Oct 17, 2013 | Wildlife Photography
“It’s so cool, he’s still here and drilling” read the text I received from Sharon while still in the Tetons. All of the Aspens on our property have gone bare with fall except one. Our biggest Aspen still has green leaves and that’s the only reason I can figure we have a new buddy in the yard. This immature Red-breasted Sapsucker has been in the yard for over a week now, never really leaving what we now assume he feels is his tree. The sapsucker get their name from their drilling “wells” in living trees so the sap pools and runs out. They drink this nectar and eat the insects that are attracted to the sap. Hummers love these natural feeders as well, but ours have all headed south. You can see our buddies progress as he rings the trunk. Does it kill the tree? Surprisingly, no. He’s a really cool little dude, you can walk right up to the tree and look up and watch him, he doesn’t flush.
On the photographic side, sapsuckers and woodpeckers can be a challenge since they are often high in the tree. In this particular case, if I were trying to photograph him from the ground, I wouldn’t do it. The angle up is just too much for a nice angle. But I am able to shoot across to our buddy from our 2nd story deck. With the D4 / 800AFS with its TC-25E at 1000mm I could get the image size you see. The key here is the use of flash. Using the Wimberley F-9 Flash Bracket for Head Version II to hold the SB-910 (powered by Nikon SD-9 with a Better Beamer (shortened SC-29 connecting it all), I shot. When our buddy was on the right of the trunk, it was much easier to meld the flash and ambient light. When he was on the left of the trunk, the use of flash is much more apparent. Why is that? The mind’s eye sees the brightness on the back of the sapsucker and expects a shadow. The combination of the light of the flash and the bounce off the trunk, fine tuning flash exposure for the left side of the trunk took longer than our buddy gave me. On the right side, it was a simple click. The whole time, I’m using CS e4 which permits me to set the ambient light exposure compensation and flash exposure compensation independently and that is critical for my style of shooting. While you’re reading this, I’m back out on the deck with our buddy. I have a small window each morning to shoot as the sun rises and leaves the trunk. mtc
Oct 16, 2013 | Landscape Photography
It was another gorgeous morning at the Tetons. We were amazingly fortunate to have killer mornings every morning with none of them being the same. This morning was in particular gorgeous as the clouds danced around the peaks and the light played pick-a-boo. The K&M gang were really into the morning and asking tons of questions which is perfect! Well, I was bouncing around from camera to camera helping and realized I was missing the shot! I’m there to help not shoot but when it’s this gorgeous, I wanted a few of the clicks myself. Then it came to me so I ran off to the van and into my camera bag and came bag with the PERFECT solution. The CamRanger which I just acquired and wrote about worked brilliantly! I could walk around and help folks and then looking at my iPhone, see when the photo looked good at my camera, click the button and capture the shot. Ya, the CamRanger activates the LiveView and than broadcasts that to your device so you can see exactly what the camera is seeing. It worked great! There is only one, small, slight issue. To fire the iPhone, you need the use of your finger and this particular morning, it was damn cold!
Note to self … next time, stay in van, let CamRanger & camera deal with the cold.
Oct 15, 2013 | Landscape Photography
I have a real photographic fascination with Aspen Trunks. First, I don’t very often get to them in the fall when they are at their best. And I nearly get to them in the fall when they are wet. In the fall when they are wet, you have less leaves so you can see more of the trunk and when wet, the elbows where the branches have broken off with time turn black. White is the dominant color, black brings the eye to the vertical lines and then with the right hint of fall, you add in the warm tones. What you see above is what I’m looking for and like. How did I find it? I think that’s the trick. First, you’ve gotta find a grove you can shoot into. Working off a road works because the road often is the avenue into the forest. Next, overcast soft light really helps. Next, shoot with a long lens, anywhere from 200mm to 400mm (I shot this with 800mm). Lastly, focus on either the left or right edge of the grove and slowly, slowly pan to the other end. Look in the viewfinder as you pan and if there is a photo there, it will smack you right between the eyes as you pan. The mind’s eye is really good at that, when you let it tell you when all the elements come together. Finally in post, in ACR, bring the black slider down making the blacks darker. That’s all the finishing that was done. That’s how this photo was taken.
Oct 14, 2013 | Landscape Photography
When we first arrived in the Tetons, there was quite a bit of fall color even though it seemed we were well past peak. But we kept finding great patches of color up to yesterday. It brings up the question, how much fall color do you need to have in your photo to say fall. We all love the rolling hillsides a blaze with color, this requiring the perfect season and your perfect timing. I don’t know about you, but scheduling my travels a year in advance, making everything line up can be a challenge. So can we say fall without the blazing hillside?
Here are two simple methods of doing it. The first is getting down low and fill the frame with backlit color and include the sun. Shooting with the D4 / 18-35, I got down low, closed down the aperture to f/22 and went click. Than, and this is the important part, I went into ACR and brought up the shadows and brought down the highlights. The color in the middle tree is nearly gone, the tree on the far right of the frame is naked but with that sunburst in the upper right corner, the mind’s eye fills it in and we have great fall color. Another method is to find just the right sprig of color and work with it. The bottom photo is an example of this. In a forest that was mostly stumps, this one little bit of fall color remained alongside an old barn. To optically extract it the business on the right side, the sky in the top right corner, I shot with the 80-400. I used a tripod in this case because I cranked the DOF way up to get the closest leaves in focus as well as the barn side. And than with the resulting low shutter speed, I needed the tripod as the wind tried my patience. But just that hint of color makes the mind think of vast fall color. While our color is slipping away, get out and make the most of what we have left, it will brighten your winter that is just around the corner.
Oct 14, 2013 | Landscape Photography
We are amazingly fortunate to be photographers! There are many things the can knock the wind out of our sails. From technology to park closers, but being photographers, story tellers, if we push past is all, than the wonders that is our wild heritage not only comes to life in our viewfinders, but in the imaginations of those who view our photographs! On our K&M Adventure that just finished in the Grand Tetons, Kevin & I had an amazing group of shooters who moved past this all and were rewarded with what can only be described as the photo gods best rewards! Use your spirit and camera to inspire and change, you can make the difference.
Oct 11, 2013 | Landscape Photography
Or as I think of it, too lazy to walk closer, is a simple technique using long glass and its properties to extract the photo. This can be in many ways, this is just one of them. While not everyone’s cup of tea, I saw a photo long ago like this that has really stuck with me and I keep working on getting my own. The foreground and subject is the winterized Aspens which in themselves can be a very interesting subject. The background are willows that are at their peak of fall color. By using a long lens, in this case the 800mm, a very small slice of the scene is photographed. No, these are not perfect but they are the closest I’ve gotten in years of what I remember and I live them. Here’s the flip side to this, if I don’t push myself to keep looking for that “perfect” shot and fail along the way, then I don’t fail. If I don’t fail, than I won’t learn to make the better shot. In this case, I like the light, love the background color but the aspens themselves, one is too busy the other, to heavy on one side of the frame. Lesson learned, copy light, copy background color, need less branches and more character in small diameter trunks. Now, if I can only remember that combo.
