Story by Vicki White

 

Truman introduced Joe Chan, our guest speaker.  Truman met him online on Facebook and admired his photos.  Most of his photos are taken in the Sacramento area, mostly in the downtown Sacramento area.  He also has an excellent exhibit in the town of Locke - featuring many of its fascinating locations.

 

Chan started in 2004 with a Canon digital rebel as his first camera.  He became committed to Canon due to his investment lenses over the years. Bought a Panasonic FC 1000 when he got started in Video. Now his "walk around camera" is a Nikon S6900 - very basic camera - no bells and whistles.   

 

He took college courses in basic photography at City College, Consumnes River College, and Sierra College.  He then read many books to pick up the talents he hadn't learned in those classes. 

 

He evaluates pictures based upon what caught his eye about the picture and tries to determine what made it standout to him.  By analyzing what he liked and how to accomplish it, he shaped his style.  Chan likes to shoot in low light.  His style is eclectic as he shoots everything and shoots every day.  

 

He strongly advises that you use a tripod to capture any image you want to keep.  He acknowledges that sometimes you can't, but you can always try.  Another piece of advice included the tip that If you are shooting hand-held use a higher ISO and set a shutter speed of 1/60 to 1/90. 

 

To avoid keystoning, point the camera down just slightly, the camera pointing down just slightly will correct it better than any post processing. For a great sunset shot, take a reading away from the scene. 

 

He shoots manual, uses the in-camera meter (center weighted metering). He shoots with the lowest ISO he can get away with unless handheld and likes to play with long exposure pictures.

 

When asked how he finds anything since he takes so many photos, he explained that after finishing a session, he throws away the bad ones, and everything else gets saved in a folder based upon the subject matter and he keywords everything, using Adobe Bridge.  

 

He advises everyone to carry a camera all the time because you never know when an opportunity will come up.

 

His processing software includes Photoshop CS6, ON1, Photmatix, and NIK.