I Shoot Rocks

Alabama Hills, CA – D3x 16Fish
I’m the son of a rock hound. I grew up with a museum quality collection in my own home that caught my imagination from the very start. Rocks a gazillion years old, fragile ones, hard as rock ones, expensive ones, out of this world as in meteorite ones, fossil ones and even uncut gem ones, (even played with a moon rock). To this day I can still remember going through the drawers of rocks bug-eyed! The one thing that really fascinated me is looking at the collection under different light sources, seeing a whole new world revealed by simply changing the light. Is it any wonder, I shoot rocks?!

While the geology lessons I learned in the process are long forgotten, the light on the rock lessons seems to have stuck. I mean, a rock is a rock is a rock until you light it and then, it can be just about anything your imagination says it is in your photograph! Rocks have a couple of properties I like to exploit in my photographs. There is place, time, shape and texture. These concepts are not unique to just rock photography. But what’s cool about practicing on rocks is they have all the time in the world for you to get it right!

Arches, UT – D3x 24-70AFS


Rocks come in lots of sizes, from those you can place on your desk and light with a flashlight to big ass ones. My favorite Big Ass Rock is Mt McKinley up in AK. We have sat on the slope ten miles away just watching it and the weather it creates for hours at a time. When it comes to photographing it, my favorite lenses are long ones, 600VR or 200-400VR2. Why so long? I want to give that big ass rock place, I want to say in one click without any caption, it’s big! The trick then is not just the lens, but light and atmosphere. If you’ve ever been to Denali Nat’l Park, then you know that just seeing McKinley can be a real trick so you click when you see it because, you can see it. Getting picky might not be an option but that’s just rock photography for you!



Mt McKinley, AK – D3 600VR


On the flip side is a favorite rock of mine I call Split Ass Rock. When I first blogged this photo back in 2001 it got attention more because I was photographed with the brand new, nobody had D1x. Then the laughter about my name for it made it pretty well known. I still get emails asking where is Split Ass Rock in Acadia Nat’l Park on the shore of Jordan Pond? When we took DLWS participants to shoot at the pond, I was asked where the rock was and when I pointed at it, you should have seen the disappointment in folk’s faces. That’s because the rock is so damn small. By getting down in the pond, shooting with a 14-24AFS just a few inches away though, you’d never know it was small. This is just one method of setting place and time in a photo.



Jordon Pond, ME – D3x 14-24AFS


One thing I remember so vividly from the drawers of rocks in my mom’s collection was the texture. Each rock / mineral was unique in its texture and weight. When we’d move the black light around, you’d see not only those features but different colors as well. That’s probably why when I’m out rock shooting, I walk around rocks looking. As you walk around, the first thing you’ll notice the pattern of light changes and that either brings our or hides texture and shape (a play of highlights and shadows). A real simple exercise, find a rock and light it with a flashlight and then do a 360 around it. What makes that rock unique will come out at some point and be hidden at another. It’s all a matter of light.



Monument Rocks, KS – D3x 14-24AFS


I did a workshop a few years back with my good friend RC. We were at a local lake shooting when I noticed some folks shooting rocks sticking out of the water at edge of the shore. In my typical style, I just made one comment about the photograph. Dry Rocks Suck and walked away. The photographer took their foot and splashed water on the rocks and low and behold, they didn’t suck no more! This is why I often have a bucket with me, to bring life to them rocks when they are in water with water. The colors, shape, texture that pops is better than any Photoshop pluggin can produce!



Tahoe Falls, CA – D2xs 17-35AFS


Now admitting in public I shoot rocks does sound, bad. Teaching folks to shoot rocks, sounds like I’ve lost my marbles (a form of rock humor). But I have seen many a shooter of rocks totally baffled by something that never moves and is older than dirt. I think it is because we are visually trying to bring life to something that doesn’t live. What does move is the light and that’s where the challenge lies. Next comes the fact that rocks aren’t often alone, they tend to keep company with other rocks. Most photographers not wanting to hurt the rocks feelings so they include them all in the photo. But you know what they say about company, too many rocks is a crowd! I mean, how many rocks do you need in a photograph to say, it’s a rock?!

