Picture Methods Podcast 2020 Episode 4

Thanks for joining me on the flagship podcast of the PictureMethods blog where we deliver free insights and inspiration for photographers. The show drops on the first Friday of each month.

This month, due to the virus, I am going to completely break format and have a show dedicated to helping you find things to try photographing around your house. My guest for the whole show is Rick Sammon. We’re going to our best to inspire you and entertain you and inform you. Hopefully you’ll find something in our casual discussion that you can use. This show was totally unscripted. We just went for it and I hope you like it.

Should You Use Mechanical or Electronic Shutter?

If you need super fast frame rates, modern cameras from companies like Olympus can shoot at up to 60 frames per second in electronic shutter mode, so in that case, electronic shutter is probably appropriate.

If you need to photograph super fast motion, like airplanes flying by or animals or birds on the move, then you may want to stick with mechanical shutter. Electronic shutter doesn’t always work well with moving objects because of a concept called “rolling shutter.”

Magnus REX VT-6000 2-Stage Video Tripod – First Look

I looked into tripods and heads from all the big names like Miller, O’Connor, Sachtler and Acebill. Talk about sticker shock… there are dozens of models to choose from in the $5000 to $19000 price range! That’s more than I want to spend. So I looked at the next tier. Manfrotto and Benro are big players in the under $5000 video tripod segment. They make nice stuff.

But since video is not my main thing, that’s still more than I wanted to spend. Then I found out about the Magnus REX VT-6000 2-Stage Video Tripod with Fluid Head. 

Maximize Downtime – Improve Your Photography’s Online Discoverability

With all of us having some spare time on our hands thanks to the Coronavirus, now’s a great time to do some of the busywork that always seems to fall through the cracks when we’re operating at normal speed.

One place where I am terribly deficient and terribly lazy is paying attention to things like SEO on my website and more specifically, taking the necessary steps to make sure my images are discoverable by search engines like Google.

Buy Good Photo Filters – And See What I Use

Sometimes, it’s just fine to buy the less expensive option when you’re purchasing photo gear. Even though I can afford pretty much anything I want, I always default to bargains and good value.

When it comes to filters for your camera lens, I rarely think going cheap is a good idea. People spend thousands of dollars on a lens that they have saved up for only to cover it with a cheap, plastic, filter.