A Useful Weather Page For Outdoor Photographer

In my opinion, the most important part of photography is light.  Sure composition and a sharp technique are key elements to making a good photo, but if you follow the light you can find the composition and use your photographic skills to make a great photo.   As outdoor photographers, we are at the mercy of the weather to give us the light we want. 

I have used an App called The Photographers Ephemeris or TPE for years.  It will tell me where the sun and moon will be for any given time and place anywhere in the world.  This is more than just knowing when the sun comes up or goes down.  It will tell me the direction and angle of elevation, which will tell me how the sunlight will affect the scene.  You can use TPE for free on the web https://www.photoephemeris.com/tpe-for-desktop or buy a smartphone version for a few bucks.  Check it out.

Besides the sun, other major factors include clouds, wind, dew, and rain,  There are many weather apps and websites available.  One website I find useful is Weather Underground https://www.wunderground.com/ because of the useful information on the 10-day forecast.

Some key pieces of information available on this single page.

• General forecast - Partly Cloudy for today.
• Forecasted temperature and dew point.  When the temperature falls below the dew point you get dew on the grass, flowers, etc. making for great macro photos.
• Cloud cover - sometimes you want lots of cloud cover to give nice soft light.  Other times you want scattered clouds for photos that include the sky.  The example above shows cloudy in the morning and burning off around noon.
• Wind speed - this is important if you are wanting to minimize plant movement in the image.  In this example, the wind is forecast to pick up around noon.

Using this example I can see that the morning is best for macro photos of flowers and the afternoon might be better for big landscape shots.

As photographers, we have a wealth of information that can help us plan our outings and improve out odds of making great photos.  Now, go out and make some.

A mirror reflecting the Creator - June 2014 Calendar Page

I really like the writings of John Muir. I have found that things he said over 100 years ago are insightful and apply just as well today as they did in his time.

For those of you not familiar with Muir he was a Scottish naturalist and early (1838 - 1914) advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States.   He was known as "The Father of The National Parks" because of his efforts to convince Congress to create the National Park Service,  Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.  During his lifetime John Muir published over 300 articles and 12 books. Ten of his books are public domain and available as free downloads.  He co-founded the Sierra Club, which helped establish a number of national parks after he died.

I have often used Muir quotes on my calendars.  One of my favorites is

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

I chose the quote for the June calendar page because it so describes the flowers in the dew drops as a "mirror reflecting the Creator".  As June and I have become more interested in nature photography we have learned to look closely at everyday objects and see God's handiwork.   In this case this was a stem on a flower in the Centennial Park in Nashville.  It had rained the night before and there were water drops everywhere.   It was easy to get caught up in the reflecting pond, flowers, and buildings, but I found this dew drop covered stem to be the best thing there that morning.

This was taken with my camera on a tripod with a 100mm macro lens attached.   I manually focused to bring the refraction of the flowers into focus.  The macro lens created a shallow Depth of Field (DOF) and blurred the same flowers below the water drops.   This is not a particularly difficult shot if you have the right equipment, patience and an eye for these little details.

A 16 x 24 inch ThinWrap print of this photo is available in the Blowfish Emporium on State Street in Bristol, Virginia.   It is a lustre print that is coated with a soft Satin Laminate. The print is then mounted on Gatorboard with the print wrapping around the edges.  A block on the back makes the print float away from the wall when mounted.  I really like ThinWraps because they are a little different, look great and don't require expensive frames.