Whether alone or in a pile, rocks talk about our earth probably better than any other element because they are something everyone can relate to. The trick then photographically, is to make the uncommon photograph out of the common subject. Perhaps if you tackle this problem with this one element thinking of place, time, shape and texture using just light to speak of these attributes, you might not only come up with some cool rock photos, but improve your overall photography just by understanding light a little bit better. Don’t feel silly giving this a try either. Just remember who suggested it to you. My name is Moose, I shoot rocks!

Mittens, UT – D3x 70-200VR2


In the Bag

• D3x
• 600VR
• 70-200VR2
• 24-70mm AFS
• 14-24AFS
• Lexar 32GB 600x UDMA

Why Did You Frame it That Way?

“Why did you frame it that way?” This question comes up often when I post landscape images. I appreciate the compliments that come from these images but with them often comes frustration from folks. Why can’t they take the same images? Everybody can, it just take a little time and, a little thought and, a little gear and, a ton of passion. These are the two images from our Mono Lake outing that I like the most. Why, and this is the really important, are these my favorites? It has as much to do with capturing the moment as well as the capture!

The vertical is an image I had previsualized and hiked to the location on the slope where I thought I would be able to make the image. From where we parked, the clouds on the left merged too much with the crest. At the same time, Mono Lake was too much of a sliver in bottom of the frame. So by moving up the slope and to the east, I was able to get the frame you see. Yes, I knew when I went click that the final image would be B&W. Quite often when I have clouds like this with that type of blue sky behind them, I know the contrast between the two sings in B&W. I use that knowledge in the framing of the entire image. Using Informal Balance, I use the two banks of clouds to pull the eye down to the saddle (Conway Summit) and then to Mono Lake.

The bottom frame I have to admit, looses something in this smaller thumbnail. The visual depth set up by all the clouds heading all the way down to the eastern horizon is something I waited for the wind to create. Then in the foreground is the sage that has a great pattern in its detail but is lost in the thumbnail. It’s the visual depth in this combination along with the slipping on my ass down the slope to make the click which is why I like it.

And here’s the deal, you might not like them and that’s OK! If I didn’t have a blog, you most likely would never see these two images. They are just a special moment in time when in chasing a storm, I made clicks that bring home that adventure. In this day and age when so many post images on the web looking for reassurance their images don’t suck (and many do but no one has the nerve to say so), look for that reassurance from the inside. And realize that next week that photo you liked today you might not like then. That’s how your photography grows!

In the Bag
D3x
Nikon 24-70AFS
Lexar 32GB 600x cards

And What Was Going through My Mind?

In the Bag
D3x
Nikon 24-70AFS
Lexar 32GB 600x cards

Got to the Lake in Time

We got up to Mono Lake just as the winds picked up and the clouds started to dance across the sky. The front coming through was scattered heading east providing some decent landscape photography. The upper image is looking south, the bottom image is lookin north. South fell apart pretty fast but the north just kept getting better and better. Just had to hang out and keep looking. This is the only color image from the evening, it was a great B&W adventure.

In the Bag
D3x
Nikon 24-70AFS
Lexar 32GB 600x cards

Which Way to Turn

Sometimes, just sometimes I like both ways so I take both because, they both work!

In the Bag
D3x
24f1.4 AFS
Lexar 32GB 600x cards

Clouds – We’ve Got Clouds!

Ya Hooooo! While it might be just a one day wonder, right now I’ll take ANY storm that brings moisture and mood to the Sierra. Sharon, the dogs & I loaded up the truck and headed north in search of some atmosphere.

We didn’t have to go far, just over the ridge to find the clouds coming down into Mono Basin. I pulled over and made the click just in case the wind kicked up and took what clouds we had and either stacked them up so there was no light or, they scattered to the east falling apart. Thankfully, the evening just got better and the chasing more productive. Oh, the star burst, that’s just shooting with the lens closed down all the way. What you see here is what I saw from the highway and what I saw in my mind as the finished image. This is a 5 image, HDR hand held finished in Photomatix Pro, ACR & then Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2.

