What Sells?

Last time we got a call from a publisher, they were looking for photographs of "pretty places" for a National Park's calendar. This time, we got a call from National Park's Magazine. They were looking for images to illustrate an upcoming article on investments in water management in Everglades National Park. Here is the photo they selected:


The day we took this shot, we rose early, put on our water shoes, and followed Paul (naturalist, incredible photographer, and friend) into the Everglades. He warned us of sharp limestone beneath the surface of the water - and of Alligators, Cottonmouths, and Burmese Pythons... and he went barefoot.

We spent more than an hour wandering around in this area as the sun came up over the Mangroves, took a bunch of shots, and headed to breakfast. But it isn't the efforts behind the photo that sell it. It's not the hike, the lens, the camera system, or the dangerous animals that threaten to nibble on your toes out there. ;)

In this case it's the location - the heart of a park that is struggling to deal with problems ranging from water management to infestation by invasive species (remember the Pythons we mentioned?) to threatened and endangered species. The light helps - it's a pretty sunrise, and the well-controlled highlights and shadows make it pleasant to look at. But in the end, it's a portrait of this troubled and beautiful location... and that helps the publishers tell their story.

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
  

Featured Download: Finding Neverland

This week, we've chosen Jay's shot of a tall ship off the coast of Florida. Sometimes, we hike for miles and wait for hours to get the shot. Sometimes, we march through heavy drifts of snow, or wait out sand storms just to capture that spectacular sunset.

And sometimes, you get the shot while you are standing on the deck of your cruise ship with a champagne glass in your free hand. This shot was taken on a "Sunset Cruise" in Key West. The setting sun lit up the sails of the tall ship in the distance - and Jay was able to catch the warm glow against a backdrop of stunning cloud formations.

And I'm jealous. Because the cruise happened before I knew him. So I didn't get to go along.

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Learning to See: Creative Compositions: Part II

The first post in our Learning to See series explored the topic of Creative Compositions. Remember those tips we mentioned...?

• Find a new location to shoot that icon
• Experiment with different zoom lenses
• Change elevation of your camera
• Get up close to focus on textures and patterns rather then location
• Use reflections if available
• Place a human or wildlife element in the photograph

Here are a few examples to illustrate the point.
For the first photo, Varina shot directly into the sun with a Canon's 135mm f/2.0 L-series lens. You're looking at Everglades National Park. By using a 135mm lens on 1.6x camera, Varina was able to fill the frame with the few low hanging clouds on the horizon. It's not a typical shot from that location - though you'll see those famous back-lit spider webs in the foreground if you look carefully.

In the next two examples, Jay used human or wildlife elements as foreground points of interest.

And for this last shot, Varina used macro lens to capture this tiny leaf against patterned sandstone. The shot was taken near the Hanging Gardens in Page, Arizona - since the light wasn't right for broad landscapes, she focused on details and patterns instead.

Escargot

I hope I'll get some comments on this post... I'd like to hear what people have to say about these photos. As you know, I usually shoot with wide angle lenses to capture a broader view of nature. I constantly notice little details, though, and I am trying to incorporate more images like these into my portfolio. These shots were thanks to Paul once again (www.PaulMarcellini.com). He took us on a little nature hike in Florida to show us where these beautiful snails live. There are some even better shots on his website - in his Fauna gallery. I was happy with what I did get. We'll have to try again next time!
We're putting some finishing touches on our registration setup for our seminar. We'd like to have it up and running by the end of the week. I hope some of you will join us!

Pine Glades Lake - Florida

Things have been pretty crazy this week. We are being approached for photos more regularly this year than ever before, and sometimes it's tough to keep up with the demand. I'm not complaining... it's a great situation for us... but it sure keeps me busy. We got an email from National Geographic Books this week. They're looking for images for their 2010 calendar, and wanted us to prepare some of our favorites for review. So I spent some time putting together a macro that will automatically re-size, sharpen, and save the files I need. Once the macro is done, I should be able to put together a folder of appropriate images pretty quickly.

This is the image I've been using to test my macro. Pine Glades Lake in the Everglades. I loved this location - and so did the spiders. :)

Seminar

I've spent most of this week handling the details of our August Seminar. Hang in there for a few more days and I should have the information online. I'll open up registration as soon as I can.

Since I haven't had time to process anything, I thought I'd put up this shot of a crab that I took in Florida... with Paul Marcellini's lens. He was kind enough to let me try it out. I loved it, and now I'm completely jealous. :)
And here's the shot Jay took of me taking that shot. :) I love photography... and I'm missing that white sand and warm weather.

I guess I'll just have to keep on living vicariously through you, Paul. (I'm also living vicariously through Nan - who has the 100mm macro I dream about... and Darwin - who is living in the Rockies where I'd like to be shooting...)

