F-Stops and Shutter Speeds

You love your camera, but you always keep it on a nice, safe “Auto” or “P” and let the camera do the thinking? Or do you put it on “M” because you see the pros doing that and still your pictures come out poorly exposed? You are intimidated by the letters “A”, “S”, “M”, or “ASM”, or “Av” and “Tv”. As a result, you only use $200 worth of the features of your $1000 camera!

Does this sound familiar? You are not alone! Help is now on the way from a professional architectural photographer who has made every F-stop mistake in the book, E. David Luria, founder/director of the Washington Photo Safari who since 1999 has helped over 39,000 amateur photographers take better pictures by making full use of their cameras.

How DO the pros get that kid’s face nice and sharp and the background blurred? How do they make all the moving cars and people on a street DISAPPEAR? How do they get those waterfalls and streams to look like cloudy mist? This special photo safari will concentrate on understanding WHY you would want to choose “Shutter Priority” or “Aperture Priority” or even the “P” setting for your camera, whether it is an SLR or a simple point and shoot or “prosumer ” camera. You will learn how YOU – not the camera -can control the final image. We will review White Balance and ISO settings. We will even teach you to take the “Mystery” out of the “M” setting. We will conduct a special therapeutic intervention to get you OFF of that UGAT (Ugly Green Automatic Thing)! In short, we will make YOU the boss of your camera, not the other way around!

Bring your camera, and ALL your lenses for this very helpful primer on the proper use of your camera. Tripods are allowed on this safari. Do you have a #8 or #9 neutral density filter? Bring it!

Our venue for this safari is the beautiful National Sculpture Garden operated by the National Gallery of Art on the National Mall. The unique statuary, the piece by Alexander Calder and the moving “House” by Roy Lichtenstein, the Thinker on a Rock statue, the huge typewriter eraser by Claes Oldenburg, and the skating pond with its bursting fountains all make for great photo opportunities. The cars moving along Constitution Avenue let us try out our cameras on varying shutter speeds that can make cars stop, blur, or disappear! And the interior of the nearby National Gallery Center provides opportunities to do low-light shooting at higher ISOs, and figure out correct white balance settings.

Here is what one client had to say about a WPS safari: “Lots of patience for a beginner. The instructor took time to explain the basics for me and provide more stylistic advice to those more experienced in my group. I would do another tour in a heartbeat.” Devin T.