Through the Gadling Lens: buying your first SLR camera

by Karen Walrond on

So. It’s the beginning of the summer, and maybe you have a fabulous trip planned. And maybe up until now, every time you’ve traveled, you’ve taken your trusty point-and-shoot camera. It’s served you well: you’ve figured out all the presets, you’ve captured some amazing shots, and you know your machine inside and out. But now, you’re ready for a challenge — you want to have a bit more control over your images. You want to learn how to truly manipulate light, how to manage depth of field. You want to see what happens with different lenses, and what they can do to your resulting images. You want to really begin study the art of photography.

You’re ready to purchase your first single-lens reflex camera, but frankly, you don’t know where to begin.

Never fear, my friends — with a little luck, the following tips will get you on your way.
1. What brand should I buy?

I use Nikon cameras, and have since I started photography 15 years ago. It’s for this reason that many people are always shocked when my immediate answer to the question “what brand should I buy?” is usually, “it depends.” Don’t get me wrong — I love Nikon cameras, and will likely never shoot with anything else. But the truth is that most professional photographers I know, when it comes to SLR cameras, shoot with either Nikon or Canon. There are a couple of reasons for this:

a) both brands have been around for a long time, and
b) each brand has a wide variety of lenses and other accessories that have also been around for a long time.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t other brands out there that make great cameras, so by all means, explore all options. But here’s the thing: when you buy your first SLR, you will probably be purchasing at least two items — a camera body, and at least one camera lens. And over time, if you really get into the photography thing, you may likely upgrade your camera body over the years; however, you’ll probably end up using any lens you buy for, literally, decades. For this reason, it’s always a good idea to buy a brand that you know has a strong reputation for backward compatibility with its lenses and other accessories. In addition, consider the following:

– Are you inheriting any lenses or other equipment? — Good lenses can be very expensive, and if you happen to be inheriting a bunch of old manual lenses from Great Uncle Hank, who used to be an avid shutterbug, it might be worth strongly considering buying your new SLR body in the same brand as the lenses. Yes, manual lenses can be a lot more work than the new, auto-focus lenses of nowadays, but there’s really something to the phrase “they don’t make them like they used to” — one of my favourite lenses to shoot with is a 25-year-old manual lens. Trust me: never dismiss a good hand-me-down lens out-of-hand.

– Digital Photography Review — The website dpreview.com is an invaluable resource for reviews on just about every different type of digital SLR camera out there. The site includes discussion forums and galleries showing the different types of images each camera produces, and reviews are from all very neutral and objective sources. If you’re at the beginning of your search for a camera, after you’ve asked around at what your friends and family are using and how they like their cameras, as well as doing a little research on the internet, I would definitely test your hypotheses at this website. Be sure to do all of this before going to Number 3, below.

2. What kind of lens?

As we’ve discussed before, different lenses have their different uses — some are great for portraits, others for landscapes. Much of the decision on which lens you should buy can rest on the type of photography that you think you’d like to do.

However, if you’re not entirely sure which type of photography you’re going to be interested in, allow me to pitch a 50mm fixed focal length. This is called a “normal” lens — which basically means that what you see is what you get: there’s no zooming, and the resulting image is exactly what you would see if you weren’t looking through the camera. The reason I love these lenses are as follows:

1. It’s a great way to learn how to compose a shot, and learn about the lens without the possible crutch of a zoom lens;

2. The lens will offer less distortion than a wide-angle lens might, but still allow you to get pretty decent landscape shots. And while distortion can be fun (consider the results of a great fish-eye lens), when you’re just learning the camera, a normal lens is a great way to start.

Now, if you do go with a 50mm lens, try to buy one with the smallest aperture number associated with it. If you remember, your aperture will help you control the depth of field in the shot (or, in other words, control how blurry your background is going to be). Fixed focal length lenses can often come with very low aperture numbers, allowing you to really play with your depth of field. My very first lens was a fully manual 50mm lens at f1.4, and even though I’m required to manually focus the lens, it remains my favourite lens to shoot with today.

