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People, Plants and Photos Workshop

This photography workshop is part of the Botanical Society of America and Society for Economic Botany meeting. The venue is in St. Louis, MO.
WS01: Plants, People & Pictures

Workshop Overview

Organized by: 
  • Kim Bridges, Retired Professor Univ. of Hawai`i at Manoa
  • Bill Dahl, Botanical Society of America
Sponsored by: Botanical Society of America and the Society for Economic Botany 

Session: WS01 (Friday, July 8, 2011)
Location: Lindell D/Chase Park Plaza

We are going to explore digital photography in the context of both Point-and-Shoot and Digital SLR cameras. The focus is on typical botanical and ethnobotanical themes. The overall aim is to help everyone, from beginner to competent photographer, better understand the capabilities and features of this emerging digital medium. Special attention will be given to macro-photography. The workshop includes discussions, demonstrations and hands-on opportunities. All participants are asked to bring their camera gear as there will be an outdoor photo shoot. 

Two sessions: 1:00-5:00 PM and 7:00-8:30 PM.


Agenda

1:00 PM - Welcome & Agenda Overview - Why do we take photos? Who is the audience?
  • Setting the Stage: Two types of photography
  • Looking at photos; what can we learn?
  • DSLR user: Why I need a P/S camera, too?
  • P/S user: What do I add with a DSLR?
1:30 PM - The First Decision: Why am I taking this photo? Documentation or “Art”
  • The Basics: Exposure, ISO and Lighting
  • Macro-Photography
  • Hardware [lens, tripod, cable release, lighting]
  • Camera settings
  • Exotica: Exposure merging & focus stacking
2:00 PM - Outdoor Photo Shooting
7:00 PM - Post-Processing
  • Moving & Organizing Photos
  • Adding Metadata
  • Editing [crop, resize, sharpen]
  • On-Line Photo Storage

8:00 PM - Photo Critique

8:30 PM - Closing



Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug 
Photo by K. Bridges, from the King Kamehameha Day Parade 2011
Important Links

Participant Photographs

Each participant was asked to submit, prior to the workshop, their five favorite photographs to Bill Dahl (wdahl@botany.org).  The submissions can be seen on the web link below.


Survey

The workshop is designed to be highly participatory. As such, we have asked participants to take a short survey. The answers to these questions will be shared in the workshop. The answers also help us to better understand the general level of expertise and experience of the participants. The survey was made available through Survey Monkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6WGZQHB)
  • Please share your top three photographic tips (e.g. I try and shoot out of direct sunlight... or scenery early in the morning or late in the afternoon)
  • What type of camera do you use? What do you like most about it? What do you like least about it?
  • What are the four most usable items in your photographic tool kit and why? (e.g. tripod, raincoat, flash...)
  • What type(s) of Software do you use to process images, and why?
  • Where do you go on the to learn more when you have photography related questions?
  • Where do you post photos and how do you share them? Please share the various ways you do this.
Skills and Behaviors

One of the objectives of the workshop is to move the participants to the "competent" level of photography. The two links given here provide background information on the Skill and Behaviors concept and specific information on the Skill and Behavioral levels relative to digital photography.


General Activities

There are some things that are overarching activities related to digital photography, particularly in the context of people and plants. The General Activities link provides information on things like habits, critique and checklists.


Ethics

Taking photographs and sharing the resulting images involves ethical choices. Such ethical decision-making extends to the use of other people's photographs. Ethical standards have been established by many professional groups.


The Purposes of Photographs

Thinking through the photographs that are needed can help ensure that you'll actually get a complete set. Developing a checklist of needed photos is a powerful, easy to use way to make sure that you stay on track.


Techniques and Composition

You need to know how to use your camera. Processing your images is very important, too. Seriously consider how you name your files, where you store them, and how you provide for backing up your collection. None of this should detract from the actual process of finding a subject that you want to photograph and positioning yourself to get an excellent image.


Workflow

The photographic workflow consists of all of the tasks in photography, starting from the planning of a photographic expedition to the posting of the photographs on a shared website. If you have only a few photographs.


Sharing Photos

There are several excellent photo sharing services. These are "cloud" websites into which you load your photos. You control access to these photos and can permit sharing (if you desire) in several different ways.

The photo sharing sites are also a great place to store photos that you can use on web pages, such as those created with Google Sites. All you need to do is to create a link to a photo in your collection. The image is downloaded only when the page is requested. You don't have to download the images to Google Sites.

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