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on Sep 18, 2018 in Landscape Photography

Fall Help

The light is making that move towards lusciousness as we approach the first day of fall. I love this time of year as I talked about on my Podcast yesterday. And that brought up some questions in folks, in the form of … help! My first recommendation is to watch my class on KelbyOne on Fall color. This class goes through everything from gear, tactics, finishing and to answer a number of your questions including places to go on the Eastside for fall color. The most important thing to think about when shooting fall color is looking for color contrast. Now color contrast can be the yellow leaves against the blue sky, red against yellow and the one I think is essential, red+yellow against green. What’s important is making that fall color pop in the viewfinder not depending on post-production so when you do go into post, you need just a touch to finish it all off. In this process, the polarizer can be an incredibly useful tool. It...

on Aug 15, 2018 in Landscape Photography

Black & White … HELP!!!

“Moose, help … I suck at B&W!” That email came in this past week and echoes what many others ask seeking help with the most romantic medium available to us. The help these folks are asking for is not so much in the post-processing, but “Seeing” B&W when they are looking at a scene and through the viewfinder. There are many ways you can TEACH YOURSELF to see in B&W, here’s the current method I’m suggesting to folks. Standing up on Steptoe looking over the spectacular Palouse, the pallet of colors is, gorgeous! Taking in visually all those colors and condensing them down to just shades of black and white mentally when we see ALL colors is the challenge. Having done this process for nearly fifty years and having an amazing teacher when I started out, it’s real easy for me. You can get yourself there by providing yourself a visual guide you can look at real-time. Head into your Picture Control settings and switch to Monochrome. This is...

on Aug 6, 2018 in Landscape Photography

You a Moth?

Sunsets can stop us dead in our tracks! I remember not too long ago how a whole beach of folks stopped to watch the setting sun, its splendor simply couldn’t be ignored. So it is no wonder photographers want to preserve that moment photographically. With that being said, ever noticed how many sunset, or sunrise for that matter, photographs simply don’t measure up? This could be your own impression of your photograph or the lackluster response from others. Ever wonder why that is, why when sunsets can stop folks in their tracks, your photo is, blah? Could it be you’re a moth? You’ve heard the old saying, “Attracted to a flame like a moth.” We are really no different than a moth with our attraction to a bright light source and that often blinds us to the rest of the elements that need to be in the frame. The first and biggest one is emotion! Everyone on the planet, photographer or not has a sunset that brings back special,...

on Jun 26, 2018 in Landscape Photography

Lion Point Fire

On 1 June, a lightning strike hit Lion Point in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. It was discovered on the 11th and by 18th was a slow, smoldering wildfire trying to burn its way through the thick pine needle carpet. There is just enough fire to create the thick smoke blanketing our area. With the strike helicopters flying over the house constantly, we decided to head up to the crest to look at it for ourselves since it’s only 9 miles from the house (town and home safe at this time). Being me, I, of course, went up with the D5 / 180-400VR with my thought being I’d photograph the helos going overhead. As it turned out, the smoke as the sun went down intrigued me more. Here’s what we saw. As of now, the fire has grown to over 2400 acres, it was just 10 acres when I took these...

on Jun 20, 2018 in Landscape Photography

Blue Mountain’s Spring

It’s simply the most beautiful forest I’ve ever walked! We averaged about five miles a day in our hunt for Great Gray Owls walking the forest. Our walks the entire time were through the most gorgeous, sweeping landscape of Ponderosa Pines with spring grasses and wildflowers at their feet. While we never found the Great Grays, we were enveloped by over thirty species of wildflowers. Their color and smell amongst the pines and grasses were intoxicating and with all the birds singing made for a near heaven experience. Seriously, we all said we’d move there in a heartbeat, it was just that magnificent! Those who know me know that no matter how gorgeous the wildflowers, I simply don’t put my butt in the air to photograph them. So you might be very surprised to see a blog post with wildflowers. Well, that’s because I didn’t have to bend over to take them! Shooting with the D850 / 8-15Fish, I simply folded out the monitor and shot! The 8-15Fish is...

on Jun 13, 2018 in Landscape Photography

Is It a Photograph?

The Spouting Horn on Kauai is just one of those locations that in the late afternoon, you can’t but take a deep breath and relax! The view is spectacular so much so that even the evening rain shower makes you smile just that much more. Then there is the natural beauty of the coastline enhanced by the “breathing rock” that is the Spouting Horn. Even at low tides, you can hear it take a breath and let it out even if there is no spray. The warm, ocean air, the floating clouds, the gorgeous light, it’s just about as romantic a spot as you’re going to find. Then we interrupt this all by putting a camera to our eye. I say this because there is no emotion setting in the camera, romance slider in post. Argh! What do I mean by that? When we put the cold-hearted bastard to our eye, we take all those emotional responses to Spouting Horn and make them mechanical. We have all the best...

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