The Way We See It: Tip

Showing posts with label Tip. Show all posts

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Practice your Craft

Portrait of a Bear (Ursus arctos) - Radium Hot Springs, Canada
Canon 7D = Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f2.8

It's not often that I have the opportunity to make a tight portrait of a large predator. In fact, other than my safari experiences in East Africa, I have found the pursuit of carnivores to be among my greatest challenge. Large predatory birds always seem to be just distant enough to frustrate, while mammalian carnivores rarely reveal more than a glint in the eye. So when faced with a fleeting moment, I want it all to be automatic. Here, automatic is not a dependence on some predefined camera mode but, rather, a reference to mechanical memory. The way I see it, the difference between maximizing success and minimizing failure is practice.

I was a photo-newbe in the 1980's. Those were the days of photo magazines, books and film. Magazines and books were cheap, and film was expensive. As result, I spent more hours reading about photography and playing with jewel-like cameras than taking pictures. When I did shoot, it was like driving with my foot on the brakes. Fearful of wasting money and making poorly exposed images, I was a paralyzed by the process. As my income and knowledge expanded, so did the willingness to experiment. My skills and my vision are a product of the past, but the quality of my work has everything to do with the present. While there is little doubt that I've benefited from a thousand rolls of film, shooting medium format negatives, and laboring over a light box, this is not a requisite for today's aspiring photographer. What took years to make ten-thousand images can now be done in months, weeks or days. Digital is the great liberator and equalizer because each image is as disposable as it is precious. Once you've made the primary investment, picture making is free. So, if you want to be prepared to make the shot of a lifetime, work the trigger finger and practice your craft.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Tip #20: Converging Lines and Vanishing Points

The Earth is a Sphere - Costa Rica
Canon 1Ds + 15mm f2.8

I’m no student of art, but I know the power of converging lines. Convergence creates a sense of depth and dimensionality. Strong lines can transport your audience into your pictures.

Tip #20

Use lines to provide your viewer with a pathway to Walk, See and Dream

Monday, November 28, 2011

Tip #19: When You Include the Landscape, You Tell the Whole Story

Bison Panorama - Grand Teton NP, WY
Five Image Pano-Stitch - Canon 5D Mark II + 50mm f1.4 @ f11

While animal portraits excite the shooter, a landscape conveys the ecology of your subject. When photographing wildlife, put down the long lens and become a landscape photographer. Use leading lines to frame your subject, wait for a unique composition, and tell a life story by including the land.

Solitude
Masai Giraffe - Serengeti NP, Tanzania
Canon 20D + 300mm f4.0 IS L

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Tip #16: Dress for the Occasion

Tree Study - First Snow
Canon 5D MarkII + 100 f2.8L IS Macro @ f16

You're not shooting the wedding, so leave your fashion sense at home. For the nature photographer, it's not about how you look, but how to stay alive. Dress for the environment. Selecting the right clothes is just as important as choosing the right lens. If you’re photographing a hawk owl on a -17˚day and you have the wrong gloves and the wrong shoes, you'll be more concerned about survival than photography. Dress smart because the right clothes makes photography in extreme places possible.

Lake Superior
Canon 1DS + 200 f2.8L @ f4

For more winter photography tips, check out this link: When it's Cold...

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Tip #15: Take A Risk

Poisonous Automeris (I think) Moth Larvae - Selva Verde, Costa Rica
Canon 5D Mark II + 180 f3.5L @ f3.5 in the Rain

Repetition makes the moment of image capture automatic. The tools we use to produce art should never impede the process, but instead enhance the opportunity. Yet, the very practice that facilitates mastery can also stifle vision. Let’s call this apparent contradiction “the photographic rut.”

Yellowstone at Sunrise - Color Tweak in Aperture 3.1
Canon 5D Mark II + 17-40L

Rut - A fixed mode and course of life that is dull and uncompromising. Alternatively, a technique for producing boring and uninspired images.

Wedding Theme - Malibu California
Canon 30D + 17-85mm IS

While there is no one recipe for busting established paradigms or enriching a dogmatic pratice, consider the following ideas when you try to break free from those self-imposed shackles of mundanity.

Use your least favorite and most uninspiring optic (lens) for a week. Leave the other gear home and force a new type of vision.
Pump up your iso to enhance the noise in your images. Noise is reminiscent of grain and it adds texture to an otherwise flat image.
Suffer through inclement weather. Shoot the atmospherics, the wind, and the precipitation.
Go for long exposures. Purposefully allow your subject and background to become a blur.
Change your genre. If you are a nature photographer, try photographing a wedding or people on the street. Bring your skill-set to a new subject.

Tip #15: Take a Risk

Twilight Fowl - Rieks Lake, WI
Nikon D100 + 300mm f2.8 ED-AFS w/ 1.4x TCE Converter

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Tip #14: Tell A Story

"Damn Vultures" - Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Canon 1D markII + 300 f2.8IS L w/ 1.4x converter

Tip #14: Be a Story Teller with your Pictures

Today’s suggestion might seem obvious given the axiom “a picture is worth a thousand words,” however the story within an image is often cryptic to your audience. Distracted by color, complex interactions or the beauty in a moment, it is likely that the viewer will offer nothing more than a passing glance. More than freezing bite-sized moments in time, we photographers strive to paint a narrative with light. The goal, captivate the audience... create the incentive to take a second glance. As my own photography matures, so do my goals. I find myself searching for the stories in nature, waiting to capture the “decisive moment.” To illustrate this point, I’m sharing a seriously flawed image. The subject is centered, branches to the right distract, and the lioness is looking out of the frame. Yet, with all of its shortcomings, this was the decisive moment. One can’t help but ask... “why...” She is a solitary lion protecting a kill, competing with a pride to the South and frustrated with the vultures from the above.