Simple Click – Hayden Valley Classic
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp04261.swf, 595, 482 [/swf]
Just stop, point and shoot!
No Thoughts?
I’ve had a number of emails of late asking what happened to Friday Thoughts? It’s been quite some time since I’ve added to what I’ve come I find out are an important series to some of you. One writer asked pretty bluntly, “No great thoughts lately?” Ouch! That question had me thinking about this lack of Friday Thoughts and ponder whether I had any thoughts worth putting forth from my experiences. I had to think about the last one I wrote and that would have been for Scott Kelby’s blog at the beginning of the year. So it’s a valid question, this thought process thing so I gave it thought flying up to MT in the hopes that the answer might just give you thought.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/Yellowstone 13665.swf, 595, 482 [/swf]
“Why hadn’t I had any Friday thoughts?” Most of my material for these come from my having time to have a clear mind to actually think. Busy is no excuse, just the reality. That time usually comes from when I’m driving alone to some project and I can have conversations in my mind about topics that appear in the emptiness of driving. Well, I’ve not been driving much by myself to project for the last few months because I’ve been so fortunate to have Jake with me (soon coming to an end as he heads back to college). I’ve been so spoiled with him doing the driving so I can read.
Now reading often brings thoughts to mind. I like reading other’s thoughts because that starts a train of my own thoughts as I combine their ideas with my own goals. Of late though, I’ve not done much of what I call “pleasure” reading but rather reading more technical stuff. It’s like reading material for a college class then sitting by a fire with a glass of merlot on a snowy day kind of stuff. So no inspiration is coming from that reading (but I am learning which later will cause hopefully a money making thought).
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/Gray Wolf 0272.swf, 595, 482 [/swf]
But I think this thought stuff is pretty important to us creatives! Why? What is a photograph? In many instances it is a visual expression of our thought at that moment we went click. Our coming to that moment to make that click took some thought. While for many the thinking process is about f/stop, shutter speed and metering, that essential technical we need to write with light, but those favorite images come when the thought goes much deeper. Sharon at times will tell me to get out of the office and go shooting, obviously I’m bouncing off the walls when she says that. My reply quite often is, “My mind is not clear enough.” That’s just another way of my saying that I have too much life on my mind to let go and be a photographer. Just too much thought to operate!
On the flip side, I think out a lot of projects, planning them out in my mind and on paper. I put a lot of thought into some where there is a possibility of some control. And others the thought is no more than the gathering up of the normal gear for a basic project where the possibility of being skunked is just as good as success. This is a very mechanical thought process and I think of it as the same as thinking of f/stop and shutter speed. It’s the technical side of photography.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/Bison 10323.swf, 595, 482 [/swf]
Friday Thoughts though are more of the thought process that I feel creative have to think through for the true art of visual communication to come through. This is the process of where you look back at who you are as a person, digest those experience, good or bad that have carved out who you are and then tap into those life moments to make a new one in the form of a photograph. As I like to say, I have more faults then California, some shake up others and some shake up me. No matter which might be the case, with time the scare heals over and new growth comes from the earthquake. That growth is what spurs on my photography. But only when I think about it and make it part of my thought process.
To put this in immediate terms, where am I right now? We’re up in Yellowstone for the 847th time (I’m making that number up). I’ve been in this park during every month of the year and walked, driven and rode over most of the park a couple of times (put never flown over it, hint, hint flyboy!). I’m about to spend two weeks here exploring it, but it’s not truly new to me or my camera. So the thought goes through my mind more than once, “How do I make something new of an “old” place?” I mean some features haven’t changed in some million years yet I’m so incredibly fortunate to be standing in front of them again. How do I take that good fortune, what I’ve learned since last time I was standing in front of them and turn that into a photograph to inspire you? Giving that question thought has given me a headache!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/Yellowstone frosted trees 3741.swf, 595, 482 [/swf]
“I just thought of something!” When I would say that to me dad growing up, he would often come back with, “Did it hurt?” Thinking is something I do a lot but I don’t confuse it with a thought. Ever think of these two as being different? Thinking is a mental process, a thought is a mental process analyzed by the heart. So to answer the original question, I’ve had thoughts but they have been too close to the heart to share in words, but have tried hard to do it in my images.
Romancing the Landscape #2!
Yeap, RTL#2 is now live and ready for you. I’ve received a ton of love letters already in the last 24hrs and for those, I thank you all very much. There’s more to come :-)
Since We’re on the Topic of Flash
And why is Sharon giving me that look? Well, because she knows what’s coming, the “before” shot when her gorgeous eyes and bright smile disappear in the inky light. That, and she’s done this a hundred times for me, she’s a trooper (won’t mention how bloody cold it was)! But this first click not only set the stage to talk about the light and its deficiencies, but also the shutter speed I wanted to blur the water in Bridal Veil Creek in the background (1/4 f/6.7).
Applying flash just because you can is as useless as doing HDR just because you can. To me, there must be a purpose, something to communicate to make them useful tools. So what we went through with the group at DLWS in Yosemite was the reason why we needed flash. What’s the main issue with the top photo? The preponderance of blue! Why wouldn’t a reflector work? It would have bounced more blue light into Sharon. Understanding light is why many are scared to use flash so we simply took the logic step by step. The photographic problem is not just the light quantity, but color quality. We needed to “warm” up the light on Sharon which is where flash comes in. The flashes’ 5500k overpowers the 10,000k (used D3’s WB to determine the 10k) of the overall scene and so “warmed” up Sharon (while keeping the snow melt creek blue and cold looking). But what’s wrong with the middle photo? We took care of the color component of the light, but not the feel of the light from a light. You’ve gotta feel light! Looks like a Maglite is shinning in Sharon’s face! That’s because it’s straight, on camera flash.
So we stuck the SB-900 w/81a gel (warm that light up just a tad) in an Ezybox, placed it over the lens and tilted it up to feather the light off the jacket some (light color, didn’t want the eye going to it) and went click!. No compensation dialed in, all in Aperture Priority, all we needed to do is understand the deficiencies in the light and act on that knowledge. Technology did the rest. And for what it’s worth, even though the whole shoot only took 5min, Sharon was blue in the end, it was that cold! Lighting can be that simple, just start with understanding the problem and then solve it. And when you do that, life is good!
And How Was it Shot?
A common and good question I receive a lot is, “How’d you shoot that” whenever I post a product shot. Because I’m a wildlife photographer, what I know about lighting? Since I don’t have a permanent studio, I keep it really simple because I just hate setting it up and taking it down. What I do now is what you see, attached to two Manfrotto 1004BAC stands are two Lastolite EzyBoxes. Inside of them are two SB-900s which are triggered TTL via the Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 (which rock since you don’t have to play “bend the flash” for the sensors). I used my favorite studio lens, the 70-180macro on the D3x and went click. Oh yeah, my white background? The Epson 24×30 Exhibition paper box (it was handy). Then in post, I simply lowered the opacity of the Wimberley. Keeping it simple.
RRS PG-CC, Great Add ON!
It always help if you read. When I made the video about the RRS Pano-Gimbal Head, I mentioned that one of the greatest feature was the clamp. Well, you’ll find right on the RRS page that they sell the PG-CC (the clamp) separately and as you see here, it fits right on the Wimberly! Now that’s cool!
And a correction to the video, the Pano-Gimbal Head weighs only 6oz more then the Wimberley, specs change and this one is in our favor!