With the above average temps that we have been having here in Michigan, the stream ice is about five weeks late, but better late then never. I always look forward to shooting the ice as it is my time to shoot abstracts. I’ve mentioned in the past that the abstract don’t sell, but I like them and it’s just fun being out in the woods.

Here is a nice shot of the stream and how I set up at the edge to shoot. I use my long telephoto macro lens in the 180 range, as it will reach out farther into the stream if I need to.

My camera is the Nikon D7000.

Who is taking the pictures of me? It’s a Panasonic GH2 on a tripod with self timer set at 10 secs.

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This first image was shot in the area you see me in above.

If I’m shooting out into the ice a ways, I will be at an angle that sometimes needs a little extra depth of field, so I will set the f-stop at f/16. With all this cool details, you want to get it all in focus.

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Casscade Mtn, Adirondacks

Cascade Mtn fails on several levels, but mostly for me it lacks a clear path for the viewers eye to travel, which translates to a weak story. A lack of textural contrast makes the image rather busy, and the light in the background competes with the details in the foreground. I was experimenting with trying to omit the sky and horizon in order to create a lack of perspective, but it didn’t quite work out as envisioned.

As a workshop instructor, I work hard on trying to help students get beyond whatever is limiting their potential. Unfortunately the majority of reasons are due to mistakes and less often to failures. My goal is to reverse this and promote failure as a way to learning. Certainly I don’t want students strictly to fail as that would be rather frustrating and demoralizing in the long run. Who wants to come away from a workshop having only failed at their attempts?

Nothing in nature is permanent and I know that. Still, when I arrived at Skyline Arch on Tuesday to introduce some guided clients to my favorite spooky old tree in the entire Moab area, my heart sank. Lying on the ground next to the trail was The Tree. It wasn’t standing defiantly against the ages, its weathered limbs guarding access to Skyline Arch. No, it was on its side, clearly dragged off the trail with broken branches scattered about the red dirt like bleached, gray bones. No dignity, no respect at all.

I don’t know what I expected to happen to The Tree when its roots no longer dug deep enough into the earth to anchor it securely against the elements. Frankly, I don’t think I ever imagined I would live to see it fall. Over the years, The Tree and I developed a relationship. I’d show up once in a while with the goal of creating an incredible image and The Tree would laugh at me, sending me away dejected each time. The photo above is my best attempt at a portrait of this beautiful but curmudgeonly old companion. Not bad, but certainly not the exquisite piece of art I’d envisioned.

This image taken from top of Brandywine Falls in Cuyahoga National Park. We arrived just before sunrise, and Varina used a wide angle lens to capture the color in the sky before it faded. She bracketed the shot in order to capture the entire dynamic range, and then used our manual iHDR technique to combine three images.

Overcast skies are common this time of year, and they provide soft, even lighting – which is ideal for back-lighting fall leaves. Soft directional lighting lets the leaves glow without leaving them overexposed. Jay took this photograph off-trail at Liberty Park.

While enjoying the fall colors, don’t forget to notice the small details. Varina found these pretty leaves beside the trail. She stacked them to show the brilliant hues side by side. If you are shooting small details in bright sun, use a diffuser to soften the light.

Due to the fact that I had shows scheduled on the weekends when Michigan's upper peninsula's fall color is at its peak, I really thought I wouldn't be able to do any shooting up there this year. Luckily, I caught a break as we had an unusually wet summer and a very mild early fall. The color was a week late this year, so I was able to take a few days and go up and work fall color.

We struggled a little with the weather because we had bright sunny, windy days. We did however manage to get some shots, but we worked hard for what we got. I say "we" because I traveled up with two good friends. Nature photography is often a solo endeavor, and I really enjoy that part of it. While I enjoy being alone in the wilderness with my thoughts and chosen subjects, it is also very nice to be able to share these experiences with good friends. The friendships and camaraderie I have developed with other photographers as we traveled the beautiful spots of the world is very special to me. I would say in my travels I have met hundreds, no, probably thousands of nature photographers, and as a group they are some of the nicest people I know.

