Michael Collins:

Something about the dedicated camera, the you know, you don't have to worry about notifications going off when you're shooting with your phone or, it's just looking through the viewfinder too, it's just, you can't beat that feeling

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome back to the beginner photography podcast brought to you by CloudSpot, the all in one solution for photographers to deliver and sell your photos online. Hey, we have another community spotlight interview coming at you today. This is my opportunity to interview you a member of the beginner photography podcast community. to learn more about you, your struggles and why you love this crazy thing that we do, photography. Now, today I am chatting with Michael Collins from the group. Michael is, he's very new to photography, but just by looking at his photos, I wouldn't have guessed as such. So we talked today about the process and struggles of learning photography while photographing wildlife, which is already difficult enough, even for the pros, there is some great insight here that I know you are going to love. And if you stick around towards the end of the episode, I end up sharing a few editing tips with Michael that hopefully you can use and, try out for yourself. And remember. If you want to be a part of the friendliest place on the internet for photographers to share photos, ask questions and grow their skills, well, come join us in the beginner photography podcast community by heading over to beginner photo pod. com forward slash group that link will take you right. So with that, let's go ahead and dive on into this interview with Michael Collins. Michael, I just want to know, who are you and what do you do?

Michael Collins:

Michael Collins and father of four. That's pretty much me.

Raymond Hatfield:

Nice and easy. I love it. Tell me how you got started in photography because you're relatively new, right?

Michael Collins:

Oh yeah. I've been five months of November, 2022. Actually I got, my son was 15 year old, made an interest in photography. So I picked up a DSLR for him, a little Canon 2000D and I got to playing with that and I was playing around with it, I'm like, man, this is pretty cool. So I started whittling it down to, okay, what, what would I want if I wanted a camera? So whittled that down and I got myself a Canon SL3 and now we're both going out and taking pictures and blast learning with each other.

Raymond Hatfield:

That is awesome. What was it about when you grabbed that a T7 and started shooting for yourself, what was it that made you think like, wow, this is really cool.

Michael Collins:

Something about the dedicated camera, the You know, you don't have to worry about notifications going off when you're shooting with your phone or, it's just looking through the viewfinder too, it's just, you can't beat that feeling.

Raymond Hatfield:

Had you shot, earlier, like, in your younger years while you were a child or anything like that? Or you're brand new to photography?

Michael Collins:

Oh, I had those little point and shoots and those little wind up film cameras, a couple Polaroids growing up, but never really an interest in it back then. Those little Sony, like, CyberShot.

Raymond Hatfield:

Sure.

Michael Collins:

Little 4x zoom Sony CyberShot. I actually used that for a while with my son. His, 2000D. Walked around doing, like, street photography with him with that. Like comparing images like I can't even see my screen, but I think it looks cool

Raymond Hatfield:

So when it came time to buy your own camera, I guess like what was your intention? Is it just to take better photos along with your son? Like what was it that Sony wasn't doing for you?

Michael Collins:

Oh Reach I wanted better reach wanted to get better better image quality for sure You And, shutter speed, honestly, I wanted to like freeze images in their place, you know, fast moving objects and stuff, that little Sony Shiber shot, you'd take a picture and something would move and it would just be streaked across, which it's a cool look if you're doing it intentionally, but I really wanted to just freeze like cars driving by and birds flying or like a leaf falling from a tree or something to like catch that as it's falling.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, you mentioned shutter speed there. tell me where you're at as far as, learning the tool of photography. cause I'm, am I right to assume that you're not just shooting, in automatic mode, but you're, you're taking more control of your camera?

Michael Collins:

Oh, I actually started Right out the gate and manual, you know, yeah, you hear everybody talking, when I was doing my research, you hear everybody talking about, Oh, you got to shoot manual. We, we all shoot manual, get creative with it and stuff. I'm going to figure this thing out. Right. So, you know, all that information out there, searching YouTube, looking up videos. And that's actually how I stumbled across your podcast and the Facebook community was this research and finding things out. And the exposure triangle is what I kept coming across. I was like, okay, cool. So, oh man, that was definitely an experience getting all the settings right and dialing it in. Like, click, click, that doesn't work. Get a bright white screen. Like, I'll crack what I do. Yeah, it's

Raymond Hatfield:

way too much light. Yeah.

Michael Collins:

Yeah, right. So, I'm learning like, dial it down, dial it down.

Raymond Hatfield:

So, how do you fix

Michael Collins:

that? A lot of it's, uh, Yeah. Like a lot of it's backwards. So I was like dropping the shutter speed, raising my ISO. And that didn't work out either. So, so I just found a nice, nice medium ground in there. I got the hang of the exposure triangle. And found out about TV mode and AV mode. I'm like, no way.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. This sounds much easier. Yeah. Then, then going full manual right away.