To show the kinds of depth of field I’m able to get with this lens, here are a couple of examples:

Notice in the image above, there’s just a very tiny portion of the photograph that is in sharp focus, the portion with the smallest of the four stones — both the foreground and the background fade to a soft blur, adding depth to the photograph. Similarly, in this portrait of my daughter’s good friend, below …

… only the water droplets on her face and the very front of her face is in focus — even her hairline blurs away into the background. And the best part is that this lens is also capable of fairly decent landscapes shots as well.

A note about fixed focal length vs. zoom — eventually, the temptation to purchase a zoom lens will be too much to bear, and I certainly admit to owning several zoom lenses myself. One thing to keep in mind when you do purchase one is that you are often required to sacrifice that low aperture number when you buy a zoom (or else shell out some serious cash). This isn’t often a bad thing, but something just to keep in the back of your mind while you browse.

3. Where should I buy it?

Once you’ve done the research and figured out which camera and lens you want to buy, you can either buy it online or at a camera store — but before you do (and if you take none of my other advice, please take this bit):

Before you buy, actually visit a specialty camera store (one that only deals in cameras, not an electronics store), ask to see both your first and second choice cameras, and play with them a bit.

I cannot stress this enough. You’re about to lay down some serious cash for a camera, so you need to be absolutely sure you’re going to like the camera you buy. Also, chances are, once the cameras are in your hands, it will become almost magically clear which camera you should buy — either your first or second choice.

I’ve had some friends get frustrate
d with me for not telling them outright whether they should buy a Nikon or a Canon, when I tell them, “Just go to the store and play with them, you’ll know.” The thing is, when they do follow this advice, the decision always becomes immediately apparent — they prefer how one camera meters over the other, they like the placement of the dials or buttons on one camera better, whatever. One camera just ends up feeling “more right” than the other. Besides, the employees of a really good camera store tend to be very knowledgeable about the cameras they carry, and can teach you tricks with each machine.

Once you’ve made your camera store visit and you know exactly what you want, then and only then should you consider buying online. But as with any major purchase, if you’re buying online, be sure that you use a reputable online merchant (of course, you generally can’t go wrong with Amazon or B&H Photo).

4. What am I forgetting?

My last piece of advice is to remember that you can always buy second-hand. We photographers are a fickle bunch, often upgrading to the next latest-and-greatest machine, and leaving a perfectly good one behind. My first camera body and lens were both 10 years old at the time of purchase, and while I don’t use the camera body anymore (since I shoot digitally, rather than film), I still use the lenses I purchased, 15 years later — they work beautifully. Buying second hand can be a great way to get a camera with more bells and whistles than you might otherwise be able to afford.

HOWEVER.

If you go the second-hand route, I must insist that you purchase the camera from your favourite specialty camera store, and forgo the internet altogether. Specialty camera stores can ensure that the camera is functioning properly before it goes out the door, and they’re far more likely to give you at least a limited warranty on your purchase. Which, you know, is always a good thing.

As always, I’d love to hear your ideas on purchasing a digital SLR in the comments below. And of course, if you have any questions, you can always contact me directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom – and I’m happy to address them in upcoming Through the Gadling Lens posts.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: planning a staycation? Here’s how to do it, and shoot it right

by Karen Walrond on

Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we’re fast approaching Memorial Day weekend here in the United States, or what is otherwise known as the Unofficial Start of Vacation Season. For some of us, this means that we’re ever closer to that fabulous trip we’ve been planning for months (or maybe even years). We’re finally going to be jetting off to some faraway, exotic place for a few fun-filled days of rest and relaxation. Yes, for some of us, this is What We’ve Been Waiting For.

However.

For the rest of us, given the economy being what it is, that trip might have to be postponed or canceled altogether. It’s a pity that we won’t be able to really travel, and the kicker? We’ve already booked off time from work — so, now what are we going to do with these free days?

Enter the staycation.
Now before you groan, lamenting that a “staycation” will hardly feel as great as a real vacation, allow me to present another possible perspective: learning your local town through the eyes of a tourist (and, by the way, through the lens of a camera) may actually feel exactly as good as a real vacation — and by the end of your “trip,” you might end up with a photo album that sheds a new beautiful light on the place you call home. Besides, if you’re like me, you very rarely ever explore what your city has to offer a visitor (but you can probably name every gas station that sells cheap petrol within a 5 mile radius).

