Jul 11, 2017 | Landscape Photography
This question came in not once, but twice over the weekend in response to an Instagram photo I posted. I take that as a great compliment! There is a reason my bud McNally calls me “Dances with Clouds” and that’s because I can’t pass up a good cloud. And that’s where it all starts the challenge for many, determining if it’s a good cloud or not. There are a couple of key elements in my approach to a romantic cloud photograph and that does it have character and will finishing bring out that character? What’s cloud character? In my mind that comes from the shape(s) in and about the cloud that shades of blacks, whites, and grays create (foreground earth is key here as well). The way the light plays on the shape and texture in the cloud is key! To see this I think you need to have a vivid imagination which I have. I’m not talking about seeing a face or critter in the clouds but rather, design elements that move the eye around the frame while touching the heart. Clouds require heart. The challenge in this is seeing what’s actually there and what will come forth in the digital darkroom tying this all up in drama.
Mammoth Flats
captured by D500 / 10-24AFS
What you’re seeing at the top is the finished photo, the bottom what the camera captured. You can see what I saw in both instances, the character I saw in reality and that in which I envisioned. In this photo, the main character is the “formation” that is dead center in the frame with the highlight on the right and the darkness on the left moving the eye through the frame once finished. Now part of this equation is knowing how the image will finish in post. It’s kinda which came first, the pixel or the egg? Working with Luminar, I knew exactly how the Preset I created would make that center formation pop. So those two elements I count on in my cloud photography might be the biggest challenge for your cloud photography that only time and playing in post will make successful. Until you come across that next great cloud, take one you have in your files now and start experimenting with the post processing that makes your passion come alive. Then remember that as you frame up those floating pillows of drama.
Jul 6, 2017 | Wildlife Photography
We were so fortunate last week to spend it in the company of some great shooter and amazing birds. That combination should have produced some killer images. It was on paper the perfect mix of biology and technology, hummers and flash. Madera Cyn, Santa Rita Lodge, in particular, is simply a spectacular location for birds, specifically hummers. With that biology, today’s iTTL technology is the perfect tool for produce the images we were after. We should start there, the image we were after. There are definitely two camps when it comes to Hummer photos, frozen wings, and blurred wings. After seeing my aviation work and the blurred props, it’s no coincidence I’m in the blurred wing camp. It’s simple, I experience hummers as this blurred jewel and that’s how I want to tell their story in my photos. And that’s where this all begins, the subject and the story I want to tell.
What makes hummers so darn cool? Their hovering abilities and the amazing colors they bring to our world. The key to bringing this to life is flash. There is a simple rule in photography regarding light … The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. This rule is very angular, straight line but our subject is anything but flat! The curve of the hummingbird gorget, throat, is very curved so if we use a flash by itself, we end up with just one specular highlight or one spot on the neck with color. To overcome this rule of physics, we used two SB-5000s each with a Rogue FlashBender 2 small. As you can see below, they are attached together and curved. With this, you can light up the entire throat of the hummer and the light bounces back with all the color to the film plane. Easy peasy! There is just one little flaw in this whole light, hummer, success theory!
The technology worked great. The main rig was the D500, 300PF, 2x SB-5000s (with SD connected) with the 2 Rogue. Shooting using the Autoarea AF in the D500 along with wireless WR-R10 iTTL made the technical pretty simple. The 300PF with its fast focsuing and MFD was the perfect lens to use for this challenge. More importantly, this very small, totally portable rig took the hassle out of big lights, boxes and expense out of the picture. And with the ease came the fun! The hitch to all this great theory is the person behind the camera and the bird in front of it. As you can see in the Magnificent photo at the top, when the Hummer was facing into the lights, he lights up like neon. But when he doesn’t face into the lights, the rule of light means we see only black neck.
So, what went wrong? The fault is all mine, the person behind the camera and not the theory or the technology but rather the execution. Control in wildlife photography is a myth but we can slant things in our favor. In this case, the hummer was able to feed on the side flowers on the feeder. By not placing tape on them, the hummer could come and go sides ways rather than in from the back which would have made them face the lights (like in the top photo). Now can this all work? Oh hell ya, just take a look at what Carol captured with the same rig, same hummer, gorgeous! So what does this all mean? It means I will spend more time working on my end of the deal, the person behind the camera and I will be heading back again next summer to Madera to put it into practice! Because where it has to look great in the photo, all the light melded together to show off these flying jewels. It doesn’t count if it jsut looks great on paper!
Note: Many have asked for my settings in doing this. Knowing that info is useless as the ambient light always changes, the flash to subject distance fluctuates and most importantly, how we meld light will always be different. If you want to find out the settings for you, set up your rig and photograph a red xmas ball in various light and then you will have your numbers for YOUR photography.