;)

I've got the Blues

Paul, Jay, and I were playing with slow shutter speeds at Bahia Honda in Florida. We stacked ND filters and circular polarizers to see if we could get this effect. I'm happy with the result. The blue storm clouds compliment the turquoise water... and I love the mossy stones. For this shot, I stacked two 3-stop ND filters, and used a 10 second shutter speed at f/11. The others got some really nice shots too. (The working title for this shot is "I've got the Blues", but it may change if Paul uses it for his... it was his idea, so he has first dibs... gotta give credit where it's due.)

Thanks for joining us, Paul! We had a great time!

Vision of the Future

As usual, after a trip, I'm playing catch-up. I did get one image processed today - Vision of the Future is a shot of Pine Glade Lake in Florida just before sunset. I loved the textured stones in the water, and the reflected light on the lake was absolutely beautiful.

Shooting into the sun adds all kinds of complexity to photography. :) I shot at f/22 to produce a slight flare in the sun, and to slow the shutter speed a bit. I used a GND filter to reduce the huge dynamic range, a 3-stop ND filter to slow my shutter speed even further - enough to smooth the surface of the lake, and took three bracketed shots. I combined those three shots in PhotoShop today, and tried to present the scene realistically. I'll have to take a look at it again in a few days to see if it needs any improvements... but I'm happy with it for now.

I processed this image while waiting for and watching the inauguration of Barack Obama. Now, I'm waiting for my little brother to march by in the parade - he's a member of the Ohio State Marching Band... "TBDBITL".

Still in Florida

We've been pretty lucky this trip. We've had great weather for shooting, and we've met with some really excellent photographers. Yesterday, we ran into Daniel and Carlos while shooting the sunset at Pine Glade Lake in the Everglades. Check out there galleries if you have time. Good stuff!

We spent today shooting with Paul again. In the morning, we photographed the mangroves. The mud was up to my knees in places - great fun! I got a couple of nice shots there. Then we headed down the Bahia Honda Key for the afternoon. White sand, clear water, and deep blue storm clouds - gorgeous.

Another good day.

Tomorrow we shoot in the morning and then head for the airport later in the day. Time to head back home.

Sunset

Absolutely bang-on sunset tonight. I couldn't be happier. :) And now... to sleep. 5 am wake up call.

Florida

We were stuck in the airport for most of the day yesterday. We finally arrived at our hotel at about 1am. We asked for a 4:45am wake-up call and went straight to bed. We never did get the wake-up call, but we woke up anyway and went out to shoot the sunrise. We met up with Paul Marcellini (check out his work - it's beautiful!), and did some shooting in the everglades. Paul knows the area like the back of his hand, so it was great to be out there with him. We'll probably meet up with him again on Sunday.

We're headed out to check out some trails. :)

En route to Florida

My images are now available for sale on the Vision Light Gallery website. You can reach our collection by visiting Vision Light directly or clicking on the purchase link on my website. Jay and I have a large selection of images for sale with Vision Light - and other images can be purchased by contacting me directly. I'm glad to have this section of my site up and running at long last. Preparing large numbers of images for print is a time-consuming process, so I'm glad it's ready to go.

This is the coldest weather we've seen in Cleveland for a few years. The early morning light on the snow is absolutely beautiful this morning - the huge lake North and West of us usually provides a heavy cloud of moisture that hangs over the region all winter long. Today, that cloud is nowhere to be seen.

We'll be leaving around 9:30 this morning. There has already been a change of plans. The boats we'd intended to take to Dry Tortugas are full - so we'll be choosing other locations to shoot during this trip. We're always flexible. :) Florida has a wealth of beautiful locations. We'll be back next week - but I'll try to update my blog as much as possible while we're there. I hope those of you who are dealing with extremely cold temperatures are staying warm!

After the Rain

This is a shot from our last trip to Arizona. Big storms were moving through, and we got some great shots of Horseshoe Bend. I took this shot as we were headed down the hill towards the cliff. The light was absolutely glorious, and at large size, you can see the tiny round craters that the raindrops left in the sand. This one took me a while to process - I started it a couple of months ago, and have been working on it sporadically. It's a manual HDR combination of three bracketed exposures. One for the sky, one for the ground, and a third for the extremely bright highlights. I generally try to stay away from lots of cloning in my photos - but this time, I did quite a bit. There were foot prints leading away into the desert in front of me. So, I took a little artistic license and cloned the footprints out. Some will say I'm cheating - others will say it's my perrogative as the artist. I say - let someone else argue the point. I'm just doing my thing - but I'd rather be honest about it. What do you think?

We're getting ready for some chilly weather here in Cleveland. Lots of snow this past week - and the temperature is dropping fast. The next few days are going to be pretty darn cold. But I can't complain - I'm leaving for Florida on Thursday, so I'll escape just when it's at it's worst here. I'm hoping for some great light on this trip. The weather was nice for snorkeling and swimming the last few times we were in Florida - but the skies weren't very exciting. I have my fingers crossed.