In the Bag
D3x
24f1.4 AFS
Lexar 32GB 600x cards

The Break Between the Storms

When multiple storms blow through the Sierra, winds plays a big part of the whole process. We typically know a storm is coming because winds proceed it. When we have multiple storms, the wind still comes but as it goes over the Sierra crest, it tends to create windows in the clouds. And these are just great subjects for B&W photography. I’m incredibly fortunate that I can, just like I did here, watch out the windows and when I see the light happening, step out and shoot. How do I know when to step out and shoot?

I look first for some blue sky and then a pattern between that blue and the clouds. I do this because I know this pattern when I do to B&W is what brings the eye into the frame. The Structure slider in Silver Efex Pro pulls out amazing texture and I’ve come to rely on that in these types of images. I first use the blue slider under the Luminance Tab in ACR to darken the blue sky which sets up the contrast with the white. This brings the drama to the B&W. It’s pretty much that simple.

In the Bag
D3x
24-70AFS
Lexar 32GB UDMA
The Winter Wonderland … Mother Nature

It Finally Arrived

“The driest winter since 1933.” That’s what was said about our winter here in the Sierra until Friday. We started off with rain which turned to a brief freezing rain then snow we call Sierra Cement. It gets called that because its moisture content is so great that other then looking like snow, you’d think it was water. It’s a horribly heavy slush that’s just murder to move. But photographically it works wonders. Sierra cement sticks like glue to trees and stays stuck until we have a real warm day. Snow on trees is critical in my book when photographing “winter.” Looking out the office window, the view is so calming it makes it hard to work. Photographically, it’s a real simple click that is then brought into ACR where I clean up the whites that are then finished in Silver Efex Pro (which was just updated). mtc

In the Bag
D3x
24-70AFS
Lexar 32GB UDMA
The snow … Mother Nature

What about Water & Wildlife

Many have asked what the lack of snow in the Sierra this winter will do to the wildlife. It’s a valid question considering a week ago we had wildfire warnings in the middle of winter! As of right now, we have zero snow on our property. There is a prediction of big snow this weekend. We need all the moisture we can get but will it be enough? How will it effect the wildlife? I really don’t know those answers. Typically winter causes issues with my projects by raining them out. That has not been an issue this year. This photo from our San Joaquin Kit Fox project was shot two years ago and shows the normal winter scene, dead grass, In a few months, if the rain comes the grasses will turn green and the pups will emerge from the den. And if not, the real possibility that not all the pups will survive. As for the Sierra, the lack of snow right now means no water this summer. That causes two things possibly, less fishing and poorer fall color. Water is a vital resource, hopefully this weekend we’ll get some really needed snow. Time will tell.

Snowy – Root – Light

All three of these images are using the same principle to make the subject pop. I wrote about this a week ago (It’s All in the Light) and it has brought in a number of questions that I’d like to answer. The problem is, when you’re looking through the viewfinder, you see all the distracting stuff in the mangrove roots, aircraft hangar or barn but the camera doesn’t. Why is that? It’s a matter of light range, camera dynamic range and how your meter plays the game.

When our range of light we see in the viewfinder starts to get beyond five stop, the camera has two options, discard shadow detail or highlight detail. Today’s camera’s and their computers tend to protect highlights and let shadows go where they may in this scenario (yes, I am greatly generalizing to move the discussion along and basically explain how I look at this stuff). If you take a photo and look at your LCD with your Highlight Warning turned on, you will more then likely see it blinking like mad at you. When you want to capture that shadow and highlight detail in this scenario you use HDR. If you want to use it like I have here, I dial in -1 Exp Comp and shoot like a mad man. Why dial in minus exp comp? I want to push the shadows deeper into the shadows and at the same time, save some highlights. Will I save them all? Mostly likely not and I know that or I’d be shooting HDR. Do you need all those highlights? Look at these three examples and you be the judge.

