This month's spotlight is on our very own Dia Brodner. Dia always shares such creative and joyful images, so picking her for full sun was a no brainer. Read below to learn more about her photographic journey.
I have always loved taking photos since the film days! Then my parents gifted me with a Sony Cybershot point. I had a 16mb card and an extra 128mb card for it. That gave me more than the 24 or 32 shots on a film camera with the option of deleting photos if I needed to! What a contrast to the sizes of photos even phone cameras produce now!
I continued with various point and shoots until my second child was born when I discovered my love for seeing catch lights in my children’s eyes.
A friend let me borrow his Sony SLT A65V with a 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 zoom lens. I borrowed that on and off shooting in auto for a few years and was happy. But it did not do well in low light, especially in auto mode. So my pursuit for better photos in low light began.
First I found Click Love Grow at the end of 2018 and did their best taking better photos of your kids 5 day challenge. I left auto mode after that challenge. I found A Year With Your Camera and spent some more time understanding a little more about the exposure triangle. I continued to use the Sony SLT and an iPhone SE for these projects. For a while I was convinced I needed to repaint my walls, change my floors, open all the windows and turn on all the lights just to eliminate motion blur.
It took a while to wrap my head around the exposure triangle and how cameras see light. It wasn’t until I found p52_clicks during the low light month in 2019 that it started to click.
I didn’t fully participate in the p52_clicks project that year as I still didn’t have my own camera. Near the end of 2019 I finally decided on a Sony a7iii with a 35 mm f1.8 after so much advice from the CLG and P52 communities.
Then in 2020 I completed the p52_clicks project. I still didn’t have a laptop that could read RAW files at that point so I used Lightroom mobile to process all my photos. I learned so much that year and thoroughly enjoyed the monthly themes.
Just a few days before 2021 began I decided to go ahead and attempt the Year in Life 365 challenge with Kristen Ryan & Hello Storyteller along with the p5_clicks project.
As this year has progressed, new goals have emerged including learning how to edit on an actual laptop (and not just Lightroom mobile), finding my way through the Affinity Photo Editing software, working on my skin tones, and discovering my photographic voice.
Phew, that was more than a little bit! Thanks for reading my novel!
Tell us a bit about your style.
I still struggle with this question as I enjoy experimenting with different styles and genres. What I do know is that I enjoy lots of contrast whether in colour or black and white. I gravitate towards vibrant colours in situations with lots of light like full sun, and I love deeper and richer tones in lower light.
What gear do you use?
I shoot on a Sony a7iii. I also use my iPhone XR and the Lightroom camera app so I can shoot in RAW when we are out adventuring.
What’s your go to lens and why?
I only have the Sony 35 mm f1.8 so all my shots are with that lens when I am shooting on my Sony. But during the summer I also use my iPhone XR a lot. I use the back camera predominantly on that camera which has a 4.25mm f1.8 lens (the front camera is a 2.87mm f2.2 lens).
Who and what inspires you?
Moments inspire me! Whether they are moments that just happen or moments that I facilitate. I love when I happen to find my kids doing random stuff and I just hope I don’t miss the moment running for my camera. I love making buckets of bubble solution for them, setting up different crafts and just documenting their play, our days and our memories.
This community inspires me so much too! Whether it be in the Facebook groups or in the instagram loops, my photographic journey has been filled with trying out the different shots or even activities that I’ve seen posted in these groups. Trying these different shots have taught me so much about the technical aspects of photography whether it be creative use of shutter speed or interesting composition.
What tips do you have for shooting for FULL SUN?
Find shade for portraits if you must take a portrait during full sun. Full sun gives harsh shadows, so if you want nice even light for portraits, you will need shade. Trees, buildings, fences, umbrellas, blankets, or even taller people all serve as shade. Trees will give dappled light so look on the ground to find the darkest shadows cast by the leaves. Place your subject there and adjust them until there are no more hot spots on their face.
Embrace the shadows and dappled light. I love a good shadow photo and full sun is an awesome time for shadow play and playing with dappled light.
Faceless photos are a great option! My kids are always running ahead and I’m always at the back with stragglers or slower walkers so I often photograph my children from behind. This way I can just let them do their own thing and I can focus on framing them in their environment.
Photograph all the details!
Full sun and movement go beautifully together! Usually even an ISO of 100 is still too bright for my preferred aperture value so I compensate by increasing shutter speed. So it is a perfect time to capture fast movement! It is fantastic for fast moving children and all their summer play like biking, bubbles, swinging, water balloons or pretty much anything kids do.
Protect your gear! Extreme and sudden changes in temperature from a nice cool air conditioned car to somewhere hot can cause condensation in your gear. Keep your camera shaded as much as possible when not in use. Those little desiccant packs you find in new shoes and purses along with a sealed plastic bag can help protect from condensation (both in extreme temperatures in the summer and winter time). Sometimes you may need your gear to get used to ambient temperature sealed in those bags before use.
A resealable plastic bag is also useful for water photos like sprinklers or water balloons.
Phone cameras work well when there’s lots of light! You can shoot RAW files in third party camera apps. I use Lightroom mobile’s camera (free!). The Lightroom mobile camera allows for shutter speed and ISO control. You can also shoot in auto and adjust the exposure compensation to protect your highlights. Then you can either process the photos right in the app (with reduced quality output that is still acceptable for social media posts) or export it to your computer for processing.
If you have sunglasses on or tinted glasses like me, pay close attention to your in camera histogram/light meter or turn on your zebra lines (highlight warnings). I’ve blown many photos before I remembered I was wearing tinted glasses. Good thing I shoot in RAW!
This one is an example of when I’ve forgotten I was wearing sunglasses. I shot this on an iPhone XR on the Lightroom camera at 1/1250 f1.8 ISO 25. It was super bright but since I had sunglasses on it looked ok on the screen.
The unprocessed photo for comparison.
What full sun image are you most proud of &/or love the most and why?
My current full sun favourite is this one shot on my iPhone XR. I love it because I’ve gotten so used to shooting on the Sony over the winter that it’s taking some practice to shoot on an iPhone again. This was one of my first photos this summer on my iPhone. I’m a firm believer in “the best camera is the camera in your hand”. In the right situations, iPhones and other non-DSLR/mirrorless cameras have great potential! There are not too many settings to fiddle with on an iPhone so I focus on composition. For example, I had to place my iPhone inches from the ground for this shot (all squatting muscles engaged - maybe the real reason why I’m so proud of this one). So much of life happens in difficult lighting and when we don’t have our fancy cameras. So don’t shy away from shooting in full sun or using whatever camera you have in hand!