Apr 28, 2011 | Landscape Photography
Laws Railroad Museum is just this ever growing playground for the camera! We’ve been going there for at least twenty years and the contents and light are never the same making it just a trick or treat adventure every time you visit. This time I was so pleased with myself because I not only remembered to pack the 105micro, I remembered that I packed it just to shoot at Laws. You have to understand, I’ve forgotten every time up till now and I am so glad I remembered! I treasure the smallest of mental victories.
The whole trick to Laws, or any location for that matter, is to go slow and have your eyes wide open. I walked into the second building and noticed that both large barn doors were open. This threw in big, soft light so all I had to do was find a subject for that gorgeous light. A couple of steps in on the right was this saddle. Its age and colors along with the light sucked me in and it didn’t let me go! I mean really, just look at that light!
When you have this kind of light, you gotta just keep working it and working it. I started “wide” and then worked on in to cover all I could of this one saddle. There was another one next to it that was in nicer light but was in sad shape so I stuck with this one. Most photographers do two mistakes I feel when they are at Laws, they us a tripod and blow off way too much. I spent probably twenty minutes at least working this saddle. I shot handheld so I could get the angle and framing exactly as I wanted while waiting for other visitors to come and go. I shot at ISO 100 (I’m always in the basement), 1/15 f/8, AWB, Vivid EV-2. Why was the 105micro so important? It gave the needed working distance, subject isolation and bloody sharp results that make detail macros succeed. I was so pleased that I remembered it and that I found for me, some cool subject. Keep in mind, macro is outside my comfort zone but as long as I find light, I can work through that discomfort.
Photos captured by D3x, 105VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
Apr 27, 2011 | Landscape Photography
One of the great fun things I like to do at the Alabama Hills is looking for shots for the 16Fish. This will sound really bad, but I look for balls most of the time. Here’s a new one I found this morning (I usually find only 1 new 1 per trip). To make it work, you of course first need a fisheye lens. Then you need to find a rock that is partially lit. If fully lit then you have a flat wall, not a round ball. You must have some shading on the side to give the illusion of roundness. Lastly you have to have a great background. To make this shot, I had my butt in the air as I kissed the dirt to get the angle to make the shot. I tilted the lens back to capture the white wisps of clouds you see in the top, right corner which to me, make the whole shot.
And this is the “ball” rock from the side. Looks nothing like the finished photo, does it?
The other thing I look for with the Fish in the Hills are the vast landscapes where the curve of the Fish isn’t a major distraction. I’m not as lucky with this venture as finding balls. That’s probably in part because in my mind, I don’t have a formula to make the shot. When I see certain things like clouds and light, my mind tends to grab hold of those elements and then search for the rest of the elements I like to assemble in certain type of photographs. I don’t have that yet for this type of photo, darn it!
I was quite pleased when I found this one though. This is not only a good example of how I like to use the Fish in the Hills but also how Structure in Silver Efex Pro 2 effects clouds. Look at the color image and then the B&W. See how Structure gives the clouds, structure? I can understand photographers in the process of learning wanting a recipe to follow for images they like and want to duplicate. The problem is, there can be no recipe when you have such huge variables like light and clouds. And these are just two of the hundreds of variables that confront photographers. Once again I hope my images have done their job and invited you in. Even more, I hope they have grabbed your imagination and make you want to come to these amazing hills at the foot of Mt Whitney. There are not only great photos in your future if you do, but a lot of learning that will propel your photography forward!
Photos captured by D3x, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film
Apr 26, 2011 | Landscape Photography
Yeah, looking to the west when you’re in the Hills at sunrise is a wise thing! This was a spectacular morning showing off the reward of hitting the road at 4AM to be in place at the right time. The other trick to this whole venture is being in the right place as well. The Hills are pretty long and vary greatly from locale to locale. You might recognize this since it was the backdrop for IronMan. Nearly all of the Hills have been used by Hollywood since the 1930s.
The trick this morning was to get high! If you were to stand down on the ground or be close to the rock formations, you would not have seen the narrow band of light squeezing in under the cloud cover lighting up the slope of the Sierra. I ran from locale to locale chasing the band of light as it moved ending up finally on the tallest rock formation I could reach. It was just a glorious sunrise in the west!
The camera part was easy. WB-Cloudy A6, Vivid, EV-1.7 with a 2stop Split Grad. The shooting might be a challenge. It’s easy to get sucked into the color and focus in on just that band (as I did some of the time). But telling the story of the Hills was my goal for the morning which meant having them in the foreground. There were in shadow of course so in post they were lightened up a tad with a simple curve and camera warming filter. The one aspect of the photos you cannot plan for is the “rain” which never reached the ground. But it acted as a prism giving some images a little purplish tint to them that I really liked. I still shot with two bodies going wide to long as fast as the light changed and dictated it. And just like my experience at Mono Lake, I want to invite you the viewer into the morning and the experience. Hope I’m successful!
Photos captured by D3x, 14-24AFS / 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Apr 26, 2011 | Landscape Photography
The Alabama Hills is a favorite location of mine that is helped me with my year goal of shooting a whole lot more. I’ve been here every hour of the day with none being the same, none being better then the other. This morning I raced down to the hills when I saw the weather. Storms racing over the Sierra make for amazing mornings at the Hills and this day was no different!
The one thing the uninitiated wouldn’t know about shooting in these kinds of storms is the light changes FAST! The sun started to pop far off in the east which is the top frame. The storm was dropping moisture but it wasn’t reaching the ground giving the light a great prism to spread its warmth. But within minutes with the earth’s rotation the color was gone (bottom image). Knowing this was coming, I was shooting with two bodies. One D3x had the 14-24AFS and the other the 24-70AFS (with 2 stop circular split grad attached). I did this because as the light changed, I could go from long to wide if needed. In this case, I shot it all with the 24-20AFS. The other trap of the Alabama Hills is while the light sucks you to look east, a whole lot of amazing can be happening to the west.
Photos captured by D3x, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Apr 25, 2011 | Landscape Photography
The sun comes up and lights up the Sierra in the background but it’s not hit the tufas yet. It’s an interesting time to shoot as the light has not yet committed it’s power to our photographs. The things all these images have in common is I lit the tufas myself, in post. There were dark silhouettes when I took the photos but I arranged them in the frame as if they were lit. Why not use a flash? That would have been the smart thing but I’m not one who usually does the smart thing. This was an easy light job using a curve and a warming filter, took ten seconds in Photoshop.
Now these two were finished two totally different ways. One was completely finished in ACR.
The other is a single image HDR done in Nik’s HDR Pro. I think the final image will be the two combined. But what’s the challenge here? It’s seeing the light before there is light, when there is no light, the light you can bring in post to a subject. The camera part is easy, WB-Auto, Vivid EV-.7, it’s the post that might take a second, and only a second to learn and then apply. Find a subject, make a click and then play. You too can do it!
Apr 25, 2011 | Landscape Photography
OK, here’s how I went about inviting you, the viewer into my morning experience at Mono Lake. The question is, do you wanna shoot there now? The technical side of making the click is bloody easy. Arranging the elements just like wording an invitation, that’s the challenge. Are you up to it? I think you are!
