I had a really wicked opportunity to capture some Jelly Fish while touring around Thailand.

I was really stoked to get these shots, during my first ever scuba diving experience we got to see a giant Jelly Fish, it was incredible, the Jelly was so big that it even had smaller fish inside its hood swimming around! So to be able to capture a few different Jellies and bring back some memories from this trip was definitely rewarding!

If you’ve ever shot something similar to this and want an excellent technique to edit these images a simple function in Photoshop can make a night and day difference. The finished shot initially had a dark black background, definitely not ideal to make the details of the jelly stand out, and really capture its essence. So simply pressing Ctrl + I inverts the colours and thus turns a dark black background into a stand out white background that is excellent for subjects like this!

This first image is just an individual shot, if you head over to my Flickr you can see all the different variations! I’ll share two here.

These two images are my favorite of all the shots, they’re a series capturing the motion of the Jelly and I am so excited to see these be prints one day.

You can see how in these next two images the dark background doesn’t allow the jelly fish to stand out and pop.

First things first, if you’ve enjoyed this series subscribe to my blog by clicking the link below, and check me out on Instagram!

The final blog post is one of, if not, my biggest rule of them all that I stay true to. It’s simply be true to yourself.

A large majority of photographers will find it difficult to do this for a living, it’s a tough industry and not for the faint of heart, but it’s definitely achievable! For those that will not make photography a living, it’s important that you put an emphasis on capturing photography that you enjoy, staying true to a style that’s your own, and keeping it fun.

Create your own style, focus on the subjects you truly enjoy, you’ll grow the most this way and have the easiest time putting your best effort into your work!

Twenty four of twenty five! Titled this image “take it in, while taking it”

We see it everyday in our world, all too often were consumed with our electronics and missing what’s going on around us!

As a photographer it’s important that you don’t simply get caught up in the moment, if you’re shooting a wedding for example you don’t want to be watching the bride and groom carry on a special moment and not capture it, that’s definitely not good for business! But it’s also important that you’re not simply putting everything else aside and not appreciating certain moments.

Often as a landscape photographer, I find myself shooting some awesome moments along side someone else, I try to put an emphasis on taking in moments (like the sunset in the picture above) with the person I am with and not simply clicking away on the camera.

The key to being able to do this is focusing on honing in your skills with your camera. Knowing what lens, what settings from shutter to ISO, to aperture, and having an idea of what your focal point will all make the process of capturing that much smoother, most of this will come naturally with practice and eventually instinct!

If you’re a Calgary Photographer traveling abroad and seeing the world, don’t forget to see it through more than just your camera! You’ll appreciate your experiences that much more!

I love photography, it’s a great hobby for some, profession for others, and sometimes simply just s reason to get outside and explore! Whatever your reason for being a photographer is, there’s one aspect that I highly suggest you take on and learn and that’s navigating, learning and then mastering the digital darkroom. If you’re not familiar with that term I am essentially saying it’s very important that you learn how to edit photos! Post processing is essential to making the most of your images.

Personally a majority of my editing is done in Lightroom, it’s a great program with a solid workflow that allows you to be highly organized and efficient, for more advanced work I head over to Adobe Photoshop to refine and fine tune my images. Lightroom has non-destructive editing so you can make as many changes as your heart desires without degrading quality of your photos!

YouTube is a great resource for learning new techniques, you’re able to follow along step by step and pick up new techniques along the way without missing a step which is often what I find to be the case when doing written tutorials.

Like photography, becoming successful with your software takes diligence and practice, don’t let up and keep at it, learn and take as much in as you can and you will grow tremendously.