Spooky

This is a shot from Spooky Canyon in Grand Staircase - Escalante National Park. This slot is not as popular with photographers as some of the others. The slot is quite deep and very narrow in some places, and dealing with deep shadow can be daunting if you lack experience. In many cases, it is necessary to prop the tripod precariously and leave the shutter open for more than 30 seconds. This shot was taken nearer to one end of the canyon, where the slot is wider and not so deep. The shutter speed is only 1.3 sec at f/16. I have a few shots from deeper in the canyon, and I hope to get a few processed this week.

Maybe one of these days I'll have some time to get my Tennessee shots off my camera. I haven't even taken a look at them since we returned from our trip. :) Jay and I are finishing up a couple of articles, and we'll try to get those live as soon as possible - you can check out the ones already online by clicking here. I'd like to get a little more processing and those articles done before our next trip. We'll leave for Florida in ten days.

Park Rangers

We owe a lot to park rangers. Every time we visit a park, we stop at the visitors center to ask for suggestions from the people who might know the park best. Most rangers offer a bit of helpful advice and some go a bit further to make suggestions and point us towards locations that we didn't know about. Occasionally we find a ranger who knows the park like the back of their hand - one who wants to share what s/he knows and has a wealth of knowledge that is truly impressive. We've been blown away by the fantastic rangers at some of the visitor centers. So - we depend upon the rangers to offer advice that you just can't find in the literature the parks offer. Thank goodness for park rangers.

Of course, sometimes you get a ranger who hasn't hiked the trails and really doesn't know how to find answers to your questions. Most of the time, they'll find someone who does know the answer, or they'll find a book or even make a call. Unfortunately, we were unlucky the other day. We asked for directions to Devil's Cave, and the ranger gave us a hand-drawn and photo copied trail map - nothing out of the ordinary, there. Those maps are often much better than the ones printed in the bulletins and passed out to visitors. She told us to follow the marked trail to the edge of the map... then, we were to follow the railroad marked on the map until we reached a side trail - she drew a dotted line to show us it's location. The smaller trail would branch off and lead us to the cave, which she marked with an X. I noticed that the trail marked on the map was 2.3 miles, one way, aand that the line she'd added looked as though it added a few miles to the total distance - so I asked her how much further we'd need to hike in order to reach the cave. She told us that the cave was 2.3 miles from the trail head. All right - so I thought maybe her drawing wasn't to scale. No problem. We also noticed that the "old railroad" she mentioned was marked as a road on the map. We asked about that too. She told us it was a railroad - not a road. So we drove over and parked at the trail head. We hiked 2.3 miles along the trail and found the bridge that was marked on the map. Her drawing showed that we should pass the bridge (not cross it) and continue along the railroad. Well... the railroad wasn't a railroad at all. It was a road. Suddenly, we weren't so confident about her directions. We hiked another mile along the road before turning back. No side trail, so cave. Nothing. We wanted to explore as many locations as possible, so hiking along a road (which we could just as easily drive to make the most of our time) seemed pointless. We returned to the visitor center.

The ranger asked if we'd found the cave, and when I told her we hadn't she asked if we'd crossed to the other side of the bridge. But the map she gave us was so clearly marked - showing that we should NOT have crossed the bridge. So... needless to say, we didn't ask the ranger for any more advice. Instead, we returned to our hotel in the evening and did a quick google search for the GPS coordinates of the cave. Devil's cave is located just about 100 yards from an entirely different trail head. Right. Ah well - we had a good laugh. Thank goodness for good park rangers - and nevermind the rest. I'm just glad someone is taking care of the parks. Besides, all that hiking was excellent exercise. :)

Our trip to Tennessee was great - despite the wild goose chase. :) We found some beautiful arches and waterfalls - and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine. The weather was gorgeous! A nice change from this freezing stuff we've returned to! Cleveland is freezing cold - and we cleared five inches of snow from our driveway when we got home. High winds are making it feel even colder. Ah well - Florida in January. I'm ready!

Happy New Year to all of you. Thanks once again for stopping in to read my blog!

Workouts and Work

We had a couple of good workouts this week - a 60 minute run on Monday, and 30 minutes on the bike plus an upper body workout on Wednesday. We hope to get another run in tomorrow - and if we can pull that off, we'll have met our goals for the week. It's always difficult to find time to work out, but we try to stay in shape for our trips. You have to be ready for that 1.5 mile dash between car and location at 9,000 feet, you know - because you left your only charged battery in the car, and the sun is setting. :) The last time we were in Colorado, I did just that - I made the run and got the battery, but missed the sunset. I'm telling you - running at 9,000 feet is a whole lot different from running at 1000 feet here at home.

I spent a good part of the week processing stock photos and submitting them. I need to update my website and work on a couple of articles. I hope to get those done before we leave for Florida in January. We'll be heading for Dry Tortugas National Park. I haven't been to this park before, but we've been to Florida a few times. I'm looking forward to warmth and sunshine. This shot - titled "Reclaimed" - is from our last trip to Bahia Honda. The odd shape in the water is an old rope that has provided a home for all kinds of flora and fauna.