Apr 9, 2018 | Landscape Photography
The editor who published my first text/photo package gave me advice I use to this day. “Make every word count for ten!” I put this advice to work not only in my writing but in my photography. There are many ways to bring the viewer’s attention to the subject. Mystery is a powerful yet complicated technique that doesn’t always present itself to us. Those times it does like with deep shadows or clouds and fog, we need to recognize the opportunity and jump on it.
Here’s a couple of examples of one idea from a month ago in Yosemite. Yosemite Valley is a spectacular granite carving the towers above the valley floor. What’s one way we can say a mountain is really high? Have the tops of the mountains shrouded in clouds. At the same time, if we don’t actually show the mountain tops, hide them and just hint at their existence, does it trigger one’s imagination? That was my thought process when I grabbed the D850 / 70-200f4 and carefully optically isolated just pieces of the great granite wall and used its rugged beauty set against the soft clouds to tell its story. The vast majority of the subject is hidden but the story still comes through. So next time the opportunity arises ask yourself, “Can you hide the subject?”
Mar 26, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Sharp-shinned Hawk
captured by D5 / 800mm
From the office in the softest voice possible, Sharon said, “Get in here slowly with your longest lens!” I slowly walked into the office to see Sharon pointing cautiously out the window. There on Tree 2 about eight feet in front of Sharon was perched our winter, Sharp-shinned Hawk. We’d seen it many times, mostly perched right out in the open like it was right now. A gorgeous bird, I grabbed the D5 / 800mm which is always set up when I’m home and walked out to the the shot. That’s what you see below, the first shots. I always take a couple of shots in this kind of situation so we have at the very least a visual record of birds that come on the property. But looking through the viewfinder I saw I had two major problems. The obvious one is the background, the not so obvious but bigger problem, snow flare!
The solution to both issues was moving to the left, which I did and shot the Sharpie until he continued on with his hunting. Now how did I see that snow flare? If you look at the two photos, see how in the bottom one there are no “blacks” in the bird? Look then at the background and compare the two, the loss of black is even more evident. Finally, look at the color between the two. The issue with snow flare is it is bounced light, light coming from above and then bouncing off the snow from below. Where you normally expect flare is shooting towards the sun, with snow it can come from any direction. As that bounced light strikes the front element, it causes the least noticed flare which is loss of contrast and color. Now in getting rid of the snow flare, I ended up with a background which might be a tad better but it was the best I could so with the snow flare. The best part is we have a visual record of a cool bird that munches on other of our cool birds!
Mar 21, 2018 | Landscape Photography
I love photographing blurred water as much as the next photographer. I love photographing bubbles because that’s the white in our photographs that blur during our long exposures. I’ve written about many different ways of blurring the water over the years except my one favorite way. The most common way we go about this is basically level with the flowing water and then look for the patterns of the bubbles that blur. Just a few times I’ve found water from a different vantage point providing me with my favorite way to photograph flowing water, from above!
The bridge over the Merced River in Yosemite afforded a great view that came with little risk but lots of challenge. The photo I wanted when I peered over the wall was directly below as a tad behind. There was no way I could set up the tripod in a conventional way. I was shooting with my favorite small travel tripod, the Oben CT-2491 which goes flat and being lightweight, easily to hold over the edge. What made the whole thing doable was the D850 fold-out monitor that I could touch to focus and fire using it’s “silent shutter”. This permitted a solid hand on the rig while creating no movement while firing. So with great ease, I was able to enjoy creating some new favorites from above the bubbles.
Mar 20, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
It was one those classic winter morning sunrises on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon! The light slowly builds in the depths of The Canyon like a perfect symphony rise to a crescendo as sunrise approaches. We scan left and right watching it build and photographic opportunities as they come and go. The air temp might be only a single digit, it doesn’t matter as the excitement warms the air and builds with the light. I have the D850 / 24-70VR in hand as I patrol the rim looking for opportunities taking photograph after photograph. I’m scanning over to the North Rim when from below in the morning exchange of air brings a gorgeous Peregrine Falcon up in front of me as it riding on an elevator in the early sunrise light. And there it hangs in front of me, close enough to reach out and touch so by instinct, I put the camera to my eye and shoot. I’ll never forget the experience!
The one problem for me is I have a D850 / 24-70VR in my hand! In my world, I don’t have a photograph that shares this experience. Yes, you see one above but it’s one where the image was severely cropped in post to get the image size you see. You must understand, I don’t crop in post. After I missed this shot, I did put the 300PF on and waited. The Peregrine didn’t appear until I went back to the 24-70VR, doing that twice to me, so I never got “the” shot with the right lens. It’s really hard for many to understand the stringent standards I put on myself for my photography. But it’s because I know how weak I am and if I let myself slide on this or that standard of a photograph (a standard set by my clients and my desire to make money), I’ll always let myself slide. In the photo above, not only is the image severely cropped, the exposure was corrected because I was shooting for the landscape at -2exp comp, not an amazing Peregrine right in front of me. If I wasn’t writing this blog post, you’d never, ever seen this photograph. And for me, it’s that simple, I’ve got to get it right in the camera. I won’t sacrifice the welfare of a critter for a photograph and when it comes to my wildlife photography, what you see is what I saw. I know of no other way to improve my photography but always asking can the bar be raised?
Mar 7, 2018 | Landscape Photography
Sunrise, sunset and sunrise again the last 24hours at the Grand Canyon. Simply the most gorgeous place to be with a Fisheye lense!
The only “trick” is to watch the horizon and make the decision how you want to tell the story. You can see how I made the call for these three images, each a little different, each accomplished by simply pointing the lens more up or down.
It’s just simply a gorgeous place and photography to bring back the memories just makes it sweeter!
Feb 23, 2018 | Landscape Photography
Yes, I talk about the tools all the time but the one tool I talk about the most seems to get the least amount of attention. That’s the tool between your ears that connect to the thump in your chest. The word photograph means write with light. So in the photographic process, you need to want to tell a story using light as your alphabet.
Yosemite Valley
captured by D850 / 70-200f4
It sometimes reminds me of that question, do you dream in b&W or color? Do you see the romance in a particular landscape in your viewfinder as a B&W or color? It’s important to see it there to see it here! There are subtle but to me important finishing difference between these two photos so when you look at them, they appear the same other than its flavor. And that brings me back to my original question. Your flavor is?
