Feb 5, 2014 | Landscape Photography
Heading south for the shoot, it was on the heals of the little storm that was blowing out of the area. There are two classic characteristics of Sierra winter storms, lots of wind before and after. So knowing the storm was heading out, I drove down with the Df / 24-70AFS on my lap constantly looking out the window for the photo opp. We had gone thirty minutes down the road when things started to get interesting. This opportunity turned up at a spot where pulling over wasn’t possible. Yeap, I put the lens up to the windshield and shot as we continued down the road. The camera was in Live View and the firing mode set to Continuous to play the averages as we road down the road of bumps. Is it a great shot, not by any means. Does it remind me of home, especially as a I speed away from it? You bet and that’s the best part. Now to make them clouds look a little more “stormy,” I simply brought the Clarity up, White up, Shadow up and Highlights down in ACR. And one of the cool things about traveling along the Sierra as a storm comes and goes, around the corner it might be even better.
Feb 3, 2014 | Landscape Photography
Our world is a vast landscape that we experience every moment. Be it mountains, meadows, seascape or city, it’s a living carpet that we call our home. And every inch of it is photographable, a treasure and within your reach to inspire. But I hear from many that, “Landscapes just aren’t in them!” One of the very special aspects of photography making it such a universal language is, we can all do our own thing in so many genres and still come together as photographers. And there’s a real simple answer why this is so. It’s called …. light!
Light is the defining elements which makes us stops and longingly stare at a landscape or simply pass it by. Be it a iconic location or your local county park, you can watch the people and know when the light is special or when it’s ordinary. In this day and age, when the light is special, the iPhones and iPads appear out of nowhere to capture the moment. This means that we all see the landscape, there is just for some a disconnect when it makes that memorable moment worthy of our click. So how do you get into landscape photography when you just don’t feel the love? You start in your own backyard!
Like every genre of photography, landscape photography takes some thought, some tools and a ton of passion. For example, landscape photography requires getting up real early, something I’m well known for and what some find its hardest aspect. Why get up early? It has to do with that thing called light. That’s why you start in your backyard so you don’t have to get up quite so early. You’d be surprised the mysteries, magic and photos waiting for you there. When you can take this common subject and make an uncommon photo of it, you are well on your way. What is uncommon? Light coming through the fence, light streaming through the sprinklers, snow when it never snows, the example are endless and when you open your mind to that, there isn’t a landscape on the planet you can’t master!
Jan 30, 2014 | Landscape Photography
I was talking with some photogs about an image when I said, “It just seems forced.” I got back a wall of contorted faces basically saying, Huh? I thought I would explain to you what I mean in the hopes it might help you with your photography. I’m using for an example one of my own photos, a prime example of what I call a “forced” image. This photo was taken in Alabama Hills on an afternoon when I was finding ~nothing~ to shoot. That’s when I should have stopped. I simply wasn’t feeling the love, light was flat, shapes not popping out. So then I came to the small window and even though there is no photo here, I went ahead and made the shot. But the shot was a pain between getting myself, tripod and camera in place and then making the 9 frame HDR to hold in all the exposure in the “cave” and through the window. Then after this, came back to the digital darkroom to finish what I went through great effort to capture of a photo that when was all said and done, sucks. So a forced image is one we felt forced to take because “How dare we get skunked when shooting” that we then feel “forced” to finish since we went through the first process. And when it’s all said and done, it was a photo that shouldn’t have been taken. That’s what I call a “Forced” photo. The moral? Don’t take the photo in the first place and be satisfied with just the effort and time behind the camera.
Jan 29, 2014 | Landscape Photography
If there is one color I prefer with snow over any other, it has to be RED! Red is also one of the more difficult colors to find, you gotta go looking for it. And find it where it snows! Now I was tempted to post a photo of a fire hydrant in the snow but figured that would be to obvious. When it comes to landscapes, as you can see in my images, I actually prefer a dominance of red over the white, but you can go either way. This top photo is one of the main amphitheaters at Bryce that we xcross skied into way back in the day. I really wanted the photo! Here, the white is about the same amount of the frame as the red.
While at the same location, Bryce, this photo was taken on a different trip when there was less snow. Now a side benefit of red on snow is what the white does for the red. Our mind’s eye says that if that is white, that is that particular shade of red. It intensifies the red because the mind’s eye has a known quantity and that just makes the colors that more amazing. At the same time, where there is snow, there is moisture. That soaks the soils, clays, making them even more color saturated. It’s simply a win-win.
Now things are really hot (as in your photo) when you have a pattern to the red, not just the color itself. That can lead you on a helluva hunt but it’s fun, a challenge and really great when you make the find. So what’s so magical, great and powerful about red on snow? There are certain color combos that our mind’s eye just can help but be attracted to. In fact, the three most powerful color combos are used in our everyday life. The number one color combo is, yeap, red and white or what you see all the time on STOP signs. So when you have enough of all that white stuff, looks for some other powerful color to put on the snow. You’ll bring a interest and power to your snow photography all will enjoy.
I have to come clean … I had an image selected with A LOT more red but … you get the idea.
Jan 28, 2014 | Landscape Photography
So I did my morning cruise of the property to find any evidence of the night time parties I might have missed. As I mentioned previously, we numbered our trees on our property so when we see something, we can say “Tree 3” rather than, “In the tree.” Well, under Tree 1 I found this. You might not recognize it, but it’s the tail of a Flying Squirrel. Now, they don’t tend to just “drop” part of their tail on the ground. And this is just the 2nd time I’ve found a tail on our property. I don’t have “smokin gun” proof, but I think a kitty cat ate well last night!
On a side note, this is another reason why I have always had “pocket cameras” even thought I own all the big stuff. This quick snap was taken with the Coolpix P7800 using the SB-300 flash. I simply put it on A, set the focus to Macro and went click. You see the results right out of the camera. Clean, sharp and fast. I like it!
Jan 28, 2014 | Landscape Photography
The one thing that we have working for us when it comes to snow is, everyone knows its white. That preconceived idea gives us a lot of leeway in our photos. For example, in the major drop of snow in the above photo, I could make the green appear bolder by removing the very definite color cast. But by leaving that color cast, not only does it effect the green, but if makes you shudder because that over abundance of blue makes you feel cold. “Feeling blue” is a very real thing we can take advantage of especially when we have green since it’s a complementary color.
The one thing that normally comes along with the green is a little brown. Brown in itself is a good thing on snow. Green normally comes in the form of trees and trees have of coarse, trunks. And just like we think of snow as white, we think of trees as green which gives us more latitude to push the color combo in talking about a landscape of snow. In this particular photo, you know the snow is “blowing” because of what you see in the top left corner. Since it’s a still image, you really don’t know from this how much the snow is blowing. But by using a tree that is wind swept, it lends to the feeling it “blowin” in you still brining life to the green which in turn, feeds back on the snow. And that’s the whole idea, bringing an intensity and life to the white stuff.
And I wanted to introduce the idea that you can speak of snow in a micro seen. In this case, getting up close and personal to a bough with a single pine cone (there’s that brown again). You can actually say snow, cold, winter with just a hint of white when you have a color like green in the photo. The really cool thing in the way our mind’s eye works, we can associate colors like this and that automatically triggers the mind into seeing a reality based on our perceptions. What if you don’t know how much green to incorporate into your snow landscapes? Bracket both the exposure and the crop and make the call back in the warmth of your home. What’s key here is, to make notes of what you select as your preference so next time you head out in the snow, you know!
