Dec 16, 2014 | Landscape Photography
[envira-gallery id=”37222″]
My normal method of posting a blog is to use 15.4″ MacBook Retina and an Action to prep images and post using WordPress and wireless internet. In this day and age of wireless image delivery to a mobile device, I wanted to see if shooting with the Nikon V3, Nikon WMU app, iPad and PS Express (to finish images), if I could shoot, process, and post while on the plane. Why?
One, because I love a challenge. Two, God forbid, but in this world of ours, I might have to do it someday really fast. Lastly, I wanted to see if I could actually do it. I don’t know why these ideas come in my head, but I do know that if I don’t follow them, at some point I’ll regret it. It was a gorgeous flight and even though I’m shooting out the plane window, I proved to myself that with just these tools I could get the story out. The hardest thing was putting in all the links because of how the iPad copies, but it’s all very doable. For an old film guy, that’s just darn cool!
Dec 15, 2014 | Landscape Photography, Random Thoughts
How big of a camera do you need? How big of a lens should you have in your bag? How big should the pixel count be that you work with? These questions find there way to my inbox it seems hourly with fews of my answers pleasing those asking. This simple click from a Nikon 1 V3 is of as big a subject as they come but has big impact only because its as big as your heart!
Dec 3, 2014 | Landscape Photography
With the new snows of the season, I thought I’d answer a common question that floods in this time of year. “How do you (as in Moose) expose for snow?” Of course living in snow, I have a number of off the cuff answers, but I’ll move past those and get to the heart of the question as I look at it. What color is snow? Unless a Moose or dog has passed by, it’s white, right? The common belief that if there is snow in the scene, automatically dial in +1. A recommendation that comes from the meters of the 1970s. We’re not in the ’70s. I honestly don’t think there are viewers of your snow photograph who wouldn’t recognize the white stuff on the ground as snow. With that being true, then seeing detail in every crystal of the snow (what +1 might do for you) is not mission critical to tell the viewer the white stuff they are looking at is indeed, snow. With that storytelling in place then, how do I expose for snow? Exposure is YOUR greatest tool to express the feeling, mood and life in your photograph. Just because you see something white, don’t automatically do anything.
We have two photos here, both of snow. The feel of both is totally different. The top photo has a bluish-gray cast, the bottom photo the snow is your basic snow white. The top image makes me feel cold, that’s why I underexposed it in camera and did not remove the color cast in post. The bottom image, I exposed normally (no comp) and did remove the color cast in post (using ACR). The key to exposure for both images is the RANGE of light in the entire scene and not the fact there is snow in the scene. I exposed for the subject and not the white stuff. Like with most of my photography, I try to keep the light range within 3 stops. When that’s the case, then I just have to click, the D4s / Df / D810 / D750‘s meter will do the rest. When it’s outside the 5 stop range, to deal with the greater range of light I shoot with the D4s / Df and overexpose. This is totally ass backwards from what I did for thirty years but is brings into play the 6 stop range of those camears. Look at the light between the photos in that post and this. Can YOU see the difference in the light falling on the scene? It is exacerbated by the snow, but not determined in whole by the presence of snow.
SO how does Moose expose for snow? Just like any other scene, it depends on the subject, the light on the subject, the light on the rest of the stage and then the story I want to tell within the confines of my viewfinder. Exposure is way too powerful a tool to just dial in some value of exposure compensation automatically. The world doesn’t need another technically perfect photograph. The world needs another photograph with passion to move the viewer!
Nov 25, 2014 | Landscape Photography
…that just sucks you in. Its quiet, its serenity, its taking you as you are, it’s just a place where one can get lost for all the right reasons in all the right ways. The Chilkat Valley is such a wilderness where the sounds of the ice drifting down the river and the calling Bald Eagles are all the sounds floating on the frost laden air. It’s just another thing I’m so thankful for, that something about … wilderness.
Nov 21, 2014 | Landscape Photography
Well, three days later as we made it to Haines, AK. Started off at 01:00 leaving our home and flying without any real effort made it up to Seattle to meet up with my bud Kevin. After spending the night there, up at 04:30 and got on our plane to Juneau and again, ezzy peezy. By 08:30 we were in Juneau and in place for our 13:30 flight to Haines. It wasn’t to be!
Weather set in and one by one, all the flights to Haines were canceled. Well, got on the phone and secured passage on the Ferry to Haines which left the dock at 01:45 the next day. Now, to kill 15hrs at the airport. Well, after getting images finished from two weeks ago, rented a van, went down town for dinner (the sun sets at 15:30) and then back to the terminal (electricity and comfy seats) to wait for the ferry. Got on the ferry by 01:30 and by 06:30 we were in Haines. The sun doesn’t come up until 08:00. We were greeted by the view you see above. Gorgeous start!
I grabbed the D750 / 18-35 and made these quick clicks and then got settled in, got breakfast and headed out by 11:00 to the Bald Eagles. It’s just gorgeous up here! The temps and dew point are creating amazing fog whisking around the hills and pines. It’s really hard not to just watch as the fog changed every five seconds into another gorgeous view. Since the big guns was out for the eagles (D4s / 800mm) I did some optical extraction and made a couple of clicks I really like. It was a great start to what promises to be a great week!
Nov 7, 2014 | Landscape Photography
So I’m there totally inthralled with the water and the reflections. I’m looking at most of the time reflections of the fall color on the opposite shore. I’m screwin around looking for shots and only coming up with a couple worth clicking. I’m still shooting with the D750 & 80-400VR3, just now pointing up towards the real thing rather than the reflection.
Now I realize this is not everyone’s idea of landscape photography or even fun. But I’m still a bit giddy being able to shoot fall color in my own backyard. At the same time, I like just as much, if not more so having a touch of color more than a frame chuck full of it. Including trunks, dead branches, a rock here or there works for me. I think those elements bring more life to the color in a real and perceived fashion. I know that after a week of doing this, the attraction will fade and I will want to move one. But until then, I’m having a blast in Yosemite with some really neat folks in a gorgeous place. Life is good!
