Lethbridge Photography Courses

Paterson Photography Changes

December 10, 2019December 6, 2019 by Mike

People have been asking why the changes here at Paterson Photography? Well it is simple, I am trying to stay organized and that is a HUGE project in itself. Over the past years several of my businesses and hobbies have merged into one HUGE mess.

People that are looking for my nature prints find my woodworking or my teaching information but cannot find my nature prints. People that want to follow the happenings with my van find my nature prints, etc, etc.

So I have been slowly separating things to make it easier for me and for my friends and clients. Well to be blunt it is like separating an omelette, it has not been easy. I am glad that I am doing it but it will take a lot of work to clean things up.

So be patient and someday I may have things all organized. You may see posts overlapping for a while but slowly things will split completely, or at least that is how I plan it 🙂

So some of my sites if you are interested are below…

Forget about the Joneses

September 18, 2019September 10, 2019 by Mike Paterson

I have seen many times a business or a person gets off track by trying to keep up with the Joneses. You are your own person / business and unless there is a real reason to change don’t keep changing. If making a change has a purpose like improving your product or life then that is one thing.

If you are changing because someone else did then DON’T!!!

Who are the Joneses?

Some students come in for classes and they tell me they are interested in changing gear. Either to a different camera manufacturer, model, type, etc. When I ask why they cannot answer. They are doing so because someone else did or someone said they should. If you need the new technology then make the switch, if not then don’t!

A great lesson!

Back to business

September 2, 2019September 3, 2019 by Mike Paterson

Over the summer I have heard from a number of people with business questions and concerns about their businesses. So this fall I will be doing some posts on getting back to building your business. Summer is over, kids are back in school so now lets get our businesses in shape.

One of the first things I would like to address is time management. Specifically social media time wasters. It seems that everyone is pressed for time. In actual fact we all have the same amount of time we just need to use it better. Get off your smart phone, stay away from social media and limit your other time wasters on-line. You will get a lot more done at work and your personal life will be better for it.

Posting

As a Pastor said at a church training meeting this summer “Nobody is waiting for your next social media post. Nobody cares if you post today or tomorrow. Your church, or your personal life, is not going to change for the better or worse by not posting for a few days”. In business it is the same. Check your social media accounts once a day. Do your posts, answer inquiries, make comments. THEN get on with your life.

I have had weeks that I have posted 7 amazing posts each week. My sales for those weeks are no better, and sometimes worse, than weeks that I do not post. Many weeks when I have zero posts on social media I have done the best sales. One week this past summer when other people were up late shooting sunsets, stars, etc and posting on-line I was in bed by 9pm. Up at 6:30am. At work by 8am. My sales for that week were close to four times as much as a standard week. Not one post on social media.

Comments

Also limit the time you comment on others posts. You may think you know how to solve a problem for someone, but most people on-line are not looking for help. They are looking for sympathy or someone to do it for them. I spent hours helping someone with a issue this past summer. Myself and a couple other people used our knowledge to help them get out of a bad situation. In the end they did nothing we recommended and are now paying the price as their business struggles.

Set aside a set amount of time each day and when that time is used, STAY AWAY from any more social media. Edit images, market your business, clean up, do paperwork. You will find you will get a lot more done!

Image Stabilized Lenses – Gimic or Need

May 9, 2019May 1, 2019 by Mike

Image stabilized – yes or no??

I get asked a lot about the need for image stabilized lenses. Many people also want to know if a point and shoot camera should have image stabilization. People want to know if it is needed to get good pictures or just a gimmick and if it is worth the money?

If you would have asked me years ago I would have said outright don’t waste your money. But as I get older and I push my photography limits I have to say that I do like it.

First a little background

Macro Photography Course

February 6, 2019January 14, 2019 by Mike

Macro Photography – now a one on one class

Crocus #1 2017 Macro photography in the sun! — Crocus #1 2017

Do you want to learn how to improve your macro images? Would you like to spend a few hours learning more about your camera and how to do macro photography? This workshop is for you!!

This course will get you on the right paths shooting macro images. From pictures inside during the cold winter months to shooting the flowers and bugs of summer macro will open an entire new world for your photography.

The workshop starts with some teaching on cameras, equipment and technique. Then you will spend time shooting several macro subjects. After shooting I will then critique the work on the big screen advising how to improve your shooting and how to correct the images for the Internet and print..

Do all this in the warmth and privacy of the studio!

Cost $80 plus GST for 2 hours

More courses here

The Astro photography rule

February 6, 2019January 11, 2019 by Mike

Astro photography

For those that like to do astro photography and are trying not to have star trails there is a rule that you should know for this and your northern light photography.

By using this rule you will eliminate having stars move in your images making them look out of focus.

The rule is as follows, you take the millimeters of the lens that you are shooting and divide it into either 500 or 600. The resulting number will give you the maximum number of seconds that you can expose the shot for before you will see star trails.

So why either 500 or 600? Well for years I have used 600 and I was happy. Lately I have been doing some more tests and have found under extreme magnification that I am getting some movement. There could be a few reasons for this but I am leaning to the 500 at this point to see if this will be even sharper or if there is a real difference. The following calculations are done using 600 but if you want to use 500 just use that number instead of the 600. I will keep testing and let you know if there is a difference.

Now this is assuming that you are using a steady tripod and that you have your ISO set correctly. But the good thing is that it will give you a starting point to know where the line is between getting tack sharp stars and star movement.

One note: you need to work with the 35mm equivalent lens size.

So how does it work?

Astro Photography — 25 seconds using a 24mm lens on a full frame camera

Full Frame Sensors

On full frame cameras (cameras with full frame sensors) you would do the following:

Lens – 50mm

600/50 = 12 So you could shoot at a shutter speed up to 12 seconds before you will see star movement.

Or for a 24mm lens

600/24 = 25 So you can expose for 25 seconds

APS Sized Sensors

On a camera that has an APS size sensor with a 1.6 conversion ratio you would do the following

Lens – 50mm

50 x 1.6 = 80

600/80 = 7.5 So you could shoot up to 8.6 seconds before you would see star trails

Or for a 24 mm

24 x 1.6 = 38.4

600/38.4 = 15 So you could expose for 15 seconds before you would see star trails

If you want to learn more you can take one of my courses