Friday, October 2, 2009

Learning to See: Unique Perspective

In our first two posts on learning to see creatively, we talked about shooting in less-than-perfect lighting conditions, and using creative compositions. This third post will focus on shooting from a unique perceptive. Explore the location from every angle, and look through your camera's viewfinder to try a variety of different compositions. Get the attention of the viewer by doing something something different or unexpected - why not shoot from inside a cave or behind a waterfall rather than choosing the same spot every other photographer has shot from?

During our visit to Kootenay National Park in Canada, we visited a burnt forest. The day was hot and humid - and we were there in the middle of the afternoon. Although Jay's primary goal was to shoot wildflowers growing in the region, he wanted to capture the remains of the forest fire as well. At first, he tried typical shots of trails and burnt trees, but nothing really impressed him. As he prepared to leave, he looked up at the clouds and realized he wasn’t thinking creatively. He took this shot of dead trees towering overhead with his camera pointed straight up towards a languid sky.

We visited Antelope Canyon in May - hoping to capture the sunbeams for which the slot canyon is famous. The sun was high in the sky, and we threw handfuls of sand into the air to catch the light as it streamed through gaps in the overhanging canyon walls. The bizzare twists and turns of the canyon walls made the location seem almost surreal - and Varina tilted the camera to make the most of an unusual composition.

Like most visitors, when Jay visited Dry Tortugas, he was instantly drawn to the colors and textures of this beautiful location. When he saw the old but majestic Red Fort surrounded by shallow turquoise waters, he made up his mind to shoot the location from the sky. The next day, he chartered an over-wing airplane and flew to Dry Tortugas just as dawn was breaking on the horizon. He took this photograph from high above the beautiful park.

Tips for Unique Perspective

  • Get down close to the ground and look straight up at the sky to capture the scene from an unusual angle.
  • Shoot from the air to capture a bird's-eye view.
  • Tilt your camera and use unusual angles to create an abstract photograph.
  • Shoot from inside, under, or behind objects to add an element of surprise to your images

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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Black and White

When I was in 7th grade - maybe 14 years old - I took my first photography class. I loved working with my dad's old Pentax K1000... and I even had the opportunity to process my own photos in the darkroom. What an experience for a kid! All these years later, I still love black and white - though my portfolio has only a few examples of my own monochrome images.
I miss those hours in the darkroom. If I close my eyes, I can still smell the chemicals, and I have no doubt that I could still wind a reel with undeveloped film in the dark if I needed to. There's a certain pleasure in working in the darkroom - but times have changed.
No more film photography for me - Photoshop is my darkroom now. Technology has made it possible for me to save my work at any time without worrying about leaving something sitting in solution for too long. So the kids can be my first priority. But I wouldn't trade those hundreds of hours in the darkroom for anything. I loved every minute of it.Maybe one of these days, I'll dig out some of my old black and white shots and post them here. What do you think? Anyone interested in seeing what I was doing in the darkroom all those years ago? :)
-Varina

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Beauty Creek - Jasper

We had some spectacular skies on this night. Jay's photo from a few days ago is from the same location - but facing in the other direction. He was somewhere on the left in this image - hidden by trees at the edge of the lake. The sun was shining through clouds on the opposite horizon, and just for a few minutes, a golden band appeared on the mountain. So I was hopping back and forth from rock to rock - trying not to end up with the fishes.

I love the reflected light in the water - and those beautiful dark spots of flora at the bottom of the lake add a bit of interest in that corner of the image.

I shot at f/11 and 1/5 sec. I processed a single image three times to find the correct exposure for sky, mountain, and water. This took quite a while, since I couldn't decide on the correct white balance. Is it right? Heck - I've no idea. I usually try to memorize the colors so I can reproduce them later... but I guess my little brain was overwhelmed with color data (too many shots in just a few days!) In the end, I decided this looked as close to real as I could get it... and I combined the three images in Photoshop using our iHDR technique. I'd love to hear your comments on this one. :)

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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Back in the States

Sorry folks! I would have loved to update my blog regularly during our stay in Canada, but I had very little access to the internet. And I was having entirely too much fun. This was, without question, one of our best trips ever. The landscapes were gorgeous, the skies were stunning, and the company was great fun. I have hundreds of images to work through, and I'm thoroughly looking forward to processing them. I hope you'll all be patient with me! :)This is a shot of Anemone occidentalis - better known as "Tow-headed Baby" or "Western Anemone" - from Sunshine Meadows in Banff National Park. (Forgive me... I love those fantastic Latin names. I have to admit, though - I look them all up. I don't have a clue what this stuff is called off the top of my head. I guess I just like to pretend I'm smart.) Although the vistas were fantastic, the light was pretty harsh. I found myself noticing small details. The drops of dew on this flower remained only because the flower was in the shade - which meant I had perfect lighting for a macro shot. It takes time to get a shot like this one just right... the flower is blowing in the wind, and focusing for macros can be difficult.

I used my 180mm macro lens to get nice and tight - and made sure the setup was secure on my tripod before worrying about focus. Although standard auto-focus works well enough for wide angle shots, I needed the more precise live-view auto-focus function to make sure focus was spot-on for such a small subject. I had to wait for the wind to die down as well.

I bumped up the ISO to 400 for a faster shutter speed - and managed to get a nice, clean shot at 1/30 sec. I chose f/5.6 to get just enough depth of field... I wanted those droplets nice and sharp, but the background completely blurred.

I'll post lots more from this trip as soon as I can. Hang in there - I'm trying to get caught up! :)

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Packing up

We're getting ready to go - our flights leaves early tomorrow morning. We'll be in the Canadian Rockies for the next few days. Can't wait!

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Travel Plans...

We have some exciting travel plans this year. We'll be in the Canadian Rockies at the beginning of August. I was born in Canada, and have made small trips into Canada a few times in the last several years... but never to shoot. We're both looking forward to that trip. In September, we'll head out to Montana to visit Glacier National Park again. And we've just booked flights to Hawaii in December. We weren't expecting to make it to Hawaii this year, so we're pleased to have been able to schedule this trip. With any luck, we'll get to stop in to see my Grandmother on Maui for a day or two during our stay.

Of course, in between travel, we'll be teaching another seminar in August and preparing for upcoming webinars. We have a workshop in November, too - in Utah... Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. So if we aren't busy enough with our six kids, we should be able to find plenty to do. ;)

And last but not least - I've updated my website once again. You'll find a new Details gallery... textures, macros, and small details. I've also added images to several other galleries. Check out the Newest Photographs gallery to see all the new photos in one place.

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Monday, April 6, 2009

Preparations...

We've just booked our tickets for our August trip to Canada. I am looking forward to spending some time in the Canadian Rockies with Darwin Wiggett and Samantha Chrysanthou! Both are excellent photographers - and there's nothing I like more than traveling to beautiful places with other photographers. Can't wait! We have a few trips planned before then, too - thank goodness. Otherwise, I'd start to get a little antsy! (A LOT antsy actually.) :)

We are also preparing for another Nature Photography and iHDR seminar in California. We're just about ready to go live with this one. We've had quite a lot of interest in this class, so make sure you sign up right away if you are interested. We can't promise a seat to anyone who waits too long.

After a few lovely weeks of Spring here in northern Ohio, we spent the day watching heavy snow cover our green grass. No suprise there, folks. That's how things are around here.

-Varina

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