Mar 24, 2020 | Wildlife Photography
Steller’s Jay
captured D5 / 800f5.6
It’s no real surprise, photographing birds in backyards is really big right now! I’ve been flooded with emails asking for help getting feeders up and birds coming to them so they can be photographed. This is great, I couldn’t be happier. Understand that the “Field of Dreams” doesn’t instantly apply to birds. Just because you put out feeders doesn’t mean birds will instantly appear. It sure can but more realistic is it taking a week or more. I have lots of posts here on the website about backyard photography, got a book or two on the topic as well. The best resource I have to offer up is my KelbyOne Backyard Bird class. If you have specific questions, you too can email via the link on the website. Happy to help any way I can.
On a side note, the perfect lens for backyard bird photography I think is the 500PF. Right now, Bedford Camera has a couple and if you order from them, mention the Moose Discount for special pricing, free shipping and probably no sales tax.
Mar 24, 2020 | Landscape Photography
Palouse Church
captured by Z7 / Z14-30
Every time you put your camera up to your eye, you gotta ask yourself, “What’s the subject?” Without that key element in the photograph, it is really, really, really hard to then arrange the rest of the elements to tell your story. With a photo like this of this lonely church on The Palouse, deciding what’s the subject can be a challenge. You might think it’s the church itself. But then you see the clouds and then you’re vision is brought down around again to the church. What is the subject?
Palouse Church
captured by Z7 / Z14-30
Is it possible the subject isn’t a specific element but all them wrapped up together to express an emotion? If you think an emotion you are invoking can be the subject, then how can you tell its story? Can shooting in color or B&W be a way to arrange the elements to instill that emotion that is the subject of your photograph? I think so, I do that all the time as I think emotion can be a subject. The challange is that some aspects of photography we’re comfortable with take a backstage and an aspect of photography a lot of photographers are very uncomfortable with, emotion, is center stage.
Mar 20, 2020 | Landscape Photography
Weber House
captured by Z7 / Z24-70f2.8
The Palouse has an incredibly rich history that you can see in its people, land, and buildings. They are all very independent, strong and very much part of the fabric of the region. There are hundreds of old barns and homes that dot the vast landscape and I think I’ve stopped and marveled at least at half of them. I continually return to ones I’ve photographed before, check out ones that I would love to photograph but didn’t before and search for new ones. No matter what, every trip to The Palouse is always filled with old treasures.
Old Barn
captured by Z7 / Z24-70f2.8
This trip to The Palouse, I had for the first time the Z and its very fun #17 Charcoal setting in my arsenal. Not B&W, not Sepia, #17 I think of as a “tintype” kind of look. While perhaps a tad older than the structures themselves, this look I think brings a little something extra to the story I want to tell about this part of The Palouse history. You might notice that both are backlit and might be wondering why. That’s because the photo for me isn’t of just a building, but a home that’s home on The Palouse. The land is as much of the story of the buildings as were those who once lived in them. Now in my vivid imagination, I have big backstories to the hows and whys of these buildings that to keep the story short, I sum up as, little house on, The Palouse.
Mar 19, 2020 | Wildlife Photography
Rocky Mtn Bighorn
captured by Z6 / Z24-70f2.8
Bighorn Sheep are much more comfortable when we are below them so their escape route UP a slope is not cut off. This very basic piece of their biology, once you use it you can get incredibly close to sheep. These Rocky Mtn Bighorn are no different. This basic knowledge not only gets you close physically but in the frame, gives sheep a prominence. It’s a win-win for wildlife photographers. But like everything in photography, you can take this knowledge one step further.
Rocky Mtn Bighorn
captured by Z6 / Z24-70f2.8
My primary rig is the D5 / 180-400VR which works great for big game. This group of ewes though didn’t wanna stay off in the distance, they came right down to us which sheep do. I didn’t want to shoot down on them though, not a pleasing angle. So I flipped out the monitor the Z6 / Z24-70f2.8 and slowly, ever so slowly, bent over and shot. You can see the difference between the two photos. Next time then when you’re working with bighorn, remember getting low makes them no only comfortable, but the better photograph!
Mar 10, 2020 | Wildlife Photography
Barred Owl
captured by D5 / 180-400VR
Filling the frame with our critter subjects, it’s a quest for most wildlife photographers. We buy long glass, we go on long trips, we spend long periods of time in the field, all with the quest of filling the frame with eyeballs. But critters actually have gone to great pain to blend into their world, to not be seen. It’s the mystery that in large part grabs our imagination and starts our quest to photograph them in the first place. But once you have that close up photo, do you ever take a step back and take in the critter, and its world? If you have not, it’s disappearing!
Barred Owl
captured by D5 / 180-400VR
The Barred Owl is a big bird, bigger than a football. And like most of its feathered friends, it can completely disappear into its world. Both photos were taken with the spectacular Nikkor 180-400VR of the same individual, the top one was at 180mm fifty feet away and the bottom photo, 400mm at twenty feet away. While the bottom photo would get you the likes on IG, the top one tells the story of the Barred Owl and the world it depends on for survival. If we don’t take the time to share both, we will slowly lose our feathered friends and that thrill of spending time with them in the field. The one thing none of us want to have to ask for real is, where’s Waldo?
Mar 5, 2020 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
Wind River, WY
captured by Z7 / 180-400VR
I’m up in WY working with Rocky Mtn Bighorn Sheep, so why am I posting snow clouds? There are 1200 heads of sheep in these hills but with the tremendous winds that have been blowing for the past week, most are hunkered down and we’ve only had a band of thirty to work with (which has been great!). With their routine of coming down and going back up during the morning hours and the light on the slope, the late afternoon we tend to turn our lenses to the landscape. It’s gorgeous so the challange is not the landscape photograph, but which landscape to focus in on. There are a ton of options. This afternoon, we decided to point our lenses towards the floatin snow … them clouds that were racing by.
Wind River, WY
captured by Z7 / Z24-70f2.8
The clouds would go by at great speed and as they floated by, they were simple, gorgeous puffies. As they came up to the mountain tops, they pilled up and that’s when they began to release their snow. To take in the landscape and speak of that snow load floating by, I went wide at 24mm. To share the release of snow, I went in tight at 400mm. Bringing out the drama in the clouds and the landscape, B&W for me was the obvious choice. And if there was a wind option on the web so as you read this you could feel that fierce wind, I’d have that turned on. Hopefully, it’s coming through the photographs!
