The Power is in Your Hands: Lighting and How it Works Inside Your Camera

If you're going to understand anything about photography, you should first understand how your camera works because a photograph is nothing more than burning light onto something. Inside every camera is a light sensor (obviously, some are bigger and better than others) and that light sensor is exposed to light every time you click the button on your camera. When you click that button, three things happen.

First, a little mirror inside you camera which allows you to see out of the viewfinder flips up and exposes the sensor (that's why you can't see anything while the shutter is opened after you click the button--because the mirror has flipped up).

Second, light enters your camera through the glass at the end of your lens and travels down the tube to the sensor.

Three, the sensor gathers the light and all the information about how the light was received and records it as data on your memory card.

Film cameras were a lot easier to understand because the light literally burned an image onto film based on how much light radiated or reflected off whatever object you focused on. But that's another subject for another time!

So, you're probably wondering why all photos don't come out looking like one big white nothing from all the light. That's because we control the light using three things: aperture (also known as your F-Stop), ISO and shutter speed. I'm not going to go too far into what those things mean because a basic understanding is really all you need.

You aperture determines the size of the hole at the end of your lens when you push the button and let light in. The bigger the whole, the more light. The smaller the whole, less light. Obviously, if you're in a dark restaurant, you would want a bigger hole and if you really were in a snow storm, you would want a smaller whole.

To illustrate the sizes of your lens opening.

The ISO refers to the light sensitivity of your film or in the case of digital photography, your sensor. Higher ISOs equal more sensitivity which will bring out a bit more detail in your photos if shooting in a dark setting, but it will also add a lot of grain or noise (little specks all over your photos when you look at them closely). Lower ISOs equal less sensitivity which means your photo will be darker which is useful if your shutter is open for a long time to create a blur such as in the case of waterfall photos.

ISO 200. Photo by K. W. Sanders

ISO 1000. Photo by jdebner.

The shutter determines how long that hole stays open. (That little button we've been talking about, the one that takes the picture? That's the shutter button.) You can set the shutter for short periods if you want to capture a moving object and make it still such as someone running. You can also adjust the shutter for longer periods if you want to capture the movement of something like the light trail of a car.

4 Second shutter. Taken by me.

1/40 Second shutter. Taken by me.

For most people and for most of the time, the auto focus function will do everything you need. But one day, it won't do enough and you'll want to try something cool that someone else did. I learned by trying to emulate other people and so will you! Don't get overwhelmed by the technical stuff--let it come naturally.

Lighting is such a big topic in photography that I couldn't possible cover it all in one post. So I've only talked about how it works inside your camera and what you can do to control it with your tool, but lighting outside your camera is important too and I'll be writing about that in my next post.

As I was saying...

Okay, I'm going to get back to what I was saying before the giant cockroach attacked me.

Korea
I think it's fairly obvious and well known now that I haven't been the happiest camper here in Australia. Heat + No Friends + No Possessions + No Family + COCKROACHES + Expenses + No Suitable Job = Misery. Jeremy isn't quite the happiest camper either so a couple months ago we started giving some pretty serious thought to going back to Korea and we started looking for jobs. We eventually found one too but the start date wasn't until late May which meant we would have to hang around here for at least a month after my Working Holiday visa expired (which really isn't such a good option for me). Anyway, to make a long story short, we found out a few things (which I shall not disclose in such a public forum) and ultimately decided that we wouldn't be going afterall which makes me a little bit sad.

I really miss Korea. I miss the ajumas with 50 lb kids on their backs. I miss friendly kids who like to have their pictures taken. I miss students who make me laugh. I miss the delicious food and I miss the cheap accomodation. I miss traveling and I miss having friends. And I miss meeting random people who instantly become your friends! Actually, I miss all things random. I miss being surprised by life. Sydney, to me, seems like such a gaurded place... Life was simpler in Korea and I really wish I could have that back.

But for the forseeable future, we'll be remaining in Sydney. Seriously, I welcome visitors. Please. Visit me.

Visas
And on that topic, since we aren't going to Korea and will be staying in here instead, we submitted our partner visa application on Wednesday! I can't believe it has taken us so long to get all of that information together! Wow. I started this back in September and seriously, some things took months to get. Now, I'm a multi-tasker of the Multi-tasking Jedi Order and when I say there was no way to get this done quicker, I mean it. For instance, the FBI background check took 1.5 months. The South Korean background check took 1 month. The Soap Lake PD background check took an obscene 3 months because the idiot police chief refused to answer the phone when an unavailable number came up (my solution was to place calls back to back for 20 minutes until he was annoyed enough to pick up the phone). Jeremy (bless him!) is slow as sludge when it comes to getting things done. He's thourough but slow. It took him a couple months to finally finish his personal statement (you have no idea how much nagging has gone down in this place). And of course, there were a million other little things that just took time. To say the least, getting that binder off my coffee table was literally removing a huge weight from my chest.