To help you plan your staycation (and to prove my point about the pretty photo album), I thought I’d share my tips on how to plan a staycation, with images from the city where I currently live, Houston, Texas. Let’s be honest: while Houston is a fine place to live, Houston is hardly a hot-spot holiday destination. You rarely hear anyone say he’s been saving all his life to visit Houston. People tend to come to Houston on vacation just because they have family here. So if I can use images from a staycation in Houston to make it look like a city you’d want to visit (or at least, stay home in), then trust me, you can in your hometown, too.

And so, on with the show.

1. The trick to a good staycation is planning. Just because you’re staying in town doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan your staycation: pick up a local newspaper and see what’s happening in your town (particularly during weekdays, when no one else is likely to be there). Get on the internet and search for websites that talk about how great your town is, and all the amazing things there are to do, either in town, or a 30 minute drive out of town. Trust me, they’re out there. You might just have never thought to do them before.

Also? Don’t forget to prepare your house for your staycation. In the days before you start your staycation (say the weekend before, perhaps), straighten up your house. It doesn’t have to be spotless, if you’re not so inclined, but at least pick up all the clutter. Buy a new air freshener, to give your house a different vibe. Go to your grocery store or local florist and pick up some fresh flowers or a flowering plant (because all the best spas and resorts have fresh flowers or flowing plants, don’t you know). Don’t forget your outside spaces too — even if you just have a fire escape, take a few old throw cushions or blankets outside to make it a bit of a fresh-air retreat — you know, where you’re going to catch up on all that reading you’ve been meaning to do. And do enough grocery shopping for the time off — because, really, you’re not going to want to do anything as mundane as grocery shopping on your vacation. Bonus points for making it to a party supply store to purchase some of those tiny little paper umbrellas for your drinks.

Then, once your house is all spiffy, and your staycation has begun? Take a few shots. You know, so you can show people afterwards where you stayed.

(Incidentally, when you’re taking those shots, don’t forget to take the shots in the most flattering light possible. For example, in the shot above? The other red adirondack next to the one in the image above is falling apart, so obviously, it didn’t make the picture. Nor did the peeling paint on the outside of our house, or the uneven pavers of the patio. It’s all about composition, baby.)

2. Treat yourself to a meal at a swanky restaurant. No matter how large or small your town is, chances are there’s a restaurant nearby you’ve been meaning to go visit, but you haven’t had the time/didn’t think you could afford it. Now’s the time to make it happen — after all, you’ve been saving on airfare and hotel, right? Also, one trick that I’ve learned about having a fabulous meal at a fabulous restaurant: go at lunchtime, instead of at night. Prices tend to be a lot cheaper, there’s less pressure to drink alcohol, and therefore it’s much more affordable. Plus, the cool thing is that the swankiest restaurants tend to still love intimate lighting even during the daytime, so your shots will still capture the ambiance of the restaurant. For example, notice that even with the dim lighting in the image below, the light through the windows is the telltale sign that I took this at noon this week:

And, of course, don’t forget to shoot your meal:


3. Do something fun outdoors. Find a public park or hike-and-bike trail (or maybe even your normal route when you walk or run), and in addition to using it for exercise, keep your camera on you. Take the time to explore the area. And, of course, take great shots.


(The shot above was taken under an overpass. Shh. No one needs to know.)


(A large patch of wildflowers were in bloom along the hike-and-bike trail where I normally go for my morning run. Getting down close to them and shooting them this way makes it look like they were blooming for acres and acres. In reality, not so much.)


(And dude, I can’t even begin to tell you what kind of flower this is — it looks like a passion fruit flower, but seriously? In Houston? It was growing in a patch of weeds. But it’s so exotic-looking, there was no way I wasn’t going to take a shot of this one.)

4. Take a day trip to the iconic spot your town is known for. No matter where you live, there’s likely a place that’s the pride of the town. For exa
mple, if you live in Paris, it’s probably the Eiffel Tower. If you live in Gaylord, Michigan, it might be the Bottle Cap Museum. Find out which is your town’s, and take some time to stroll around the place, if only for a photo opportunity. Besides, what other time are you going to get to see it during a weekday, without the hoards of tourists?

