Sep 29, 2015 | Landscape Photography
Yep, the amount, variety, intensity and quantity of fall color we experienced this last week in Cripple Creek, CO was simply … overwhelming! As I kept saying to Sharon the whole time, while we’ve got great fall color in the Eastern Sierra, we don’t have any of the grand vistas of slope after slope blazing yellow like we experienced in CO. It was truly hard at times to narrow your vision down to just the viewfinder because no matter the lens in use, you couldn’t take it all in. And you wanted to take in this blaze of color! But for us photographers, put our eyes to the viewfinder we must.
These three photos along with a lot of what I shot this past week was with the Df / 80-400VR3 and for a very simple reason. The overwhelming vistas we experienced often didn’t translate perfectly into the viewfinder with a lens like the 24-70AFS. I did use that lens a lot, but not nearly as much as the 80-400. This is because while our eyes and mind sees that grand vistas, it does a great job of eliminating unwanted elements that the cold hearted bastard insists in including in our viewfinder! In order for you to “see” what I was feeling, I needed to use more glass to isolate those clumps and stands and forests of color. These three photos are a classic example of what I’m talking about.
You might be looking at these photos and wondering to yourself, “is that color real?” If you mean, is this the color we saw, it most definitely is. If you’re wondering if I hit the saturation slider to make these colors pop, I most certainly did not. The first main factor in this great color is we hit the color perfectly! As we left town to go home, we could already see stands of color we photographed when we first arrived (bottom photo) with lots of bare trees! Next, much of the time since we were at 9424′ in altitude, we had a Kelvin temp well above 9000k. Auto White balance doesn’t work at that range so we set the camera to Cloudy. Then there is the incorporation of green in the photo and underexposure which makes the colors fly off the monitor. And finally, there were some finishing “tricks” in post to “fool” the mind’s eye to get the photo back to the blazing glory we witnessed. But you could hold these images up to the real thing and they would both look identical. It was simply, overwhelming!
Sep 25, 2015 | Landscape Photography
It’s just … gorgeous! We’re here in Cripple Creek, CO just a tad before peak fall color and it’s truly spectacular! The right combination of water and temperature has been right cause the landscape is celebrating the end of summer and the start of fall in grand fashion. So far we’ve been working almost within walking distance of of where we’re staying (the magnificent Carr Manor) there is just so much to see and work with. We have just begun our explorations for the week and we’ve struck gold!
One of the truly fun things once you have found great fall color is then exploring it photographically. One of the key things I personally do is always include some element(s) in the frame. That’s because the mind’s eye sees that green and then by association makes the yellow much more vibrant. By doing a number of basic in camera basics like this, you have to depend on far fewer in post (like the saturation slider which I never use) to make the color pop. Another basic has to do with White Balance. Both of these photos were taken with the Df / 80-400VR3 with the WB set to Cloudy. What, Cloudy and no red sky? Yep, we’re at 9494′ elevation with the Kelvin Temp about 9200-9400. Auto White Balance pegs out at 8000 so what occurs is you get a blue color cast. But manually setting the camera to 6000k (cloudy), while the numbers seem ascewed, you remove the blue color cast and thus the yellows pop as they are opposite on the color wheel. This probably sounds really confusing but if you get to this altitude and are shooting fall color, run your own comparison and you’ll see for yourself. I had the group do this today and they quickly said, they struck Colorado gold!
Sep 18, 2015 | Landscape Photography
This past weekend in the Eastern Sierra, the calendar turned a page and fall descended upon the region. There is now that chill in the air in the morning that lingers once the sun rises making one seek its light and warmth. Critters seem to take an extra minute to sleep in, rising only once they can take advantage of the mellow light to remove the nights chill. The Aspens in the meadow have just one or two yellow leaves. And the light itself, it’s turned the corner so even at noon, it wraps around all it touches so even the shadows seem inviting. This past weekend it all came together in one visual poem saying fall is in the works.
