next morning get up before dawn and be at another location for the morning fly out.  Depends on factors we’ll probably visit some other sites for feeding birds and then head back in early afternoon.

I am planning another trip to White Pockets in northern Arizona in April.  We will drive to Kanab, UT with plans to arrive there by 2 PM, join our guide and go out to White Pockets for sunset shoot, then set up camp (provided), eat (provided) and then do some night photography (star trails and Milky Way).  We’ll arise early enough to get the sunrise and golden hour pictures, have breakfast, shoot a while more then return to our cars by 11AM. 

If you have an interest in either of those trips, let me know so we can firm them up and reserve the dates.

I will put out some other photo trips for February, March and April by the end of the year so look for those. 

Wishing a very peaceful and happy Hanukah, Christmas and New Year.

 

John

JohnKeedyPhotography.com

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[email protected] (John Keedy Photography) https://www.johnkeedyphotography.com/blog/2016/11/fall/winter-2016-blog Sun, 27 Nov 2016 08:15:33 GMT
February 2016 Blog https://www.johnkeedyphotography.com/blog/2016/11/february-2016-blog

John’s Photography Blog  2016                           February 4, 2016

 

We are having a great winter here in the Phoenix area.  Cool but not too cold, a rain storm moving through once in a while with a day or two before and after with beautiful clouds.  Who could ask for more?

 

I had an Iris bloom in early January and I shot it with black background.   Also had some roses still blooming this month so I shot them as well. Shown below.

 

              

 

Here’s an address to look at some more photos for your inspiration By Coleen J. Miniuk Sperry, an exceptional photographer and teacher living in the East Valley. www.cms-photo.com/   I’ve had the  pleasure to have heard her speak several times and have attended seminars with her in Moab and here in Phoenix.  She has several books and e-Books out.  In the site go to Galleries/The Natural World/Flora

                            

I am so excited and expectant of a great Arizona Wild Flower Show coming up starting this month.  The rains have been timely and sufficient and as the weather warms, the desert will blossom.  I was in the White Tanks on Sunday afternoon as the storm was approaching the East Valley.  I saw my first spring bloom of a small Brittlebush in a pocket area.  Not much of a bush, but the first I have seen.  I have predicted February 15th but it will be sooner than that.  Get ready!!

 

 

So, to get ready for the wild flowers we need to go through our gear and think about the kind of photography we will be doing.  It’s not all macro photography but we certainly can do some macro.  Here’s are my suggestions of equipment to take on the wild flower outings.

 

 

 

Camera(s) and extra batteries

Wide angle zoom lens

Telephoto zoom lens

50 mm f 1.8 lens

105 mm f 2.8 macro lens

Extention tubes or Diopter filters

Tripod(s)

Cable release (or electronic shutter release)

Lens cloth(s)

Sensor cleaning kit.

Knee Pads (or garden kneeling pad)

Polarizer

Graduated ND filter

Reflector and diffuser

External Flash  and extra batteries

 ( learn to use it off-camera)

Poster boards of various colors for background

Hoodman Loop(if you have one)

Photo vest (if you have one)

Plamp (can make from 2 clamps and a length of solid wire)

Backpack or Camera bag to carry all that stuff

Water and snacks, sun screen and bug repellent

Camp Chair

 

 

 

If rain threatens:

 

Large Umbrells

Personal rain gear

Garbage bag(s)

Hat

Camera rain cover

Hand towel(s)

 

 

I was driving along the access road to  101 Loop this afternoon, 2/4/16 and saw this:

 

 

 

 

 

Its early for the Poppys to be blooming but as I remember they bloomed early at this spot last year.  But this is the signal that the poppys and other Spring Wildflowers are about to pop.  I’ll be scouting around next week to different areas and discovering where the wild flowers are blooming. If you are interested go to the Desert Wildflower Report  www.desertusa.com/wildflowildupdates.html

 

As soon as the wildflowers begin blooming I will be scheduling both weekend and weekday Wildflower Workshops for those interested.  We will normally meet at about 10AM and carpool to our Phoenix area locations for the day.  We will shoot for 4 hours on a half day Workshop in the Phoenix area.

 

If we are going out of town, like Globe area, Pichaco Peak area, Eagle Tail Mountains area etc. , our workshops will be starting earlier and ending later and encorporate 4 or 5 hours of shooting and the driving time.

 

Please stay in touch for more upodates and Workshop schedules.  My email is [email protected] 

 

John Keedy

 

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[email protected] (John Keedy Photography) https://www.johnkeedyphotography.com/blog/2016/11/february-2016-blog Sun, 27 Nov 2016 05:56:31 GMT
January Blog https://www.johnkeedyphotography.com/blog/2016/1/january-blog Welcome friends to my first blog of 2016.  Please be patient with me as this is a work in progress.  It will get better as we go along through the year.

Looking back on 2015, we continued classes at Rio Vista Recreation center with the Introduction to Digital Photography and a few advanced classes.  

The City of Peoria has not seen fit to increase funding so we did not expand the photography program as much as I would have liked.  With your continuing

suggestions to the leadership of Rio Vista we can expect more in the future.

 

We are starting off this year with some welcomed rain to fuel the wildflower bloom that will start in mid to late February.  To that end, I will schedule

workshops both weekdays and weekends in late February, March and April for wildflower field trips.  I have a data base of many of the photography students

so I'll let you know about the schedule.  I will put up another album just of wild flowers for you to visit and get inspired.  

 

Here's a basic article on photographing wild flowers.  http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-photograph-wildflowers.html

I'll be posting more information over the coming days and weeks so look for that.  

 

You can use you zoom lenses for flower photos and also use macro techniques.  I've gotten good images with both techniques.  Bob Lancaster has an album on

Wild Flowers at http://www.wildflowersphotography.com/p458703956.  You might check out.   I also have an album titled Flora that you might check out.  As I

said , I'll put more up on that album soon.

 

Thats all for now

John

 

 

 

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[email protected] (John Keedy Photography) https://www.johnkeedyphotography.com/blog/2016/1/january-blog Tue, 05 Jan 2016 08:49:13 GMT