Jan 11, 2018 | Landscape Photography
Depth of focus, it’s how Depth of Field was termed back in the day when I started photography. Depth of focus is how I was taught to think about how the change of aperture changes my storytelling. My incredible teacher in high school would talk about the focus in a photograph, the reality and the perceived amount that was in focus. Those basic lessons which he taught us I still use today because focus and point of focus are so bloody important in visual storytelling. The mind’s eye goes to light and bright first, focus second. Being winter I’m spending office time printing up 24×30 images with the Epson P7000 that I took during the fall, many of those taken with the D850 and I’m seeing (as in visually noticing) that with my narrow DoF I’m seeing more in focus. Huh?!
Depth of Focus (or Depth of Field) is an actual, physical element in our photograph affected by the focal length, f/stop, subject and background distance. That is the reality of it, how most go about selecting their working aperture. Then there is the perceived DoF and it’s called perceived because the mind’s eye can be fooled, tricked into seeing more in focus that is really there. The one method I use the most is underexposure which adds black that tricks the eye. But in the printing of my images, I visually see more “perceived” focus because of the amazing image quality delivered by the D850! Because of its gorgeous pixels, there is more information in the photograph and that increased information makes the perceived DoF greater. Now, will you see this in a smaller print or in an image on the web? You might not! Is this a reason why you should buy the D850? Now that’s a darn good question. If in the sales brochure it was stated the D850 increases the perceived DoF, I would buy it just because of that statement! I know I really enjoy the D850 over any other megapixel camera I’ve shot with for many reasons but now I have one more I’ve identified and will employ as I manipulate your viewing of my visual stories. I will definitely now explore perhaps a third realm in the focus of my photographs, pixel depth of focus.
Jan 9, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Bullock’s Oriole
captured by D3x / 600VRII
It’s the staple of life! Water, birds need water every day, multiple days a day. They need it for both drinking and for bathing, both essential survival needs. In the summer, free water is scarce in many regions because pools evaporate. In the winter time free water freezes. Both scenarios remove water from the system. That’s why we have so many bird baths on our property, five to be exact and they always see more activity than our feeders. In the winter time, they have a simple birdbath heater to keep them open. And all of this means a great photographic opportunity for you!
Red-breated Nuthatch
captured by D500 / 300PF
The key is to have perches for the birds to land on coming to and leaving the bird bath. The Bullock’s Oriole above was coming into the bath and the 600mm isolated it against a great background. That was a planned perch, not luck. The bottom photo is a Red-breasted Nuthatch coming landing on a perch right on the bird bath up close with the 300PF. If the photo was to illustrate just the Nuthatch, I wouldn’t have included the bird bath. This is a very simple and effective way to attract and take care of your birds and photographic habit all at the same time. And when planned out, all from the comfort of your own home!
Jan 3, 2018 | Landscape Photography
With no snow on the ground, I’ve been bouncing off the walls photographically. That’s because winter is all about snow and we live in the mountains, for the snow! I can only sit for so long! So with the New Year’s supermoon, I thought I’d head down the road to find something in the foreground to put with it to make it look super. Because otherwise, it’s just a full moon photo … right? Well, I struck out so came back home thinking I might do something with the pines on the property. Well, that blew chunks so I headed back in to put the 200-400VR when I noticed the clouds lit up by the moon. Then I thought about the corner tree all lit up that with the clouds in the background made it a complete photo. So I put the 24-70VR on the D850, headed over an made a couple of clicks. So while you can’t see the 14% larger moon in the frame, you can see the 14% brighter moon in the clouds. And with that, I headed back into the fire :-)
Dec 22, 2017 | Wildlife Photography
Rocky Mtn Bighorn
With the new snows of the season, I thought I’d answer a common question that floods in this time of year. “How do you (as in Moose) expose for snow?” Of course, living in snow, I have a number of off the cuff answers, but I’ll move past those and get to the heart of the question as I look at it. What color is snow? Unless a Moose or dog has passed by, it’s white, right? The common belief that if there is snow in the scene, automatically dial in +1. A recommendation that comes from the meters of the 1970s. We’re not in the ’70s. I honestly don’t think there are viewers of your snow photograph who wouldn’t recognize the white stuff on the ground as snow. With that being true, then seeing detail in every crystal of the snow (what +1 might does for you) is not mission critical to tell the viewer the white stuff they are looking at is indeed, snow. With that storytelling in place then, how do I expose for snow? Exposure is YOUR greatest tool to express the feeling, mood, and life in your photograph. Just because you see something white, don’t automatically do anything.
