Oct 2, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
I wish I knew the genesis of some of the photographs I want to capture. I have this unspoken list that often I don’t know I have until I see the photograph appear in my viewfinder. I’ve worked with Bison for decades and have thousands of images in my files taken in many different habitats in all sorts of weather. Yet with all of that, certain images still elude me that I want. Why I want them I can’t tell you. Be it someone else’s image that has inspired me, a “possible” photo my imagination conjured up or a combination of the two, it’s in my head in either case.
This past week at Roosevelt Nat’l Park offered me one of those opportunities. It was early morning, twenty-nine degrees out as the sun popped over the horizon. There beside the road was a gorgeous Bison bull, it’s fur coated in a layer of frost. As the sun struck him, the frost turned to steam. I watched through the D5 / 180-400VR as he slowly turned just a tad so rather than being all backlit, he was now a combination of backlit/sidelit and that glancing light lit him up a tad but more importantly, the steam from his back and breathe. I got quite a chuckle that the first image caught his tongue sticking out, a symbol of my years looking for this image. But then I caught the shot and that made me very happy.
Sep 28, 2018 | Landscape Photography
My total enchantment with Roosevelt Nat’l Park just grows and grows! There isn’t really a corner you turn in the road that isn’t a new visual symphony of color, shapes, and textures. And with the coming of fall sprinkles yellows amongst the tan sandstone.
There are two units of Roosevelt, southern and northern. These photos are from the Northern which as a single, fourteen mile round winding through its landscape. It’s just gorgeous! mtc
Sep 27, 2018 | B&W Photography
The sandstone formations the make Roosevelt Nat’l Park have me in their grasp! They are so unique, every shape and size amongst the most unique settings. You have no idea if this is a mountain or a mole hill which is why I shot it with the D850 / 8-15Fish. Just a facinating place!
Sep 27, 2018 | Landscape Photography
I’m up in North Dakota for the first time shooting in Roosevelt Nat’l Park. This place is such a jewel! On my list since the 70s, I’m so glad I made it here and really wish I’d been here decades before! The rolling tapestry of hills, grasses, big skies, and critters at Roosevelt is truly stunning!
In just 24 hours I’ve used everything from 8-15Fish to 180-400 working the landscape and critters. And that’s with the first day being mostly rain! In fact, this is going to be a real short post as I have today’s images to still get through before sunrise lights up the day. mtc
Sep 25, 2018 | B&W Photography
Up until this last weekend, my B&W was done in post, not in the camera. That has all changed! Shootin the Z7 / Z24-70 at the Vintage Flying Museum, there was moody light leaking into the hangar highlighting this and that. The light and subject matter screamed B&W and I took it as the perfect opportunity to try the Monochrome, better thought of as B&W feature of the Z7. What you are seeing here are the B&W straight out of the Z7 (Nef – Capture NX-D – Tiff). There is no digital darkroom work on these files!
In the Monochrome Picture Control setting, I have taken Contrast to +5, Clarity to +5 and Filter to R (Red) and then I underexposed the whole scene -1 stops. Other than that, I didn’t do a thing other than play the light on the subject to bring out the drama and mood that is B&W. If you follow my blog, you know I have adopted many different methods to get to B&W over the decades. This is the first that for me, right out of the camera just performed beautifully. How do they print? Luscious! And the one thing I really appreciated is the Z7 displays all this B&W beauty on the LCD pretty darn accurately and richly as the final image on the computer. So now my favorite way of creating B&W will be in camera, in the Z7!
Sep 18, 2018 | Landscape Photography
The light is making that move towards lusciousness as we approach the first day of fall. I love this time of year as I talked about on my Podcast yesterday. And that brought up some questions in folks, in the form of … help! My first recommendation is to watch my class on KelbyOne on Fall color. This class goes through everything from gear, tactics, finishing and to answer a number of your questions including places to go on the Eastside for fall color.
Cripple Creek
captured by D5 / 24-70
The most important thing to think about when shooting fall color is looking for color contrast. Now color contrast can be the yellow leaves against the blue sky, red against yellow and the one I think is essential, red+yellow against green. What’s important is making that fall color pop in the viewfinder not depending on post-production so when you do go into post, you need just a touch to finish it all off. In this process, the polarizer can be an incredibly useful tool. It can help “isolate” the fall color from teh color contrasting color making the fall color pop. Simply rotate the polarizer and watch the results. Other than that, think real wide or really long and you’ll come back with images with all the warmth of the reason!
