What happens when your partner is not another photographer, but your family — and your family has a dolphin? For theme 22, #CreateYourLight On the west coast of Ireland, Nikon Z FC ventures out into the beautiful nature around Lahinch with mirrorless cameras and wild-sea photographer George Carbus. As well as being an extraordinary photographer, George is a skilled surfer and free diver who has been documenting marine life around the world for 17 years.
George took a break from professional ocean photography and featured Nikon ZFC in an candid family shoot through his motion. George’s family includes mother Kate, son Joshua, daughter Natalie, Sky — their gold rescuer — and a dolphin named Malinka!
Set up like a professional
Collaboration is about working together, and you can’t work with your environment or your subject if your kit is always interrupted. The Nikon Z fc has a lightweight body dial that lets you easily control the shutter speed and aperture, making it ideal if you’re shooting in manual mode. George likes to set his ZFC to Auto ISO. With this setup, you never have to worry about releasing your shots. You just dial in the shutter speed and aperture and the camera does the rest for you.
George also likes how accurately he can frame through the camera’s LCD monitor. This is the first variegated-angle monitor featuring a Nikon Z camera. You will be able to frame your shots from any angle you choose without having to worry about how to get to the perfect position.
Shoot quickly, find the picture later
Whether it’s surfing the waves around the Malinka Dolphin Lahinch, Natalie on horseback, or Joshua on a surfboard or skateboard. They like to go through beautiful lands near their Irish home.
Burst mode allows ZFC’s high frame rate and auto ISO to give George the most advantage of shooting family action.
It is important to capture as many images as you can – to maximize your chances of showing a body language that really enlivens the activity. As George puts it, digital photography has nothing to do with photography. Place your finger on the shutter release, and then find the standout figure. You can crop the surroundings to create the framing you want, but for George the action is how the movement of the subject brings you into the joy of what they are doing.
With Z fc shooting at 11 fps, George gets lots of pictures in the bag. In daylight, you can set a high shutter speed and a low f / number, which allows you to freeze the action in sharp detail.
Stay in the moment
It is very easy to go out with a pre-determined plan for the image you are going to capture. You know your subject – especially when it comes to your own family. If you are shooting at home, you may even know the state of your surroundings. Everything is fine to shoot this killer.
But here’s the thing: when you’re so focused on setting the shot before you start, you may miss those little moments that really make your candid shots come alive. To really work with your family and their surroundings, George simply advises to try to be with them, to get used to reacting to what is happening. In other words: cooperate with them.
“When you’re so present, when you click with nature, it’s a magic bullet for any photograph.”
George takes pictures of his favorite nature and he shoots his family in that environment. Your family environment can be completely different! However — at home, in the garden or in your local park — you can still practice shooting responsibly.
A great tip is to assign a favorite function to the Fn button on the Nikon Z fc. From the camera’s custom settings menu, simply select Control, select the Fn button, and set the function you want to use.
Choose the right lens for the job
Cooperation is a two-way street. If you want to make it easier for your family to work with you, you need to be prepared — and that means choosing the right lens for the environment in which you will be shooting.
While shooting Natalie in the Bluebell Forest, George uses quick NIKKOR Z 28mm f / 2.8 SE prime lens To get the beautiful shallow depths of the field with lots of bokeh. Going to the bay to get a shot of Kate and the dolphin, George changes to use NIKKOR Z DX 50-250mm f / 4.5-6.3 VR zoom lensWhich is ideal for capturing sharp shots of objects further away from the portrait.
Use aperture to control field depth
Shooting multiple family members at the same time can be challenging বিশেষ especially when one of them is a dolphin! With an open shot, you can’t be sure that your subjects will be in the same area of the frame or in the same focus plane.
By shooting at a mid-aperture number (using f / 6.3 in the George Dolphin shoot), you’ll get a fairly wide depth of field — allowing multiple objects to stay in sharp focus even when one is a few meters behind the other. The lower your f / number, the lower the field depth and the more background blur you can blur. The greater the number, the greater the depth of field.
Using a polarizing filter is also a good idea if you take pictures of objects in the water on a bright day. Polarizer will limit reflection, allowing you to capture more details about yourself.
Get authentic with us!
How do you tell your family story? From pose or buttocks? Planned or flown? Show us your favorite moments, and tag your pictures with #CreateYourLight To take advantage of your presence on our channel.
