Nature Light Photo

Photo of the Week – Remembering Today

Today is a day to remember those who allow us to fly our flag high above what we have and be thankful for our freedom.

Thank you to all who served and all of those presently serving.

Be safe.

Making the Best of the Situation – Trees in the Fog

I woke up early to try to shoot the sunrise, but it was completely socked in with fog. There wasn’t going to be a sunrise and, as a matter of fact, the sun wouldn’t show its self until past noon that day.

Instead of going back inside, I focused on what I could see or what I could barely see. Once in a while the fog would lift enough to faintly see the trees on the opposite hill. I took those moments to capture the scene above.

I wanted enough detail to make sure the viewer knew what they were looking at, but not enough to make it ordinary. I think I accomplished my goal.

I think the lesson is that if the image you had in mind isn’t there, make the best of the situation and look for another one.

The photo was taken with a D300 and an 18-70 f3.5-4.5 lens at 31mm. The exposure was for 1/100 of a second at f8 and an ISO of 200.

Panorama – Painted Hills in John Day Fossil Bed NM

Painted Hills in John Day Fossil Bed NM, OR

I spent three days exploring the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument and really tried to capture the feeling of the area in a singe shot. I couldn’t without using a panorama.

I think it captures the hills and expanse of the area in one image. I used five images and Ps CS3 to stitch the images together. I think I could have done a better job with the blending in the sky.

The image was taken with a Nikon D70 and a Nikkor 18-70 3.5-4.5 lens. The EXIF data is unavailable.

Work Smart, Workflow

I’ve been hearing a lot about workflow in the last few months. I’ve been to meetings/get togethers where it was topic of the night. I’ve had discussions about it with fellow photographers. And I’ve read about it on blogs and heard about it on podcasts. Workflow is a big deal in photography.

The purpose of a workflow is to simplify your life, save time, and do things in a manner that allows you to work in an efficient manner. By repeating the same routine over and over, you eliminate the unneeded steps and you decrease the chance of leaving out important steps.

Everyone has their own workflow. It evolves, and continues to evolve, over time as each person determines what their needs are and what they want to do with their photography. In the beginning, I think most people are all over the place, trying new things, incorporating different ideas, and throwing out inefficient steps. Eventually, they get down to a solid workflow.

What follows is my workflow. I don’t recommend it to everyone because we have different goals and needs, but I think a lot of it is valid for most workflows and most people.

My workflow starts before I even click the shutter. I check the camera settings for white balance, ISO, metering mode, program, focus settings, etc. This is also where I determine whether I am going to shoot in RAW or JPEG. I shoot RAW 99% of the time, but if I am doing a shoot where I am going to take a LOT of pictures and I don’t plan on processing them, I shoot is JPEG. For instance, if I am shooting theater or a graduation, I will shoot in JPEG so that I can download the images and get them right onto my SmugMug site.

As I fill up my cards, I put them in my Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket. Blank cards are in each section so that the white side is showing and as I use them, I replace them so that the red side is out. White for empty, red for full.

After I have shot the images, create a folder on my hard drive for each shoot. I am less concerned with the date and more with the subject, so my naming system is something like “Yosemite 11.05.18″ Yosemite would be the subject shot in 2011 on May 18th. I put the date in that format so if I have more than one Yosemite folder, they are in chronological order. (You have to put the zero in front of the five for the month.)

I then copy the images from each card to the specified folder. I do this by selecting all images, copying them, and then pasting them into the folder. This may take a little while if I have multiple cards, but I’m not in a rush. Once they have been uploaded to the hard drive, I return them to the Pixel Pocket Rocket with the red side out, but turned sideways to show me that they have been copied, but the card hasn’t been formatted.

That usually ends the first day.

On the second day, I import them into Lightroom and key word them. My keywording is done all in Lr also. My key words include the photographer, the year and month, the place, and then specific information about the subject of each image.

Once the images have been uploaded, imported, and keyworded, I begin to cull the images. I edit in, not out. By this I mean that I pick the ones I like, my top images and flag them. I don’t worry about the ones I don’t like, they get no action or energy put into their direction. I look for sharpness and focus, subject, composition, and just general appeal. If I like the image, I hit the “P” key to flag it. I can cull 1,000 images in about 30 minutes. Left hand is on the “P” and “U” keys (pick and unpick) and the right hand is on the arrow keys to move back and forth between the images.

On the third day, I start working with my images, manipulating them so that they reflect my vision of the image when I took it. I work with them in the following order: cropping, white balance, exposure, highlights, fill light, shadows, details (cloning, dust spot removal, dodge and burn, etc.), and finally variance and clarity. If the image is a panorama or HDR, then I run it through the appropriate program before starting with the above.

Finally, I select the image I want and upload them to Flickr and/or my SmugMug site.

Yes, this takes three days, but not the entire day. It averages about an hour each time except for the final image manipulation which can take quiet some time depending on how many images I am working on.

I find that by breaking up the workflow as I do, it allows me to look at each image a couple of times and sometimes what I thought I liked, I don’t; further culling the images down.

If I have a shoot that I have to get out for any particular reason, I am capable of doing the above in one night. But it is a long night.

Again, that’s my workflow and it evolved so that I could spend more time shooting and less time sitting in the dark staring at the computer. Yes, that can be fun, but I don’t want it to be the center of my photography.

Photo of the Week – Cholla Cactus at the Punchbowl

Cholla Cactus at the Punchbowl

Los Angeles County has a city park on the north side of the San Gabriel Mountains that has a unique geological event called the Devil’s Punchbowl. Basically, there is some volcanic and sedimentary rock that was uplifted and eroded in a very interesting manner.