If there is a time of the year I look forward to more than any other at home, it’s now, fall. It’s hard to stay focused, itching to get out and walk amongst the trees and watch the small critters as they go at panic speed to store their last seeds before the snow hits (which they are saying might be this weekend). We’ve been cruising the region trying to get a feel when the storm of color might hit and all we know is it will be early and it will go fast. You need two important things for great fall color, lots of water and a good cold snap. We’re not had the water over the entire region but this weekend we should be having the perfect cold snap. That means that the Aspens along lakes and creeks that do get the water, it should be good. I’m hoping for the “grander” fall color photos than what you see here this fall. When the fall color is spotty, I tend to work them as you see here, shooting amongst a grove, shooting up with the 18-35AFS or working a small patch with a longer lens like the 80-400VR3. Then I find a complimentary color like blue or black to make the yellow even more vibrant. There’s a lot one can do to bring the romance of fall into their images, some of my favorite techniques are all here for you. With our drought here on the Eastside, color in some pockets has come and gone, others are still green. While I don’t expect a giant show this year, it’s still my favorite time!
Sep 8, 2015 | Landscape Photography
The first morning of any adventure is special, in Africa on the Mara, it’s incredible! There is no doubt you’ve seen a photo of sunrise / sunset with an Umbrella Tree from Africa. Talk about a tried and true tired theme. But when you’ve not taken it, you just gotta do it. At least, that’s how I saw it. Gotta have that one image in the files. So the opportunity presented itself the first morning and click went the camera. But working the situation trying to make it different from what I’d seen was in the back of my mind. So at first, I went wide and centered everything. The clouds are what made the arrangement of elements rather simple. Centered it all. Center it, really, you ask? Hell ya. You’ve probably heard never do that. All I can suggest is look at a lot of photos. You will see some great stuff with the subject dead center.
How’d I get the sun centered with the Umbrella Tree on the horizon? I moved! Yep, I walked and got in a locale where it all lined up. That was pretty simple. And with that basic shot in the can, time to move forward. I was shooting with my favorite Df attached to the 24-120VR which provides lots of flexibility. Now I’m still in Africa so walking wherever I want for the photo has it limits. Nice time to have a zoom attached. As there is only ONE spot to get the centered sun / Umbrella Tree, we cycled shooters through that. So the sun off to the side worked for me but meant not having the Umbrella Tree dead center. No problem … click, click, click. Now you might be thinking that Photoshop is part of this photograph, saturating the color. Nope, that’s simply underexposure in the camera and Cloudy WB. All that was done in Photoshop was remove a bush on the left side of the frame. I wanted that clean horizon line.
Probably just because of who I am, I wanted the same image size as above but everything nice and centered. If you notice, you’ll see the sun is higher. On the equator, that sucker flies up in the sky in the morning! So I got back in the spot and shot with everything centered. It’s about this point in the story someone asks, “Mr. Peterson, which image in your favorite?” Now since I posted all three, you should know I’m only going to post those images I like. If I don’t like them, you ain’t going to ever see them. But if I had to select one of these three, it would be the bottom, that’s the one I like the best. But really more important, it’s that old theme of mine, making the uncommon from the common and in this case, preserving a memory and feeling of that first morning on the Mara. And for Sharon and I, these fit perfectly!
Aug 24, 2015 | Landscape Photography
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When those who know of the Maasai Mara think of the Mara, they often think lions, tigers and bears, oh my! (Ya, a bit of a windy). A majority though don’t think about the place itself, The Mara. Without the place, there would be no critters (that’s true for the whole planet you know). I, like most, was taken back by the wealth of critters but I was also quite taken by the landscape. In many of the locales of the Mara, I saw the California landscape back in the 1800s. No, I wasn’t around back then but have read so many accounts of those who were, I feel as if I had been. This sunset pano is a perfect example of what I’m talking about (taken with Df / 24-120VR). There is a spot west of Bakersfield looking off towards the Temblor Range that even today looks much like you see on the Mara. When your imagination and heart can wonder over a landscape with your camera leading the way, you know you’ve found a magical landscape!
Aug 12, 2015 | Landscape Photography
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Long, long ago, I spent a lot of camera time shooting architecture. These days, I only indulge in this old passion when it presents itself in a quick and easy shot. So when I ran up to our room to change for the party, I stopped to look out our window. This is what I saw. It was just simply pretty and I wanted the photo. So I grabbed the Df / 24-70AFS and made a quick and simple two image pano shot. You might look at how straight The Delano is and assume I took time to do that. Nope, the beauty of the pano feature in ACR is that even though the building leaned to the left in the left photo and to the right in the right photo, ACR as you see made it all straight. I actually took less time to take the photos and process in ACR then write this post. Those are the perfect photographic memories because you spend time on the memory and not the process.
