Dec 23, 2014 | Landscape Photography
Might seem like a really silly question, is it a landscape or wildlife photograph? But asking that and answering it for your photography just might make the final photograph more powerful. How? The answer to the question can effect everything deciding what is the subject to placement of the subject in the frame to exposure. For example, if the towering thunderhead in the New Mexico sunset is the subject, then you frame it in your viewfinder and let the Gtr Sandhill Crane fly into the frame and into place. If the Sandhill Crane is the subject, you might just pan with it and click when you see in the background the form of the thunderhead you like. And while the final photo might look exactly the same, how you came about it is different and that difference will effect the story you tell.
The funny thing to me is, most of the time when I show these types of images to folks, they think of them as a landscape photograph. While in my mind they are pure wildlife. I’m shooting of course with the D4s / 800mm, panning with the cranes putting them in the frame based on what I’m seeing in the background. Now you might be wondering why I’m shooting such big glass when the subject size is so small? Well with the cranes being nice and black (under exposure), their iconic shape says who they are so they visually pop without being huge in the frame. So the long glass permits me to select the more spectacular portion of the thunderhead for the background (and its red because when I see red in the sky, I go to Cloudy WB). Now we’ll all answer this question differently and that’s how it should be. What is important is that you find the answer for YOUR photography. What’s important is, that you ask the question.
Dec 22, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
This trip to Bosque brought a new idea to my photography, critter reflections. Ya, I’ve played with them before but this time I find a couple of more pieces to the puzzle so the photos are good enough to finally post. Ya, that means I’ve had a whole bunch of failure playing with this but I keep working it. Now shooting long and in this case shooting D4s / 800mm, moving quickly to get the reflection of the critter and the reflection of the background all at once is key. Then there is the percentage of reality left in with the illusion. Like I’ve said, there has been lots of failure but I do enjoy this one success. (BTW) You can see the background I had that I left to capture the ripples in this photo.
Dec 22, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
Reflections bounce their magic in our photographs in many different ways. A way I like to play with them when working water birds are ripples of blue water. The ripples are created by the critter in the water but they only show up by using reflections to bring them out. It starts by picking the right background. Dark is best so in this case, I moved laterally with the D4s / 800mm to the right so the Black Mountains were the reflection in the water. Where I was standing I only saw blue water and some scattering of white clouds reflected in the water. You need the dark reflection because the ripples are going to be lighter tones. You need apposing tones to make it work.
While this will work with overcast skies, who wants to see gray water. Na, we want our water to be blue so we need blue skies. That’s because the ripples are reflecting the blue skies, it’s an old principle in photography … angle of incidence equals angle of reflection. The flat surface of the water is reflecting the mountains but the ripples which are valleys and peaks radiating out from the critter reflect the blue sky. Using a telephoto to isolate the subject against the background, you can use reflections is a whole new way to bring a little romance to your photos.
Dec 19, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
It was one of those magical mornings at Bosque when the night time temps went down for the count so at sunrise, it was a brisk 19 degrees. While the cranes and geese stay warm, the water does not and ice forms. Not thick enough to form around the birds but enough of a freeze to create a thin layer on the pond. So thin that bigger birds punch through and lighter birds walk on top. Thin over the deeper portions of the pond and thicker nearer the shallow portions. The cranes which slowly move from the main flock to wake up, socialize and then take off have to negotiate this ice field and while they have big feet for walking in muck and mud, they are not made for ice. You can hear the laughter amongst the photographers as they watch all the slipping and sliding as the cranes try to maintain their elegance while falling on their butt is quite loud. And once the cranes are in the air, all you hear from the photographers besides the camera clicks is the admiration for the beauty of cranes as they fly off. They are gorgeous!
As I stood there watching this, laughing and in admiration, I thought what we were watching is so applicable to photography. While we look good standing their with our camera gear glistening in the morning sun, more long glass than a dozen football game sidelines combined, there is a whole hell of a lot of slipping going on. Missed shots from everything like chimping to simple inexperience. It’s part of the photographic process and once the humiliation is over, we have to laugh it off. And there is that one or two photo that we see later on our monitor that sums up our experience perfectly and all that slipping slides away and we’re just in awe of our subject and how we’ve told its story. Photography is such an amazing pursuit no matter what genre you practice your art. Just understand that a lot of the time just like in nature, that often we will find elegance while slipping.
Dec 16, 2014 | Landscape Photography
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My normal method of posting a blog is to use 15.4″ MacBook Retina and an Action to prep images and post using WordPress and wireless internet. In this day and age of wireless image delivery to a mobile device, I wanted to see if shooting with the Nikon V3, Nikon WMU app, iPad and PS Express (to finish images), if I could shoot, process, and post while on the plane. Why?
One, because I love a challenge. Two, God forbid, but in this world of ours, I might have to do it someday really fast. Lastly, I wanted to see if I could actually do it. I don’t know why these ideas come in my head, but I do know that if I don’t follow them, at some point I’ll regret it. It was a gorgeous flight and even though I’m shooting out the plane window, I proved to myself that with just these tools I could get the story out. The hardest thing was putting in all the links because of how the iPad copies, but it’s all very doable. For an old film guy, that’s just darn cool!
Dec 15, 2014 | Landscape Photography, Random Thoughts
How big of a camera do you need? How big of a lens should you have in your bag? How big should the pixel count be that you work with? These questions find there way to my inbox it seems hourly with fews of my answers pleasing those asking. This simple click from a Nikon 1 V3 is of as big a subject as they come but has big impact only because its as big as your heart!
