Nov 3, 2015 | Landscape Photography
Ya baby, it snowed! Only 5″ so far but that means the fire danger is reduced for the moment and that’s huge. It also means our Beagle needs more outside time, she loves the snow. More importantly, I get to photograph birds in the snow again. I used the opportunity to take the 24-70VR out in the inclement weather to see how it would do. It was only 36 degrees, pretty warm, but it had no effect on its operation. It got plenty of snow on it, no effect either. I know for some it’s too early to be seeing or dealing with snow but for drought ridden California, it’s good timing. Let it Snow!
Oct 30, 2015 | Landscape Photography
I have a well earned reputation, I love greeting the sun each day! Ya, this means getting up early but the rewards out weigh the pain (and afternoon naps feel so good!). On our recent visit to Bryce, we greeted the sun each day and while some days were not as spectacular as others, just listening to the world come to life as the birds sing and the deer stroll, makes each and everyone one a celebration for the soul. And those mornings when we did see the sun, it didn’t disappoint!
Shooting is really rather simple. Armed with the D750 / 14-24AFS and closing the lens down to f/22, all one had to do was look and click. The first thing you might be asking is, “what about exposure?” Well, I’m “pinching” the sun to increase the starburst at the same time, minimizing its brightness lowering the range of light, slightly. So I dial in -1.7, shooting Landscape Tone Curve and then simply finish in ACR. I run my Nik recipe of Pro Contrast & Darken/Lighten Center and all done. Now that bright spot on the left does pull the mind’s eye there but the texture and beauty of Bryce sucks it back making it a perfect marriage. I know it’s the weekend but greet the sun, it always says hello back in a spectacular way!
Oct 29, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
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Those racks, it’s what fall is all about when you’re a wildlife photographer! Just as trophy hunters look for the biggest set, so do wildlife photographers. But how do you make them look as big if not bigger in your photo than they are in the wild? This 50-52″ rack isn’t a huge one but it is respectable. The first thing in making the rack appear large in the frame is to shoot UP on the subject. Not eye level, not down, but an upward angle is a must in making the antlers appear large. This is just a basic human response to shooting up. It appears more masculine, more majestic and for a bull Moose, bigger! Next is the lens you shoot with. Longer is not always the best choice. In this case, I’m shooting with the 200-400VR2 (with D4s) because I love how 400mm communicates the strength of the animal. My preferred focal length is 300mm but getting that opportunity is a challenge. Lastly, it’s the pose the bull Moose takes, or you capture.
Personally, the pose you see right above is my favorite way of making the rack appear it’s largest. The way antlers grow, there is a large space between the head and the palm of the antler. That space visually makes the rack appear smaller in a photo when shooting straight on since you have no other visual reference as to size. You don’t know how great that space is in the photo like you do when you’re there in person being starred at by this magnificent critter. So when you have a side profile, that space between the head and palms is smaller and so making the rack looking larger. At the same time, minimizing how much of the Bull’s body you see makes a difference as well. Moose are freakin big and that mass dwarfs the size of their rack in the photo. So cropping into the body or hiding part of it adds to the illusion of massive antlers. Understand that without that rack, it’s just a cow Moose and most don’t want to photograph a cow. They want a Bull and Bulls with big racks simply grab the viewers attention. So when you find it, keep in mind that you photograph has to scream giant rack just like the impression it left when you saw it in person.
Oh … and the post title? You can’t imagine all the search engines that grab that title and all the disappointed folks who click on it thinking they’re going to get a helluva show. I gotta get a LOL whenever I can :-)
Oct 28, 2015 | Landscape Photography
The breeze is cool, the ground is moist and the clouds have rolled in. You’re standing on the rim of Bryce Canyon and what you see above is what your eyes and senses are delivering to you mind and heart …
You insert your best settings into the camera and go click and the camera’s LCD delivers you what you see above. What went wrong? Actually, nothing! The image you see above came directly from the image below and the image below is exactly what I wanted to capture. Shot with the D750 / 24-70AFS, it’s kinda a simple click (processed ACR / Nik). One of the keys to photography in the digital age is understanding all our cameras can and cannot do, capture, communicate. At the same time, understand all our digital darkroom, can and cannot do, translate and communicate. You start with understanding that there is a computer we’re working with and computers like data. Our cameras have the biggest sample base in collecting data with the computer only able to work with the data the camera delivers. If what you see above is a mystery or is not what your photography is delivering, understand you can do it too you just need to explore, learn and share and you’ll find it!
Oct 22, 2015 | Landscape Photography
Fall color has a mental, emotional, romantic value to it that centers around color. This comes from the combination of the color of the leaves and the color of the light in fall. Personally, I love the quality of the light in the fall of all light during the year. So when you go to take your fall color, often the “fall” value of the light is not considered in the fall color photograph. Light is considered but not the natural warmth the light has as the sun heads north.
I put these images up to illustrate my thought. The top photo uses the WB the camera assigned to the photo. This is what it says the WB was using AWB, the camera assigning 4265k to the scene. You can see the blue content in the photo making the trunks whiter and colors colder. The bottom photo was shot with the WB in the camera set to Cloudy, or 6000k. You can now see the fall light warmth in the photo that we saw as we stood there and shot it. Why would I set the camera to Cloudy in this scene, especially since there was no red sky in the photo? We were at 10,000 in altitude and we had bald skies. That combo I knew there was an over abundance of blue and Cloudy was the only WB that would accurately record the scene. Some would ask, why bother doing this in the camera, just “fix” it in post. There’s a book in answering that question but for me, it still comes down to camera craft. Knowing our camera, knowing our scene, knowing our storytelling and knowing that we want the ultimate quality in the end is why we do it in the camera. If you don’t understand all of this, take your camera outside and start testing. You can teach yourself to see light, feel light and when you do, the viewers of your photographs will feel it too!
Oct 21, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Moose are a funny critter (you can associate that with the 2 & 4 legged ones). I’ve always found their biology quite fascinating. For example, them long legs, they’re for getting through the deep brush and snow they live in. They have an amazing high step but when running from a predator, it turns into this fast yet funny shuffle. Then there are those big racks, the antlers that us photographers love to photograph. As you can see in these 2-3yr olds, they ain’t got them yet but that doesn’t prevent them from playing with them.
They do serve a purpose but it’s not exactly what you might think. At this stage of life, they are just getting use to them being there. They do shed them in January after just a couple of months of wearing them and a short period of really putting them to use. At this age, these bulls will just have pushing fun, not real battles because they are not ready to become part of the mating pool. They have to figure out how to turn their head to first make a push against their opponent and then figure out how to turn their head to block a thrust. Since there are no nerves or muscles in the antlers, it’s all from the head. It’s a skill to say the least they have a short time to develop.
And believe it or not, that’s not what turns the ladies on! It’s not the battling, it’s the noise but more about that in another post. Getting the shot requires that first, you get to where they are at and that means hiking. Next is the right time of year and that depends on the region but fall, October, is the general time. Then is finding the action and that requires more than one moose. And finally, the gear. Personally, for battles the further away I can be the better so they can do their thing unimpeded. I shot this with the D4s / 200-400VR2 with TC-14eIII which put me about 40-60 yards away from the action. The final outcome of this pushing match? They headed for the hills when the big boys showed up so these youngsters know their place. Now in 3-4yrs, these kids will be the big boys and then we’ll really know how well they learned.
