Archive for the ‘Landscape’ Category

Foggy Tree (1/160th at f/8, 80mm at ISO 200)

I’ve been in Michigan the last few days attending a few meetings and visiting family.  It seems as though much of Northern Michigan has been covered in fog as the snow is slowly giving way to the Spring rains.   Ever since I was a child I’ve always been fascinated by the fog.  I love the idea how it transforms our perception of reality.  The fog truly creates opportunities for seeing things in a different light. It creates new and interesting images that might otherwise have seemed unworthy of notice.  A tree in a field is transformed into an unknown landmark to be left to anyone’s imagination. For me…the fog opens up my backyard again.  It transforms my familiar surroundings into a foreign and mysterious land and creates countless new images limited only by my imagination.

Cat Island, Bahamas (1/160th f/11)

Yesterday I was working with one of my  students on an assignment and the question  came up on how to create a sun “flare” or “burst” effect in photos.   I must admit I’m a big fan of the effect and enjoy using it on images that I feel are appropriate.   So here are the three easy steps to achieve the sunburst effect:  First things first. You need to shoot this effect on a bright sunny day.  It’s hard to create the effect in poor weather conditions (if not impossible).   Next, you need to set your camera to the aperture priority mode, which happens to be the setting I use for much of my shooting .  Once you’re in aperture priority mode set your aperture to f/16 or higher and point your camera to the sun and shoot. Lastly, and this is key, remember as kids when you use to stare at the sun for like 20 seconds and walk around blind like an idiot in front of your friends for the next five minutes?  Well, don’t do it with your camera either.  Just get your camera set up, compose the shot and shoot.  You  can review your image on the  LCD to double check if you’ve  captured the desired effect.  Often times I’ll take several shots at f/11,  f/16 or f/22 while playing with the exposure a bit.     Now, some have asked if shooting the sun will damage the sensor?  I can tell you I’ve been shooting the sun for years now and have had zero problems with my sensor.  I do own a left eye patch now (just kidding) but, keep in mind, I don’t set my camera on a tripod and take long exposure (I’m not even sure why you would) so my sensor is only exposed for a fraction of a second .   Frankly, you run a much greater risk of damaging your camera by leaving the lens cap off and resting it on the table for hours on end with it being pointed to the sun.   So, on the next bright sunny day go add a sunburst to one of your images so that you can enjoy  the  sun on those crappy days..;)

Fairy Falls

On the road again…

I’m packing up in the next couple of days and heading back to Montana. I’m going to mix it up a bit this time around and try to get into the park (Yellowstone, as if there’s another) for a few extra days, but this time with a 500mm in tow. I decided to rent a 500mm and a 24mm tilt/shift to add to the list of lenses I’ve been meaning to try. I’ll keep you posted from the road via Twitter.

Misc. items: My logo contest is coming to an end in the next couple of days. Once I have the winner picked I’ll make sure to let you know. I came across a great site for looking at my system fonts. Go to www.flippingtypical.com and type in a sentence and it will display the text using all of your fonts. Pretty cool!

Tomorrow I plan on blogging a bit about David Honl flash system so stay tuned.

….oh I can’t wait to get back on the road again… sing it Willie.

As a reminder

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"bad timing"

Moulton Barn in Teton National Park

I’m back from dropping my prints off to the National Museum of Wildlife Art and I’m happy to report no broken frames..;)   As a reward for my delivery prowess, I decided to spend the weekend in Jackson Hole and check out the local art fair.  I must say there are some incredibly talented photographers that display their work at that Art Fair,  including:  Randy Napier, Scott Wheeler,  and Shane Knight .

Back in town, I had a chance to visit David Brookover’s gallery and  must say his landscape shots are inspirational.  I had a chance to speak to David, (briefly) and like many photographers I think he was much more comfortable behind the camera  than in person.  He did have some really interesting information about modern film processing techniques that I plan on learning more about.   After visiting David’s gallery, I got it in my head that I would go and photograph the famous Moulton Barn. It seemed as though everyone and their brother had a shot of this barn, so I decided I might as get one too.   I drove out to the late  John Moulton’s farm in the afternoon to assess the scene, and I quickly realized this was a morning photo since I was, at that point, shooting directly into the sun.  I  figured if I got to the location around 6 a.m. the next day I should be all set since the sun was due to rise at 6:28am.  The next morning came, I woke up around 5:30, grabbed some joe and headed to the barn.   Now, I didn’t bring my tripod along with me on this trip because I hadn’t really planned on taking any landscape shots (mistake), so I had to reconcile with myself that I would  make due with a hand-held shot. Plus,  I knew I could always come back at a later date to take it properly if I truly wanted to,  but right now it was just about getting that shot.

Here’s the funny part: while I was heading over there, it never crossed my mind that other photographers would have made similar plans, and to my suprise I was greeted by six well-positioned photographers (probably had been their for an hour prior to my arrival).   Apparently everybody and their brother has the shot, except for me and these 6 guys!  And due to the location of the barn, the dirt road is only about 30 yards in front of the barn, so there wasn’t a whole lot of room to maneuver and still get the shot.  Instead of saying forget it, I marked it up as  lesson learned, (get their much earlier next time, with tripod in tow), and decided to make due with available space.  Much like a fly-fisherman and his favorite hole in the river, when a photographer has a good spot, they don’t move!  I took a few photos, including the “down and dirty”  HDR version above, called it a morning, and moved on to check out the rest of the Tetons.  The lesson: don’t assume you’re the only one out their trying to get the shot, especially  for a photo that can only be taken at certain times of the day.  So learn from my mistake and make sure you’re there an hour or two ahead of schedule.