May 8, 2012 | Landscape Photography
“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!
May 7, 2012 | Landscape Photography
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!
May 3, 2012 | Landscape Photography
There are times no matter who you are or how good you are, you simply cannot replace a motordrive on astroblast!We were at the rookery when a Great Egret came into feed the kids. Well as you might guess, all hell broke loose as the two kids fought over the resource. In case you didn’t know, the kids have to simulate the parent to cough up a meal. They do this by grabbing the parent’s bill and pump the head/neck back and forth over and over again. This whole time, those pointie bills are flying around like diggers! I watch through the lens holding my breath part of the time, the chaos is fierce. There is no physical way even with the D4 you can see the action, tell your finger to fire and the camera fire to capture the action. So it’s real simple for me, hit the hammer, let the D4’s 10fps loose, enjoy the sound of that mirror slapping away and shoot! Then in the post I look at the action frame by frame to decide which images tells the story of the mayhem the best. Once, long ago at Venice Rookery I saw the same behavior and at the end, there was a little blood below the eye of the parent. I didn’t see it this time but you just gotta think that hurts!
May 3, 2012 | Landscape Photography
Any southern coastal region in late winter early spring is a target rich place to photograph shorebirds. Our time at Ft DeSoto is a perfect example. What you see here is the same bird, the Black-bellied Plover, one of my favorites. They just have attitude and a air of confidence that makes me smile. Sadly, we don’t see them in the spring tuxedo but we can see them in the winter plumage and then changing into their spring duds. If you know a little bit about them, you will recognize the transitions in plumage which makes for a great story. These are three different individuals, all three at different phases of molting in their spring coat. If you’re into editorial content creation, this is money in the bank. If you do slideshows on bird ID, this is a treasure chest. And if you just want to document the mysteries of birds, this is a great reward for getting up early and lying on the sand shooting. And it all comes from knowing a little bit about your subject. Knowledge about your subject trumps an expensive lens every time!
May 1, 2012 | Landscape Photography
There was one location on the rookery my lens found itself pointed the vast majority of the time, what in my mind I called the clowns. There was three great attributes about this one area. They were at the top of the rockery so the background which is physically in the distance is out of focus bigtime. Next, they age class of the chicks, they not only look cute but also comical and are very animated. Lastly, at the end of the day, they would have the last great rays of light. I shot about 600 images this evening of just these funny characters!
I also shot a ton of video this evening. The D4 simply does an amazing job and when attached to the 600, it’s just cool (the D4 has a video feature not even found in the D800 I’ll be talking about a lot in the upcoming issue of the BT Journal). Now I’ve been wearing reading classes for a few years. Jumping back and forth from shooting stills and then video, I have to put them on to see the LCD in Liveview mode to focus. This sucks! So when I learned about the SmallHD, I had one in the office a few days later. I’ll have much more about this shortly but wanted to bring it to your attention now. Its large screen and sharp image makes it possible to critically focus without glasses and easily follow the action. We had lots of action and this night, it simply rocked!
May 1, 2012 | Landscape Photography
Florida has many, many bird treasures, deciding which ones to share with our K&M gang was a challenge. This afternoon after shooting in Ybor and a great dinner at the Columbia, we decided to take the group to a very special place, the Brandon Rookery. This is a relatively young rookery so it’s still growing. Rookerys take on a life of their own each spring and this spring, the Wood Storks were there in big numbers. Now if you never been to a rookery, the first time especially, it is an amazing sensory overload of sights, sounds and smells! The celebration of life is simply uplifting as you see all stages of new life going through the daily struggle to break the bonds of the nest. Where in all of this do you point your lens?
This is an essential question I wasn’t asked but would love to share with you. I come to natural events like this with a definite strategy. That’s because without it, the overload means you tend to just shoot shotgun and not sniper. You point your lens here and there and back again hoping that the click will later make sense when you need to be selective from the get go. I tend to start looking for family groups. I move the lens around looking through it at the various family groups in the rookery. I then start to eliminate those that are just too “busy” or in bad light of the chicks are at a stage in life they are not cute anymore. Once I have my selection narrowed down to two or three family groups that are photographically cool, I visually concentrate on just those and point my lens at the one that is the coolest at that moment. The top image you kinda get the idea of overload of elements, the bottom image of a more selective look at the rookery. Now I’m not saying you don’t take the wide shot and only telephoto. I’m simply talking a strategy to tell the story and this is the one I use and has been successful for me.
