Feb 6, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
Just as birds look their best in spring, mammals tend to look their best in the heart of winter. Fur serves many purposes and for most mammals it’s warmth in winter. Fur has always fascinated me because it varies so from critter to critter, habitat to habitat. Some like the Arctic Fox and “The Bastard” (White-tailed Hare) completely change color as well as fur density from winter to summer. Some like the Coyote and Bighorn just grow denser fur between seasons. And some like little rodents don’t do much of anything because they sleep through winter. Whatever the mammal though, when they have their best coat on they look their best for photography and for most of North America, that’s winter time.
When it comes to photographing these critters as you can see in the photos, I love the overcast, stormy kind of light. Why? There are many reasons the first being, their thick, brown coats look the warmest against the bluish nature of the light. If I were for example, to change the white balance so the coyote were to have the bluish color cast of the light, it would come across as a cold and evil critter. But using a warmer WB the coyote now comes across as a warm and cuddly critter. If I wanted the bighorn to appear like it was struggling through winter, the bluish color cast would work to convey this. But I want the bighorn to look like it’s going through its day just like it were any other day so the warmer WB. And all of this is based on that thick, winter coat and the world in which it is set. Both of these images were shot with the 600mm / TC-17e so that I could isolate the critter in its world so the snow is just an element and not an avalanche. So winter coat, light, WB and lens all had to come together to make the photo.
Feb 5, 2014 | Landscape Photography
If you’re heading along the Eastside of the Sierra shooting in the afternoon, you’re always contending with the sun light being squeezed over the ridge. Add clouds and you have to deal with them burnt out highlights. Or do you? Controlling the highlight has been a growing obsession over the last few years even though often, we can’t see detail in that highlight with our naked eyes. So perhaps, there are times when yanking out the detail that we normal wouldn’t see isn’t worth jumping through hoops to get. That’s what went through my mind with the Df / 24-70AFS up to my eye looking at the scene. The range of light is well beyond ten stops as the sun blazed through the clouds. And that brightness was considered as the image was framed up in the viewfinder. Because the eye will go there first. But if you think about it, you can still use other elements in the frame to move the eye through the frame and then back to that brightness. If you give this a try, remember that the very worst thing that could happen is, you delete the photo. The most? You find a new way to look at your world and share it.
Feb 5, 2014 | Landscape Photography
Heading south for the shoot, it was on the heals of the little storm that was blowing out of the area. There are two classic characteristics of Sierra winter storms, lots of wind before and after. So knowing the storm was heading out, I drove down with the Df / 24-70AFS on my lap constantly looking out the window for the photo opp. We had gone thirty minutes down the road when things started to get interesting. This opportunity turned up at a spot where pulling over wasn’t possible. Yeap, I put the lens up to the windshield and shot as we continued down the road. The camera was in Live View and the firing mode set to Continuous to play the averages as we road down the road of bumps. Is it a great shot, not by any means. Does it remind me of home, especially as a I speed away from it? You bet and that’s the best part. Now to make them clouds look a little more “stormy,” I simply brought the Clarity up, White up, Shadow up and Highlights down in ACR. And one of the cool things about traveling along the Sierra as a storm comes and goes, around the corner it might be even better.
Feb 3, 2014 | Landscape Photography
Our world is a vast landscape that we experience every moment. Be it mountains, meadows, seascape or city, it’s a living carpet that we call our home. And every inch of it is photographable, a treasure and within your reach to inspire. But I hear from many that, “Landscapes just aren’t in them!” One of the very special aspects of photography making it such a universal language is, we can all do our own thing in so many genres and still come together as photographers. And there’s a real simple answer why this is so. It’s called …. light!
Light is the defining elements which makes us stops and longingly stare at a landscape or simply pass it by. Be it a iconic location or your local county park, you can watch the people and know when the light is special or when it’s ordinary. In this day and age, when the light is special, the iPhones and iPads appear out of nowhere to capture the moment. This means that we all see the landscape, there is just for some a disconnect when it makes that memorable moment worthy of our click. So how do you get into landscape photography when you just don’t feel the love? You start in your own backyard!
Like every genre of photography, landscape photography takes some thought, some tools and a ton of passion. For example, landscape photography requires getting up real early, something I’m well known for and what some find its hardest aspect. Why get up early? It has to do with that thing called light. That’s why you start in your backyard so you don’t have to get up quite so early. You’d be surprised the mysteries, magic and photos waiting for you there. When you can take this common subject and make an uncommon photo of it, you are well on your way. What is uncommon? Light coming through the fence, light streaming through the sprinklers, snow when it never snows, the example are endless and when you open your mind to that, there isn’t a landscape on the planet you can’t master!
Feb 2, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
Art and craft of wildlife photography has changed in some aspects greatly since I started back in the 70’s and then, it’s not changed at all. One of the best lenses to have is a 400mm and back then, they were rare and expensive. Now, you can pick up a 70-300 or 80-400 for less than those back then, and they are smaller and sharper. And we’re no longer stuck with just 36frames at a time, thank goodness. And while the art of wildlife photography has greatly increased in the last decades, the craft has suffered some as many turn to technology rather than personal growth to make the great image. Yet, the number of photographers exploring wildlife photographer is slowly declining and the number of images being shared to the general public slowly declining as well. I need YOU to make them great images and share them to enlighten all about our wild heritage! Many ask though, “Where do I start?”
In all sincerity, the best place to start is in your own backyard! It’s where I’ve been shooting and continue to shoot for decades. You can get a real quick course on making a backyard shooting gallery in my KelbyTraining course. But the basics are real simple: food, water, light and time and of course, a camera. And with no real knowledge other than how to load batteries and a CF Card, you and the critters will teach you all you need to know. It is very intoxicating and with that first bird or squirrel in the viewfinder, the bug will bite and life takes care of the rest.
What is the end goal? I’m not sure there is one to be honest with you but being kissed by a griz like Jake is here is not it. Unlike other photographic disciplines, wildlife photography is so dependent on a subject showing up and we have no control over that. Without that control, we must depend in large part to luck but it’s a luck we make for ourselves. That luck we make comes from lessons we learn in our own backyard by watching and shooting. Putting ourselves in the right place at the right time with the right gear comes from the lessons we teach ourselves. And as we continue to practice this over the years our photography grows as do the stores we’ve captured. And that’s where the sharing comes in. But it all starts with that first lens, camera and critter in our backyard. As the old saying does, try it, you’ll like it!
Jan 30, 2014 | Landscape Photography
I was talking with some photogs about an image when I said, “It just seems forced.” I got back a wall of contorted faces basically saying, Huh? I thought I would explain to you what I mean in the hopes it might help you with your photography. I’m using for an example one of my own photos, a prime example of what I call a “forced” image. This photo was taken in Alabama Hills on an afternoon when I was finding ~nothing~ to shoot. That’s when I should have stopped. I simply wasn’t feeling the love, light was flat, shapes not popping out. So then I came to the small window and even though there is no photo here, I went ahead and made the shot. But the shot was a pain between getting myself, tripod and camera in place and then making the 9 frame HDR to hold in all the exposure in the “cave” and through the window. Then after this, came back to the digital darkroom to finish what I went through great effort to capture of a photo that when was all said and done, sucks. So a forced image is one we felt forced to take because “How dare we get skunked when shooting” that we then feel “forced” to finish since we went through the first process. And when it’s all said and done, it was a photo that shouldn’t have been taken. That’s what I call a “Forced” photo. The moral? Don’t take the photo in the first place and be satisfied with just the effort and time behind the camera.
