Faking Sunset

 This is an idea for your next photoshot. You can fake the sunset at anytime. 

 

From last weekend

In Florida, whenever you're near any body of water, you should always assume there may be alligators. This small lake near my home was completely dry for several months last year. Thanks to the last two hurricanes, it has water again. While in the past I had only seen one alligator swimming around, this past weekend I was lucky enough to photograph two of them cruising very close to each other.

They are impressive animals. They’ve been on this planet longer than we have, and at least in Florida, they’re here to stay.

 Here is the video that I took last weekend showing wildlife around the lake. 

The Best DSLR being sold at Amazon

A few days ago, we commented on an article noting that the Canon 1D X Mark III was priced higher than the current Canon R1. Today, I found that YMCinema pointed out that the Nikon D850 is still the best-selling DSLR on Amazon, even though Nikon has released other mirrorless cameras intended to replace the D850

"In 2025, you might expect the spotlight to belong exclusively to mirrorless cameras, with their compact builds, cutting-edge autofocus systems, and rapid innovation cycles. Yet, the DSLR world isn’t just holding on—it’s thriving in select corners. Case in point: the Nikon D850, a camera first released in 2017, is now officially the best-selling DSLR on Amazon."

The first DSLR I bought was a Nikon D5200, around 10 years ago. Remarkably, this camera is still being sold by Nikon for around $589. It's a crop sensor camera that I used for wildlife and some portrait photography, and it was built like a tank.

Mirrorless cameras came along to make our lives easier with a bunch of new features, but DSLRs can still deliver images of similar quality—if you learn how to use them. And perhaps more importantly, they do so at a fraction of the price.

Hibiscus

Hibiscus were my grandmother Carmen's favorite flower. Maybe that's why I love taking pictures of them. Here are two of my most recent photos of this flower.

Pictures after the rain

 If you’ve never tried photographing flowers after the rain, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

 

The smell of wet earth and the sight of water droplets like diamonds on the petals create a unique experience that's hard to replicate—one you can capture with your camera for eternity.

Sport photography, my tricks

This is how I do it. In my opinion, in sports photography, there are two main things to consider to achieve the result you want in your photo: Do you want to completely freeze the motion, or do you want to capture some motion blur? For example, when shooting karate—if I'm photographing a kata—there’s often a moment when the person's body is still, but their hands or legs are moving very fast. In these cases, having some motion blur in the moving parts is perfectly fine. It helps convey the action.

Here’s an example where the subject’s face and part of the body are sharp, but the kicking leg is blurred.

To achieve this, I set the camera to Aperture Priority mode, selected an aperture of f/2.8, and let the camera calculate the shutter speed and ISO. In this case, the shutter speed was 1/320 and the ISO was 1250. A shutter speed of 1/320 isn’t fast enough to freeze the motion of his leg. I could have used Manual or Shutter Priority mode with the same 1/320 shutter speed, but using Aperture Priority allows me to control the depth of field and achieve a better blurred background.

From experience, I know that using the EF 70-200mm f/2.8 in Aperture Priority mode, under the typical lighting conditions at these competitions, usually results in a shutter speed that isn’t fast enough to freeze the action. This is why it’s so important to know your lens and its capabilities.

When shooting fights I love to freeze the image and in that case I set the camera to use Shutter Priority Mode using the speed of 1/800 to 1/1200 with Auto ISO. In very little occasions I set the speed at 1/2000. All depends on how bright is the room where I'm shooting. 

Here is a picture using these settings.  

In this case, the shutter speed was set to 1/1000 to freeze the motion. The ISO ended up at 12,800, which years ago was considered high and often resulted in noisy images. However, thanks to applications like DxO PureRAW and the camera’s excellent dynamic range, this is no longer a significant issue. 

Here is another example where I used a shutter speed of 1/1250 to totally freeze the image. 

 

I see many professionals using Manual mode when shooting sports, but I don’t find it comfortable to adjust three settings while photographing such fast-paced action. What works for me is either Aperture Priority with Auto ISO or Shutter Priority with Auto ISO. Manual mode with Auto ISO is another option, but I prefer using the C1 to C3 custom modes. These allow me to quickly switch between Aperture and Shutter Priority modes, each preconfigured with the aperture and shutter speed I plan to use throughout the event. That's my last trick, use the C# custom modes.

 

My favorite photos from last weekend karate event

I can't be completely objective in picking my favorites from this event because our three grandsons participated—two of them for the first time. Naturally, I was observing them closely and probably paying more attention to them than to my second grandson, who is already a 'veteran' in these competitions. So, starting with my grandsons, here is the first one:

This is our oldest grandson observing another competitor's reaction. I was surprised by how calm he was throughout the entire event—he didn't seem worried or nervous at all.

Seeing our youngest grandson compete for the first time was indescribable. He performed so well that it was hard to believe it was his first time. He finished in second place in his group and proudly carried his medal everywhere.

 

The middle one, as I already mentioned, is a veteran. His Kata is getting better and better. His expression in this picture reflects how deeply he immerses himself in the role when performing his Kata.

Talking about faces, how can you forget this one?

Have you ever tried taking a group picture with a zoom lens? It's a nightmare! No way to fit all of them in one shot! Then I remembered a photographer who once told me he stitched together group photos using Lightroom’s Merge Panorama feature, so I decided to give that technique a try. The biggest challenge I encountered was that everyone in the group kept moving and looking at different cameras. I was genuinely surprised that I managed to put together the picture below.

Click to appreciate the details.

 The rest of this event pictures can be seen here.