Sep 19, 2012 | B&W Photography
The drive home from Photoshop World was great! We were fortunate to have our sons Brent & Jake join us at Photoshop World and than follow us home to head out together in a day to the Reno Air Races. The skies were simply killer so once we turned off Hwy 95 and started to head west, I grabbed the D800 & 24-70 and drove with them in my lap. When I saw a photo, I would stop in the middle of the road, shoot and than keep on going. This really slowed down our progress but gave me time to think about things.
About thirty minutes later I noticed the boys weren’t behind us anymore so I pulled over. After a while, we started to wonder so we turned around and drove back about five miles to find them pulled over shooting. These shots came from that stop. The top is a simple click with Silver Efex Pro doing the heavy work. The bottom photo is a pretty common site here on the eastside. I popped out the flash on the D800 to give it a little glow. I’m posting this now because they are forecasting snow for us this coming weekend. Fall is here…ya baby!
Sep 11, 2012 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
You know when you have a friend in Joe McNally when on his blog he bestows you with such a title. While I don’t think I’m that light on my feet, I do love clouds! During our Napp Photo Safari during Photoshop World, the heavens gave us a heck of a show and I was more than happy to watch, shoot and hopefully inspire others with the experience. Both of these shots are in my book simple clicks, taken with the D4 and 24-70AFS
The scene above is the one Joe describes in his blog. For me, such a scene is a simple click but for many, clouds and B&W is a mystery so I explained what I was seeing with my eyes and how I would translate that to a photograph. We start with the light and how we want to use it to pull the eye through the frame. With that known, we than look at those elements that prevent that movement of our eye and do what is needed to exclude them from the frame. Than we make sure we still include those elements we do want, set the exposure comp to -2/3 and go click. Than head into Silver Efex Pro 2 and do a simple 80 structure move, a little levels for the blacks and we’re done. Some from the safari have emailed asking for the video I mentioned. You will find those along with all my videos in, yeap, the Moose’s Video Library. Thanks to all the folks who joined us…great day!
Aug 29, 2012 | Wildlife Photography
Having Alvin around has been great fun! Hummers tend to have some personality but Alvin has the extra little bit that just makes you laugh at his antics! I’ve had lots of opportunity to photograph him (know it’s a him from the gorget) over the last couple of months and have enjoyed how he seems to have put smiles on many. That’s just cool! At the same time, folks keep asking how’d I get his portrait? It really is no great secret, nothing magical but it is a whole segment on my Beginning Wildlife Photography course we just filmed. Here’s the recipe, it’s pretty much right out of the Moose Playbook.
The gear set up is basic backyard formula, D4, 300f4 AFS & Pocket Wizard III set up on a tripod perhaps 4′ from Alvin. More importantly is the biological setup, something you won’t be able to see until the class is online. Alvin’s perch is a piece of Manzanita that’s in a Justin Clamp on a light stand 18″ from his feeder (and I mean HIS!) and that is 30 yards or so from the background. All I do is when is wait for the light and shoot. There is no more to it than that, sort of. Getting to this point though takes a little more which is why we made a class out it but when it comes to Alvin’s portrait, that’s everything.
Aug 27, 2012 | Landscape Photography
OK, you had a great weekend of shooting and now it’s Monday and you’re back to work, now what? It’s no time to stop! I know, you’re at work, how can photography continue when you’re at work? Here’s some thoughts:
Plan for next weekend – Think about what you want to shoot this weekend. Places, people, critters, something totally new, whatever it is think about pushing your photography forward. This has to include challenges, how they might arise and how you think you might solve them. Write it down and plan.
Practice your handholding – this is something you should do everyday even if you’re not “shooting.” Grab a body and lens, find some object is poor lighting forcing you to work at slower shutter speed and keep this very important skill sharp and ready for the coming weekend!
Go through weekend images – Take the time to go through your images and look for successes and failures. Look for the reason for both! Don’t go into “Fix it” mode in post but rather, “get it right in the camera” mode in your mind! Look for commonality in both successes and failures so you can repeat the successes and avoid the failures. If need be, right these down and leave them in the top of your camera bag so the next time you go out, you have to see the note to remind yourself.
Plan flash shoot for Wed – Think of a simple shoot you can do on Wed that requires flash. It doesn’t have to be a photo you want to frame and put on the wall, but just something with flash to push that skill base forward. It can be as simple as lighting a salt shaker so you can see the flash. This can do wonders for your photography, not the salt shaker but just getting the flash out and looking at light!
Read a good book – Open you mind to other thoughts and let words paint pictures in your imagination. This can free your creative spirits and shut down the technical which can vastly improve your photography. Do go for the technical, go for the romantic that uses big, descriptive words making you previsualize, a important exercise for photographers!
Look at images from a year ago – You’ve come a long ways in your photography in the last year but you might not realize it! Looking at images from a year ago brings back memories, technical challenges and ideas of what you want to accomplish now let alone the feeling of satisfaction. Looking at your own images is the best way to crit those images you took over the weekend. Only You can improve Your photography!
Phew…where did the day go…now what do you do for Tuesday?
Aug 24, 2012 | Wildlife Photography
That’s how my good friend, a biologist in the Rockies started his email to me yesterday. We call fall that because it’s in the fall that big game, moose, elk, deer, pronghorn, bighorn sheep and bears (though they are not big game) grow out with their gorgeous, new winter coats. It’s also the season when I think about getting out in the forests and photograph these majestic critters. For most big game, this is the season of love, what most normal folks call the rut. This annual ritual of life is a fascinating right of passage to watch. You see the classic battle of the big boys going at it. And then the younger, faster males shoot in while the big boys are fighter and mate and get out before the big boys know what happened. Then the big boys get all sexually frustrated and do things I’m not going to mention on this family blog. And the next day when the sun comes up, it starts all over again. It is an amazing, fascinating, ancient call of biology that is just a great show!
When it comes to photography, it’s a slam dunk! Really!! All you need is a lens in the 200 to 400 range, my favorite choice is the 200-400VR2 and this fall I can’t wait to take the D4 out with its 6 stop range. Why? I like the dramatic light, a spot light on the critter surrounded by darkness. While I like it, I don’t always get it but at least this fall when it is served up to me, I’m ready. But generally, fall presents the best light for wildlife photographers, especially in October. If you do your homework now, looking for where the big game are gathering in open areas, you can easily get great shots using just a 70-200 lens. All these photos here where taken with just a 70-200!
Now you might be looking for some big racks in a blog post about fall big game. Well, I thought I would give the moms a little call out today. Typically ignored, when mom has a kid in tow, they make for a great subject. One of these photos was taken in the spring. You know which one? And while I have your eye, I want to call your attention to something on NPR today, part of the reason of my friend’s email yesterday. It’s something we’ve been talking about for years and now more science is showing what we thought was happening actually is. It directly effects big game and our photography!
Aug 23, 2012 | Landscape Photography
It’s the end of August, I always regret when it rolls around. Besides the obvious meaning, the end of summer (and this has been a great summer), it means a couple of other things. One is the fall teaching season is coming up, the means lots meeting a whole bunch of you! That’s one reason I got the new Mac. It also means see fall colors again, such a romantic time to be shooting. The other implication is on the immediate shooting in the Eastern Sierra. We’ve had a couple of days of great clouds, but when it comes to wildlife and landscapes, photography can be really hard to find. And when you do find it, the light might be hard and the feathers and fur pretty warn. You know when I point my lens towards plants, I’m really trying to find something to photograph. In the deep shadows along a creek, found this pattern of nature on one of our evening walks. I liked the pattern, that’s about it. Just a few more weeks and all hell will break out. Lookin forward to it!