In Houston, of course, the iconic spot is NASA — full of great photo ops:

5. Go to the best hotel in town. I’m not suggesting, of course, that you book a couple of nights there (although if you want to, more power to you — I have a friend who routinely checks himself into a lovely little hotel in town every New Year’s Eve. And why not, I say!). But if there’s a great hotel nearby that you know you’ll likely never get to stay in, just go there to have breakfast one morning. Or a cappuccino. Or splurge on a spa treatment, if they provide that service. Or call a couple of friends (or a friend who is staycationing with you) and just enjoy happy hour in the hotel bar. In other words, enjoy the feeling of being at the hotel, and without actually spending the exorbitant prices for tiny shampoo bottles or turn-down service.

And of course, don’t forget your camera.


(The above photograph was shot earlier this week at the bar in the Alden Hotel, one evening. I’ll probably never have the opportunity (or money) to stay there, but their martinis are lovely.)

6. Go shopping. Now, I’m not suggesting that you completely blow your budget on an extravagant shopping trip or anything — that sort of defeats the purpose. But the truth is that on most vacations, at some point you’re going to find yourself in a store, if only to pick up a souvenir refrigerator magnet. Just because you’re staying home is no reason that your fridge should be punished, so find your way to the most picturesque shopping district in your town, take a few shots and purchase at least a small souvenir from your staycation. And while you’re at it, you might want to also pick up a t-shirt for your nephew.

And finally (and this is the most important part):

7. On your last day of your staycation, make 4×6 prints of all your photographs. Buy one of those little photo albums, and stick them all in there, and then put the album in the bag you take to work.

The next day, when you return to work, and people ask you, “Did you go anywhere on vacation?” Answer, without hesitation, “Yeah! I went to <insert name of your town here>!” Under no circumstances should you respond with “I stayed home,” or “Nah, didn’t go anywhere special.” Then, as they look at you quizzically, whip out that album. I’ll bet your next paycheck that your coworkers will ooh and ahh just like they would if you’d left town (“Seriously? There’s a Bottle Cap Museum here? Who knew?” or “There are flowers like that in Terry Hershey Park?”). The bonus: you’ll realize that you’re probably more relaxed than if you had traveled (no nightmare travel stories), you have renewed appreciation for where you live, and the best part, the next time you do travel, you’ll have this handy little album to sell the people you meet in those faraway lands on your home town. Can’t beat that.

As always, if you have any questions, you can always contact me directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom – and I’m happy to address them in upcoming Through the Gadling Lens posts.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: shooting with something other than a $5000 digital SLR

by Karen Walrond on

Yesterday morning, I received the following e-mail:

Hello Karen,

I have been experiencing quite a bit of “camera envy” lately. Maybe you could write something about that. How you don’t necessarily need a fancy Canon 5D to take great photos … Just an idea…

Have a great day!

~Robyn

I love this idea. So today, I thought I’d share some great images that were shot with cameras other than fabulously expensive single-lens-reflex cameras — and some tips on how to turn what you’ve got into prime photograph-taking machines.
Point-and-shoots

Check out the following incredible shots:

Aren’t they breathtaking? These were taken by photographer and friend Kate Inglis, whose work you can see more of at her blog, sweet | salty and her flickr pool. Most importantly, however, these images weren’t shot with a fancy, expensive single-lens-reflex camera, but instead, an old Kodak point-and-shoot, the DX7590 (which according to Kate is “long obsolete”). I learned about Kate’s amazing talent when we both began contributing to the photoblog Shutter Sisters, and was amazed at the images that Kate was able to capture with her point-and-shoot (particularly since it had been a good decade since I’d ever shot with one). With her point and shoot, Kate is able to capture both brightly colourful and timeless images like the ones you see above. She does some truly stunning work.

Toy cameras

Looking to do something more artistic and unusual with your photography, but don’t have thousands of dollars for a fancy camera? Dude, look at these:

These two amazing shots, by writer and photographer (and also friend) Jen Lee (whose work you can see at her website, JenLee.net, and her flickr stream), were taken with a Diana F+ camera — commonly known as a “toy camera,” because of its plastic body. It’s a vintage camera, so Jen takes her film into a store to be processed — but instead of getting prints, she scans her negatives into her computer, and does her own “development” of the film digitally — to obviously stunning results. Says Jen: “The perks of shooting with diana+ are the abilities to create different looks with different films, the option to create multiple exposures, and even the ability to create a unique look with the option of cross-processing your film for extra saturation or surprise color shifts. For about $240 you can get the Diana deluxe kit, which comes with the 35mm back (so you can shoot more exposures per roll, panaromic shots, or include sprocket holes if you like the look). The kit also comes with every Diana lens: wide-angle, super-wide angle, close-up, telephoto and fish-eye; and the cable thingy so you can do self-portraits.”