Jun 28, 2017 | Wildlife Photography
After sitting, stewing, and sleeping on it, I came up with minor changes in our technical tools and ideas and they started to payoff for us. Still shooting with the captured by D500 / 300PF / 2x SB-5000 set up but have made better use of Auto Area AF. The idea, of course, is not only capture the photo but have a ton of fun and enjoy the magic that is hummingbirds. We got much closer to that today. Now it’s still not “the” photo I want, but it’s now moving in the right direction so while slow progress, it’s still progress.
Jun 27, 2017 | Wildlife Photography
I’m down in nirvana, or to birders better known as Madera Canyon. It’s been thirteen years since our last visit here and we have a great, advanced group taking on the challenge of photographing hummers in flight. The goal is not to take a photo of a hummer frozen in the air, the goal is to bring to life in our still the magic that is these flying jewels. Today, I went down in flames not even coming close to the goal! Thirteen years ago, we didn’t have such cameras as the D500 to use with flashes like the SB-5000 wirelessly (using WR-R10 powered by SD-9 and light modified by Rogue Flashbender 2) which makes a huge difference. And shooting with the 300PF is a simply a joy. And while we’ve come so far in technology and gear, the same challenge of subject and light remain the same. So while technically the photo is OK, the light pleasant, it is miles from my goal! Will I get there in the week I have? I don’t know and if you don’t see a post here showin results, well, then, you and I will both know that answer to that question.
Jun 23, 2017 | Wildlife Photography
It’s essential that the more we click, the better we click! Because if we don’t learn from our photographic past, we are doomed to relive it over and over again. One of the huge challenges is remembering what we’ve done, the good and the bad and remember which is which so we avoid one and embrace the other. That’s kinda what this week’s podcast is about. Perhaps if we look at the lessons we learn on a minute by minute scale, the bigger lessons might stick better. Case in point.
A week ago we had this amazingly cute and cooperative Arctic Hare. When we first stopped, he wanted nothing to do with us, slowly sliding off into some low cover. Doing an 180, we walked to where I thought he might emerge. He did and when he did he found the four of us there staring at him through our lenses. And with that, he could care less we were present and went back to munching. Biologically and photographically, that’s perfect so now we could work on getting that one photo that summed up our experiences, tell the story visually!
None of us were using long glass, I was shooting the D7500 / 300PF and was perhaps 7-9′ away from the little guy. And when he first emerged he was in a shadow of a Spruce. The light was not optimal, to say the least. We were in the last rays of the sun and I saw our shadow on the rock. I said that I wanted the Hare to come out because I wanted to catch his shadow on the rock. To facilitate my thought, we all moved back to give him room to move out into the last rays of the Arctic sun.
After a short time, he grazed down into the light. While I like the sitting shot with the touch of glow to the head, I knew it could be better. Then there was the feeding shot with the shadow on the rock so we’re getting closer to what I had previsioned but still, it could be better. The shoot while only lasting about fifteen minutes was progressing from a simple record shot of a species existence to … well … a moment that summed up our time with this cute critter. Because the last shots I got captured the Hare’s cuteness, goofiness and that shadow that times it in with the long summer days of the Arctic. The photograph progressed right in front of our eyes, getting better with every click. That was in part because of seeing where we were at and having an idea where we want to go and what we thought we needed to make that happen. The trick is to apply this fifteen-minute lesson to a weekly, monthly and yearly lesson for all of our photography. Some shots here work, some don’t, kinda like our weekly, monthly and yearly efforts. You learn from it all and your photography will evolve and that’s the goal. Because with knowledge and passion we can reach that goal, that our photograph progression never ends!
Jun 22, 2017 | Wildlife Photography
You know what I’m talking about, we’ve all had to deal with them. The unsightly stick in our critter photos, argh! The mind’s eye loves vertical lines especially when they have any kind of texture taking the eye away from our cute and fuzzy subject, argh! So we tend to go to great lengths to either make them disappear or simply not take the photo in the first place. This photo of an American Robin demonstrates a technique I try to use whenever possible.
First, keep in mind I’m shooting with a very narrow angle of view. In this case, the D500 / 800mm permit me to move just a small distance, 6 inches to the side to incorporate out of focus leaves to help hide the annoying branch. Now in order to move over to grab that leaf, I also had to move backward. Subject size is not a priority when the subject stands out visually so with that branch now hidden even through the Robin is smaller in the frame it stands out more. Now if you’re not shooting with a long lens, this technique is harder as you’re taking in more of the world. It’s just another example though why I like the long glass.