What happens when the shadows aren’t beyond five stops? Look at the two photos below when the range of light is five stops and four stops. You’ll see more background creep into the photo. Nothing wrong with that and when we want to see information in the background to tell a story, you work hard to capture it. But when you’re looking for a little extra drama in an otherwise “common” shot, this is a simple yet effective trick to make some drama happen. One example of this is “highnoon” light, that hard light many tend to not shoot in. The Snowy Egret shot was taken in just such light except, the egret was in the shade and not direct sunlight. You can tell the P-51C is in direct light and I believe the marshall was as well but there is a Tri-Grip diffusing the light. At the bottom is another lame drawing to help describe the situation better. Afterwards I had a Duuh moment. I forgot to turn on the Moose Cam which really would have been much better. I hope this helps and permits you to take advantage of this simple yet effective photographic technique.

And Then It’s Time to Say Good-Bye, For the Moment

I have a thing for Woodstorks, a throw back to early bird evolution that have managed to hang on in our modern word. Their deliberate nature, their at times comical approach and graceful flight is just one of those pleasures in wildlife photography that doesn’t need to be captured to be remembered. I was glad to see them my last evening and to spend a little more time with them. It was a good trip!

Whatever You Do, Be Picky!

I want to encourage you to push your photography and not settle just because you got close to a critter or you have a sharp image of it. Keep pushing, get picky!

You have a simple clean shot in the top frame. OK, go click and bank that shot and then think about how you can improve on it. What’s one thing not so great, the rock the Dunlin is perched on. How can it get better, by being wet (dry rocks suck!). Waves come in sets of 7 so just wait, watch the waves and when the big one comes in, be ready to click off a couple of the wave cresting the rock.

And then after the spray goes past, the birds have to shake to get dry and that too is a photo opp. So push your photography by waiting an extra moment, look at what can be improved and then if you can, go about making it just a little bit better.

In the Bag
D3x
600f4VR AFS
TC-20e III
Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Wimberley Head

Ah Shucks!

When the Shooting Sucks

So when shooting gets slow, slow being a nice word in wildlife photography for sucks, you have two options as I see it. You go get ice cream or find some place new to shoot. When the sun is high in the sky, ice cream might seem the logical option unless you have sand or water you can shoot at. What do those two things change with the sun is high? They are natural reflectors filling in shadows and bringing the light ratio back into play. That’s what I did, I left Ding Darling and headed over to the causeway where I can always find a shorebird.

I took the top photo to show you the one thing you avoid, the mass confused shot. I was shooting out of a Mustang, not the best vehicle to be shooting wildlife from but in this case, being so close to the ground worked in my favor. I’m shooting out the window using my vest as a pad for the D3x/600 w/2x. There are times when the mass flock might make a cool pattern but more often then not, it’s just compositionally awkward. The one big issue with the mass flock is you have so much rock. It’s just not a nice background for little puff balls. So I start looking for pairs or single birds that I can focus on.

Then once I have the single Dunlin in the viewfinder, I watch for when I get the pose that is the most pleasing and squeeze off a frame. Shooting so long, 1200mm, handheld, smooth is essential for a sharp image. Shooting with both eyes open I feel is really important at times like this because so much activity is going on that you might loose a great opportunity if you’re just staring through the viewfinder the whole time. Now is this better then ice cream? That’s up for debate!

In the Bag
D3x
600f4VR AFS
TC-20e III
Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Wimberley Head

Starting with a Background

There are times, no matter what you do, how you planned, how early you arrive that there is simply no wildlife to photograph. I really hate those times but they just go with the territory. It’s not like you can find a gate keeper, give them some money and the wildlife is let out to photograph. You just simply gotta suck it up and wait. And even then, you might simply get skunked. When this happens, I tend not to hang it up but start looking for possibilities if critters show up. One possibility I always look for are great backgrounds. While there is nothing to put with them, I look through my long lens for what I think might be a great background if something appears. Here’s a classic example from Ding Darling this past weekend. The water ripels are killer! Once I saw them, I waited probably about 40-45min before the Snowy Egret showed up. Then lucky for me, a Tri-colored shows up. It doesn’t always work out that way but when it does, it makes waiting worth while.

In the Bag
D3x
600f4VR AFS
TC-20e III
Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Wimberley Head

Next Page »