March 2013 Workshop featuring Rob Sheppard

“Beyond the Average – Gaining Impact Through Composition”

Rob Sheppard returned to the LPA and presented “Beyond the Average – Gaining Impact Through Composition”. Rob is photographer, a naturalist, an author, a teacher and editor of Outdoor Photographer and PCPhoto magazines. He is an instructor at BetterPhoto.com, and Paul’s Photo in Torrance.

Rob shared tips on how to create a photo that has attracts attention, and has impact, along with beautiful images to demonstrate his points.  A few of his tips were:

• Make viewers stop and look at the image, not every photo needs or should have impact
• Quick ways to impact: Lighting, unusual angles, unexpected compositional relationships
• Backlighting is one of the strongest uses of light, and has impact
• Rob shoots in AV mode 95% of the time
• Expose to the right so the brights will be bright without losing detail
• Auto White Balance (AW adds a blue cast, and removes warmth in outdoor/landscape photographs
• Try cloudy WB for sunrise/sunset, it’s warming
• AWB can shift the color, even when shooting in RAW
• Wide angle and up close add drama!
• For a unique view, place camera on tripod, use timer, and hold very low, or very high
• Try shooting low, it’s ok to break rules of 1/3rds , leave in hand of man and people in landscapes
• Santa Monica Mountains, just outside Los Angeles, is a great place to photograph

• Rob is inspired by Eliot Porter, the first nature photographer to photograph in color.  Look for his book “Intimate Landscapes”
• Rob has a new  Ebook coming out, “Reports from the Wild” and uses Ibooks Author (available for MAC only) to create Ebooks.
• Rob is working on a new book with Art Wolfe – The Art of Composition
• Rob’s E-Book “A Nature Photographers Manifesto” is available for FREE.  Many of the tips, stories, and images from Tuesday’s presentation are in this book.  Download from his website at http://robsheppardphoto.com/
• Check out his blog at http://www.natureandphotography.com/

Robs new book “From Snapshots to Great Shots” will soon be available for checkout from our LPA Library, along with his supplemental DVD. If you’d like to check out the book & DVD, contact, librarian@lpaphotography.org to reserve.

Thank you to Rob Sheppard for visiting the LPA and inspiring all of us!  Your photos, stories, and tips were all greatly appreciated!

Contributed by Sue Craft and Sue Liberto