Over the years I’ve come to the realization that no singular type of informational source is fully acceptable. As people we have five physical senses and being such, we relate better with multiple formats of learning.

For learning photography there isn’t one “perfect” site to stick with. Each decent site has its strengths, but each of these sites also miss some important topics. There are several sites for learning great general photography techniques, digital photography techniques and post-processing techniques. Many times the general photography and digital photography techniques overlap.

The most important concept, and sometimes the most difficult, for a beginner to grasp is that of exposure. Painters, like most artists, are trained to notice light and shadow. Most paintings compress the dynamic range to allow the viewer to enjoy all aspects of the painting in a similar way that our eyes and brain process images. Photographers, however, need to look at light differently because of the constraints of their primary tool. Cameras see light differently, so when taking a photograph think about lighting like a camera. The most important thing you could learn is how aperture, shutter speed and ISO Sensitivity work together in creating all exposure.

Books:
Scott Kelby’s   Digital Photography
Bryan Peterson’s   Understanding Exposure
National Geographic’s   Photography Field Guide
Bryan Patterson’s   Learning To See Creatively
Bryan Peterson’s   Beyond Portraiture
Brenda Tharp’s   Creative Nature Outdoor Photography

Websites:
Digital Photography School was founded by Darren Rowse. While not much more than a photography hobbyist, he has done an excellent job of collecting ideas and getting guest writers to produce great articles on photography.

Popular photography magazine has a more professional team that still covers the basics. I particularly enjoy their “how-to” section for ideas that range the entire gamut of the digital photography experience.

a href=”http://photo.net”>Photo.net is an interactive learning site with many fantastic articles on learning general photography. This site was founded before digital photography became mainstream so most of its content is geared around general photography. You’ll notice the “Post-Exposure” section is only a small part of their list of tutorials. Here are the main articles I would recommend from this site:

1. Then there are a few online books and articles at Photo.Net. This is the place I got started on since there were no other resources on the internet at that time, but it has some really key articles that every photographer should read.
   1. http://photo.net/learn/making-photographs/
      1. http://photo.net/learn/making-photographs/light
      2. http://photo.net/learn/making-photographs/lens
      3. http://photo.net/learn/making-photographs/exposure
   2. http://photo.net/equipment/tripods/philg
   3. http://photo.net/equipment/tripods/

Those last two links from the photo.net site about tripods are pretty important. It turns out that if you want to do really good professional photography, even in fast lighting, a tripod can greatly improve the results. This is especially true for landscape photography. Of course, with wedding and on-site portrait photography you’re usually very limited to when you can use a tripod, which is when that first article on flash photography techniques (below) becomes excruciatingly important.

Podcasts:
Do you have iTunes? There are some amazing video podcasts for photographers!
Scott Kelby’s Photoshop User TV
Scott Kelby’s D-Town TV (Usually Nikon gear specific)
Ted Forbe’s The Art of Photography

There are other photography podcasts that are really good, but don’t have video – just search for “Learn Photography” or “Photography” in the iTunes search bar then click on the Podcast Section’s “See All” link.

Blogs:
There are blogs that are written by professionals that have amazing information. Below are some of my favorites articles:

1. Flash Photography Techniques from Niel Van Niekerk – http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/ – Absolutely the best article on flash photography, period. He now sells a book, but still provides the material free on his site.
2. When buying new equipment I check two sites: Digital Photography Review (http://dpreview.com) and Ken Rockwell (http://www.kenrockwell.com/). Ken Rockwell is very upfront and honest about equipment and talks about certain aspects that others miss. He has a good primer and reminder called “Your Equipment Doesn’t Matter” (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm) and an overview (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/aboutrvw.htm) that reminds us that spending big dollars on equipment does not make us any better than well trained eye. Apparently some of the best pictures have been made with really bad equipment (including the really poor camera on the original iPhone).

Personal Experience:
about photography:
Take pictures often. Keep a digital camera at hand always, even if it’s just a cheap point and shoot that you picked up at the Target clearance shelf for $25. After you take pictures, look at them critically and if you have time and it’s possible (some photographic moments are fleeting) return to the site with your nice DSLR for an actual shoot. Look at your EXIF information. This is a photographer journalist’s dream come true! I used to record the f-stop (aperture), shutter speed and ISO along with the subject and shot # on a sheet of paper. That was a pain and took some joy out of the moment, but it’s still just as important. The difference is that nearly all digital cameras record that information for you – even the point and shoots. Now you can look at dozens of technical aspects of the photo from free software to learn from it. I think iPhoto has that ability, but it has been a while since I’ve played around with it. I use EXIF Viewer from opanda software for the PC and as a FireFox extension. Simple EXIF viewer for the Macintosh should be identical to the PC version just mentioned.