Michael Collins:

Yeah. All right. Full manual. I can like full manual was really cool. I did start it off like Castro photography.

Raymond Hatfield:

I

Michael Collins:

really, like really enjoyed doing that on my phone. And that was so cool. Getting those shots on my phone. Alone, I got the best 21 ultra. So that took some phenomenal pictures. So I'm doing with my camera, figuring that out. Cause pro mode settings are fairly similar, but I have way more control with my DSLR than I would my camera. Cause I think my mind was blown. Like I don't have all these settings on my phone.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, of course, of course. how long would you say that it took you from, finding out about manual mode and what it was to feeling, somewhat confident, that when you would go out and shoot, it wouldn't just be pure white or pure black.

Michael Collins:

Oh, I'd say that took me maybe a solid month shooting every day. And I'm dialing everything in and playing with it to understand like, okay, this does this, this does this. Okay, cool. Oh, I just got my, uh, like shutter speed, was one of my biggest things because I wanted to always like keep it low, right?

Raymond Hatfield:

I

Michael Collins:

wanted to keep the shutter speed a little low and I didn't understand like how fast I could go because it got real dark. And I was like, ah, I don't know how to compensate for that yet. And I was kind of nervous to adjust everything else. But a few people online, this other group, I was in actually. Make it a cool story and go off track, but no, they're shooting, shooting, uh, Uber's Hawk came flying by in my neighborhood. I was like, we're coming home. And the Uber's Hawk flies up in a tree. I'm like, so excited. Dialed all my settings in like real fast, real fast. I'm sporadic. I'm okay. Shot it a few times. It was like really, really bright background overcast day. And the front of the Hawk was just dark. And I'm like, I shared the image anyway. Uh, so nervous to do that, but I shared it anyway, this guy, real friendly guy on a different group I was in told me about exposure compensation is where my mind was blown again. I was like, Whoa, I can do that. So very next day I practiced with this little, little Thanos figure. I got, I put them up on my deck. Okay. I got low. I'm shooting up at the thing and I was like trying that exposure compensation dialed in my settings. Subject was standing still. So my shutter speed didn't have to be, so my aperture, I was, I was franking it. Right. I had the aperture, like F11, I think. And he would remember his comment. He's like, are you mad? I'm like, I mean, jury's out, bud. I shared that with my settings and he actually helped me through it. And he shared very useful, little graph that showed me my specific lens. Versus all the settings and what it does with the ranges. Like, man, that is so useful. So shooting that little Thanos figure, man, I dialed it in. Thanos was really, really nice and bright out front. Background was still kind of crappy because it was an overcast day, but. I left it there, and I kept my camera in the car, because at the time, you know, I had to re aim, taking the SD card out for whatever reason, memory card, didn't even have my lens on, but scrambled to get that to shoot the hawk the first time, but the very next day I saw the same hawk in a different tree, like, I get out of my car, I leave my door wide open. My car. It's just sitting there in the road.

Raymond Hatfield:

You're like, this is my doors wide open.

Michael Collins:

I'm creeping up, creeping up, doing the zigzag motion. So I don't start living, shooting it, shooting it, checking, shooting it, shooting it, checking like, Oh, this is amazing. This is amazing. One of my best shots, I was two months

Raymond Hatfield:

in,

Michael Collins:

two and a half months in, got that Cooper talk and man, incredible moment when I got that clear shot, the front was. Light was great.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, that always feels good. remember some of the first photos that I got that, wind shooting manual where you think to yourself like, Hey, wait a second. This isn't half bad. maybe I could actually do something with this. this is a really exciting moment. Like I'm in full control of this camera. but you said earlier, when you had started, you wanted to keep your shutter speed low. uh, But you didn't want to really adjust your other settings. or you said that you were nervous to adjust everything else. Why were you nervous to adjust your other settings?

Michael Collins:

I guess. So it makes me nervous.

Raymond Hatfield:

Why?

Michael Collins:

You get up, you get all that, that noise in the background. You can see it's kind of like, not very, not really, but, more like a grainy, maybe just, you can see it in the background and around your subject and I struggled with the ISO for a while, the aperture. I think I was, I was grasping. Cause, you know, I want to keep the end printer at like 5. 6 or. Like the low end of my lens, the 5. 6 to 7 was the sweet spot for that, that 55 to 50 shooting like wildlife.

Raymond Hatfield:

So you just wanted to stay within that range and then all of your other settings, you wanted to, Make so that you could then capture a photo. So you wanted to stick within the aperture range. You wanted to keep your ISO low. So then at that point, you're just riding the shutter speed dial to, to figure out how to get a, a usable photo. Is that it?

