The Field

Instead of blogging about some really good famous photographer, this week I decided to blog about my experiences going out and gathering pictures for my final project. First of all, it is always harder than I expected. I didn't have the good idea of planning my shoot, I would just show up at parks and wander looking for good shots. Having a list like from the assignment last week helped alot. Then I have specifics to look for. Since I don't have a tripod, I would try and take my shots from an angle that let me use nearby rocks to rest my camera on, or lean on while taking pictures. This resulted in some pretty odd contortions on my part, I'm kinda glad the parks didn't have alot of people when I was there. I did notice things we went over in class, like a gorgeous sunset full of red would just not take on my camera. It always left out the red. And partly because of the cold, I think, my battery kept running low really fast. So I had to wait a minute and turn my camera back on between shots. I even tried some of the 'stalking' tips we learned for various animals. I think I'd need a telephoto lens for really good shots there, but I did get some fairly close of a rabbit, even though I admit the rabbit looked kind of terrified so I guess that goes against the ethics of respecting their space. But I learned alot about my camera, and the best feeling is going back through your shots and saying yes! look at that one!

thursday's outdoor shots

My choice; I was playing with the lighting and ISO on manual while looking for my red shot and this is what happened. It may be a bit overkill but I loved discovering the effect of super bright lighting and how I could get it on my camera. The lighting is set at +2 with the ISO at I think 800.

Rule of thirds; this is using the landscape setting on my digital which translates to slow speed auto I believe.

Detailed close up; I love this because the black and white makes the detail seem sharper, since there is no color the eye only notices the levels sharpness and contrast. This is manual, set to cloudy, black and white, ISO 200.

Blurred motion; I kept trying to capture falling snow but the camera would only focus on what was behind it and ignore the snow, so I just took a shot of the dumpster to give a solid background. Landscape, slow shutter, auto.

Panning; I tried panning the squirrel and it was all blurry, so I added a car panning to try again and there was no blurring to show that it was even moving. The squirrel was slow shutter auto, but the car was a fast shutter auto, I didn't have time to set the camera before I shot.

For my hyperfocus I used the landscape mode, slow shutter speed to get detail on all planes of the picture. This is a little hard to see, but the branches are at varying levels of distance from front to back. I suppose it is a good mark for their clarity that it is hard to tell them apart.

Sillouhet; Landscape mode, slow shutter auto, with the exposure set at -2.

Reflection; I got the leaf refelction including the leaf, slow shutter auto. But that seemed a bit boring so I added two other reflection photos I got that don't actually show what is being reflected.

Use of red; I loved this shot and kept trying to get my camera to focus on it but couldn't figure out how, until one kind soul pointed out the close up button on my camera, so I had to go back and take this. Landscape setting, slow shutter auto, with the little flower button that means close up detail.

Daniel Sofer

Ok, I have found my photographer of the week. Many of Daniel Sofer's scenic shots are not primarily of nature but mix nature with the elements of a city. Instead of bringing attention to nature as beautiful he uses nature as obviously beautiful to bring beauty into manmade structures. Generally I think man made structures are pretty ugly by themselves but Sofer has managed to really make them look beautiful. My favorite are his beach pictures. The way he utilizes light to be everywhere, in the sky, in the water, in the reflecting sand, and the light is a different hue and form in each. I could not find what he used in taking his pictures but in this one I am guessing fast shutter speed to catch the suspended water droplets with no blurring. He is based out of California and in addition to 20 years of photography he is a professional web designer. His website is http://www.hermosawavephotography.com/.

Working at Close Range

In this week's chapter I loved the effect of sharp narrow focus with a blurry background achieved using extension tubes and or bellows. The extension tube and bellows allow you to zoom in and magnify small objects with very distinct detail no matter how many times the object size has been increased. The magnification combined with narrow focus allows perfect detail of the subject with blurring of the background, or other objects in the foreground and I think the effect is incredible. This makes wonderful shots of small objects such as flowers and hummingbirds as shown in the book. You have one subject in perfect detail, and the rest of the picture is just color. It makes the picture look half picture half painting. It is just really awesome.

Nature's Mystical Mirrors

The first thing in preparing to photograph water reflections is be prepared to get in it. Tripods that can handle being in the water, waders, and a zoom lens for when you can't get that close because of obstacles.
The best time for reflections is before and after sunrise. Since that means you will be out in the dark, you need to know where to go and how to get out beforehand.
The hardest thing about getting reflections is that you have to wait for the water to be still. The best times are dusk and dawn, but even then sometimes you just have to wait. Wind is less likely in areas with buffers. To keep from seeing the pool's bottom instead of reflection, place the tripod low.
Using a density filter brings the contrast of the picture out more clearly. To best do this, you will need a polarizing filter, a one stop split density filter, and a filter holder. Attach the polarizing filter, adjust it to dark so the reflection from the water is most distinct. Check the histogram to make sure everything is centered in it for good lighting ratios.
A two stop split density filter can be used to darken overly bright skies and snowy mountains. Shading both the object and its reflection brings the shadows into a range the camera can more easily detect. You will need to adjust the filters to fit along the angle of the border betweeen land and reflection, since it is rarely in an even horizontal line.

The Power of Perspective

This chapter covers one of the most important aspects of taking a nature photograph, which is to convey 3D depth of a flat picture to the human eye. Out in the real world with two eyes we can move to see a view from multiple angles. Unless done carefully, a single shot of a view is cannot convey the same meaning to the human eye. To take a shot that will convey this, emphasis needs to be placed on anything that shows depth.
Use the size of objects in the scene to act as markers for distance. Objects that are close seem large and objects that are small seem far away. You can use animals, flora, rock formations. If possible it is best to to let these receding objects lead to the main point of focus. Anything with a pattern can be used to show distance as one end of the pattern fades away.
The type of angle lens used can work with the size of objects to emphasize distance or closeness. A wide angle lens will make the objects seem farther apart. Telephoto lenses will seemingly compress the picture together. With either of these it is best to take your shot as near as you can to the first size object marker.
To mimic the height a person would normally see a veiw from, place the camera at a 45 degree angle above the horizontal line. While setting up your camera try to avoid overlap. Focus your camera in the middle of the nearest object marker.
If you do overlap, try to overlap with objects with contrast, so their is no muddling on which is which.
The best way to present a landscape is with it lit from the side. The best time to do this, as with most photography, is early or late in the day. Atmoshpere blurring such as fog, pollution, or rain can be played on to create the sense of what is close and what is far.
The five types of planes to look for when searching for deep perspective shots are as follows;
1. The closest plane shows interesting landscape details that set the scale for the composition;
2.the middle plane has good objects as size markers to draw the eye into the view
3.the feature plane shows the main interest
4. Clouds are ideally puffy
5.the sky plane in back are in pure shades to backdrop the scene.

Paul Schiller

This week I was looking for photographs that captured imagination in nature, and I came across a great picture gallery by Paul Schiller. All the pictures were good, but I tried to list the reasons why some just stood out for me. First of all the contrast was so great in these they drew the eye away from all the pictures around them. Most of them are centered with shades of red drawing the eye to the main focal point, outlined in black so nothing is distracting on the edge. All use some very slight diagonal lines to lead the eye to the main focus and strong use of shading contrast with light. The trees are just stark shades of light softened by blue. In the first with red leaves, the narrow focus sharpens the leaves in front, otherwise the picture would not have near the effect. Beyond aesthetics these pictures just capture your imagination to the area they were taken, it makes the nature scene in them look very inviting. These are just a small sample of Paul Schiller's photos, he takes panoramics and wildlife, and flora photography. Check out his site Acts of Nature; http://www.actsofnature.com/