about flashes:
I read somewhere that it was better to have multiple SB-600s for the same price as one SB-900. The reasoning behind this is that with the right camera, the SB-600’s become multiple slave sources of light allowing for more control than the single SB-900. What I’ve learned is the type of lighting system you use is really dependent on the type of photography you’ll be doing – e.g. studio photography has more controlled lighting so less featured lights work well while on-site photography has less controlled lighting so flashes with more features and power become desirable and in landscape photography the flash is rarely ever used. Before investing in an expensive lighting system look at renaissance lighting techniques that utilize natural light with a great wow factor: Google “Chairoscuro lighting technique”. You should also use the natural window light technique. My most favorited photo by visitors on Flickr was done through natural window lighting (from a north-facing window).

about tripods:
In a couple of words: Garage Sales. When garage sale season comes up, I look for two things: photo props (e.g. chairs, hats, etc) and tripods. Stick with the following names: Gitzo, Manfrotto, Slik, Sunpak in that order. Gitzo will be the most expensive while Sunpak the least. Also, ball-heads are better than tilt-heads. Finally, you’ll want a tripod with a quick camera release of some sort. Usually it’s in the form of a foot that you screw to the bottom of the camera. Before I knew much about tripods, I was able to get a Gitzo tripod at a garage sale for around $20. I thought it was expensive at the time, but it was very sturdy so I bought it. Turns out to be an $400 tripod. It’s as heavy as a sack of bricks but in the windy mountains it sits very solid, which is critical. My other tripod is a light-weight “cheap” Sunpak. It’s okay for quick indoor shoots, but wobbles when anyone walks past it.

about purchasing camera accessories:
Since I like to trek off the beaten path, and got tired of having hard knobs and metal banging against my back spine, I got an inexpensive tennis racket bag from Salvation Army to carry the tripod in. In other words, since good tripods and tripod accessories are so expensive and cheap tripods and accessories are so plentiful, keep an eye open for the good ones at garage sales, flea markets and pawn shops and compromise when it makes sense. A benefit of getting beaten up, tattered and torn camera bags from these places is thieves overlook them for the snazzy new $100 looking bags that other tourists carry. If you noticed, the camera bag I looked at in the store didn’t look like a typical camera bag. The only accessories that most photographers don’t skimp on, and are very picky with are the lenses. Lenses range from $100 to $2000+. I have purchased some good used lenses, but only after really scrutinizing them through my camera body and taking a few test shots with them first.

about post-processing (sometimes called post-exposure):
Post-processing usually involves Photoshop, but can often be done with an equal quality with Gimp, a free open-source version. A new license of Photoshop usually runs around $600, though it can be had for as low as $200 on special occasions (as an upgrade path). Be very wary of eBay. I bought a copy of Photoshop from someone there and it ended up being pirated. Pirated versions have TEMPORARY license keys. After a couple of days your “bargain” $200 purchase of the $600 license will be rendered useless. I knew enough about Adobe products to pin the guy down the hour I received it. He quickly refunded my money in fear of being reported to the authorities. So caveat emptor. Gimp is free and, though the menus and hot-keys are different, the main functionality that you need for photo touch-ups are there. The most powerful are your layers, masks, Hue-Saturation-Brightness, Levels and Curves. 90% of all my post-ops involve only the last three while 9% of the rest only involve the full five. That last 1% is for special filter, convergence, and alignment functions. Another growing-popular choice for photographers is a workflow processing program called “Light Room”. This one normally runs $200, but could go as low as $100 on special occasions. Again, eBay can be a great place to get this, but “buyer beware” still applies. Light Room is also from Adobe and utilizes the same temporary license key technique that disables your software if its server discovers it to be pirated. For the past few years companies have been writing software that not only automatically updates the program when new bugfixes come out, but also reports to the server the license keys to determine if its legit or not.

Get Plugged-In:
Once you know the rules you’ll know when to break them and have the power of knowledge to deliberately do so. Even so, you need to be around others who are also familiar with these rules to give good direction and advice. Also there will be times when you get the equivalent of “writers block” and will need a push or an inspired idea to get rolling again.

You should get plugged into a social network photography site such as Flickr. From there you can join groups that will inspire, broaden and even critique your photography. At the very least, it allows a quick way for you to share your photos with friends and family. My wife likes to use the i heart faces social photography site.

And if you use someone else’s idea, or if a picture you see posted on the internet inspired you to take a few shots be sure to mention it. It’s okay to pull someone else’s hat trick as long as they get credit for the idea.

Finally – have fun. Enjoy it. If it becomes laborious you’ll resent it.
Catch me on Flickr

What I didn’t like about Stevie Ray’s soft fish tacos:

1. Too spicy hot. My taste buds were so preoccupied fighting the chili burns that it couldn’t taste anything else. I tried to tone down the flavor with sour cream and salad but the salad seemed permeated by the same spice only hotter!

2. Fish strips were too short – almost like curds. They either piled up or flopped out of the taco. You remember the school cafeteria progression? Steaks on Monday, Hamburger on Tuesday, spaghetti and Meatballs on Wednesday, mystery meatloaf on Thursday, etc… I felt like it was Wednesday and some other customer who got there before me had the full fillet.