Michael Collins:

Yeah. Yeah. And then I, then I discovered auto ISO.

Raymond Hatfield:

Ah, okay.

Michael Collins:

So I was like, I can set that.

Raymond Hatfield:

Are you using that, quite a bit today?

Michael Collins:

Well, auto ISO. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Oh yeah, I pretty much stay in ot. ISO, I have it set to like a maximum of 1600 right now, and then I'll stay in TV mode if I'm gonna, if I'm doing converting I into now and the camera does a pretty good job at and TV mode at deciding what my aperture should be and selecting the ISO

Raymond Hatfield:

mm-hmm

Michael Collins:

that and the range that I selected for it. And then all I got to do is crank that shutter back and forth and doing pretty well.

Raymond Hatfield:

I see. But then

Michael Collins:

I still have the option to like flick it back to manual if I decide.

Raymond Hatfield:

And especially use a exposure compensation that always helps, for sure.

Michael Collins:

Very, very helpful. Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

So, when, You're out shooting, you're mostly shooting, wildlife, right? You go out and you photograph wildlife. what have been the challenges in that? And I guess, I guess, let me start before that. Did you have an interest in wildlife before getting the camera and photographing it?

Michael Collins:

So like I get birds out my window, my kitchen window, and I'm always really, always out in the woods. It's on the night, like take, taking hikes and whatever. So having cameras on us all the time, we can actually, Take pictures of what we see and share with family and friends and hey, look what we saw over this closely, deer, wild turkeys out in the woods.

Raymond Hatfield:

Gotcha. You know,

Michael Collins:

share our, totally share our experiences.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, it is a fun way to, uh, that's one thing that I love about photography is that it's a, uh, it's a shared experience. It can be, when you go out and shoot with somebody else. And I, I always find it so interesting, to, to see, because if you're both seeing the same thing, you can both walk away with like very different, photos. Do you find that with you and your son or do you guys keep it, pretty similar in your visual styles?

Michael Collins:

Oh, we're pretty different in our, our visual styles. I love the photos. My son takes and like his perspectives, like he loves moths, right? He'll photograph moths and like things I didn't even see, like a spilled bucket or there was a spilled bucket with like some rocks in it. And he just kicked up dirt inside and there's like grass around it. You got this so cool shot of that. It was underneath the deck. We were on like, I wouldn't even have gone down there and shoot it. It's so cool.

Raymond Hatfield:

That is awesome. you guys are shooting together, do you find that you guys will, uh, Like, is there any sort of like friendly competition or anything, or is it purely just like, let's just see, let's just see what we get.

Michael Collins:

Just pure, like, let's see what you get, let's see what I get, different perspectives, like, what did you see that I missed, and what did I see that you may have missed, like,

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Michael Collins:

We went out one time and, uh, we found a, uh, Warren Dunes. We were just shooting landscapes. Trying to get wildlife. It was kind of a gloomy day. Nothing was really happening. So we end up at a little creek. And just the way the water was running in the creek. And there's just that. To like went over a bridge, we're running there. he, I am shooting over some rocks and watching the water come over the rocks. And I'm shooting those freezing in place and kind of doing a long exposure, trying things out. And I look back and he is in that too, shooting towards me. Let's see one of the pictures of me sitting there doing my pictures. He just got such a cool shot of the water running off. They're just so crisp and I would have never thought to go. In that tube, he ended up putting his hand open on that, on that, uh, metal.

Raymond Hatfield:

It's worth a shot. Yeah. Whatever it takes to get the shot. Yeah. It's, a hundred percent worth it.

Michael Collins:

Water shots he got was so, just so pristine.

Raymond Hatfield:

Do you think that you would, be as into photography as you are if you didn't have your son to shoot with?

Michael Collins:

Don't think I would've picked up a camera. No.

Raymond Hatfield:

Well, let's assume that you did or, okay. do you find that when, you and your son go out to shoot, obviously you bring the camera, but say he can't is at school or, or something like that. Do you still feel like the drive or the the motivation to go out and shoot just for yourself?

Michael Collins:

Yeah, he'll be at school. My camera pretty much comes with me everywhere.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh,

Michael Collins:

okay. Like I'll charge my batteries at night and then just keep it in the car because I'll see vultures and flying everywhere.

Raymond Hatfield:

So when you say you take your camera with you everywhere, it's still with the intention of shooting wildlife or just all sorts of life?

Michael Collins:

Yeah, mostly wildlife. If I see something else that catches my eye, then of course it's with me, but Gotcha. The day on lunch, I went out to Warren Dunes and just kind of chilled out there, ate my lunch and walked down to the beach, shot some seagulls. I'm going to have a lot of fun flying over the lake, trying to set a landscape I can put onto the nuclear plants right down the road from right. Well, right down the lake, I guess, they're working on that, composition.

