Show Tomorrow!

Art in the Park is tomorrow (8/21)! From 10am to 6pm, come support local artists at Gilbraham park in West Cape May.

Memorize your camera's buttons and dials

If you can change your shutter speed, aperture, ISO, Exp. Comp., turn off/on or change auto focus points with out looking at the camera you will use these functions more often and your images will start to become more creative, If you are into that kinda thing. This will let you concentrate on your composition, not make you constantly take the camera off your face after you frame your shot.

Charitable Giving

5% of all my income from photography goes to Kiva, an organization that gives loans to needy individuals worldwide. Instead of giving aid that does not need to be repaid, Kiva lends to entrepreneurs through microfinance institutions who then disburse loans through field partners on the ground. The borrower is expected to repay these loans creating a sense of empowerment in the borrower. When repaid, the money can then be reinvested in another needy person or Kiva itself.

I like Kiva because instead of just giving out money, people must work to repay their loans which I think fosters efficiency and self sustaining business practices in the borrowers.

http://www.kiva.org/

Compact Flash Fix

Have a compact camera at a party? Tape a piece or two of tissue paper to the flash for (almost) professional looking images with soft light, no more super dark shadows behind people. Be sure to expose a little more because your camera will think the scene will get a full flash but it will only get maybe half.

ISO Settings

Have a 5DMK2? (also true with some other Canon DSLRs, like the 30D for one) An ISO setting of 160 has less noise than ISO 100. The difference between the two is very small and not very noticeable, but it is something to think about. ISO 640 has less noise than ISO 100 also. Only until ISO 1600 do you get a noticeable uptick in noise. So for most printing purposes, ISO 1250 and below is your best bet. This has been stumbled upon by more than a few people, one being here.

Space

Looking for inspiration? Or maybe just like looking at cool images? Just look up- APOD / Astronomy Picture of the Day. Cool images of nebulas, galaxies and other cool things in intergalactic space updated daily. Looking at them always makes me want to go out and get a telescope, maybe one day I will.

New Home Page

The new homepage is up! Now whenever you log into mikesperlak.com you can click on the "home" tab and get updates on upcoming shows, discounts on art, and interesting tidbits on photography and life. Check back often as it will be updated constantly!

Upcoming Shows

A few of my upcoming events:


Cape May County Art League 28th Annual Fine Art Show
Washington Street Mall
9/25 - 9/26


Stone Harbor Art and Music Festival
96th Street
10/10 - 10/11