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Photo of the Month Archives 1999 |
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Get Down!  These Red Fox pup photos are exactly the same except for one thing (and image size ain't the answer)....to find out what's happening here, head for the Tip of the Month where you'll find out about Getting Down! Photos captured by F5, 600f4 on Agfa RSX 100 with +1/3 comp for overcast light. Photos taken on recent safari to Churchill, Canada. Take Flight!
I let my photography take flight! I went back to the basics and worked at my craft knowing that the element of light wouldn't be apart of my ability to communicate. I spent a lot of time shooting flight shots of birds where the action of flight, the motion of travel, the freezing or creative blurring of wings, all of these elements help communicate and, take over for the lack of light. The photo of the Horned Puffin comes from this step back to the basics. How many flight shots of a Horned Puffin have you seen? I'm sure they're out there, but I've not seen any so when I was on a cliff and had them flying by, I went to photographing them. Now this particular image was captured by an F5, Tokina 400f5.6 at f/5.6 on Agfa RSX 100 (+1/3 dialed in for the overcast light). The shutter speed was around 1/30 of a second, may be slower. Now in photographing birds in flight on overcast days, the last thing you want for a background is the overcast. Being on a cliff, I was able to shoot down on the birds, capturing the water for a background. I would set myself up so the brightest possible water was my background rather than rocks or cliffs for example. I then simply panned with the bird and shot. Now I'll be honest with you, I shot a lot of film doing this because I thought the vast majority of them would hit the trash. The combination of slow shutter speed, horrible, cruddy light and my own abilities, weren't the most inspiring of circumstances. To my utter amazement and delight, I ended up keeping about 68% of my flight images, their turning out much better than I had any expectation. I let my photography take flight! The lesson I learned is quite simple, having a firm grasp on the basics of photography and communicating, you can pull an image out of even the worst situation. Granted, it might not be the image of a lifetime, but this image of a flying Horned Puffin is not one I'll be throwing away. We strive for perfection and in that race, we sometimes forget about the simple pleasures working the basics and succeeding can bring. Just let your photography take flight, and reap the rewards! Favorite Time of Light!
This is my favorite time for light! I just love fall and the quality of light that falls across the landscape. Its warmth is equally matched by the fall color as the greens of summer give up their place to the warm yellows, oranges and reds that just send out film into color heaven! This is the time to be in the great out of doors soaking it all in, capturing it to be remembered when the snow of winter blanket the landscape in white. This is a time to get those ultra wide angles and polarizers out as well. This image taken with the Nikon 20f2.8AF is a favorite. Now to be honest with you, I think I know which direction I took the image, but if you turn your computer monitor around (or cock your head) you will see this image can be viewed from a number of ways. Now many of asked how I got this image because when you see the original, it is very striking. First and foremost, there is a 81a and polarizer being used (no warm polarizer back then). Polarizing to remove the blue from the leaves is a must! Next and equally as important, I laid down on the ground to take the image. I wouldn't have captured as much tree trunk which gives the feel of height if I had shot this standing up. And finally, I composed it to add to the feeling of drama, the trunks reaching for the heavens. Whatever you decide to point your lens on, get out in this marvelous light about to make its annual appearance and make it count! You and your film will thank you! The Worst Weather...