Raymond Hatfield:

What's been the trouble on,

Michael Collins:

on, what to put in the image and not, not to have it too cluttered, but, you know, have something interesting to shoot in there. Sometimes I'll want to have like a single tree in the middle, but then I shoot it and then I look at it and I can't even see the tree. Really.

Raymond Hatfield:

Why? Because, you know, is it because the background is, is so busy.

Michael Collins:

Yeah. Yeah. Like everything's still pretty dead right now. Nothing's bloom. Right. So I got these little stick trees and then he got the sand in the background from, from the dunes I'm shooting at. And then it just, The sand just takes over. I'm like, well, that's not a very good one.

Raymond Hatfield:

It didn't turn out well now, you know, next time that, that doesn't work. So you, at least you learned something, right? yeah, I love going out, as well, whether it's a state park or something, I know that I've been in situations where it's like, there's this beautiful tree that just like in the middle of this opening and you're like, that is so beautiful, like I want to capture this. But there's something lost in. Just having the, not having the stereoscopic vision like we have with our eyes, right? With just two eyes, but just the one lens. And there's, there's no depth perception when you only have, just a single lens that it just all is so flat together and stands, It just all blends in and you think to yourself, you're like, how did it look so good in front of me? But this photo is, like I'm just going to delete it. Like, it's not even worth like saving for, uh, for anything. So that's going to be something that, gotta figure out how to, what tricks you can come up with to, to make these things interesting and see them like, uh, like you see them in your head. so good luck with that because that's, like I said, that's going to be an ongoing thing, forever. when it comes to, um, photographing wildlife, I know having talked to a few people that like, one of the hardest things is, like, what am I trying to say here? Not, not finding them, but I guess, um, maybe going out with intention to, to find say a hawk or something. and then there's nothing out there. do you find yourself in that situation or is it more, I'm just going to go out and shoot and whatever's there like that. That's my subject today.

Michael Collins:

For sure, as a goal, I'm going out with just, I see something, and then you don't, and it's kind of, kind of discouraging cause I'm shooting all these common birds, like, ah, I just want to see something cool. And then we'll get an eagle, a bald eagle. I'm like, Oh, drop me to my knees. A A lot of it is learning the animals and learning their habitats, learning their characteristics and where they're going to be at what time and learning like where they are in my area. For sure. There's a few birding groups that are local to me that I learned a lot from. They have a list of places where they most commonly see. So I've been trying to hit those areas more in the morning time. Like sunrise and sunset the hour before, or sorry, the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. And I've only really had time to go out during the sunset or sunrise and in the morning time. And there's a, the park, a gleam park just down the road from me. And it's got this really tall lookout. Went out one morning, Saturday morning, went out there with the intention. I'm going to get a big bird, right? Cause I know there's like sand hill cranes and great blue herrings out there, man. I get out there, Oh, it's like 32 degrees. I'm shivering, dressed for the occasion, but man, it's cold. It's really crisp out on that balcony, the boardwalk, it's really high up. I'm sitting out there and a few ducks fly by. Cool, cool, cool. Got it. Then I look far, far, far left and I see a white head, black body. I'm like, no, no way. Zoom in on it. Yup, bald eagle sitting in this perch way too far away to even get a shot. Then, pan right, another bald eagle way, way too far away. But, the learning experience there, I know there's bald eagles.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right,

Michael Collins:

yeah. My favorite bird. Great. So I'm going to, that's notate that I'm going to frequent that area. And then there's a, another area out in another town, another town away in a band of golf course that just by chance, my son and I went out. He's looking for this bird that he keeps hearing. So we're a lot of it's identifying the sounds of the birds and where they're located. This bird, he was. He can appear in and here and here and here in the morning. So we hear the morning dove, we're after that, but then I see corner of my eye, black and white, just in the sky, streaked, like, there you look. Oh, no way! And that was the bald eagle. So, I'm like, I'm out. Shoot that way, check my settings. Man, that was my moment. I left my son behind, I got so excited.

Raymond Hatfield:

Are these the photos that you posted in the group the other day of the bald eagle?

Michael Collins:

yeah, yeah. That was the second second occurrence of that nest. So, the first one that I posted. Oh man, I was finding out that there are bald eagles at that location, and I had no intention of, you know, shooting my favorite bird out there. And, oh man, it dropped me to my knees. I was in tears, just firing away. I hope I got something. I know my settings are good, but d d d d d d d d. banger. Banger got the most incredible shot of it banking, but talk to a neighbor lady out there. She said, the nest has been out there for eight years.