I was shooting ice abstracts on Stony Creek Lake, and found this outline of a ducks head in the ice.

I saw this face, two eyes and a nose in a flowing river. Some say the nose could be a trunk of an elephant.

I generally shoot lots of images – but as I shoot, I delete the ones that aren’t worth keeping. Let me walk you through a typical morning shoot.

I’m up bright and early, ready to shoot. Here I am at Graveyard Flats in Banff National Park (Alberta, Canada). Lovely mist is rising, and the world looks positively blue. The sun isn’t up yet, so I set up my camera for a long exposure. I take my first shot… maybe it’s a little underexposed, so I take another to correct the damage. I will compare the two images, and then delete one of them. I might take another shot or two from a different angle. But each time I shoot, I compare the tiny image on my monitor, check the histogram, maybe even zoom in to check the focus… and delete any image that isn’t quite right. When I get home, I choose the one that looks the best and delete the others after I’ve processed. (ISO 100, 20 seconds at f/7.1)

The light changes as the sun nears the horizon, and I want a shot that shows the strange landscape surrounding the lake. So, I set up my tripod for another shot. I follow the same steps, and I’ll pay close attention to my histogram. I need to make sure that I’m capturing the entire range of light as the sky gets brighter… and that my shadows aren’t too dark. The histogram shows me that I need just one image for this photo – but I take two anyway… one a little brighter than the other, just to make sure. In the end, I don’t need that brighter shot, so after processing, I delete it.

So, what exactly is depth of field? Simply, it is the amount of detail, within the image that is in focus. You, the photographer must decide on how much depth of field (DOF) is desired. Do you want the entire image in focus? Do you want the background out of focus ( often referred to as blown out—-I don’t really like that term as “blown out” might refer to overexposed, not out of focus).

Once you make the decision on how much of the image you want in focus, you must understand the technique that must be used to achieve your goals.

Decisions on setting to attain Depth of field are:

• The F-Stop (see below) chosen to make the image
• The focal length of the lens
• Subject size (the depth of field decreases as you decrease the lens/subject distance
• How far away is the subject?

LENS OPTIONS

Choosing a lens will have a dramatic effect on your depth of field. Lenses below the 60mm range are capable of attaining a large depth of field. (wide angle lenses) The DOF affect attained with lenses above 60mm will be less and when combining a 160mm+ lens on a DSLR, perfect Depth of field is virtually impossible. This is a principle of physics.

Oregon Coast

While driving down from a workshop at Olympic National Park last week, I was thinking about some of the locations we visited. Though there are hundreds of miles of rainforest in the park, much of the park contains some diverse locations that feature water. There are some of the most picturesque rivers, waterfalls, shorelines and small spring fed streams, within the park, all with different dynamics that make for some great photos ops. So I made some notes to include within this essay.

Water is very important to me and my photography. Whether taking an image of a grand landscape, or a macro image I love including water as either a subject or as an accompaniment to the subject itself. In other words, water is often included in many of my favorite images. An ocean scene as well as dew drops on a leaf, both containing a water feature can convey a special feeling, that is unique different from scenes without water.

Water adds mood, reflects light, and depending on the light can be many different hues. Water is an unpredictable feature and therefore can be used to create photographs that transmit varied feelings.

Unlike mountains, canyons, forests, etc, one must be prudent in observing how water interacts within a scene. We need to take the textures, colors, tones, and form into account when including water in our images. Depending on the time of day, the light and shape of the water can change drastically. Knowing an area and the potential can really help when considering an image including water.

Like other aspects of nature photography, we must take the overall visual design into effect when photographing all types of water. Is one area detracting from others? Is the light working for you or against you? Do you need to relocate your position?

--Chris Klapheke

I live in the Pacific Northwest. What else says Pacific Northwest more than a waterfall. Spring here in the Pacific Northwest is a glorious time to take advantage of the hundreds of waterfalls  within a short drive. The waterfall  against a backdrop of lush greenery is one o my favorite subjects. Let’s discuss some of the challenges and suggestions that might help you in your waterfall photography. These are in order of how I think about them in the field. They are all equally important  in making quality waterfall images.