The worst weather can make for some of the best photography. I've said this for a l o n g time! The reason is from personal experience, I have found this to be true time and time again. The photo of the month is a perfect example of what I'm taking about. My wife and I are in our big Ford Club Wagon, looking over the Taiga in Denali Nat'l. Park. The wind is howling, the clouds are blanketing the landscape and I want to burn film something fierce. We headed up the road to a locale a friend had told us about where the Willow Ptarmigan hang. Off we go and coming around a corner in the road, we find over one hundred of the birds busily going about life. The weather hasn't gotten any better, but I'm heating up! With my F5, Tokina 300f2.8 (w/81a filter) and Agfa RSX 100 loaded (+1/3 compensation dialed in because of the overcast light) I ease up on the birds on the side of the road. Huddling in against the willows to stay out of the breeze helps the ptarmigans, but not me as the shutter speed at f2.8 was a miserable 1/20! But the birds were so spectacular in their half summer, half winter coats, I couldn't help myself. Then out of the willows comes this particular bird with its incredible plumage pattern. I was in love! I kept moving the van to be next to this individual as I was using the van as a blind, and to stay warm. I simply rested the F5/300f2.8 on a folded up shirt on the car window and shot, and shot, and shot. I came back with 20 rolls of incredible images of ptarmigans in fall color in eclipse plumage that give me goose bumps just thinking about them. When the other photographers I had run into in the park were back drinking coffee (which didn't sound bad either), we braved the weather. The outcome was memorable, the images, outstanding and it just goes to show, that the best photography can be in the worst weather! Slow Down
To find out what's up behind this photo of this Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Ram, you'll have to head to the Tip of the Month Archive. Photo captured by F5, 600f4 AF-I with Kirk drop-in polarizer on Agfa RSX 100 w/+1/3 compensation (for polarizer). Low Light
These Rocky Mountain Elk were photographed in October in Rocky Mountain National Park as part of the one day shooting associated with our Walk Softly Seminars. If you've never been apart of the annual rut of the elk in the park, then you're really missing out on one of the great spectacles in nature. It all starts just a few minutes before dusk, as the last rays of light leave the valley where the rut takes places. I was shooting with the F5, 600f4 AF-S on a Gitzo carbon fiber 1548 with Agfa RSX 100. The reason for the long lens is because all of the locals, hundreds of them, who come in the evening to see the show. The 600mm while not my preferred focal length for big game provided me extra working room to maneuver around the crowds. Slowly, as the light evaporates, the elk start to come down out of the hills and forest, into the open meadows where the show begins. When this shot was taken, the sun had been gone from the entire valley for about ten minutes. It was dim, so dim that I had added in +1 1/3 stop compensation to brighten up the light level. This is compensation dialed in via the compensation dial on the F5 and is done strictly to brighten up the image, not because the meter is being fooled. When this exposure was taken, the actual recorded shutter speed was 1/15, but with the compensation, it dropped to 1/6! I was shooting at f/4, the 600mm was wide open. There simply wasn't any light. But why shoot at such low light levels? The photo answers that question. A bull in rut, bulging amongst a harem of cows, that's not an image I could pass up. Added to this mix was a nice vertical format that incorporated fall color. It was too good to pass up! You might notice that the image is pretty sharp to boot! That comes from using proper long lens technique and, understanding peak action. All this combined to make what I feel is a winning photo! Photo captured by F5, 600f4 AF-I on Agfa RSX 100 with +1 1/3 compensation. First Lens
Cursing down the road in my '71 Camaro, Holley 850 dual pumper, glass packs rocking the building glass as I drove by, this wasn't the best vehicle to use for a blind. But when I started, that's all I had along with my Nikkor 400f5.6 and TC-14b for a long lens. This is how I started out learning how to get close physically to wildlife. This photo of a Western Meadowlark is one of the first photos I took starting out in wildlife photography. I took it from my Camaro with the 400f5.6. I learned just how well the car would roll with the engine turned off, how to make the power steering and brakes work with no power, and how to shoot at the same time. Those lessons learned still serve me today in my photography even though I've moved on in gear and vehicles. You'll understand more about the importance of my first lens by reading the Tip Of the Month. You'll also learn why I'm not a speed freak, why slower lenses have always served me well. Unbelievable!