Bald Eagles
captured by D5 / 800mm
We have two photos here, both of snow. The feel of both is totally different. The top photo has a bluish-gray cast, the bottom photo the snow is your basic snow white. The top image makes me feel cold, that’s why I underexposed it in camera and did not remove the color cast in post. The bottom image, I exposed normally (no comp) and did remove the color cast in post (using ACR). The key to exposure for both images is the RANGE of light in the entire scene and not the fact there is snow in the scene. I exposed for the subject and not the white stuff. Like with most of my photography, I try to keep the light range within 3 stops. When that’s the case, then I just have to click, the D5, D850, D500 or D7500 meter will do the rest. When it’s outside the 5 stop range, to deal with the greater range of light I shoot with the D5, D850 and overexpose. This is totally ass-backwards from what I did for thirty years but it brings into play the 6 stop range of those cameras. Look at the light between the photos in that post and this. Can YOU see the difference in the light falling on the scene? It is exacerbated by the snow, but not determined in whole by the presence of snow.
SO how does Moose expose for snow? Just like any other scene, it depends on the subject, the light on the subject, the light on the rest of the stage and then the story I want to tell within the confines of my viewfinder. Exposure is way too powerful a tool to just dial in some value of exposure compensation automatically. The world doesn’t need another technically perfect photograph. The world needs another photograph with passion to move the viewer!
Dec 18, 2017 | Wildlife Photography
Gtr Sandhill Crane
captured by D5 / 300PF
I’m often asked how much lens do you need for bird photography? My response is a really old quote, “Go out with your longest lens or else you’ll comeback short!” And with that I always add, what’s the story you want to tell? Because for me after being so fortunate to photograph birds for four decades, the answer is real simple. Let me illustrate.
Gtr Sandhill Crane
captured by D5 / 800mm
My quick answer to the question is, 400mm as that’s the lens I started with. The long answer is 800mm but only us nutjobs spend that much on a lens. You really need to reach down and decide if you’re going to go with the herd and the easy route and simply stuff a frame with a bird and call it art, or the hard route and fill the frame with the birds word while making the bird the subject. Ya, it takes less lens for the latter, but a whole lot more skill and passion. And the complete bird photographer has both crafts in their back pocket to call on as needed. It’s real simple when the viewer looks at your bird photograph, do they ask is it a bird, is it a plane or is it …. ?
Dec 18, 2017 | Landscape Photography
Had a very interesting conversation over the weekend with someone wanting to be a photographer. What amazed me was this person’s only camera is an iPhone. Nothing wrong with that except this person wanted to make their livelihood as a landscape photographer. They didn’t know if I shot landscapes but asked my advice on the matter anyway. Since the podcast I recorded sounded way too much like a Moose rant, I decided to delete it and write a calmer post.
The conversation sent my mind back to other conversations about the income side of photography, the expense, and the income. The one thing in those conversations that is essential as far as I’m concerned about photography, especially the business of photography is the passion! I guess I’m really old school or just old, but I have a hard time understanding how a photographer can make it down the long road, be it hobby or profession without that desire to be a visual storyteller that passion propels forward. I feel you have to have it to put into your photography for others to get the passion out of your photography. So while I have no clue if this post will make you feel any better about your photography, but I know getting this off my chest in a calmer way makes me feel a whole lot better. That’s cause photography is all about feelings and not some pie in the sky!