Raymond Hatfield:

Wow. She's known about it and she just hasn't told you about it. That's a terrible neighbor. I want to know. after having taken those photos, that always feels like such a great moment. You're like, oh my gosh, I finally got it. I love this animal. It's such a cool photo. That's wonderful. The next step is how do you make that photo better? So like, are you actively planning on going back out, in different conditions or anything like that to try to get a new, and I guess for lack of a better term, a better shot?

Michael Collins:

Absolutely. Every, every, I started shooting, sorry, down. And there's these overcast, this gloomy kind of days and not a shoot. And these, these overcast scattered light conditions now, but I want those bright, sunshiny days where I don't have to like overcompensate my, my exposure. Right. But the bright, springtime green leaves. But the eagle perched in a tree or like have the background, my eagle, right? That's the shot.

Raymond Hatfield:

Ah, I see. That's

Michael Collins:

the shot I'm after next.

Raymond Hatfield:

Now you mentioned earlier, you go out either sunrise or, sunset. is that just for light? Like, cause it looks more interesting or is it something to do with animal activity?

Michael Collins:

Yeah, that's, well, the lighting. Like golden hour, right? the lighting and the hour after is where birds are the most active. Like it's when they get up, like feeding time and then dinner time for them, right? Trying to hustle and bustle like we do, right? Yeah. Trying to get there young and get fed and get to bed, I guess.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Wrap up the day. So for you, when it comes to wildlife, what elements. Do you look for it? Is it action or is it just more, uh, documentation of the animal? What do you look for when you're, when you're photographing birds? A

Michael Collins:

bit of both. Started just wanting those action shots, you know, I wanted to freeze those wings in place. That was a struggle for a minute, but the shutter speed I talked about, like, figure out how fast the shutter speed I had to get to freeze those wings in place. Nailed it. I can capture that now. And then I have stumbled across an app called Merlin.

Raymond Hatfield:

Merlin?

Michael Collins:

Tell me about this. Yeah, I can photo, I can photo ID a bird, take a picture and load it up into Merlin. And it'll tell me, Hey, is this your bird? What? The patient that you took in, is this your bird? Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like it and I can tag it and then document all my sightings. I've, I have identified, I think I'm up to 36 species of birds now.

Raymond Hatfield:

No way. That is so cool. is there a list of? All the birds in Michigan, like, are you on a mission to photograph them all?

Michael Collins:

Yeah, for sure. There's a discover. There's like 300 and I'm going to butcher this or 350 species.

Raymond Hatfield:

All right. So you're like 10 percent of

Michael Collins:

the way on that one, but there's a lot of species of birds. I'm on a mission to identify them all.

Raymond Hatfield:

I like it. I like it. I always find that, uh, having some sort of a project or mission like that, sometimes, after you've been doing it for a while, it kind of gets, uh, I think with anything after you, you do something for a while, it can lose a little bit of its luster, but every once in a while you'll come up with a, a project or an idea and you'll just get so excited to, uh, to work on it. And I would imagine 300, you know, 300 some odd, different species of animals that you want to capture. It's going to keep you busy for a while and, keep that drive going and definitely. What I think is so great about that is that I would be willing to bet that desire to capture all those birds is going to Just it's gonna be so cool to see your progress in Photography from like some of those first photos that you took to like when you capture say three three hundred and six number three hundred And sixty or whatever just to see your growth in photography is going to be so awesome So I want to challenge you to whenever you find a new bird Post it in the community because, I wanna keep track and, we're gonna do this together and we're gonna have a celebration when you hit 360 or whatever it is.'cause that is, uh, such a cool idea. So cool. So cool. do you already have a bird picked out that like, you want to be the last bird

Michael Collins:

we got? I already got my bird, the bald eagle of mine. Yeah,

Raymond Hatfield:

that's the next step. You gotta figure out what that bird is gonna be. what's the state bird of, Michigan? Do you know?

Michael Collins:

Oh, that's the robin.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, have you already photographed the robin?

Michael Collins:

Yeah, photographed tons of robins. Ah, alright. Like, the guy I follow, the uh, inspirational photographer, Simon d'Entremont, said on one of his latest videos, like get an uncommon picture of your common birds. When you don't, when you're at a loss for what to shoot, right, you're out there just shooting all these It's kind of daunting, right? And then take a picture of a uncommon. Something the bird is doing that's uncommon, like an uncommon photograph of the common bird. And immediately when he said that, it popped in my head. Oh, that dang Robin. So that's one of my missions is get an uncommon photo of all these Robin pictures I have, but I know where to find these. Oh, hopefully there's like playful. Hopefully it's something playful where it's like playing with another Robin flying in a weird manner, maybe fluffing itself up. I like the wing flap. when they're dusting themselves off, wing flaps. I I like those shots. I've gotten a lot of geese like that. Maybe I can get a Robin, like spread his wings all wide open, maybe freeze them in place. That'd be cool. I haven't seen one of those.