So what now? I will go on to a bridging visa soon (maybe this week) which is just an automatic thing that happens when you're inbetween visas (obviously--bridging?) and then I have to do a health check on the 20th and wait for those results to be submitted. Let's hope the health check goes better than the last one and that the Australian immigration department processes it faster (we are paying $2,525 for it after all). Once that's approved (hopefully in a month from now but I'm being optimistic), I'll be granted my partner visa and given free healthcare! ACE! Just kidding... Sort of. No, I'll also have full working rights, lower taxes (working holiday visa holders are taxed a flat 30%), residency, and health care options. Right now, my only health care option is cash which isn't so bad since costs are kept low here but I'm looking forward to life where you don't have to worry about accidents...

Temping
I have been so lucky this week with work! I finished Wesley Private Hospital a couple weeks ago and spent a week on my own at home doing nothing, which I know you all think that sounds great but it isn't. Really. Nine hours of Facebook kills brain cells. So, I hope you can imagine my excitement when I got a call to do two days at Thomson Reuters for my old boss Alysia! It was wonderful to be back. I really missed everyone there, not to mention I missed eating lunch with Jeremy. And on Tuesday I got another job offer to do some work as a marketing assistant in Artarman (north Sydney) one day a week for a month! It's just Fridays but I love that I can actually use my brain and publishing skills in this job and no matter how short it is, it's still a great experience and an amazing opportunity to beef up the professional side of my resume. And, I get to go back to Thomson next week for three more days of work! It's so exciting to think that I'll be getting four days of work next week! This hasn't happened in months! My paycheck should be good. :)

Paychecks
And, thinking of paychecks, Jeremy got his annual bonus this week which was nearly 3x's more than he was expecting so hopefully that plus our left over visa savings will be enough to fly us home this summer!

Photography
Well, my meeting with Crown Catering was cancelled because the owner got sick and couldn't make it, so I haven't been paid yet and they haven't received their photos. I'm anxious to finalized this deal though because my camera could really use the pick-me-up. I've been seriously debating what I should buy with the money I've made--thoughts? It's a toss up between an external flash, a macro lens, and mid-length lens (mine's broken), or a new camera bag and tripod. Honestly, I need all of those things but the money isn't good enough to cover more than one (other than the bag/tripod combo). I'm definitely getting to the point where I need a new camera all together which also has me thinking about putting all of the money towards it. What I want is an Olympus E-3 but it'll take me a while before I can afford it. It's about $2,000+ in Australia... My current camera, the Olympus E-500, has been good but is starting to fail me in quality and I'm finding it's becoming less and less versatile as it's brothers and sisters keep getting more and more advanced. If you're reading this and you're a camera junky or maybe struggled with this once before too, I'd like your input. As for when this whole photo/paycheck thing is going to happen, I'm hoping for Monday. I'll keep you posted.

"So where the bloody hell are ya?!"

For some time, that was the slogan the government used to promote tourism in their "visit Australia" adds. Most Aussies don't see anything wrong with it because it's all part of the more relaxed and laid back culture here, however, it's not so laid back outside the island (yes, Australia is an island) and several big names from big countries (mainly Britian) complained about the slogan being offensive and in bad taste. So it was changed.

But I think it's a good example of how different things really can be here. This may be a Common Wealth country, but it's pretty much the last out-post of the English monarchy (it's the "wide open spaces" couped up monarchs dream of), and though it's often hard to differentiate what is uniquely Australian culture and what is not, a lot of things still surprise me.

So, I intend to write a few blogs in the next month or so about the little things that make Australia different. Let the fun begin!

You're on candid camera!

This one always makes me laugh: in New South Whales (NSW), traffic cameras have to be sign posted. Yeah, so if you're caught speeding by a camera, you really are the biggest dunce on the road. But I honestly think it does the opposite of deterring the speedsters. If I had a car, I'd certainly adjust my speed to accommodate the cameras... I'd slow down just before and speed up just after. (Don't judge--you'd probably do it too.) The cameras are also used to catch people in the bus lane (which I think is great as I ride the bus everywhere) but like speeding, they often just hop out before the camera and back in after. Sign posting cameras really seems so counter-intuitive to me and I just don't get it. Apparently, the idea behind this law is that roads will be safer because people won't brake at the last minute when they spot a camera and therefore an accident will be avoided. I think this argument is a little self defeating though--camera signs don't assure this outcome and mightn't people do the same thing when they see camera signs?