You can purchase vintage “toy cameras” like the Diana online from sites like eBay, or, it turns out, you can purchase new remakes of the Diana by Lomography in retail stores or online.


Camera phones

Or perhaps you don’t even have a camera at all, other than the one that comes with your cell phone:

Both of the images above, shared in our Gadling Flickr pool, were taken with Apple iPhones. The first shot, by jameskadamson, is pretty fantastic because of the amazing, sepia, vintage feel of the image. The second image, by the ubiquitous ultraclay!, has classic framing — it totally reminds me of that old Beatles album cover, remember the one? Great work.

So!

One of the most annoying things you can say to a photographer is, “Yeah, well, if I had an expensive camera like yours, I could take great shots too” — I think the amazing images above prove that in every case, it’s not the expensive machine that makes the art, it’s the artist. Beautiful work doesn’t require an outrageously costly camera to do the job, it requires technique, practice, and above all, an “eye.” And so, even if you’re not shooting with state-of-the-art, tens-of-thousands-of-dollars-worth of camera equipment, the following are some tips for creating some stunning images with the equipment you do have:

1. Shoot and shoot and shoot. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: the only way to be a photographer is to go out and be a photographer. Get your camera (or camera phone), film or otherwise, and shoot — every day, if you must. Every hour, if you’re so inclined. And don’t worry about whether or not “you can’t take a good photograph,” or you “don’t have the eye,” — every single photographer, everyone one of them, including Ansel Adams or Annie Leibovitz or any other fabulous photographer you can possibly think of, has taken a crappy shot before. Every last one of them. But frankly, the crappy images are how you learn to take the really good ones. Shooting constantly is how you learn to see the light, and the shadows, and how you learn about proper exposures and white balance and shutter speeds and aperatures and everything else that anyone can learn to take a technically good shot. But most importantly, constantly shooting is how you develop your eye. And your eye is how you’re going to become a great photographer.

2. Learn your machine. Every camera, from your camera phone to a $25,000 Hasselblad, has its strengths and it has its limitations — the trick to making a technically stellar image is to maximize your camera’s strengths and minimize its weaknesses. Read your camera’s manual to see what it can do, and shoot in all kinds of lighting conditions, to really see how your camera performs. For example, Kate learned how to maximize her old point-and-shoot presets: “I also tended to use the ‘bright beach scene’ setting on my camera – a preset that tended to overexpose slightly and make blue skies pop.” From there, Kate would enhance any other aspects of h
er image digitally, which brings us to …

3. Do not be afraid of Photoshop, or any other post-camera processing software. Remember, always remember: there is no shame to using photoshop or any other post-camera processing software. Think of it this way: it’s your 21st century darkroom. It’s the darkroom chemicals on your desktop. That’s all it is.

And so, in Kate’s case, after adjusting her camera presets, for the shots she shared above, she did some final tweaking on her computer: “I’d go into Photoshop and either apply a very simple action to boost the contrast, or just play with the curves a little. These are not adjusted in terms of saturation… it was just a matter of the angle of light and the colours of these days.” So again, her processing wasn’t about completely changing her image — it was about giving her image a little boost. Nothing wrong with that.

And again, remember that Photoshop can also help with your camera’s limitations. For example, in the following shot, taken by my husband with his old Canon point-and-shoot:

His camera wasn’t able to capture the entire scene in one click — so instead, he took several shots (keeping the horizon constant), and then “stitched” them together in Photoshop. The result is a stunning, panoramic image.

