The 180degree view of the Fisheye lens like the 16Fish or 8-15Fish can be stunning and essential to a visual story. At the same time, the natural “curve” the Fish can create might be desired. Here’s a simple digital darkroom lesson how to deal with it. Keep in mind everything was done at the time of capture to “plumb” the subject at the time of capture. That makes a difference in the digital darkroom.
Fall is less than a month away and with it comes colder temps and thicker fur. At the same time for many mammals, it’s time for fall mating rituals. When you add into this mix the colors of fall and the gorgeous light and you have a wildlife photographer’s nirvana! This all can bring to the table a huge challenge as a visual storyteller. You might think gear can be an issue, but I think that’s the least of them. The basics of photo creating gets in there quickly. There can be a lot going on in excluding those elements that take the eye away from the subject while including those that tell the story. But on the scale of the biggest, it has to be the romance. Here are some thoughts.
Dall Sheep
captured by D2H / 400f2.8
I’ve selected the images I have illustrating this post based on all the varied gear used to make the photos. The only common thread is it’s all Nikon and all digital. After that, it’s kinda all over the map on bodies and lenses. This is to make the point that while I might prefer the 200-400VR2 for my big game photography, I’ve used all sorts of varying focal lengths with success (you can click on links in the captions to learn more about the lenses). What’s the key to the right lens? You need a focal length that YOU are comfortable with to tell YOUR story. How to find that focal length? I quick way is to rent a lens like the Nikkor 200-500, and then photograph a big dog/horse at 200mm, then 300mm, 400mm, 500mm (nothing in between, not zooming to frame your subject) by using your feet to zoom. You will find the focal length you prefer to tell the story pretty fast. That is as long you don’t go to the “eyeball” camp. But there is more to this than just gear.
Polar Bear
D3 / 70-200f2.8
If you take a moment and look at these four images, they all have one important thing in common. At least I think it’s important, and that’s the light. Showing off that thick fall/winter fur, I prefer and overcast light that has direction. And that direction is backlight. Why? Lack of contrast I feel is very important because too much contrast brings shadow and that makes the fur look “thinner” because individual hairs appear. The lack of shadow makes the fur “thicker” as the hair is in mass. The backlight gives a slight sheen to the hair as well as poop the critter from the background. But most importantly, this combination of light brings out the bulk of the critter, its muscle and fur bulk that comes with fall. These are important ingredients leading down the road of romance. But there is still more to get to that final image.
Wrapping all this up into a photo that reaches out and grabs the heartstring is a combination of background and biology. Where does your critter live, how does it survive, what makes it unique, how does it procreate? These are just some of the questions you can ask and answer in your photograph that begins to tap the viewer’s imagination. And this is still not enough! The final punch has to come from gesture in the entire photograph, critter, and its world. And the time to work all this out is not while you’re standing in front of battling Moose, perched Dall Sheep, foraging Polar Bear or dozy Pronghorn. The time to work this all out is with that big dog/horse. It’s from that practice that you can make the most of those precious moments with that critter in the wild. It’s only by thinking it through and working out the kinks that you’re ready for the season of fur!
On our final day in the UK, we saved what we figured would be the best for last, the Dover Castle. It did not disappoint! One of the first stops has you walk through this massive and incredibly impressive piece of history is the St Mary’s Church that just happens to be next to an AD1000 Roman lighthouse. These structures from the outside are so majestic perched on the hillside commanding a spectacular view of Dover, the English Channel and France in the distance! Taking photos was soooo easy, the subject did all the heavy lifting!
Since landing on English soil, I’ve posted many a “light” photograph on my Instagram account. I’ve received a whole lot of emails asking me how I’m taking these “great” photos? It’s actually really easy. It starts with the gear I’m shooting with, the Df / 8-15Fish. The Df works wonders IMHO in low light, I’m often shooting at ISO 1600. Then the nature of a Fish taking in so much area like the 8-15Fish that the light is able to fall off naturally in the frame (Often shooting at 14mm). Then I just look for that gorgeous spec of light and walls where it is falling off. Since the mind’s eye goes to the brightest, the rest is done by you when viewing the photograph. I now have a vast collection of these “windows of English light” in my files from the past two weeks, all captured in this way but oh my, St Mary’s of Dover!
Our good friend Michael arranged a photo walk while we were in London with the Nikon Users Group. It was a great day, 9 miles along the canals of London. Many don’t even know they exist. Built back in the 1920s to move commerce around the country (there are over 300 miles of canals), today they are home to many as well as a path back through time.
These boats are actually home morred in place for a while until the move to another location, different scenery. Every manner of ingenuity is used in making these boats a home. That includes from tomato gardens to solar panel to sun decks, all in the space of a postage stamp. It was a photographic rich target that just kept on providing amazing possibilities!
Knowing how busy such a locale could be, I went fast in lens selections. Attached to the Df might have been the 24f1.4, 50f1.4 or 105f1.4. All three lenses used to create these images, all shot at f/1.4. Want to thank all 30 folks who joined us, it was simply a marvelous day!!!
It was simply a gorgeous night to walk the Thames with friends and family! How do you incorporate the delightful temp, the sea air smell, the sounds of people enjoying the outdoors and of course, the view, in a photograph? What you see above is how I went about that challenge. Shooting with the Df / 24f1.4 hand-held, I got up high so I could have them in the foreground but not a dominant silhouette. I then crank the ISO up to 3200 (even though shooting at f/1.4) and shot as the kayakers floated by. I used the lights of the bridge and tower to move the eye through the frame and the folks in the foreground for scale and story. The rest I hope the viewer fills in with their imagination.
Jolly Ol England has been just that this past week! Not really sure where they get it from, the kids are into history as much as the old man so we’ve been visiting some really cool English Heritage Sites. This was the first because it was one of the oldest. Blackbury Camp is one of the really early “forts” created for defenders using ROCKS they would throw at their enemy. They dug to create a “ditch” in front of the mound they were making from the ditch spoils. Back in the day, which was 4000bc, the location was completely barren of trees. Now the hilltop is a gorgeous forest.
So for me, here’s the deal when it comes to traveling, family and taking pictures. Being a history buff, I wanted shots of the site while at the same time the photos saying what a peaceful, quiet and gorgeous locale out in the middle of England. When a local showed up to walk his dogs and we said hello, he said: “You’re not from around here!” “Not many locals find this place, how did you?” And that’s really the point of the photographs I take while on holiday. They are simple, clean photos of the experience to capture the memory so when I or anyone in the family who was with me looks at the photo, they will remember the afternoon we walked through Blackbury Camp.
