Feb 24, 2014 | Landscape Photography
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Click on first image to launch gallery
After spending some time at Plaza Blanca, the earth spun, some clouds came in and the light and color came back in the viewfinder. With these two additional and essential elements, I then switched back to color photography from black and white. Why? There are two main additions to the already very cool scene, blue and yellow. The colors blue and yellow when added to white and gray are dynamic colors permitting us to lead the eye through the scene to take in the shapes and texture. Still shooting with the Df / 18-35AFS, I shot with zero exposure comp and simply let the light and color take over. Now if I did everything correctly in creating the gallery, you should be seeing the image progress through the afternoon as you click through the gallery. You can see the evolution of the light and therefore my composition. I think this is important because it was the last couple of images that I like the best of the late afternoon shooting. Finishing of all these photos was simply done in ACR 8.4 (which is now available to download!). What you might want to be taking from our afternoon outing is: shooting with dear friends is great and, the light no matter hard or soft can be used successfully photographically if you think subject, story and romance.
Feb 21, 2014 | Landscape Photography
Arches Nat’l Park is simply an amazing place, truly hard to grasp nature created it. But rocks being rocks, they tend to look pretty much the same decade after decade no matter how grand they are. This means whether photographed by others or yourself in the past, unless you push your photography, odds are the photographs will look the same click after click. And just being different for the sake of being different doesn’t make it unique. You’ve gotta feel outside the box to make the common, uncommon. That brings us to this morning and our explorations of The North Window. You have many options in which to head towards the uncommon, the first being having a person in the window. If you’ve ever been to the North Window, hearing a photographer scream “Get out of the window” can be common. Many feel that either, the photo is all theirs so don’t get in it or, people distract from it. The truth is, the Window belongs to everyone and having a person in the photo for “scale” is one of the simplest ways of making the photo, uncommon.
At our K&M Adventures, this is in part what we share during the week. Another method to go “uncommon” is to place yourself in a place others typically won’t go with a lens that tells more visually than most tell. In this case, heading to the “backside” of the window and shooting wide. I went with my current favorite of Nikon Df with 18-35AFS shooting at 18mm. This does many things, the first is bring to life the drama of the light of the rising sun. Next, it takes in more than the window itself giving it place. Lastly, it brings a whole new shape to the window while at the same time a slope to the rock it calls home. Now none of this is radical stuff, none of this is really earth shattering but it does start taking the common to uncommon and that’s important. When you put some of your heart into your landscapes with a touch of storytelling, you’re on the right track to taking different to unique.
Feb 19, 2014 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
What does Costner’s Wyatt Earp, City Slickers, 310 to Yuma and Cowboys & Aliens all have in common? They were all shot in part at Plaza Blanka. I’ve seen those white rock cliffs and often wondered if the location was only good for Hollywood. So finding that Plaza Blanca is not far from Santa Fe, we decided to see if we could find it and check it out for ourselves. Now, it is not easy to find unless you know the key, and that’s to find the pizzeria on 284 where you make the turn into the hills. The first day we went looking for it, we ended up in Taos which turned out great. But not wanting to fail, we looked for it the second day and had success finding it.
We arrived at the cliffs a bit early for the light but just at the right time for B&W photography. What’s the difference? Well, the light was still a little on the hard side. That’s to say the shadows were still pretty black. Now I honestly thought the white rock would bounce a whole more light around than they did. But not an issue, I just went into B&W mode. That’s using the contrast to bring out more texture, character in the rock. Now you might recognize this as the final fight scene from Cowboys & Aliens except the space ship is missing.
Keep in mind, we were all just cruising, photography was just a fun side note to the laughs and wonders we were enjoying. So I went on the walk light with just the Df / 18-35AFS and no filters. One of the amazing things was, there was literally no sign Hollywood had ever been on location here. We traveled extensively through Alabama Hills where you can finds signs of Hollywood 50yrs after the film was shot, but not a thing here. In fact, we had the place all to ourselves except for the Ravens that were performing overhead for us.
Key to making this all work is understanding that the highlights would be really bright, the shadows really dark and you arrange the elements in the frame accordingly. If there were NO clouds, there would have been NO photography. But such was not the case so they could be incorporated into the photos. With this understanding, shooting with the Df with its six stop range, the finishing was pretty simple. In ACR, the Shadow slider went to the right, the Highlight slider to the left and the White slider either way depending on the image. Because of the texture in the cliffs, I used Clarity a little more than I normally do. Then in Photoshop, I use Nik Silver Efex for the B&W conversion. It was a great start and as the light headed into the west, it just got better. mtc
Feb 18, 2014 | Landscape Photography
I love a photo challenge! Scott for his Exposure project wanted to go back to a locale he had shot some seven years ago called Jackalope. I’m not really a street shooter and I’m really not a “pottery” street shooter but Scott was so excited, there was no way I couldn’t dive in. Now Jackalope is not just a pottery barn, no way! There are glass blowers and windmills, juniper furniture and wagons. I went with just the Df, 35f1.8AFS to go light, very narrow DoF and take advantage of the 35mms ability to focus very close so I could get in tight. There are hours and hours and hours of photography at this locale. There is no doubt that in this “shoot out” Scott walked away with the best images. But I … we had a great time and that’s truly what photography is all about.
Feb 18, 2014 | Landscape Photography
Sharon & I were able to go on a Valentine weekend getaway to Santa Fe, NM and had the great fortunate of spending it with our dear friends the Kelby’s, Scott & Kalebra. Now, photography was not the priority but you know, we worked a little in. I have to admit, I found it very difficult to shoot with all the laughing. It’s a bitch to get a sharp image!
After an amazing breakfast, we hit the streets to simply cruise, look and enjoy. Of course, there were cameras on the stroll, in my case the Df, 35f1.8AFS and 58f1.4AFS and nobody recognized me because I was walking around with the camera on a strap! After checking out the very cool Monroe Gallery, sampling candied ginger and Starbucks, we headed up to Canyon St to check out the galleries there. It’s a really cool street Scott had walked before but was new to the rest of us. The motorcycle above is from the plaza area of Santa Fe but these other two are from Canyon.
I really got into this “bust” that we came across. Now I thought about putting something in the photo for scale, but it would have taken away from the subject. But to give you some idea, each piece is bigger than your basic brick with the overall piece about five feet tall. Then we were encouraged to head down this one alley where a painter was at work. The very talented and finished eye of Kalebra pointed out the tools on the table. Now what she does with her trusty iPhone is really cool, I so enjoy watching her, the smile with every click is priceless! And then there is Scott who kept us all in stitches (and some great images, check it out here on his Exposure)! There’s a whole lot more, this is a good start to the fun.
Feb 5, 2014 | Landscape Photography
If you’re heading along the Eastside of the Sierra shooting in the afternoon, you’re always contending with the sun light being squeezed over the ridge. Add clouds and you have to deal with them burnt out highlights. Or do you? Controlling the highlight has been a growing obsession over the last few years even though often, we can’t see detail in that highlight with our naked eyes. So perhaps, there are times when yanking out the detail that we normal wouldn’t see isn’t worth jumping through hoops to get. That’s what went through my mind with the Df / 24-70AFS up to my eye looking at the scene. The range of light is well beyond ten stops as the sun blazed through the clouds. And that brightness was considered as the image was framed up in the viewfinder. Because the eye will go there first. But if you think about it, you can still use other elements in the frame to move the eye through the frame and then back to that brightness. If you give this a try, remember that the very worst thing that could happen is, you delete the photo. The most? You find a new way to look at your world and share it.
