When Nature Doesn't Provide, Get Creative

As an outdoor / landscape photographer, I'm at the mercy of nature.   The wind, light, clouds and other conditions, can make really nice photographs.   More often than not, the conditions are not all that conducive to making good photographs.  Such was the case this morning at Warriors Path State Park.

I had gone there to scope out photography opportunities for a photography class I'm teaching.   My students will meet me there Saturday morning and I want to have some idea if I should take them left or right in search of photographs.  I wandered around for a while not finding much to capture my attention.  At one point I found this branch sticking out of the surface of the lake.  I tried to create something in the minimalist style and came up with this.

Not much there to get excited about.   Then I recalled throwing pebbles into the water to create ripples, making a scene possibly a little more interesting.   Lucky for me the lake shore was littered with round rocks perfect for tossing in the lake.   The results weren't much better.  Then I tossed a bigger rock in the lake and the splash caught my eye.

What if I zoomed in and captured the water splashing up?  The sunlight was coming from the side, making the splash brighter than the reflections in the water and highlighting the texture of the water drops in mid-air without being too bright. It was only me doing the tossing and shooting, but I had plenty of time and rocks.   I would toss a rock, put my camera up to my eye, guess where the rock would hit the surface and try to time the shot just right.  Let's just say I played the law of averages - take enough photos that one or two may work out.   People out for their morning walk at the park probably shook their head and the crazy guy with the camera down on the lake shore.

Here are the results of my creative rock tossing.

Bass jumping with mouth open

Jumping Leaf

Water Fountain

Man Looking Over A Wall

See The Face?

All were taken at 200mm, f/4.5, ISO 400 - 800.   Shutter speeds varied between 1/250 and 1/800.

In the end, I had fun and created some fun scenes to photograph.   Don't let conditions keep you from shooting.   Go out and see what you can find and maybe even create some really cool conditions for photography.

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.

What I Learned in 2013

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods 

I have tried to advance my photography in a positive direction this year.  I've gone new places,  tried new things and learned all along the way.   My experience says Thoreau was right -- "we will meet with a success unexpected in common hours".  I usually go out with a photographic objectives in mind.  I want to try a new technique, photograph a new subject, get that iconic shot, and better yet get the one that no one else has.   Sometimes I meet my objectives, but more often I learn things and have success in unexpected ways.   Of course photography is a passion so I'm going to have a good time.

As I look back on 2013 I have decided to not do a "best of 2013" collection.   I've already shared my best shots on my calendar, on Google+, and on facebook and no one really wants to see them again.  Instead I have decided to share some things I have learned this year and some successes I have had at unexpected times.  These are not my best photos of the year but they can illustrate a point.

If you click on any of the photos below you will get a window with a larger version.  You can then use the right and left arrows to browse through the images.

Here goes.

• If you try new things you'll learn something new.  If I go at it with the right attitude I will have fun, even if I don't get anything worth sharing.   I've tried water drop photography a couple times and done it differently each time.  You never know what you'll get.

 

• You don't always have to go far to find opportunities.   The photo below was taken a short walk from the lodge where we were staying.  We had taken an eagle tour, drove around the lake and didn't find any better opportunities than right next door.

• There are always photographs to be made, if you just look around.   The photo below was shot from an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway one cold morning when snow was still covering the road.   It's not what we were looking for that morning.

• If you don't try you'll never get the shot.   I shot this photo of a very active bee while hand holding my camera.   It's a low probability shot, but if I didn't try my probability would have been zero.

• Rainy days are great times for photography in the woods.  It was raining pretty hard when I took this.  The rain drops don't show because of the slow shutter speed.  The overcast light was great and the rain made the colors more vibrant.

• Shoot the details.  This is just part of a steam locomotive I shot this year.  Because I shot this detail of a lamp I had a customer buy three large canvas prints of the Shay #4 engine, including this one.

• Don't shoot from the first place  you set your tripod.   My first position for this shot was a few steps to the left and the mountain in the distance wasn't visible between the trees.  All that was visible was blah white sky.  I took a few steps to the right and got a better composition.

• Get away from the crowd.  I took the shot below while on a photography workshop.  I don't think anyone else got this shot because June and I were the only ones that didn't follow the crowd down the mountain that day.

• Be aware of your surroundings.  While photographing a waterfall we noticed this American Dipper (aka Water Ouzel) catching food in the stream. We then noticed a juvenile near by on a moss covered rock.  I put my long lens on, waited and was rewarded.

• Don't be timid.  Just act like you belong there.  At a concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville  I walked up to the edge of the stage to shoot this. 

• Don't give up when you're lost.  On the way back home after a weekend away we stopped for gas and saw a sign for a waterfall and took off up the mountain.  After a while we realized there was no waterfall where we were.  It was getting dark and we had a long drive ahead of us.  We could have given up but instead we tried and eventually found the right road.

• Have fun.  This Ibis was perched on top of the bird food dispenser.    He must not have read that is said "Feed the ducks, geese, and swans."  

• Finally, give back and help others.   I volunteer to take pictures at a couple different community events.  They get some free photography and I get to try new things.

I've learned a lot this year and improved a little.  I hope you get something from what I've learned.  

“It's not about what it is, it's about what it can become.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

What to do on my day off? Water drop shots!

There's not much going on photographically outdoors right now.   It's rainy, overcast, and there is very little color.   Not enough to convince me to go out shooting in the rain.   Instead, I decided to make the best of an indoor day and try my hand at taking pictures of falling water drops.

I used common household items to build my "set".  A step ladder, clean oil pan, zip lock bag, and some colorful things for a back ground. 

I filled the bag with water and hung it from the top of the ladder over the oil pan full of water.  I attached my off camera flash to the side of the ladder and positioned a reflector on the opposite side.   Then it was a matter of poking a small hole in the bag and getting to work. 

I tried a variety of back drops.  The more colorful and bright the better the results.   You see in the photo on the right that  I was using one of June's old clown costumes and a red stadium chair.

The hardest thing is to focus in the right spot.  I held a pencil so the point was right where the  drops hit the surface of the water and manually focused on the pencil.

I found the following gave me the best results:

• Camera in manual mode, lens in manual focus
• 1/250 of a second (max sync speed)
• f/7.1 - f/22 depending on how much I wanted to blur the background.
• ISO appropriate to get a good exposure using these settings, usually 200 - 400.
• flash output set to 1/10.  This results in a faster flash.

Then I just started firing away as fast as the flash would recycle.  There's no timing these shots so it's all chance.  I took 192 shots and quickly deleted 147.  Out of the 45 remaining I picked 26 to work on. I then narrowed them down to 14 that were worth sharing.  All 14 are available on my website.

Here's a few of those 14.

Notice the red from the stadium chair in these shots.

Look closely and you will see the clown suit in the water drops.  You can click on any photo to get a larger view.

Most of my shots were looking across the water and slightly down.   I also shot looking down at the surface of the water.   These came out almost black and white so I went ahead a converted them to true black and white.

I hope you like these.  They were fun to do.   Best of all, I didn't have any water disasters and only had to wipe up a little water off the kitchen floor.