Jan 27, 2014 | Landscape Photography
While the title for this post probably had you truly wondering if you should click and look, I think it can be at times very important! Right now, all we have is brown, no snow, here in the Sierras but many of you are lucky enough to have the white stuff so this is for you (and hoping we see some). The monochromatic, all white landscape is for sure incredibly gorgeous but if you’re blessed with lots of the white stuff, there comes a time when you get tired of all the white. It’s those times we look for other colors that can work with the white to still say winter but with a twist.
There are a couple of colors I love with white, brown is definitely one of them. Rock is the first brown I try to find. Now brown rock you might think is pretty common, but actually it’s not. Where I live, it’s mostly gray rock so you’ve gotta go looking for it. And when you think about it, the rock has to be in a location or position where the snow won’t collect hiding it. In this case, it’s a cliff face. Now the little pine is an added plus with it’s green, but it’s the brown and more specifically the tones to the brown from being wet that make it interesting. The next brown I go for are tree trunks. The Bamboo forest of Takayama, Japan is an example where the hint of brown of trunks brings to life the snow.
But it’s perhaps the feeling of warmth brown brings to the winter scene that really makes brown such a powerful color with the white of snow. This line shake in the Blackhills of SD is a good example of what I’m talking about. Now in post, the Color Cast has been removed so the brown doesn’t have a blue cast to it, but the hint of warmth changing the entire feeling of the scene and that’s the whole point. You might be wondering if there are other colors that work well with the white of snow. As I dream of snow this week and our home which has nothing but dirt, I’ll post some other color themes to give you some ideas when all your see is white.
Jan 13, 2014 | Landscape Photography
I’m often asked about finishing sunsets. I thought I would post a little Behance lesson on the subject. This is a simple click with the Df / 58f1.4 AFS from our incoming storm this past weekend. The key is when looking through the viewfinder ask yourself “What’s the subject” and than answer that in your photograph.
Jan 7, 2014 | Landscape Photography
I grabbed the camera and the wife, got in the truck and headed out when I saw we had a couple of clouds. No, didn’t strip down and do a snow dance. I’ve tried that with no success. With the whisper of light and wisps of clouds, I actually wanted to do a little landscape photography (lack of birds is showing).
Not real rocket science here. Shooting the Df / 58f1.4AFS, I looked for as much B&W drama the heavens were going to provide. This means a ratio of clouds to sky with a pattern to the clouds working the eye around the sky, to the ground and back up again. Considering the offerings the last two weeks (bald skies), I’m in love with these photos. Come on east coast, blow westward, would ya?
Jan 7, 2014 | Landscape Photography
While the east coast is receiving all of our snow, we’re down to dirt on our property. Just to give you a reference, in a “normal” year we would have about 8-10 feet of snow right now! So besides cutting into my, sitting by the fire on a snowy day writing and reading time, the weather we’re not getting is killing my bird photography! I love photographing birds in snow! In a normal January, we’d be going through 300lbs of seed, we’ve not gone through 100lbs in the last two months. If I could, I’d get up in a hot air balloon and blow the ridge over California out of here to get all that cold, white stuff heading east. With now snow in the forecast for at least the next ten days, what’s a critter shooter to do?!
If you have ever watched my Kelby Training Class on Beginning Wildlife, you’ve seen the intensive feeders and bird baths we have on our property. And while they bring in the critters, at times like this when the snow doesn’t force them to our offerings, we have to watch things even closer looking for patterns. When critters have a smorgasbord to select from, they work them all a little at a time so no one gets wiped out. This is when they have that luxury and with no snow on the ground. For example all those pine nuts that fell during the fall that would be covered with snow, are exposed and available. The pattern we noted at our feeders and bird baths is every other day activity around 0930. So I have the 800mm set up and I’ve been shooting with the Df, anything that shows up. It’s been really slim pickings. These are Pygmy Nuthatches that typically only come in when there are other birds at the feeder. Light is not the greatest but it keeps the skills workin waiting for, that darn snow!
Jan 3, 2014 | Landscape Photography
At 36000′ eastbound, I look down from my window at the frozen landscape below, valleys whose ridge tops are kissed by a cloud front moving across the area. The puffies dot the fog that lays in the valleys accenting the magical topography as we scream past at 400mph. The challenge of getting the camera to the window, remove all reflections and make the click in the heartbeat our travel permits. Oh, I love the window seat and watching our world as we fly past it! It just energizes my imagination to no end.
The reality is, I’m on a snow and ice covered boardwalk in Yellowstone, laying down on the get close to the patterns in the hot springs as my imagination goes wild with the story in my head to match what I’m seeing. To make the photograph happen, you only need a few things. First is the wild imagination and often, that doesn’t happen until you have what it takes to let it run wild. You need to have the clothes so laying down in snow and ice doesn’t phase you. Yes, I am nut and I don’t get cold easily so for me, this part is simple. Next, you need the lens that will permit you to get close and shoot wide. I like the 18-35AFS now for doing this, but this shot was taken with the 14-24AFS using High Speed Crop. You need to shoot wide to get the feeling of a big sweep of the landscape. It’s my basic formula for creating visual depth, getting close and than tilting the lens out to bring in the sweep. And with that combo, you see in the photo what my wild imagination was playing in my head. Oh, the fun of photography! Have a great weekend gang!
Jan 2, 2014 | Landscape Photography
I hope you had a great first day of the year. We sure did which started with a great surprise. Around 0900 every morning for the last two weeks, our baths and feeders are stormed by twenty or more Evening Grosbeaks. A great bird and a favorite of ours, we watched them the first few days and then we, sorry to say, took the activity for granted. During this activity, a number of other species come in as well, the other normal host of characters that share our land with us.
I was heading to the door to put out another bird feeder (we bring it in each night so the bears can’t get it) when I saw a bird at the bird bath that was not one of our usuals. In a heartbeat I knew it was a Townsend’s Solitare. A bird species that lives at high altitude, we’ve seen them in other canyons nearby and usually a thousand feet higher in altitude, but never in our area and never before at our bird bath! I instantly called Sharon and together, we watched it. I slowly opened the door and it didn’t flinch, it just kept on drinking. What a treat!
While Sharon watched, I slowly backed up heading to the office to grab the 800mm. I get it back to the door with the Df attached and just put my eye to the viewfinder when it flew. Bummer! I left the camera in place and went on fixing waffles. Well, no more than fifteen minutes later it came back. Without hesitation I started shooting. No, the photos aren’t the best, plastic bird bath with heater unit but that’s not was I was working towards. I wanted to break the “jinx” as I think of it, getting those first shots on film so I can calm down, move forward and get better shots (yes, have lots of them in my files already). At the same time, I wanted to get it use to us so I can move and improve the photos. It came back one more time while we were eating breakfast and than left with the rest of the gang. I’m hoping tomorrow it returns with the flock when I’m ready for it, better perch and flash set up. It’s Jan 01 and wow, what a start!