We all Live in a Yellow Customs Ship (think Beatles)

In the US, we are practically assailed with immigrants from all sides. Seriously, they are tunneling into our country like moles!! It's really difficult to keep them under control with such long and empty land borders. So you would think it's a lot easier to control illegal immigration when your country is an island... But a lot of Australians (or maybe it's just Mr. Rudd) think otherwise.

Currently, ol' Kevin Rudd (prime-minister) is facing a lot of very negative press over his handling of "the boat people" (an affectionate Australian term similar to "beaners" and "wet backs"). So far this year, something like 35 boats of illegal immigrants from Indonesia have been intercepted in the waters just north of Darwin and are being held in detention centers on Christmas Island, awaiting refugee status. (Does anyone else see the irony of a prison island/state creating it's own prison island/state?) However, the detention center at Christmas Island has become over crowded from the ever-continuing boats and the petrifyingly slow immigration department, and since the government refuses to process immigrants on the mainland, as John Howard did before him, K-Rudd has resumed demands that Indonesia take back the immigrants (remember, most of the time these people are just traveling through Indonesia on their way to Australia, so Indonesia would then be taking illegal immigrants instead of Australia). And for the last week, a poor group of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees have been stuck on a customs ship just off the shore of Indonesia, threatening Kevin Rudd to bring them to Australia or else they won't get off. Ie: Tamil rebels have hijack an Australian customs ship!!

Of course, Indonesia isn't complaining--they're not too eager about taking the immigrants either. Indonesia, by comparison, has 11 times the population of Australia and roughly 1/4 of the Australia's total area. There are faaaaarrr too many mouths to feed in that country and very little infrastructure.

I like to think of the situation like this: it's Christmas at JFK and immigration tapes off the custom counters and puts out a sign that reads, "America has reached maximum capacity. Please go to Canada." To speed things along, they stick everyone on a plane and instead of flying them to the clean, orderly and modernized streets of Toronto, the visitors are flown to Tiajuana (enough said). Total bummer, dude.

Who knows how this saga will conclude. Of course, Australia will look pretty silly if they take the refugees now after all this hard-to-get stuff and will certainly have created an immigration nightmare (I can already hear the "but you let him immigrate!" complaints now); they'll look pretty much like cruel people if they force the immigrants off the customs ship; they will come off as "un-humanitarian" if they force the Tamil refugees back to their war-torn country (btw, the Tamils are a notoriously oppressed people by the ethnically Indian government of Sri Lanka); and if the boat people do decide to get off, the Australian government will look even more bully-like because they forced Indonesia to deal with truthfully an Australian problem and because those poor people were placed into another situation not too un-like the one they were fleeing from. As you can see, I have no sympathy for the Australian government. This is a right royal mess of their own making.

Recently, the refugees announced that they would get off in Indonesia as long as they were placed in community housing and not in an Indonesian detention center. Can you blame them?? Who wants to spend the next 5 years in an Indonesian prison camp?! So far, I haven't heard anything about an agreement or meeting of the refugees terms, but until the Australian government starts acting like a compassionate and caring country concerned with the quality of life of even illegal immigrants, "boat people" they will remain.

More to come...

Okay, that last snippet on immigration was longer than I expected. I'll write more on other things Australian tomorrow.

Filling Hours

Okay, so I'm STILL trying to upload all those Vietnam photos of my students and stuff (really slow internet here in KL) but I'm nearing the end and will be posting soon.

In the mean time, while it takes me 4 hours to upload 20 photos, I've been busy drooling over this:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Olympus/oly_e30.asp

And this:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Olympus/oly_e3.asp

Oh how the camera gods taunt me!!!

I love my E-500 but it's starting to look a little puny and after several overseas trips with me, it's taken a few hard knocks. Shamefully, I've neglected it a bit. I haven't been carrying it in a camera bag. It's taken on a bit of sand at the beach which scratched one of the mirrors inside. The eye piece broke off somewhere along the Pakistan-India border (okay, that's replaceable but still an annoyance). And even though I've had it for 4 years, I still haven't taken it for a single cleaning.