WATER EFFECTS: Silky or Natural?

This should be an easy decision. Slow shutter speeds for the silky effect and faster for less silky, or more action packed water. This is determined by the amount of water coming over the falls or over the rocks in a stream. If you are undecided, experiment and shoot both ways. Sometimes this is the best way to attack the situation and make your final decisions after the fact in front of your monitor.  If you want to convey the overall power, force & majesty of a big waterfall, I usually try to use a fast shutter speed. The converse is true for smaller falls and streams.

Adjusting shutter speeds is your call. If you want the silky effect (my preference) use slower shutter speeds. If you want moving water to look like it really does, then use a fast speed. Here is a chart that I refer to for the effect that I desire.

Long lens landscape photography isn’t as easy nor is it as natural as using a wide angle lens to compose a landscape photograph. Our eyes don’t see at 200, 300 or even 400mm. Normal human vision is similar to the field of view of a 50mm lens. The most challenging aspect of using a telephoto lens to photograph landscapes is learning to see like a telephoto lens. Your goal is to extract small, interesting sections from a much larger landscape. As if that isn’t difficult enough to do with the naked eye, a telephoto lens will also dramatically compress the distance between foreground and background elements. Factor in the technical challenges of working with a long lens and you might be tempted to just throw in the towel. Don’t do it! Here’s why.

Final Edited Image--Varanasi, India

Have you ever had a photo that’s almost there, but just missing a little something? I know I do all the time. I’ve been mining old images lately for my up coming black and white book and I came across this shot from Varanasi, India. I like a lot of things about this shot, but the dull sky ruined it for me. I didn’t want to forsake the image entirely, so I thought this would be a good time to explain how you can enhance an image with a few quick strokes in Lightroom and bring it back to life.

Orginal Raw Image

First things first, let’s get this image into an acceptable state.

In 1990, E.J.’s photographic aspirations came to a sudden stop.  While skiing, E.J. suffered such a serious injury that he was diagnosed as unable to walk again, possibly even losing a leg.  As it appeared that E.J. would not be mobile without assistance, he sold all his camera gear.  However, determination, resolve, several surgeries and painful physical therapy resulted in E.J.’s full recovery 3 1/2 years later. 

Even though he did not photograph, E.J. put his recovery years to good use.  His interest in aviation took over and provided him motivation during that tough time. He earned his Private Pilot, Instrument Pilot, Multi-engine Pilot and Commercial Pilot certificates, and became heavily involved in advanced flight simulation.  He even logged time in American Airline's full motion flight simulators where he learned to fly a Boeing 727!

You can find links to Robert's site at the end of this article.

Make sure and read this post all the way through, as Robert's explanation of his Lightroom processing is very informative.

We look forward to more of Robert's posts!

Cold Sunrise - Lake Placid, Adirondacks

This was a very cold, early morning hike to a great sunrise location in the Adirondacks, and I really wanted to convey this feeling in the image “Cold Sunrise”. There are many cues that you can use to express how you feel when you’re at a particular location, and these involve all of our senses including sound, touch, smell, etc. Here I’ve tried to convey touch and feel by leading the eye onto the texture of frozen snow on these rocks in the foreground.

In addition, I think that the low fog in the valley conveys that stillness and silence that we often associate with these types of atmospheric events. When we can’t see very clearly, our other senses become more acute, and even though this is a photo, it triggers that sense in our minds to imagine what it would sound like to be there. Notice also the strong diagonals which guide the eye as mentioned before – cool to warm, texture to smooth, dark to bright, all contrasting elements.

Anyone looking at this photo will immediately understand what it must have felt like to stand on this frozen rocky ledge – at least that is my hope, and why it is important to continually practice the language of photography.

• Lightroom Workflow

As a bonus, I’ve included my Lightroom workflow so that you can get a better sense of how I processed this image with these ideas in mind in order to create the best interpretation of the RAW file.