It Grew!
Just Gotta Stop For Clouds!
We had driven past it a couple of hours earlier, but it was in full sun with bald skies. Yuck. When we came back by, the thunderstorm was building and the aperture in the clouds let enough light in to bring drama while providing a great background. So was required was an illegal U turn as we were shooting.
The only real question was, what lens to use? There was actually no right or wrong answer because everyone could make up and tell their own story. I went with the 18AF for a couple of reasons. One was its angle of view, the other is because it’s rectilinear (that’s not a PC). With that, it was simply a question of getting in the right place to relate the three buildings the way I like in concert with the clouds. So, I danced a little as the clouds and the aperture in them moved about.
The bottom image is the one I like the best, then the color version and finally the top image. When I stopped, I saw this at a B&W image but the clouds were changing and that made me move changing how I wanted to actually arrange the three buildings. Then a burst of sunlight came out when made me think color. All of these images are a handheld, 7 image HDR finished with Photomatix Pro and Photoshop.
K&M Adv hits SD!
We’re up in the Blackhills of SD and man, it’s gorgeous! We headed out to a gorgeous sunrise only to find the thunderstorms from the night before still hanging about. Now it’s really no secret, I love clouds, they call me Mr Clouds so we had to stop! The thermal action kept them on the move, shape and density constantly changing while we stood there and all day long. The key to me in making the shots are the subtle shades of gray along with some element to give them scale. In these examples I used HDR and landscape to capture those elements. Photographically, the D4 and 18AF worked their magic. I’m finding though with the D4 and its new sensor that single click cloud photos along with ACR is producing more cloud shots that I like then HDR. mtc…
It’s Going to be a Great Spring on the Eastside!
I cruised up the Eastside this morning on the way to the airport and found it really hard to keep on going. While we had a scad amount of moisture this winter, spring is here and it’s gorgeous! And…can’t believe I’m saying this…I saw some wildflowers that made me want to stop! I’m in NY teaching and shooting but can’t wait to get back home to shoot. Mono Lake which you see above was spectacular this morning and I can’t wait to share it, the wildflowers and waterfalls with the folks joining us the end of the month for our Mono Lake Weekend.
Once of the best things has been the clouds playing with us nearly everyday. This past weekend, the biggest, darkest, coolest cloud I’ve ever seen on the eastside slide over the crest stopping everyone to watch its passing. To make this shot, 5 image HDR was required. To pull the detail from the sunrise to the shadow, I wanted the information to show the depth of a formation we call the Ghost Ship. Can’t wait to share this with folks, mornings on the eastside are always special!
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In the Bag
- D3x
- 24-70AFS
- Lexar 32GB 600x UDMA digital film
Planning Your Trip
“How do you plan a trip when you’re going to someplace new?” This is a very common and VERY valid question I’m asked all the time. In the questions students passed in this weekend for our Photoshop for Shooters, it was the #1 question (what’s the best f/stop slipped to #4). I’m sure everyone has their own methods of doing this, I want to share mine. It all starts with selecting the location itself, how do you do that? Since most of my friends are roadwarriors like myself, word of mouth usually starts the process. Quite often, I’ll see a photo of a location that captures my imagination and that’s how that location gets on the list. However the location is selected, once it is the planning begins.
The first thing that needs to be set for a location is when to visit it. If you’re working a 9-5 job, often you go when you can get vacation time so then timing is predetermined. With the luxury of picking the date, I go with the time when that one classic shot, the photo perhaps I saw that made me want to go to that location was taken. Here’s the problem with that kind of planning, it kind of is an all or nothing proposition! There is no way you can guarantee what the conditions will be when you’re on your trip. For example this past winter. You might have planned to be somewhere when there was snow but for much of the mountains this past winter, there simply was no snow. That’s all part of the photographic adventure.
If you’re planning for fall color, as a veteran of many a fall color trip that ended up staring at twigs, the best planning doesn’t guarantee a thing. How about planning specific locales at your location, how do you find them? Before I leave on a trip, I’ll do my homework online looking for photographs from that area. From that, those photos I see which intrigue me are locales I’ll try to research and make a list to remind me of them once on site. One of the ways we found locations for our DLWS events when scouting was using Google Maps, Hybrid mode. I would look at the topography, its direction and then head off on roads to those places where those elements would come into play. For example, want to shoot sunrise, you need a location looking to the east. If you want water, you need to find water where you can look to the east for sunrise.
The biggest part of planning where I think most photographers fall short is in the photographer themselves. The number one mistake is putting pressure on yourselves that because you have taken this trip, made all these plans, you MUST come back with the photographs of a life time. It don’t work that way. As a veteran of thousands of trips in my years, just because you plan doesn’t mean the clouds come out, the leaves turn red or the critters appear. Even in planning aviation work, I can show up and the plane might have mechanical issues. There simply is no guarantees so you, the photographer must plan on this and have an open mind to go with the flow.
So in a nutshell, look at photographs to find the locations. Look at photographs to plan the timing. Look at photograph to determine the locale at that location. Look at photographs to determine the gear to take, the time to be behind the camera and remember, it is just a photograph. The journey can and often is a bigger reward then the destination!
Super Moon & Photographers
Photographers love the moon! More then histograms or new lenses, photographers see a moon and it has to be incorporated in the photograph. No matter if it’s a micro dot, no matter if you can’t see the “man on the moon.” If there’s a moon in the sky, it’s in the photograph. This weekends “Super Moon” had photographers around the globe pointing there lenses up shooting the bigger, brighter moon. Our group from Photoshop of Shooter this weekend had photographing the moon as an assignment. How could any photographer pass it up? I’ve seen lots and lots of Super Moon photos on the web and in class and most them miss the point. What’s the subject? If the subject is the moon then can it be alone in the sky with total darkness surrounding? If the Super Moon is the subject, then can it be in the dark sky by itself or does it have to have something in the frame with it for reference?
This photo is kinda a spoof on the whole idea while trying to visually answer all of these questions. If the photo itself is of the moon, you don’t need a Super Moon to go out and photograph the moon. And if the moon is the subject, don’t you need to see the man on the moon otherwise it’s just the sun? And I would think if you’re trying to say visually it’s a Super Moon, there has to be a visual reference to show size. And if you do that, isn’t the exposure range such that, you’re either going to have exposure for the moon or the landscape but not both in one click? I pose all of these questions to simply get photographers to think about what is the subject, what is the story, and how do you communicate that in your photograph whether it’s a Super Moon or a rock in the front yard? The photo here is a double exposure of B-25s on Grimes Field prior to sunrise and the Super Moon. Double exposure which is possible in like the D3 and D4 is the way I would solve all the problems I just mentioned. I would shoot the moon 400mm exposing for it and then switch lenses and shoot the landscape exposing for it. It’s a real old film trick which hasn’t translated to digital much. Anytime you see a moon you like, give it a try. You might just create your own Super Moon!