4. Play with taking shots from different angles and perspectives. Part of what makes a good photograph a great photograph is the composition — how you frame the shot. For example, in ultraclay!’s image, above, what makes the shot intriguing is that so much of the frame is composed of the actual street, drawing your eye upward to the pedestrians. And again, as Kate indicates in her statement that follows, a little forethought can make the image: “I tried to choose shots that showed inventive composition – unexpected crops and perspective (many were shot from the ground up – I found myself changing my stance a lot with the point and shoot to get interesting shots… had to work harder for it. Also important, to me, was an extremely minimal background – no clutter, anything distracting cropped out.”

And finally:

5. Don’t be afraid to create your own style. What makes Jen Lee’s images so bloody striking, above, is not that she shoots sidewalk stores or telephone lines — obviously, many people have shot those subjects many times, and done so without creating much of a stir — but that Jen has developed a style of taking photos: her use of film, and ensuring that the image is processed to that it bleeds through the sprocket holes of the film, as well as ensuring that her images are saturated with colour. In fact, one quick glance at her flickr stream, and from now on, any time you see images shot in a similar way, you’re likely going to think of Jen.

In other words, armed with the knowledge of your camera’s strengths and limitations (see #2, above), figure out how to exploit them, and do so with abandon. That’s what makes a photograph art — that’s what makes it worthy of hanging in a gallery, let alone your own home.

And so, no more camera envy –banish the thought! Instead, take the machines you have, and start clicking. And as always, if you have any questions, you can always contact me directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom – and I’m happy to address them in upcoming Through the Gadling Lens posts.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: photo gifts for Mother’s Day

by Karen Walrond on

Last week, my friend Willy pinged me via instant message: “Hey, do you have any ideas on how I can share photos? I have a ton of them sitting on my hard drive doing nothing.” I know the problem: if it weren’t for the fact that I had a photoblog, I’m sure most of my photographs would never see the light of day. But since we’re approaching Mother’s Day here in the United States, it occurs to me that using your photographs for some great Mother’s Day gifts might be a cool way to share some of your best travel photos. And so this week, I thought I’d share some of the best ideas I could find for Mother’s Day. So read up and take note: time is running out.
Gifts for the Mom Who Doesn’t Understand Why, If You’re Traveling All the Time, You Can’t Stop In and See Your Mother Once In a While

Both my husband and I aren’t from the United States, and therefore, we have family all over the world. And as you can imagine, if we take a trip to somewhere other than where our family is located, they Aren’t Always Happy. So sometimes, it helps to send them lovely photographs of their children and grandchildren having Lovely Happy Family Time in far-off places, so that they can think, “Ah, well, our children are happy, that’s all that matters.”

Or something.

Anyway, here are some gifts we’ve given in the past that seem to have scored pretty high:

a) Photo books: Everywhere you turn these days, you can upload your photographs to a website or a software application, a few clicks here and there, and badda-bing, a credit card number later and a bound volume of your photographs appears at your (or your mom’s) doorstep. Most of these services even let you customize your own photo captions, with things like “Mom, as we were sitting here staring at this beautiful sunset, I was overcome with emotion thinking about the love you have shown me all these years,” or something equally heartfelt and sincere. Ahem.

Some of my favourite services:

Qoop — an online service where you can upload your photographs, or even better, simply suck them out of your Flickr account. Softbound books start from as little as US$ 12.99, and hardbound books at US$ 29.99, each of them 20 pages long. Very simple to use, and books are of decent quality.

Blurb — another online service that helps you create “bookstore quality books.” Browsing through some of their “staff picks,” and you’ll see the beautiful work that’s possible to be created using their service. Mom will definitely be impressed.

iPhoto — If you have a Mac, don’t forget the iPhoto software that came free with your computer — the software comes with free templates that help you customize your photos into softbound or hardbound books, which you can then order online.

b) Digital Photo Frames: I actually purchased one of these for my dad on a Father’s Day gone by, and this might actually be his favourite gift from me ever. This wireless photo frame has its own e-mail address, and I merely email photographs to this frame, and the photograph magically appears on his desk. This is a particularly effective if your parents also happen to be grandparents — trust me, once they receive pictures of your little cherub having the time of their life in some beautiful paradise, they’ll forgive you for traveling so much. Just Google “digital picture frame” to find the thousands available for purchase (remember, your Mom is going to have to have an internet connection to make this work).