Raymond Hatfield:

That would be cool. Yeah. It might be interesting to, uh, I'm sure that all birds have some sort of similar patterns to try to capture like, similar photos of every type of bird, like the same sort of framing of, a bird in flight, you know, as a Robin, as you did with that bald eagle, and then at the end of it, try to like compile all these photos of birds together, just so many ideas for projects. This is so cool. Like I might get out there and start, start birding. Cause this sounds, like it's like, it's a never ending thing. Yeah. Yeah.

Michael Collins:

Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. I'd love to see what you get.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh man, it'd be terrible. Everything would be out of focus. How do you deal with that? Like, because if you just have like a completely, empty background, like these bald eagle photos, we'll keep going with those and, your photos are in the group so anybody can see them. The background complete, you know, overcast, whatever it was, there's nothing behind it. autofocus?

Michael Collins:

Oh, the autofocus is pretty good. I try to stay with maybe a, with my metering, I'm shooting with spot metering or center weighted and I found that center weighted actually does me more justice than like the spot metering as far as the exposure of the subject. The focus, I try to keep it dead center, dead center, that way I can just track it dead center. And a lot of times I have to focus way, then zoom in. To the, to my subject and then that I have a better opportunity to snap some pictures while I'm zooming. That doesn't always work.

Raymond Hatfield:

Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. I would imagine

Michael Collins:

sometimes you'll catch the motion of the zoom in there and then it, it creates this, yeah, travel, like that cool shot, but that's. that's not some stuff you like put out there.

Raymond Hatfield:

No, I like it. In fact, I want to see those. I want to see some of those photos. Yeah. I want to see some of those. Cause, I always find that so interesting. I love when people do that for stuff like, I don't know, Christmas lights and stuff, you know, it's a slow shutter. So they'll zoom in and out and it just creates these trails and this motion that, uh, is not, what you would expect and therefore I find, I find it interesting and I would imagine with very active birds that could add something to the shot. I don't know. I don't know. you got to

Michael Collins:

trash those, but Hey, next time you get one and I'll share it. I like

Raymond Hatfield:

it. I'm excited for that. Maybe

Michael Collins:

somebody else can get some inspiration on that one. Hey, you never know.

Raymond Hatfield:

I want to know a little bit more about, you know, you said that you found the podcast through just trying to learn about photography. but then at some point. You came into the group, less than, I believe just over a month ago. And like, since then you've been crazy active, posting tons of photos, lots of variety, commenting on people's, posts, sharing insight from when you go out and shoot, is that typically who you are as a person? Because it seems like you got in and you're like, this is my place. I feel safe here. I'm going to start posting tons of photos. When earlier you said that it was very scary to post that first photo.

Michael Collins:

Oh, man. Yeah, No, the, uh, some of the best things in life are just beyond our fear. Right. So, I gotta take that first step and just keep yourself out there, cross your fingers. Uh, let's see what happened, but everybody was so, everybody was so friendly, welcoming. Uh, yeah, I felt right at home and sharing everything. And, but yeah, that is, pretty much my personality. When you meet me in person, you won't get me to shut up. I can, I will talk your ear off if you'd let me, but I get kind of sporadic and off topic.

Raymond Hatfield:

That's all right. that's why I love podcasts is that, you're allowed to do that. You can do that. Yeah. are you a part of any other, photography groups online?

Michael Collins:

Oh yeah. I got too many others,

Raymond Hatfield:

too many others. Wow.

Michael Collins:

There's a Michigan birding group. I'm in that. Oh man. Some of these shots, these people take is incredible. Oh, the other exciting shot that I'm, I am after is one of the bird and prey that is capturing their food, capturing their meal, something in the talent. or something coming back to the tree with their food. That would be, that would be phenomenal. I see people with those pictures all the time and I'm like, man, so good.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right. I always think of, like, just thinking about bald eagles. just imagining the fish in the talons as they're, as they're flying away and how cool that would be to, uh, to photograph something like that. so that is, uh, that's it. You got to get that as well. I guess that would be an uncommon thing, right? For a bird, or at least to see, maybe it is a common thing for a bird. Well, I guess if a bird is big enough to get a fish, that would be pretty uncommon. Maybe I'm wrong there. I don't know enough about birds, right? But I guess I'm thinking of like, you know, chickadees and stuff. Like they're not catching fish. They're probably just getting like

Michael Collins:

worms. They're going after worms or nuts or berries or something. Okay. So then

Raymond Hatfield:

there you go. There's your uncommon thing is to get, uh, uh, okay, here it is. Here's your challenge. Here's your lifelong challenge is to get one bald eagle with two fish, one in each talon. That would be, I wonder if that's, if birds do that or if that's extremely common or if that's ever happened. but you got to find out. Yeah, I would think that that would be uncommon for two fish to be close enough together. Or for a bird to be like, no, this is a great spot. I'm going to keep coming back here. And, before I take this fish back to the nest, that'd be wild to see. Wild

