In support of the 2021 OPTIC Outdoor, Photo/Video, Travel Imaging Conference, to be held online July 11-12, 2021, the B&H Photography Podcast team conducted our own photo walk, much like they do as part of the OPTIC Conference events.

For this episode, we took our cameras and microphones to the beautiful Elizabeth Park Rose Garden in West Hartford, Connecticut and with Allan as the group’s leader and Jason and I as participants, we completed several photo challenges and practiced our photography and storytelling techniques. As this is a virtual and audio photo walk, we encourage our listeners to participate on your own time and in convenient locations, such as a local park or even your backyard. The episode is designed so that the listener can pause the recording after the challenge has been assigned and complete it on their own. You can also just listen as we work through our assigned shots with Allan fielding our questions.

The gear we use is our own, nothing fancy, and the various challenges can be completed with almost any camera and lens combination. For my part, I am using a full frame Nikon DSLR with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens and a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and Jason is using a full frame Sony Alpha mirrorless camera with a Sony wide-angle lens and the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 lens. Assigned shots incorporate wide-angle and telephoto perspectives and utilize basic photo techniques, controlling aperture and shutter speed for varied affects, and applying ideas on composition, shadow, detail, and narrative. There is even a macro photography bonus challenge at the end of the episode, so bring that lens too if you have it.

We look forward to “hanging out” with our listeners in this virtual setting as we do to soon returning to “IRL” photo walks with old and new friends. With that in mind, check out the OPTIC Conference events page with two-days of online presentations, and register for the free conference hosted by B&H Photo and sponsored by Canon, Nikon, Sony, Sigma, Godox and many others.

Photograph © Jason Tables

Challenges:

• Flower Challenge: Using a wide-angle lens make a photo of your garden as it sits within its landscape, a landscape photo with the garden as its primary feature. Then, using the same lens, make a photo of an individual flower, perhaps in relation to the other flowers around it.
• Water Challenge: Using the focal length of your choice experiment with shutter speed to blur the movement of water in a pleasing way. Also, make a photo of the reflections and refractions in your body of water.
• Architecture Challenge: Tell the story of a building or structure in three photographs: a wide shot, a detail and a third photo of your choice. Remember, tell the story of the building.
• Bonus Challenges: Use a macro lens to make a detail-rich close-up of a flower OR with a telephoto focal length, take a photo of an animal or bird in its natural environment, ideally demonstrating behavior.