Here is a very quick tip: See the light.

Look for the direction of light (above: back light), the contrast range in a scene (above: medium), and the color of light (above: warm).

In the opening shot for this post, back light, which created beautiful rim light, makes the shot more than snapshot. The back light also adds a sense of depth to the image, much like a background light adds a sense of depth to a portrait.

Photographs © Rick Sammon

Canon 15mm lens (above). Canon 24-105mm lens (below).

Both: Canon 5D Mark II.

Last month my photography workshop brought us to the Sister’s Meal Festival in a remote area of China. It’s truly an amazing experience: hundreds of women get dressed in heavy silver and cloth outfits and perform a dance in the hope of attracting a husband.

The outfits weigh more than 40 pounds. Dancing in the hot sun for hours can’t be fun.

Anyway, the light was bad: harsh, direct sunlight. Adding to the challenge, the silver head dresses reflected the bright light, and the subject’s faces were shaded by the headdresses. Aaargh!

Spring is finally here with all its color, but I thought I would take a look back at the drab winter and give you a few thoughts.

My cure for the photographer’s cabin fever is finding interesting subjects to shoot indoors.  It’s not that I’m a wimp and don’t want to brave the cold, its just that what sells the best for me is images with color, and winter takes its toll on any color in nature here in the north. 

I can better spend my time marketing during the winter then out shooting images that won’t sell.  As much as I like winter, most people that view my images at the art shows tell me they don’t care for winter and they don’t want to look at it all year hanging on their walls.  I’m always looking for something interesting to shoot indoors.  Probably the most used indoor subject is flowers, and I do my share of flower shots, but I’m always in search of something new to shoot. 

For years I have been wanting to get an image of a Bluebird on a natural tree cavity.  The chances of finding a nest cavity that is low enough to the ground for photography is slim, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

The first step was scouting for a dead tree that had limbs with either a hollow or a soft center.  Once I located a tree, I tapped on the limb to see if the wood was solid or soft.  After finding the right limb, I cut off a 3 foot section and took it home.

But for me, it totally limits my style of photography. My camera is five feet off the ground and I have limited background options.  I can’t get closer that the car can be parked. This was the situation when I tried to photograph a Long-billed Curlew in a field next to a road. The bird was used to traffic so I felt confident that I could drive up as close as the road would permit. I waited untill the evening so the sun would be behind my back (or the back of the car), but when I pulled up, the sun was behind clouds. I fired off a few frames and got the following image.

Nothing too wrong with the image. The bird is nice and sharp. The head angle is good with the bird making eye contact.

Last summer I was fortunate to have some unusual visitors to my back yard.  We had a cicada invasion, and the insects were crawling up out of the ground and making their usual racket. Siting in my office, I thought I saw a dog run across the clearing.  On further inspection, it was Great Horned Owl!  To add to my surprise, two juvenile owls waddled out of the underbrush.  All three were after the tasty morsels emerging from their sleep.

Seeing a Geat Horned Owl around these parts is rare, and having two juveniles on the ground in one's own yard even rarer.  I knew I had to get to work, for this might be a fleeting moment.