Michael Collins:

would be wild. That would be the uncommon shot. Yeah. it would be an amazing experience though. Just be there. Can't bring that moment. Oh man. Yeah. Frozen. I

Raymond Hatfield:

think about like bears as well, like when they're in a stream and then the fish is like, you know, jumping, like how cool that would be to grab a shot like that and to be so close to a bear, like terrifying. But, yeah, I couldn't imagine. I would love, like, if anybody's listening and is wondering what to get me for my birthday, it is a photo expedition trip to Kodiak, Alaska, just to photograph bears. I think that would be one. The coolest, but also to the scariest thing I could ever imagine in my life. And, as you just said, what was it? It was, um, sometimes it's just, just beyond fear. What was the quote that you had?

Michael Collins:

some of the best things in life are just beyond your fear.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Yeah. See, I got to do it. Okay. I'm writing it down. I'm going to look into it more, more seriously. Now I've got to go to Kodiak, Alaska. Got to get that bear shot. Got to get that bear shot. what else was I going to ask? Oh, right. So when it comes to these, these Facebook groups, you mentioned the Michigan birding, group, and you said that you look at some of these photos and you're like, man, these are absolutely incredible. When you look at those photos, does that, Inspire you to be better or does it feel more discouraging inside?

Michael Collins:

No, it's absolutely, absolutely inspiring. cause I can look at it and be like, Oh man, they've been sitting there for however long just to wait for that moment. Alright, I need more patience. I need more patience. I will get trigger happy. Get out there and I'll just start shooting everything. Oh, and a lot of them go to specific locations. There's, I want to go. There's a, I cannot remember the name. I think it's Kensington Kensington four hours from me, but that would be so worth the trip. You go up there. It's a wildlife preserve park. There's acres upon acres of just.

Raymond Hatfield:

And you can bring the camera. It's too late. I can see why they get those shots. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Michael Collins:

Yeah. Oh wow. Just hit my hammock, hang out somewhere with my hammock and just let something pass me by

Raymond Hatfield:

in the hammock. That is not what I was expecting you to say. some sort of blind or something, but, uh, the hammock. That sounds much more fun, much more comfortable too. I like that . Roll

Michael Collins:

myself up like a cocoon. My hamming, and just point my lens at it. There's my blindness.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, that's funny. going back to the group thing, I want to know, having been, very recent in your photography journey, is there anything in the group that you learned or picked up that you thought, man, this is helpful, or I wish that I learned this, earlier.

Michael Collins:

Well, the exposure compensation that I could go both ways with it, you know, like under, under exposing as well. That one kind of scared me. The underexposed, but then I get those really dark images and I don't know how to process that. And it'll work in progress playroom with me.

Raymond Hatfield:

Why so, is it just trying to figure out what all the sliders do?

Michael Collins:

And how to, how to select different portions and use the gradients and the select subject, it'll do good 90 percent of the time.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh yeah. Cause you're photographing like animals. Yeah. I never thought about

Michael Collins:

that.

Raymond Hatfield:

It

Michael Collins:

does a pretty good job. Sometimes it'll do the sticks that it's sitting on at the same time and woodland.

Raymond Hatfield:

That's still pretty impressive. Well,

Michael Collins:

uh, if it

Raymond Hatfield:

makes you feel any better, like, 18 months ago, that wasn't even a thing. And you'd have to use the paintbrush to, to just paint in your subject. So that's a relatively new feature that has, uh, revolutionized, the way that I edit. cause sometimes, it's great to have your subject properly exposed, which is what you go for in camera, but having the background a little bit underexposed, to kind of bring your attention to the subject. Sometimes you can't always control that in camera, depending on whatever the background is. So just being able to select your subject. And then I click, invert mask. And then I just bring down the exposure half a stop or so. And I always find that that just brings a lot more, punch to an edit, because again, it just brings your attention to the subject. So try that out next time. But yeah. And with the masking, I don't know if you tried this as well, but sometimes. especially with brides and whatnot, it'll get, if I'm photographing them, like in, just out in nature, I guess, and the trees look as, as they do outside today, sometimes it'll think that, uh, the sticks of the trees are like the bride's hair or something like that. Um, which is always so frustrating. So, you can, adjust a mask. You can edit a mask, as well. And then, so, you would click, select subject and then let's say that it picks branches and stuff. Then you can, I believe, right click on the mask and then click edit mask. And then it'll give you an option, like, well, what do you want to edit? Do you want to use, like, a gradient or a brush? And then I use the brush to, which is, I use it as an eraser. To erase the, uh, the sticks that it chose with the subject. And then, it just gives you a better, focus on, or better, uh, not clarity, uh, why am I at a loss of words, but like, uh, it just gives you a better, masking, I guess, of just your subject so that you can edit it better. So, lots of tools to try out in Lightroom. Yeah,