But I'm also getting good enough that I'm really feeling the limitations of this camera and desiring something with a little more umph. Something with a swivel screen, more aspect ratios (specifically, 16:9), live viewing, a durable body for shooting in the rain and those inevitable drops, remote control capability, longer exposures, faster shutter speeds, faster auto focus (this is a big need), more mega pixels (the E-500 has only 8), better image quality, a battery grip (holds two extra lithium batteries PLUS takes AA) for those long stretches without power in most countries, and then there's just the simple pride and bragging rights that comes with owning one of the most exciting new DSLRs on the market today!

I must get one! I'm vowing that before my next big trip, I will have a new camera that challenges me and better fits my needs. Hold me accountable, blogland! Maybe I'll start a savings meter on my page to mark my progress...

The promised catch-up

Graduate School

So, I've been accepted to both of the universities I've applied to: The University of Queensland and The University of Technology, Sydney. Oh, what a pain though. UQ offers US federal student loans but UTS doesn't. UTS has a great Master's in Journalism program in a great city for media work and UQ's is just okay--UQ is in Brisbane and too far from the city center... The only way I can go to UTS is if I get a private student loan but alas! No bank lists UTS on their approved school list. The only two banks that do are not currently accepting applications (damn credit crunch!). So, I'm stuck. I just can't go to the school I want to and it really makes me mad. UQ is a good school and obviously affordable, but I just don't want to go there anymore... Since the ball dropped on student loans last week, I've discovered one more school that may fit: The University of Sydney--they give US federal aid and are actually in the same neighborhood as UTS. The only problem: their program is a Master's in Media Practice and not a Master's in Journalism. I'm not sure exactly what the difference is yet but so far it looks like 1/3 less classes... Will a Master's in Media Practice be a reputable degree for what I want to do? I'm not sure... At any rate, I've decided that I'm still moving to Australia. I'm going to get my work holiday visa and just work for a bit until I can figure this school stuff out. Instead of trying to start in February, I might just wait until July. Maybe the credit crisis will be over then and I can get a loan for the school I want to go to... Or maybe in that meantime/worktime I'll check out The University of Sydney and find it's a great school with great opportunities and I'll want to go there... Who knows.

Anyway, as long as I'm putting off school for a big, I might as well do a little more travelling before I buckle down with a job and stuff in AU. Here's my current thought: India-Pakistan-India-Sri Lanka-Thailand-Cambodia-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore-Australia. I guess if I can't go back to school then I better spend my money elsewhere on something equally exciting! :)

Blog Business

I'm thinking about changing things up a bit... I realized the other day that my blog title and blog address are not the same (what was I thinking?) so I hurried up and snatched up the "twentyfirstcenturynomad" blog address and I'm thinking about moving things over there... I can't move everything as in old posts and photos, but I can make some links for past reading... I'm also thinking of switching from Picasa to Flickr as my photo sharing provider. Has anyone else made a similar move? What do you find to be Flickr's benefits and pitfalls? The big hassle and annoying part is that if I want to move my Picasa photos to Flickr, I will have to download each individual photo and re-upload them to Flickr. Bahh! That will take FOREVER!! Should I bother?

English Camp

Oi! Two weeks of 14 hour work days!! I can't believe I did three weeks of this stuff back in January! Camp went well. As always, I made some new friends with some really lovely foreigners though I won't lie and say that every day was happy. There were some cranky teachers that second week who really didn't want to participate! But I understand. We were all tired and just ready to go home. Looking back at my pictures though, I've realized we had some good times. The first week was a little challenging because my team was pretty quiet but they pulled off a first place win in EVERY competition and by the end of the week, I'd like to think they made friends with each other. The second week was MUCH better and the kids worked really well together. We didn't win a thing though. In fact, we were constantly placed last. Oh well. Lucky for me it never broke their spirits and they had fun anyway. I didn't take any photos from the second week because I got too tired to lug around my camera and it was too hot to work so hard, but I do have photos from week 1. Enjoy!!

Summer Classes

Now that camp is over, I get to teach two summer classes for one and a half weeks. The pros: provided curriculum and small classes (one with 10 students and one with 4). The cons: the curriculum isn't amazing and I think the classes are too short (one hour). I really wish I had more time to really teach them something worthwhile and give them an opportunity to apply it. This curriculum is okay (it's not amazing) but it needs something more. There needs to be more activities and students need an opportunity to learn from context via deduction. This just doesn't offer anything more than scripted conversations. I really wish that Korean understood deductive learning. Everything taught here is by memorization. Seriously, what happens when these kids graduate or move to another country and can't speak or learn because there's no script for them? They need to learn on their own. Teachers need to teach kids to learn independently, not co-dependently. This is ultimately why I'm leaving Korea. But until I do, I have 5 more classes to teach. *Sigh*. At least this week is almost over!