Gifts for the Mom You’re Married To, But Now That The Baby Is Here, Who Knows When Your Next Trip Is Going to Happen

Ah, remember that wonderful trip you took — the safari, perhaps, or the mountain climbing expedition — as your last hurrah before the baby came? Nowadays, as your little bundle of joy keeps you awake at obscene hours of the morning, it might look like you may never travel like that again. Mother’s Day is a great opportunity to have some prints made and featured for when the baby finally naps, and Mom has a few moments to reminisce about the intrepid old days. So in addition to the photobooks above, here are some of my favourite ideas.

a) Create a photo wall — Have a wall in your home that you’ve been wondering what to do with? Create a photo memory wall: pick some of your favourite shots from one of your previous trips, and have them printed to a similar size. Then buy some matching frames (IKEA has some great inexpensive ones, as do most hobby or craft supply stores), and arrange accordingly. For inspiration, be sure to check out some of the images on Flickr.

b) Create a photo lantern — Feeling handy? Then check out this great little do-it-yourself project courtesy of the amazing design site, decor8. The entire project takes relatively few supplies, and with the help of battery operated tea lights, your photographs will be highlighted with a warm romantic glow — a great way to feature those lovely shots you took in the back streets of Rome or from a balcony in Santorini. And with warm weather just around the corner, Mom will love sitting outside with these memories all around her. Full instructions can be found here.


Gifts for the Mom Who Is Morally Opposed to Email

Finally, perhaps the mom in your life is like mine: email’s cute and all, but nothing beats a lovely, thoughtful, handwritten note. So why not use your photographs to create stationery for your mom? There are really great services which will allow you to upload your images and create custom stationery: tiny*prints is one, for example. However, my favourite way of creating stationary is to simply print 4″x6″ prints of my favourite shots, and then purchase some blank 5″x7″ folded notecards (available at most arts & crafts stores). Then I simply adhere 8 prints on 8 notecards with 8 envelopes, tie the stack with a pretty ribbon and voila — totally personalized stationery for my mom, featuring my favourite images, from places all over the world. And trust me on this — when you give you mom this gift, and she realizes her baby made it especially for her, just like he did when he was in kindergarten? Dude, you’ll be rolling in maternal goodwill for months.

Hopefully this helped provide a few great ideas for using your travel shots for some Mother’s Day gifts. Now get out there and get your presents together — Mother’s Day is only 3 days away. And next week, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled Through the Gadling Lens.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: self-portraits!

by Karen Walrond on

A confession:

I hate having my picture taken. Hate it. When someone offers to take my photograph, I immediately respond, “Oh, no. No, no, no. I was designed to be behind the camera, not in front of it.”

You can imagine what a joy I am to travel with.

The result, of course, is that I rarely, if ever, end up in any holiday photographs. So this week, I thought I’d take a moment to talk about taking your own self portraits while on holiday. That way, you never have to worry about someone getting your “bad side.” Besides, earlier this week, Heather Poole mentioned she’d like me to lay down some tips on how to take your portrait in an airplane lavatory. Far be it from me not to rise to the occasion.
The time-honoured Stretch-Your-Arm-Out Method

Probably the most common way of taking a self portrait is to put your camera in your shooting hand, take your arm, stretch it out in front of you, and aim and shoot at yourself. It sounds pretty simple, right? What techniques could possibly be needed for this?

I didn’t used to think that there were any tricks to taking your portrait this way, but when I visited my friend Susannah Conway in Bath, England this past fall, I learned that, in fact, there’s a whole process to taking a photo in this way.

First of all, this really only works well with a point-and-shoot. It is possible to do this with a single lens reflex camera, of course, but SLRs tend to be somewhat heavy and bulky, and it can be a bit cumbersome to stretch one arm out and hold the camera steady to take the shot.

Secondly, it turns out, there’s sort of a sweet spot to holding the camera. “Let me take the shot,” said Susannah. “There’s a particular way I have to hold my camera.” She immediately put one arm around me, and held her camera up and to the left.

“Really? There?”

“Yup, trust me,” she said. And then she smiled and took the shot.

