Chris Marquardt

Still stuck at home, and that means it's time to improvise. This quarantine has taken Chris back to when he had little in the way of gear and had to get creative. Take a photo of yourself every day and document your isolation. It's also a great time to explore the lighting in your home. Daylight is the best light you have, and diffuse light is nice and soft. Shoot your garden. There's macro photography. Food photography. Tabletop photography. Product photography.

Chris got the flight out of Zimbabwe when the country expelled all foreigners. And it's looking like the rest of Chris' travel photo workshops will be canceled during the outbreak. Like everywhere else, everything is shut down, though most areas don't have a mandatory shelter in place order. But social distancing is being practiced with no more than two in a group. Chris works from home anyway. So this is normal for him. 

Chris Marquardt is in Ethiopia this weekend, so in this prerecorded photo segment, Chris is talking about another ABC Mini Assignment! If you have a DSLR, A is for AUTO. Chris says that most photographers shoot in Aperture Priority. Chris says to go into full auto mode and enjoy the freedom you get being able to concentrate on photo composition without having the manage settings. If you already do that, go to Aperture Priority instead. B is for BRACKET. Shoot multiple images using Bracket Mode. It will help you nail the exposure on difficult subjects.

Here's this month's KITTEN assignment review:

All photos

https://www.flickr.com/search/?group_id=362537%40N20&sort=date-posted-desc&view_all=1&tags=TGkitten

Review photos

https://flic.kr/p/2it8xbK

https://flic.kr/p/2iA4NW8

https://flic.kr/p/2itAgUJ

Next assignment: 

Chris is back from Lake Baikal, Siberia. Check out his photos here. It was about 15 degrees Fahrenheit and was a really dry cold. Cold weather is great for photography because you can get a lot of great abstract images, as well as remarkable details. Don't forget our next photo assignment is - KITTEN.

Chris is on assignment in Siberia this week, and prerecorded his segment, on GPS. Leo says he doesn't have GPS built into one camera, but it is in his 5D Mk. IV. Chris says that he doesn't use GPS all that much, but if you need it, you can always take a cell phone picture as well and have that GPS embedded. But Chris honestly doesn't care about GPS. 

Chris gives us a mini assignment this week, similar to the ABC assignment last week. The A is for Abstract. Spend some times looking for abstract shapes, forms, colors and shoot a picture of them. B - Background. Today, we focus on the foreground. But what about the background? Take a picture that focuses on the background of the image, and how it interacts with your main subject. It could be a frame, color, shape, just about anything. Finally ...

Today's assignment review: JOURNEY

All photos:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?group_id=362537%40N20&sort=date-posted-desc&view_all=1&tags=TGjourney

Selected photos:

https://flic.kr/p/2imPH5Y

https://flic.kr/p/2iqpwJC

As we move from winter to spring, there's a lot of great opportunities to capture stunning images in the rain. You can go to flicker and type "rain, street, night," to see how stunning an image you can get after it rains. There are some remarkable reflections that can be had at night. 

Shooting in the fog can be an effective option as well. Fog can wash out color and make many things appear in silhouette. It provides an air of mystery to the image. 

Experiment with these three five minute assignments:

1. The Aperture assignment. Take a photo at the lowest aperture setting, and one at the highest aperture setting and compare. Also, try it with telephoto lenses.

2. The Burst Assignment. Use burst mode on your camera and capture motion with it. See what the camera grabs. Pick the best.