Michael Collins:

it's,

Raymond Hatfield:

it's a ton fun. I

Michael Collins:

haven't used to the brushes yet at all, because I'm like, what does that even do? Oh man. Yeah,

Raymond Hatfield:

for sure. Like, let me see if I can. So I'm looking at some of the photos that you posted here, within the group. And yeah, I mean, I see, I see photos that you posted with birds on branches and stuff. or this one of like, looks like geese and ducks, landing in the water. There's this one photo of a, of a duck. It looks like it's landing, and it's, uh, it's bringing its wings, it's like flapping and whatnot. And right behind it is, just like the bank of the water. And I'd say that the colors, like, pretty closely match the duck. I would imagine if you used the select subject on that photo, It would also choose, it would either say, I'm sorry, we can't find a subject, or it would select a lot of the outer bank of that shot, which is right behind the duck. I would say, try it on that shot and then click the edit mask button and then try to use the brush as an eraser to just erase the bank. Just so that it's the, uh, the duck there. I don't know. Give it a shot. Let me know if that works or not. Exactly

Michael Collins:

the photo you're talking about too, yeah. Oh,

Raymond Hatfield:

good, good, good, good. Yeah, I find that, once you figure out kind of those, tweaks that you can make to the tools. It makes it a whole lot easier to achieve the edits that you're looking for. and it has always helped me to know the tool better in editing helps me shoot better as well, because now I know what I can get away with and what I can't get away with when I'm actually shooting. So, cause there are some things that just can't get away with. Like I said, like if, somebody is in front of, you know, Or in your case, you know, you're photographing a bird. You can't control how bright the sky is or how dark the sky is. so if you know that you can just mask. the animal and then you can change the brightness and even the color of the background. yeah, that just helps when you're out shooting. So I hope that was helpful. I hope you found that.

Michael Collins:

I wrote some of that down. Yeah. Oh, cool.

Raymond Hatfield:

Well, after you listen back to this podcast, hopefully it, uh, it refreshes your memory and you'll be able to get in there. That'd be great. We only got a few last minutes here, but I want to know, is there a standout episode of the podcast that you've listened to?

Michael Collins:

One of the latest ones I listened to, the, he was a wildlife photographer, had the giraffe photo.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, okay. well, yeah. Harry, Harry Skeggs.

Michael Collins:

Yes. Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

Have you, uh, checked out his, uh, his work? Any of his, photos?

Michael Collins:

Oh yeah. Right. Right. In the podcast. I went and followed him on Instagram.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh really? Oh, how cool. How cool.

Michael Collins:

Wow. How cool. Cool shots of his black and white. Oh man. I know. Oh, how he says, uh, good. You can, what do you say? A good, you can tell a good photo. And it's still a good photo.

Raymond Hatfield:

And

Michael Collins:

it still works. Like wow, that's how it turns someone's mind black and white.

Raymond Hatfield:

Well, again, within black and white, you can still edit the image. it's not like, it's black and white and it's done. So, yeah, no. I get it though. that is good. That was a really good, episode and he is just such an interesting guy and to be able to do, what he does is, just so cool to be able to talk to him. It was enjoyable. I'm glad that, that you found that one helpful. I know that listeners can find you in the group, right? you're posting, quite often, outside of that, is there anywhere else where we can see some of your photos?

Michael Collins:

You can find me on Instagram, michaellc. com, where I post all my pictures.

Raymond Hatfield:

Michael, before I let you go, I just wanted to say that, uh, community is, is only as good as its, weakest member, and, uh, for you to come in and not only take such a, uh, interest in photography, but, uh, to share your journey publicly, right, in the group, and, uh, ask questions, show that you're curious, but also, have conversations with others is really what a community is all about. So I just wanted to say thank you for being a part of the community. And, just being as active as you are, because it's not only helping you, I'm sure on your journey, but it's helping others as well. So thank you. Remember, This community spotlight series is all about you and the support of beginner photography podcast community. So if you would like to be a part of the supportive group, we would love to have you. You can find the direct link to the group in the show notes of this episode, or by heading over to beginner photopod. com forward slash group. Thank you so much for listening. And remember the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be. Tomorrow. Talk soon.

Outro:

Thank you for listening to the Beginner Photography Podcast. If you enjoy the show, consider leaving a review in iTunes. Keep shooting, and we'll see you next week.