Feb 17, 2015 | Landscape Photography
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“Moose, you use to do so many panos. Don’t do them anymore?” This question comes in, alot! The short answer is, ya, I do lots of panos still, never stopped. But with the ease of assembling them now, I simply don’t talk about it much. Back in the day, assembling a pano especially a Ultra Wide Pano was hours and hours of work. Now, it can be done in a matter of seconds and look one helluva a lot better. Like this one above shot on the Costa Rican coast, all it took were two clicks of a Nikon 1 V3 / 10-30 and two clicks in post and you have a pano. If you have an iPhone, you don’t even have to do that much work to capture the splendor our world offers. Now with that all said, the number of panos I’m asked to look at that should never been taken has vastly increased as well. So while it is easier the photographic technique remains the same. So for me personally, if more than half of the pano can’t stand by themselves as individual photos, together they don’t make a pano.
Feb 17, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Gary with amazing skill followed the trail up from the surf, up the beach and over the top. There the trail ended in a small clump of grass. Feverishly he digs down below the grass clump. He’s found a nest that has hatch under the grass. He knows sites like this, some hatchlings get caught in the roots. After a few moments he emerges from his digging with two newly hatched sea turtles in his hands. One is dead, the other is still alive. To finish the cycle, the hatchling must travel to the surf from its nest on its own. Only by doing so will it mark on this locations and years from now, comeback to lay its own eggs. That’s only if it beats the odds and survives all the predators waiting for it on the sand and in the water. Following behind it down the beach with Df / 18-35AFS shooting away, the struggle of this endangered species had me thinking.
As photographers, we often start off all tangled up. It feels like all that goes into making a photograph intwines us holding us back from ever moving forward. Then we get that helping hand and we break loose and our path appears to be clear. Yet, with ever step there is one obstacle stopping us for a moment until we start moving forward again. And this we go through for years as we grow photographically. Then, we emerge. Photography like so many things in life is not an easy path, nor one where we ever have all the answers or find the one answer. It is and should be, a journey that with the wisdom that comes from age improves our photography, our story. As long as you keep moving forward one step at a time, you are making the journey and winning the race. But more than likely, there is no end but simply a life long adventure. Like the small sea turtle, we do break loose to experience it all.
Feb 12, 2015 | Landscape Photography
Part of telling a story in landscape photography at times requires knowing the size of the landscape. In macro photography, we can for example place a dime by something and we all would know instantly the approximate size of the subject. Put a dime in a landscape though and you’ll need a metal detector to find it. So a common object we use as a scale reference are people. We can get a general idea from them the grandeur of the scene, we can understand distance and a feel for size. But even with this simple element, we can take it even further by manipulating scale.
Are two images taken really just minutes apart to illustrate my point. Taken with Df / 80-400 at 400mm, can you tell what is different between the two changing the sense of overall size? Really, can you tell because I’m not going to say. You’re going to have to look at these images to figure it out. Then, if you like it, you need to go out and do it for yourself so then when you need the technique, you have it in your bag of tricks. Moving our feet can really change a photograph, especially when manipulating scale.
Feb 11, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
One of the BIGGEST “things” in being successful in wildlife photography is, just be there! For example, I know and it bugs the bejiggers out of me that while I sit here and create this post, there are great wildlife photographs out there I am missing. It’s real simple, when we’re not out where they, we’re missing those shots. Ya, it’s part of life but with wildlife who you just can’t set an appointment with, it’s kinda important. And then when you are out, being in the right place at the right time for the moment is the next big challenge. And that you can kinda help that along by simply recognizing from biology and act on it to move.
We were cruising the lagoon in Costa Rica on our second day on the water. The Boat-billed Herons like to hang out in this one location. Being a night heron, they are pretty secluded during the day time hours. They are also on the shaded side of the lagoon so I waited until the sun was pretty high in the sky so some light would bounce into their shadowy world where they like to perch. I was watching the area when I saw some commotion. I paddled over because usually that kind of commotion means birds are moving around and one might be out in the open. Still shooting with the simple rig, Df / 80-400, I paddled and then stopped paddling far enough away so that I would “coast” up to the location of the commotion. I got up there to find the Boat-billed Heron you see in the top frame.
Now what I didn’t know was the reason for the commotion I’d heard. It’s that time of year and this pair of Boat-bills were … well … I’ll let your imagination fill in the blanks. I didn’t know this until just moments after I arrived and got the top click when this Heron reached over, broke off this branch and stood there with it in its bill and that silly expression. And it was all grand, planned luck! While you might preconceive wanting this photograph, you can work to be in place, but with wildlife so often the key to success is just be there!
Feb 10, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Have you ever photographed monkeys (the animal), in the wild? My first attempt was two years ago and I went bananas coming back with nothing. The main issue is, they are high in tree canopies nearly directly overhead all in shadow with the bright sky screaming in from behind. The other thing working against photographing monkeys in the wild are all the photos of captives which show of the very cute and “human” nature of monkeys. These preconceived ideas of what a monkey does look like, puts even more pressure on photographing them in the wild. Well, on our K&M Adventure to Costa Rica, we totally lucked out!
We were on the lagoon in sea kayaks photographing the phenomenal birds that inhabit it. I was shooting with a very simple rig, Df / 80-400 as it’s light, small and easy to work in the kayak (yes, hand holding shooting from a kayak). We had a very light overcast, bright but diffused light. Perfect light for the birds. I was working my way around the edge, working the birds as I came up to them when I saw the trees on the bank start to move. Now monkeys in trees make them move in a very specifc way, the branches go up and down rather than normal sideways with a breeze. So when I saw this, I instantly paddled over to them. At first, we had a troop of Spider Monkeys but they left after a short time. Then came the White-faced Capuchins and the fun began!
These guys are about the size of your basic house cat, just longer limbs and tail. This opportunity was so cool because we weren’t shooting up through the canopy but on the edge of it. The trees came right to the edge of the lagoon with some branches handing near the water’s surface. And the light was gorgeous and not some horrendous backlight junk. The white blossoms you see them eating are a night blooming flower that closes during the day (they are actually licking the pollen from the base of the blossom). For whatever reason they weren’t closed and the Capuchins were having a feast! I “parked’ the kayak at a point putting me closest to the tree and waited. What you see here are the Capuchins coming closer to me to feed on the nectar in the blossoms. Shot at 400mm the whole time, just used biology to get closer and the image size. At the same time, I really wanted the photo of all the pollen collecting on their cheeks. It was a great thirty minutes of shooting, all monkey business.
Feb 3, 2015 | Landscape Photography
While many parts of the country are receiving snow, some much more than the rest, here in the Sierras we are in a desperate state! We’ve had no snow of any measure this year and at the moment, we have dirt where there should be 15′ of snow. So anytime, anytime any cloud comes over the hill, I’m out doing a dance and taking photos hoping, just hoping this will be the one. And while we have no snow, we’ve had some gorgeous clouds like these shot from our deck. Shot with the D4s / 58f1.4AFS, it’s a pretty good example of what we’re experiencing without the white stuff.
Another adverse outcome of our drought it the nearly total lack of birds in our feeders. Normally in the winter, the shutter in my cameras are smoking because there is so much to photograph. Right now, luckily I have two Flickers and a Hairy Woodpecker, and that’s it! Because there is no snow cover, there is plenty of food and free water so the birds are scattered and don’t need to come to our offerings. That sucks!
And just so you know, Perfect Suite 9 had an update. This photo was simply processed in ACR and then in Perfect 9 B&W and took only a couple of clicks to finish. Now, if it would just snow!
