Jan 30, 2019 | Landscape Photography
Uncle Tom / Upper Falls
captured by Z7 / Z24-70
There’s a “new” view in Yellowstone and it’s gorgeous! The Park Service for the last eighteen months worked on the Uncle Tom vista of Upper Yellowstone Falls and it’s really spectacular. This is the first winter it’s open and it was quite a treat to be one of the first to see it. This is a simple click taken with the Z7 / Z24-70. Not knowing the splendor of this vastly “improved” vista, I walked to the vista with no tripod. I wanted though to have some movement to the water. With the built-in stablizer in the Z7, I was able to shoot at 1/8 hand-held and capture some movement. If you head to the park, make sure to take in this new view of your wild heritage!
Jan 25, 2019 | Landscape Photography
Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone Nat’l Park up until eight months ago had a frequency of eruption of 50 years. In the past eight months, it’s erupted thirty-five times, the thirty-fifth time was 12:35MT today! At 10:18 this morning, we were standing in front of Steamboat Geyser, you can see a “minor” eruption in the photo above. It erupted last on the 16th so the odds where it would go off but as we stood there and shot, we said, “place your bets” because we didn’t think we would see the 300′ World’s Tallest Geyser go. Wouldn’t you know it, two hours after we left that platform, minutes after we left the parking lot, that she blows! Who knew?
Jan 24, 2019 | Landscape Photography
On a stormy, snow, blustery day in Yellowstone where the critters are back in the woods hunkered down, there’s one place I love to go and shoot. That’s Mud Pot Basin. It’s a moody place on stormy days, great for shooting. If you put in the time, one geyser will perform, Spasm. What I like about it is the spray tends to never be the same second to second. The steam on cold days, (0 with windchill) can be as much of the photo as the eruption. Shooting with the Z7 / Z24-70, I had the camera set to Continuous High Extended and when I say the eruption, just held the shutter release down. Then once back at the computer, picked the image with the best elements to finish. I just love the moode!
Jan 17, 2019 | Landscape Photography
Hoar Frost
captured by D4s / 70-200f4
As I blew the 18″ of snow that fell during the night, my mind started to wonder about all the white. You gotta understand I love living in snow, the white transforms the landscape into shapes, contours and mysterious forms setting the imagination on fire. And as I worked the snow, I was paying attention to what was catching my attention in the all-white world (besides Sadie who is always by my side playing in the new snow with such joy!). The answer was pretty obvious, once I stopped and thought about it. It was just a smidge of color!
Hoar Frost
captured by D4s / 70-200f4
I then came in from my three-hour fun outside and went to my files to see if my conclusion held true in my photographs. Now I have plenty of photographs where there is a smidge of white to set off the rest of the color in the scene. But with little effort, I found plenty of examples in my own files where just a smidge of color really set off the snowscape. In this case on a hoar frost morning in Fargo, ND a few years back, for just a moment the sun broke out and gave the slightest glow to the scene. And that small hint of color made a photograph that just minutes before and minutes later was solid gray. It’s such a little thing, so little that years and years and years in the snow and it just now reached my consciousness but I’m glad it did. I’ll look now a whole lot more for that smidge of color!
Jan 3, 2019 | Landscape Photography
Mother Nature has many moves bringing a mood to a landscape. Those big mood swings are what bring such grandeur to our landscape photos when it encompasses it all. But more often then not, there is just a small slice in the landscape that has the mood. But we take the large sweeping landscape incorporating that little piece of mood or detail in hopes that its enough for the viewer to feel it. The problem is since we were on scene and our senses took it all in, we “see” and “feel” every little pixel of mood in our photo that our viewers never will. How then do we share with the viewer that little slice of mood?
The one tool we have as landscape photographers for those little slices, telephoto lenses. When we think of landscape photography, we often reach for the wide angle. For one reason, because wide angle lenses have been pigeonholed as “the” landscape lens. But they leave us short when it comes to capturing those little slices of mood. This is why telephoto zooms have always been a part of my kit. It started with the 70-200f2.8 with 1.4x. Then I used the 80-400 but now, my preference is the 180-400VR with its built-in 1.4x which is what I used here. Standing up at Tunnel View watching the fog, far below us in the distance wisp through the trees, it was quite gorgeous. But with the Z24-70 on the Z7, I’d have to point it out to you. But when I attached the Z7 to the 180-400VR (via the FTZ) you can’t help but see the fog through trees. There is only two tricks here, first is to pack the “long lens” when you go out to shoot landscapes and then pulling it our when you need it. That’s how you fill the frame with that little slice of mood.
Dec 20, 2018 | Landscape Photography
After my podcast and “polish a turd” comment, a few comments came in asking if there is anything one can do on those days when you show up but not the photograph. Of course, there are but the main issue is image quality. On days like you see below (the scene I saw), making something from nothing you run the real risk of breaking pixels in your attempt of making something from nothing, or, polishing a turd. But I wanted to provide some answer for those wanting some direction.
The major of the polishing was done in ACR (working with Raw file, the greatest amount of info) and I like to start with the biggest problem first. To me, the biggest issue is the top half of the photograph that is all in flat gray. It has no character and is pulling down the whole mood. Our fastest and best tool is Dehaze. Dehaze though when cranked brings a blue color cast and creates noise. So I started with a Graduated filter pulled to the top of the falls and used Dehaze to about 50%. I then took saturation DOWN to about 60% and brought up Noise control to 70%. I then used the Brush to brighten Bridalveil falls 1 stop because we need a subject, we need a white to make the rest of the mood of the photo come through. I then went into Photoshop and with a Curves Layer, created a +1 stop exp comp and brushed in highlights in some of the clouds to give them texture (refer to my KelbyOne class). Now I could have just shot B&W with the Z6 for a little more drama but I’d still have to have gone through the same steps.
I can print this file up to almost 11×14 but then you can see my foot tracks from finishing and it falls apart completely at 24×30 size. I’ve truly polished a turd here but at least I have a memory I can enjoy but if I wasn’t doing this blod post, you wouldn’t see this photo. I hope this helps some of you and gives you an idea for those gloomy day photos.