So there I am in Denali Nat'l Park, my wife and I watching this harem forming, bulls chasing each other. All of a sudden, this big bull pictured here comes out of nowhere and walks straight for the harem and the master bull. We figure we're about to witness the fight of a lifetime as these two giants face off. The stranger is definitely larger than the bull in charge of the harem, it's going to be a show down! Slowly the stranger approaches, I get ready at the camera. Even though they are faraway, it's raining and the light is about to leave, I'm going for it. Closer and closer the monster bull comes until he's just on the outskirts of the harem. To our utter surprise, the resident bull doesn't even look up, the stranger doesn't even stop, just keeps cruising on by! The monster bull is heading for a river bottom and I decide to go for it. I grab my camera and walk hurriedly over to the river bottom. I get myself in place just as the monster emerges from the willows, walking towards me. I fire off a couple of frames, but within what seems seconds, he's too close to photograph. He walks by me so close, I could have grabbed his rack. But since I was staring up into his eyes, I thought better of such an idea. Some of my most favorite images are technically and aesthetically my worst! While I look at this image of the monster bull, I can hear the sounds in the tundra around me, I can hear the bull huffing, I can smell. (better leave that one out), I can see the harem in the background and the fresh grizzly tracks in the sand around my feet. Having images like this in my file that I can pull out and remember the moment is what really make this business glamorous! The knowledge I was that close, accepted and permitted to experience what few have an opportunity to ever do in a lifetime is truly the biggest reward wildlife photography has to offer! That's all the glamour I can handle. Photo captured by F5, Tokina 300f2.8 on Agfa RSX 100 w/+2/3 compensation for the low light. I Ain't Got Enough!
Now looking at the photograph, you might say to yourself, "well to get the ibis in the background in focus, you should have closed down the aperture." Guess what the aperture was set at; I'm shooting with the 600f4. You might be surprised that the aperture was set to f/16! Why isn't the ibis in the background in focus you ask if I was shooting at that aperture? Simple, the lens couldn't pull that much DOF when I was so close to the first ibis and the second was so far away (in DOF terms at least). When shooting with a telephoto lens and you're physically close to a subject, there isn't a whole lot of DOF available. In this case, I was twenty-one feet away from the first ibis, twenty-seven feet away from the second. At f/16 at that distance, the 600mm lens is doing good pulling focus on the entire first ibis, but doesn't have a prayer for the second ibis. You can think of it as macro photography in reverse. Just like a macro lens when you increase the magnification, you decrease your available DOF, the same holds true for telephotos. Did I know this would be the photographic result shooting at f/16? You bet, which is why I "stacked" up the two ibis, using the second ibis like a drop shadow rather than an element. Why did I use f/16 then if I knew this would be the final result? To pull as much focus on the first ibis as possible. I needed as sharp an edge to the front ibis as I could get to make it pop from the ibis in the background. Did I use the DOF preview button on the F5 to aid in "seeing" the final image? NO, I don't like using the DOF preview button, it's a personal thing. First and foremost, I haven't found a whole lot of wild subjects willing to sit around while I play with the DOF preview button. And when I was learning photography, my high school instructor said basically in a nutshell, "DOF is an intuitive technique." I've always learned what lenses will deliver what DOF at different distances, it makes photography a whole lot faster. It makes photography a whole lot more rewarding. It makes photography a whole lot more fun! DOF is not a cure all for most photographs. Closing down the lens in itself doesn't guarantee you'll have lots in focus. There are lots of times when using my long lenses, DOF just isn't an option which is partly why I like longer telephotos and use extension tubes. There are many times when I'm happy when I ain't got enough! Photo captured by F5, 600f4 AF-I on Agfa RSX II 100. |
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My recent adventure to St Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska was an adventure soon not forgotten! So many new creatures to photograph, so many new techniques to quickly learn and new lessons to teach myself about myself and my photography. Those who have followed my writing know how much I look for, stalk, hunt and crave light for my photography. Well on St Paul Island that wasn't an option as there is no light, just fog and overcast 99% of the time. Wondering what the hell I was going to do for photography is an understatement, feeling creative when the fog is dripping off my hat into my eyes is not the easiest thing to do. But I feel good because what I tried worked and my images came back better then ever. What did I do?
Low light photography, here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about in 
I love talking with folks, I hear the funniest things about what it is I do. The "glamorous" side of wildlife photography truly is glamorous, but I've yet to experience most think of as the life of a "pro" wildlife photographer. What many think it patience, is really passion. What some call hard work, I call a love of life.
With the incredible response we have received in regards to our Depth-of-field article in the