As it turns out, when looking at the self portraits of others taken this way, most of the really good ones have been taken using this method: camera held slightly to one side and slightly upward. I think there are a couple of reasons for this:

a) By holding the camera somewhat elevated, you minimize the possibility of any double chins, and your face and neck look leaner; and

b) By holding the camera slightly off centre, you’re more likely to minimize any distortion that can be cause by a camera with a lens angle that might be too wide for portraiture. Also, holding the camera slightly off centre maximizes the possibility that you’ll get some of the background into the shot (which is always good for remembering where you took the shot years from now).

A couple of additional examples:

What makes this great shot by Joshua Yetman so fantastic is the emotion that’s displayed: Josh and his wife Avi were celebrating their first anniversary, and their affection for each other is palpable. In addition, by having the camera just slightly off centre, you can see Grenada behind them — there’ll be no question where this shot was taken years from now.

And under the heading “Don’t try this at home, folks”:

This photograph was taken by my crazy husband, while on a cycling trip in the Canadian Rockies a few years ago. While I would HARDLY recommend taking a photograph of yourself while moving at about 17 miles an hour down the road, I have to admit this is a pretty cool shot: you can see the intensity on his face as he concentrates on the road, but he also manages to capture the beautiful mountains behind. Great shot.

The Shoot-Into-A-Mirror Method

This is probably the second most common way to take a self portrait: aiming at your reflection in a mirror. In this case, the main thing to remember is to turn off your flash. Think about it — you’re shooting into a mirror. If you take a picture with your flash on, 9 times out of 10 you’re going to get a picture of … your flash. The other time you might get lucky, but why take that chance?

Turning off your flash necessarily means that to get a decent shot, you’re going to have to be mindful of the available light around you (and for the purposes of those of you who will be taking your shot in an airplane toilet, that might not be a whole lot). For this reason, you’re going to want to check your ISO to make sure that it’s adequate for the ambient light — then aim, and shoot.

For a few other tips, let’s take a look at some examples:

Now normally, I would tell you to move the camera from your face when you take a photograph of your reflection — but in this case, I love this shot by Josh. Taken in an elevator when he and his wife were vacationing in Antigua, the shot works because while his face his hidden, he managed to catch his wife checking her look in the mirror — which, after all, is what a mirror is designed to do. A fun shot.


In this shot by my friend Andrea Scher, she capture herself in the rear view mirror of a bright orange VW van, while visiting her friend in Seattle. She also managed to get a little bit of the surroundings in the shot, as well, which helps place her in context. Another fun self portrait.

And incidentally, when taking a self portrait, keep in mind that your reflection doesn’t necessarily need to take up the majority of the frame of the shot — in fact, oftentimes a small reflection can make a much more intriguing image. Case in point: the following shot, also by Andrea:

Andrea says one of her favourite things to do when visiting someone’s home is to take a self portrait in their bathroom — and this is a very cool portrait which clearly brings your focus on the surroundings (helped by the fact that Andrea wasn’t looking into the mirror at the time she took the shot, so she directs your attention away from the mirror). I love this idea — and it might prompt me to start taking photographs in bathrooms of places in all of my future travels (or even in the lav, as suggested by Heather!).

Finally, one more mirror shot, this time by Susannah:


Another great example of how minimizing your reflecti
on and maximizing the surroundings can help create amazing context — this was pretty obviously shot at an open air market in London. Great image.

And finally, there’s one more way you can take your self portrait:

The Just-Give-A-Hint-That-I-Was-There Method

In this case, you don’t actually concentrate on capturing a nice crisp focused shot of your face; instead, you simply try to capture the ambiance of your surroundings, with a more subtle indication of your presence there. As it turns out, Susannah is a master at this type of self portrait, as shown in the following shots:

Similar to the mirror shot, Susannah took this shot of her reflection in a window — and therefore the focus is on the street behind her, and she appears as merely a prop on the resulting image.

And finally, the above shot of Susannah’s feet: in this case, Susannah wasn’t trying to capture her feet, per se, but the memories of what she was feeling and experiencing right at that very moment on that cold, rocky English beach. In this case, the photograph is a tool to record emotion, rather than to document scenery.

Hopefully, this will give you a few ideas for capturing your own self portraits, whether in airplane bathrooms or beyond. And as always, if you have any questions, you can always contact me directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom – and I’m happy to address them in upcoming Through the Gadling Lens posts.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.