3. Too wet. The corn tortillas were soggy and messy. This also made the corn tortillas droopy, putting more pressure on the dry structure and causing them to split more.

4. Soft corn tortillas weren’t softened. Whatever parts weren’t dripping in soggy mess were splitting apart, as mentioned earlier.

5. Condiments were old. The guacamole was brownish green and the sour cream was coagulated.

6. Sides did not compliment the meal. The “coleslaw” seemed to have been soaked in the cayenne pepper which meant that trying to cool your tongue by eating the only side you had to the meal made the experience even more painful.

7. With the old condiments, lack of original sides and geometrically placed tacos sagging around the sides of the platter, the dish appeared as appetizing as fast food. I already had an ill conceived idea of what dinner experience my mouth would suffer in the next half hour.

Thoughts on solutions:
1. Use a milder Creole spice rather than the spicy Cajun variety.

2. Use more butter than before to keep the fillets from breaking apart while cooking and cut the fish fillets into longer strips AFTER they’ve been pan fried with a very sharp knife. If cut prior to frying, coat them in an egg-white spice mix to hold the structure of the flesh and lock in the flavor.

3. Dry on one platter, wet on another. Even if the wet platter is a bowl in the center – keep the wet away from the dry. And drain the oil off the fish before sticking them in the corn tortillas. Add well drained – very well drained – ingredients to the taco like slightly under ripe tomatoes and black beans. These add flavor without the squish.

4. Press corn tortillas in very hot steam to soften them. Try sprinkling a little cheese all over a slightly moist corn tortilla (this will add structure) then super heat it in a dry pan. That will make it pliable. Also offer a flour tortilla option.

5. Repeat after me … fresher is better. That aside – guacamole turns brown in about half an hour after it’s been exposed to air. Lime or lemon juice help deter the oxidation process. Only make guacamole on an as need basis. Don’t make a bowl of it at 10 AM to scoop out at 5 PM. Yuck! To keep sour cream from coagulating, use a fattier option and mix with a little bit of whole milk. Also – plain sour cream? Be more original. Use plain white yogurt or sour cream infused with sun-dried tomatoes. That tang will give a twist that will make conversation.

6. There’s got to be something more original or flavorful than chopped white lettuce soaked in cayenne pepper. Rice. Rice and fish go great together. So does polenta. Try a little gumbo on the side. These make interesting sides that compliment the dish, not detract from it.

7. Take a plating course. Look at foodie blogs to see how plates are arranged. Don’t place in symmetrical patterns flat across the plate, but use some level of vertical direction. Add a sliced and twisted orange with a sprig of cilantro over the top to add zest and appeal.

That’s it.

I enjoy restaurants that make effort in providing healthy and natural dishes. Stevie Ray’s Eastside Grill is one of the few mainstream restaurants that put forth this effort.

It’s “mainstream” because it’s not another Adams Mountain Cafe, Dale Street Cafe, Gertrudes or Olive Branch. In other words, it doesn’t appear to cater specifically to health nuts. You can order fish and chips or burgers like most other American food restaurants, but it’s not some disgusting MSG laden chain like Applebees, Red Robin, TGIF or others similar. Even my son who has an arsenal of food allergies can eat the burgers from the kids menu.

The restaurant is very family oriented with old classic cartoons beaming from television sets around the dining hall to the model trains that circle above your head. It also has a classy feel, which is unusual for family restaurants and gives this eating locale a character and charm of its own.

Instead of bringing out the typical complimentary oily GMO chips and salsa or fatty flavored fries, it’s a plate full of crunchy carrot sticks with dressing to dip them in. When you order regular fries, it’s potato strings, oil and salt. You can ask for healthy options when ordering and the waitresses and waiters are quick with their answers which I take as a queue that they are asked these questions often and the restaurant is becoming more known in the circles of natural food eaters as an enjoyable outing.

They offer an interesting burger that most people might first wince at. Imagine a bacon burger with peanut butter instead of ketchup. Don’t laugh. Think about oriental food – Chiang Mai steaks, or Szechuan Beef – and you’ll recall the combination of nutty and meaty timbre throughout the meal. The burger seems to be one of the local favorites because of its unique yet pleasing flavor.

I had the fish tacos, which was probably one of the lesser items on the menu. Even the side condiments were sad in appearance and texture. The owner of the restaurant seems attentive and desirous of his customer’s comments but was busy waiting on tables so I left a comment on their cards for him to get to later. I was thinking today of what could have made the fish tacos great and thought up some points on how to improve them. That’s what the next blog will be about.

For now, do better than me and if you order something that you don’t like, tell the waitress or waiter and have it fixed. These are not the type of chefs that would spit in your food like those who work in other places (especially chain or snobbish restaurants – and there are plenty of horror stories out there that are too disgusting to mention). These are chefs and employees who work closely with the cheerful owner who takes humble honor in running his business.

I give it four and a half out of six forks.