This Cholla Cactus sits on the rim of the punchbowl with rock formations and the mountains in the background.

The picture was taken with a D300 and a Nikkor 18-70 3.5-4.5 lens at 38mm. The exposure was 1/640 of a second at f5.6 and an ISO of 400.

5/5 Posts and Sites You Should Read for 5/20/11

Here are the photography blog posts and sites that I found this week that I think you as a photographer should read. Not all of them are always related to photography, but they are worth looking at and will probably make you think.

POSTS

A Photographer’s Three Phases of Development – From Scott Borne at Photo Focus

20 Interesting Images of Roads – I’m not big on this kind of thing, but these really are interesting.

Why Bring a Second Shooter to a Wedding – A pretty good argument.

100 Fantastic iPhone Apps for Photographers – Yes, they are good.

Model Releases – A good post on the hows, whys, and whatnots of model releases.

SITES

Alpine Exposures – GREAT photography from the outdoors.

Snappy Shutter – Tips, tricks, and tutorials.

By Thom – THE expert on all things Nikon with great information.

A Photo Editor – Interviews and information on and about photography.

Bill Atkinson Photography – A photographer with an unusual eye for details.

Photo of the Week – Snowfall in Southern California

Snowfall in SoCal

It started out as a day of shooting poppies in the Antelope Valley State Poppy Reserve, but the poppies didn’t cooperate so it ended as a day of driving through the Southern California mountains as a spring storm began to build.

I like the way that the snow looked on the green trees and the shape of the hills against the socked in sky. I am beginning to appreciate the fog/haze and what it can do in an image.

The picture was taken with Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 18-70 3.5-4.5 lens at 70mm. The exposure was 1/50 of a second at f8 and an ISO of 200.

5/5 Posts and Sites You Should Read for 5/13/11

Here are the photography blog posts and sites that I found this week that I think you as a photographer should read. Not all of them are always related to photography, but they are worth looking at and will probably make you think.

POSTS

190 Free Presets for Lr – From the onOne software people.

Experimenting with Macro Photography – From Megapixels and Beyond

Originality: A Matter of Perspective – I talked about this earlier this week. It’s a great post.

Trees Tell the Story of 1,100 Years of El Nino – An interesting science article about how El Nino has affected the planet.

Don’t Be An Idiot – Guy Tal discusses the role of the photographer in art and the importance of understanding art.

SITES

What Digital Camera – As the name suggests, a site that helps answer the question.

Popular Photo – One of America’s great photo magazines is online.

Digital Photo Tutorials – A large number of online tutorials on photography.

Better Photography – An online school for photography.

Guy Tal – A great nature photographer.

Do You Shoot Icons?

Half Dome

I have noticed a lot of debate online and in podcasts as to whether or not it is a good idea to shoot icons.  Is it acceptable to capture an image of something that has been shot a thousand times before?

I think everyone recognizes the subject above; Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. I took this from the valley floor, which gives it a slightly different perspective on a subject that has been shot probably millions of times before. Is my image different? Yes. I think so. Was it even a worthy subject? I don’t know. It’s been shot before, but maybe not from where I shot it and maybe not in the same situation.

That is the question. Do you shoot a subject that is famous and has been photographed before or is that considered being unoriginal?

First, I’d like to know your opinion.

Two or three months ago, Jon Cornforth tweeted  “…you would have a hard time finding the holes left by my tripod…” I thought it was a great quote. He was saying that he looks for the shot that is new and hasn’t been done before because he strives for originality. Is it wrong that he passes up the iconic image? I don’t know.

Recently, Jim Goldstein had a post on his blog discussing this very same subject. He states that shooting the iconic image is safe and a “lower risk” effort and that finding your own, different image can be difficult. He goes on to say that he does shoot the iconic image, but looks at doing so is “the first step in a longer creative process.” Is he being unoriginal? I’m not sure.

I have written about trying to duplicate the Ansel Adams shot of the memorial at the Manzanar interment camp.  I even went back and tried it again. I took the shots because I wanted to learn how to see in a photographic manner. Was I wrong to do so?

I think it comes down to the purpose of your photography and why you are taking pictures. Are you trying to show the world as you see it? Or are you trying to show people what they haven’t seen before? Or is it somewhere in between?

I like Goldstein’s approach. Use the known to help you find the unknown. I like Jon Cornforth’s attitude. Go out of your way to find the original.

Who is right? Both. Who is wrong? Neither.

Photo of the Week – Death Valley Salt Sculptures

Salt Strands

While walking out on the salt flats at Badwater in Death Valley National Park before the sun dropped low on the horizon, I noticed that the salt that I was walking on wasn’t flat. I’m not talking about the saucer shapes in the salt ridges caused by the expansion of the surface. I’m talking about how the areas that appeared flat from a short distance were not even close to being flat.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the surface was a really beautiful series of salt sculptures caused by the minute forces of nature that also caused the overall beauty of the salt flats.

As the mineral saturated water percolates up through the salt it reaches the surface where the wind blows it into a mist. Mist drop by mist drop, the water evaporates, leaving it’s minerals behind in long strands of salt.

You have to get down on your knees to really appreciate the beauty and delicate results. Be warned, doing so will cause your pants to become salt incrusted as they absorb the salty water and it dries, but it is worth it.

The picture wast taken with Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 105 2.8 macro lens. The exposure was for 1/1000 at f4 and an ISO of 200.