Saying Goodbye

Two weeks ago, I left Munchang for good. My last two days there were filled with movie time with my boys and cleaning my desk. Saying goodbye to the teachers was okay but I realized I was definitely going to miss some of them. Jun has shown me true Korean hospitality and I am so grateful for everything she has done. None of my Korean teachers have ever gone out to dinner with me as a friend--no one except her. Saying goodbye was difficult. I also had to say goodbye to Kim Hong Gi--a co-teacher who has had a crush on me for a while. lol. He is a really nice man with golden patience. I can count on one hand the number of times I've broken down at work pre-Korea but once I came here, it happened a lot more often and unfortunately he got more of those breakdowns than anyone else. I am so glad he never judged me for it and was always gracious and attentive when it happened. I'm lucky to have had such good co-teachers.

I also had to say goodbye to Mr. Bak and another Mr. Jeong (I think that's his name!!). It was especially difficult to say goodbye to Mr. Bak. In the year that I've known him, we've hardly exchanged much at all because neither of us speaks the other's language, but we've somehow solidified a silent friendship over one commonality: photography. He is so amazing at it. Way better than me. He's a professional and he uses professional equipment. I'll never forget the first day we met; he was intrigued by my camera and wanted to show me his and his photos. I was immediately humbled. I don't want to sound too conceited, but I'm pretty much accustomed to being the best photographer in the room but when I saw his work, I was almost humiliated by my own. He's that good. Over the next few months, I taught him random Korean words and he would give me the thumbs up or thumbs down on my photos. He would bring in his camera and let me play around with his 300mm lens; I would bring in my fish eye and he would fool around with it. Then we went hiking with his kids back in March and I'll never forget what happened: his son fell off the waterfall, he fell in and both almost drowned with hypothermia. Saving their lives is the single most impactful and incredible thing I've ever done. I still feel a little lost on the subject most days. Knowing that you are responsible for someone else's life is indescribable. Sometimes it feels like a big secret--no one could ever understand or fully know the chain of events that day. No one will ever feel the divine the way we do when we think about what happened. On my last day at Munchang, I learned that he didn't even know how to swim. Mr. Bak said to me at lunch: "That day, I don't know swim. It is miracle." How can I put that into words? My skin crawled in the moment and every hair said a prayer of thanks. It really was a miracle. I also learned that he wanted me to come over to his house for dinner but when he asked his sons they started to cry--they didn't want to remember so the dinner was cancelled. I understand but I hope that one day they will be able to talk about it.

Near the end of my last day, I went to say goodbye to Mr. Bak in the music room and he greeted me with all of his new camera equipment. His English had improved so much from being my friend that he was able to tell me that he was sorry I had an Olympus camera and he had a Cannon; he wanted to let me borrow his equipment but everything was incompatible. Then he played me a song on his saxophone. I cried and everyone laughed. Oh well. Then he took me outside and took some photos. I probably looked like crap because I was still a little shaken but oh well. Then him and Mr. Jeong rushed me to the bus station because I was about to miss my ride to Incheon. We made it just in time and while I waited for the bus to pull away, they sat outside the whole time, waving to me. And just before it left, they disappeared momentarily and then reappeared on the bus with an ice cream of me. I was so moved. I balled the whole way to Incheon. Saying goodbye is a lot easier when people don't do nice things for you! But I'm happy they did. I will always have sweet memories of the teacher's at Munchang. They were a hard bunch to leave.

Moving on now...

I'm so tired of packing and cleaning. Today I scrubbed down my bedroom pretty good but it pretty much exhausted me and I still have two more rooms to do--the bathroom and kitchen. The bathroom isn't too bad--just a little pink mold--but the kitchen is another story. I'm honestly shocked. So, before I left for camp two weeks ago, I really cleaned my kitchen good. However, upon my return home Monday, I found TONS of mold on the walls, on the counter, on the floor, and I even found a ton of weevils crawling around on my counter! I don't know how they got there! I haven't left out any bread or wheat products. In fact, I didn't leave out anything! I'm really confused... To top it off, my sink faucet is leaking and dripping all over the counter and my sink, adding to the mold problem and ruining my sponges. Sometimes it's really hard to believe that this place was brand new when I moved in... To give you an idea of how bad the mold problem is here, I once found mold growing in a bottle of BLEACH water!! Can you believe that?! I'm pretty sure that the sooner I move out, the longer I'll live. Something unnatural is happening in that place...