Jul 12, 2011 | Landscape Photography
OK, so when rocks are just part of the photograph and not the main element, what changes? With the rocks now being smaller elements in the frame, the light has to play across the whole scene and not just the rocks. While this doesn’t sound like something different, it is and treating otherwise might mean your landscape images just aren’t as successful. The success come from thinking B&W, permitting the highlights in the water turn to a shade of gray matching the rocks. That makes the elements meld together making the photograph work.
Now this rock in the lower left corner is an old friend, what I call ass crack rock. It lives up at Jordan Pond in ME. Being so close with a wide lens, this rock which is little bit larger then a football is literally the cornerstone to the photograph. It is not the subject but it’s the anchor point that permits the eye go into the frame, wonder around, come back and wonder around again. This is a very common way I use rocks in my landscapes.
What’s the one thing different in the rocks in the top two photos from those in the bottom two?
They are all wet! And how did they get wet? Me! I often carry a bucket when I’m heading to a stream to shoot because there is nothing more nasty in a photograph then a draw rock. When you come upon a scene and can frame up your shot thinking all the rocks are wet and then right before your click, splash or pour water on them, you would be surprised how rocks can become your best friend. When do you leave rocks dry, when do you get them wet, use this light or that light? There is no single blog posting that will help with that one. Once you explore them more using these ideas you will find those answers for yourself.
Jul 12, 2011 | Landscape Photography
You have any idea how many disappointed viewers are coming to this site today because of that title? heheee. In landscape photography, rocks or boulders are often an essential element in our photographs. Now there are ugly rocks, purty rock, round rocks and boring rocks and each one can make a great photo. How do you do that though? There are actually a number of things you can do make the photograph better. Let’s start out with of course light.
In these top to images, you see rocks in real soft light. Everything looks great is soft light. Can you see the difference in the two images though when it comes to the shape of the rock? The top image, the rock looks round because of the overall shape of the rock captured by the fisheye lens. The next image, shadows give the rocks shape. Shape gives the rock character and character makes the viewer look at your rocks (does that ever sound bad). But that’s the game, getting the viewer to look at your….(you were thinking I was going to say rocks there, huh) your image.
Now we change the quality of our light and the shape of our rocks change as well. Here, with light just a couple of hours old, the edge of the shadow is very hard. Now we’re more dependent on the actual shape of the rock to communicate its shape rather then using the suggestive quality of soft shadows or lens selection. And that’s OK, we can make those work for us as well. Do you see how?
Putting the “subject” rock against a background and then using the hard edge of the shadow helps to make the shape and rock stand out. Now in all of these examples, the rock is the subject and the landscape is just the stage filling in the blanks telling the story of where the rock lives. The next problems many have photographing rocks is thinking they are dead and while technically that’s the case, that’s not how we should think about them in our photograph. It’s up to us to give them life and when we do that, we give life to our entire photograph.
Jul 6, 2011 | Wildlife Photography
They are so cute! I just love grouse chicks. As soon as they are dry after hatching, they are up and going! Now they might trip on the grass, run under mom everytime a pine needle hits the ground, but they are just amazing! Now, how do you take advantage of this kind of situation?
First, I’m incredibly lucky this all unfolded on our property. It’s just me and the grouse. Watching their actions, feeding and moving on, watching their path and looking towards where they are going you can figure out possible places they will stop and graze. Mom is walking as slow as she can, the kids are running all out to keep up. And the light….it’s just dark!
With all that movement and the slow shutter speed (1/25 – 1/80), any movement will blur. That can be a plus and a minus depending on how you plan your shot. Using Peak of Action, you can stop a lot of movement even at slower shutter speeds. You will still have images that are soft, but you will have many that are sharp. In this case of the dandelion blossom disappearing, I like the little bit of movement.
Still on one knee, handholding and with the light no better, I was shooting nearly wide open. The band of focus is pretty narrow and at 400mm and how close the click was to me, it worked perfectly! I didn’t want the background in focus, didn’t want the foreground either so I placed the chick as you see it in the frame for those reasons. Pretty simple stuff, just having fun shooting the wildlife in the yard.
10min later, they are heading back towards the forest and the rain is coming harder. I had errands to run so I put the camera in the house, told Jake where the grouse family were and left. As we were leaving, Jake was walking out with his 200-400 and had more fun with the family until the down pour just got too intense.
Why no flash fill? I know that question is coming so thought I would head it off at the pass. Many reasons, the main one being I liked the light quality. I didn’t need to mess with it, I wanted the stormy feel to the images. The next, it would add more weight to the gear and I was already shooting slow enough I didn’t want to hassle it. Lastly, I didn’t want to take the few extra minutes to grab it. Could you use flash fill here? Heck ya, easily and quite successfully. If all conditions were perfect, do you wish you had grabbed your flash? Nope! Why not? Flash would have changed the whole feel. I like it just the way they it is.
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 6, 2011 | Wildlife Photography
My wife has the best eyes! Besides being able to melt me to the kwik, when it comes to spotting wildlife, there is no better! “It’s, a, come quietly, don’t disturb the dogs, ah….it’s in the yard!” She was looking for the word Sooty Grouse but her mind was stuck on Blue Grouse which is what they were called just a couple of years ago. No matter, I knew what she was saying. I walked over to the window, spotted them, saw their line of travel, grabbed the gear despite the rain and got outside. It was dark when I started, shooting at 1/25 under the pines and at 1/80 when they family went out across the open.
By the time I got outside, the family group, hen and 4 chicks had moved from the front to the back and over to the neighbors. They were focusing in on dandelions, the young leaves and flower blossoms and doing a good job cleaning them up. It wasn’t like I had some place to hide, the rain was dropping so I took a knee and let them walk up to me. And they did, walked right up to me and then pass me. We always wonder if this is the same female that has been coming to our meadow for a decade, one of her chicks, just who she is. When a Steller Jay flew overhead, one of the chicks (7-8 days old) scurried for safety under mom. I like this shot. mtc
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 (handheld) on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 5, 2011 | Landscape Photography
Mammoth is a great small town and we like to do the 4th! We have your basic small town 4th of July parade which is really the largest squirt gun fight on the planet with the fire dept & forest service using their tankers to soak the crowd and the crowd in return using super soakers and water balloons. Great fun! In between we have horses and American flag, old hot rods, pirate ships and just great community fun. Then in the evening we convene at the lake for fireworks. It’s just a great show with the rocket’s percussion echoing off the granite walls of the Sierra so the sound effects are amazing!
And as always, I had my camera. At 9:15 when the first rockets went up, the clouds had cleared enough so you can see a slight glow on the horizon but not enough for our great umbrella of stars to be the background. And at first the wind was calm but near the end, it picked up and that changes the final image. As far as photographing them, I make it real simple because I’m there to enjoy the family and show. The D3x is mounted on a tripod, 24-120VR attached and zoomed to about 35mm. I have the MC-36 attached, lens on manual focus set to infinity, 8sec f/5.6. I watched the shells being launched and looking at their altitude, I click or not. Finishing is real simple in ACR, I shoot in Vivid and other then taking the Highlight & Light slider to the left in ACR, it’s a two click finishing. I have a new mounting system for the Moose Cam I was testing so I shot video of the entire show with the Coolpix S9100 (great camera!). The system worked perfectly but the LCD repeat of the show doesn’t do it justice. Hope your 4th was just as good for you!
Jul 5, 2011 | B&W Photography
As the thunderstorms leaving can be just as good as the coming. I love the drama as the energy is released!
