Mar 10, 2017 | Landscape Photography
I was there, I know the size, depth and majesty that was the sweeping landscape before my lens. You weren’t there so you don’t know. Now I try my best to tell that story by including a foreground, middle ground and background and while that helps, it really doesn’t convey some of the time the expanse of space the lens is encompassing. That’s why when it works, I love including a reference in the photo to give you a sense of scale to the landscape.
Shooting with other photographers, I had the opportunity to create a couple of examples. Shooting with the D5 / 70-200f4AFS I made the top photo which has the feel of a portrait but by shooting at f/4, the range out of focus in the background says just how far away they really are. Changing that up by having the person so small in the frame accomplishes the same thing. Now you might be saying, “We don’t see scale in Moose’s landscapes very often.” You’d be right that’s because, often, I don’t find scale that works photographically. So when I can find it, I love scale when it works.
Mar 10, 2017 | Landscape Photography
For the third morning in a row, the Winnemucca Desert produced a gorgeous sunrise. Had the gang from Shooting the West out again at 04:45 and we were rewarded with a totally different yet totally grand morning. We went to the exact same location as two mornings ago arriving to nearly no clouds. By the time the sun rose clouds and started to float back enough to be kissed by that make pink light of a desert sunrise.
The dust in the air in the desert creates the softest and sweetest pink sunrise. Many think of this color as a New Mexico sunrise but they have them in Nevada just as grand with possibly bigger sweeps of landscape to combine them with. The key to making the capture is first setting the White Balance to either cloudy or manually to 9000k to capture all the subtleties of that pink. I shot with the D5 / 24-70VR for think with early light then switched to 70-200f4AFS once the light got a little lighter. I choose those lenses to incorporate the white snow tricking the eye to see the pinks as even more intense. Finally in post, I REDUCED the saturation because otherwise, the pinks wouldn’t look real. I’m just totally blown away by our morning shoots here in Winnemucca this week. Simply, wow!
Mar 8, 2017 | Landscape Photography
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Sharon & I are at the Shooting the West this week … what a great event! Well me being me, I had all the folks up and gathered at 04:45 for a sunrise shoot this morning. Man, were we all rewarded! We went out to the Winnemucca Dunes, parked, walked a couple of hundred yards to the top of a mound and then didn’t move for two hours as the most gorgeous 360 sunrise landscape photography extravaganza worked its magic! I shot mostly with the 70-200f4 AFS & 14-24AF on the D5 never taking more than a couple of steps to take a new scene. It was the most amazing sunrise I’ve shot in years!
Mar 6, 2017 | Landscape Photography
Mammoth Hot Springs just fascinates me! Though a mere shadow of what it was the first time I visited it, it still draws me in. It’s colors, texture, smells and stark beauty, it’s hard to believe it was made by the earth. I tend to want to shoot it tight but always take wide with me in the turmoil shooting with the D500 / 24-70VR but turning to High Speed Crop. This unique hot springs have over ten of thousands of years created hundreds of terraces upon terraces creating a home for all the multi colored algae. This along with the steam produce a challenging subject. It’s hard I think to say is of this earth!
Feb 28, 2017 | Landscape Photography
It’s a simple question … know the answer for your photography? It’s a serious question that I don’t think I can help you answer in a blog post. It’s a question you must explore and answer for your own photography. And there lies the challenge!
Feb 28, 2017 | Landscape Photography
When I asked the question of the group, Eric instantly said, “B&W!” Now how do you get to that point in your photography? That’s really a damn good question! Eric has shot with me for years and gone through my MLP so he’s really, really good at seeing light. Now what is B&H light? Here’s two examples from the scene we were seeing when I asked the question. The qualities I was seeing in the light that I shot B&W are: mood, texture, detail, story and romance. One is on the “darkish” side of life and the other is on the “bright” side so that’s not part of the formula I see when making the call. Rather, I some it all up in the “romance” of the light that first, makes me stop and then what to share it with you. One hint when you’ve struck it right is in the finishing, it was a simple two click, ACR & then Luminar. Does this come quickly to one, seeing this and shooting it? Normally not but the only way is to keep shooting, failing and learning from the failure until it’s no longer a failure. That’s when you know the answer when you ask yourself, “what kind of light is this?”
