The background is where we place our subject, the stage for our star! It is an essential element in telling the story, filling in the holes, and telling the viewer whatever it is we feel needs to be said about the subject. It can make the subject pop or blend, obvious or mysterious. Can we use it for scale? Most folks know the size of a gull, so all those Glaucous-winged Gulls not only make this COY (cub of the year) visually pop, but tell ya it’s small. Real small! The salmon it has could do that too, but the size of a salmon is not only not commonly known, but they range in size themselves (this is a Pink). The challenge is the DoF, enough so you know they are gulls, but not so much that all those eyes and yellow bills grab your eye. When you are afforded the opportunity, ask yourself, background for scale?

Some of the best photography is in some of the worst weather. I know that my Nikons can take as much wx as I can permitting shooting some incredible moments like with these Kodiak Brown Bears. The key is a simple tool, the white towel. I use white as it shows dirt, and I don’t want to dry gear with dirt. We must, must blot our gear dry and not wipe it. A clean white towel sucks up the moisture, wicking it away from the body and lens. If you wipe, you take the risk of forcing the moisture into places it shouldn’t go. The towel doesn’t cover the gear but rather is kept dry inside the jacket and pulled out as needed to blot the gear dry. At the end of a shoot and back at camp, the gear is placed on the sleeping bag and permitted to come back to room temp before I clean as needed. Knock on wood, doing this, I’ve never had gear go down. That’s what I do about shooting in the rain.

This is the next in a series of videos, Some Simple Advice, that might help move your photography forward. It’s like any advice you might receive, you gotta take it in and decide if it works for you. If it does, perfect. If it doesn’t just forget it and continue on :-)

Monument Valley is such a spectacular place that one camera at a time is simply not enough! I have always had at least one camera out on the balcony shooting either Time Lapse or Interval Timer while I’m either shooting stills beside it or, out and about shooting. In the past, I used a tripod, which works, but I didn’t really like how it hogged the space on the balcony. Then the thought struck me, what about the Benro Supadupa monopod with its Benro VT4 3-Leg Monopod Base? As you can see, it could be tucked back in the corner out of the way of using the balcony and keeping it out of anyone else’s sight. I had concerns about this working prior to arrival but once set up and especially after seeing the results, I can’t recommend this combo more highly! In fact, this is the first trip where 100% of the Time Lapse / Interval Timer sessions were successful. It’s small and light. Supadupa steady … wow!

They feel the safest on the face of rocks where gravity would take you or me down, fast! They are born up on those faces and spend most of their life there foraging, playing, living. This ewe band on Hardy Creek, Tower Rock, MT are no different. Shooting from the road below, time is your best tool for making the shot (along with long glass). In the late summer evening, the band moves about foraging, the older ewes often leaving the lambs to their own devices, and we all know what kids do with the parents are away. One of their games is what I think of as “tag.” It’s an essential life game as they figure out their footing and path on a rock face that seems to have no paths or footing. This play keeps them going to new heights.