Articles – Page 8

December 1, 2010March 29, 2017

Big sensors, big fun

Okay, so I like to cheat every once in a while. There are “purists” out there who would shake their head with shame at the image above, and I have to admit, I used to side with them more often then not. But I couldn’t help myself the other day playing around with some of my photos to see how I could create other successful photos just by cropping heavily.

The photo above is a head and shoulder crop of the photo below. My distance to this red-tailed hawk was limited by the height of the pole on which he was perched. I was already in pretty close, with an 800mm lens on a 1.6x crop sensor, giving me a 35mm equivalent focal length of 1280mm. If I’d walked any closer to pole, the angle of inclination would have been too severe, which was not the kind of shot I was going after. The photo was okay, but that pole really bothered me. I much prefer natural scenes without visible “hand-of-man” elements.

A red-tailed hawk perches on a tall pole, looking for prey

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So, once I got the photo onto my computer, I decided to start playing with the crop, if only to see what my photo might have looked like if I’d had more lens reach. I was fully expecting a pixelated mess, but to my astonishment, the cropped image wasn’t that bad. I won’t be making a 30×40 inch print of it any time soon, but for small prints and web use, it works. Here, the win definitely goes to the massive 18 megapixel sensor and the amazing amount of detail it can capture. Of course, some credit should go to me for the technique required for the razor sharpness of the image!

There are many new opportunities for photographers to express their creativity as a direct result of improvements in technology. Five years ago, I could not have done what I did above. The image quality of the cropped photo would have been too poor to stand up on its own. It is truly amazing how far the world of digital photography has advanced in recent years. Who knows what the next ten years will bring?

November 23, 2010March 29, 2017

Seeing eye to eye

A western fence lizard bakes in the hot sun

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It’s long been said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. That has never been more true than with wildlife photography. Capturing the subject’s eye helps the viewer connect with the animal, and brings a kind of depth to the photograph. Books such as Frans Lanting’s fantastic Eye To Eye are dedicated to this connection between the viewer and the subject. Achieving this kind of connection with your subject is something to keep in mind when out in the field photographing.

The photo above features a western fence lizard – very common in local open space preserves and urban green space. Recently I was out walking with my wife, and I was carrying (as I often do) my 100 – 400mm zoom lens. We came across this lizard, and given that the birds were not very active this time of day, I wanted to capture at least something fun with my camera. The lizard was only about 5 inches long, tip to tail. I’ve seen about a million straight shots of lizards from above, and knew I could easily fire off a few of my own – boring! That angle shows me nothing about the lizard – it might as well be a rubber toy. I wanted to get a sense for what the lizard might be thinking as he sat out in the hot sun. In order to do that, I had to get down to eye level.

Although the ground was covered in thick dust, I proceeded to get down on my belly, feet behind me (sometimes one has to sacrifice for one’s art!). I put my camera right onto the ground, to get as low as possible. Starting out at a distance with which the lizard seemed comfortable, I slowly crawled forward, taking pictures along the way. Once I got closer than the lens’s minimum focusing distance, I knew that was as large as I could make the lizard in the frame. I usually carry a set of Kenko extension tubes with me, but this time I didn’t have them, so that was as close as I was getting. The lizard kept me in his view the entire time, turning his head back and forth. After shooting for a while, I realized this lizard wasn’t planning on going anywhere soon. So I slowly backed away so as not to disturb him, and went on my way.

By getting eye level to a creature we don’t normally see that way, I was able to create a photo that does more than just document. There is a subtle connection made between the subject and the audience, which when achieved, can go a long way toward the success of a photograph.

October 27, 2010March 29, 2017

Alpenglow – what is it?

Recently several people have asked me what alpenglow is, and what causes it. This term was probably popularized among photographers by Galen Rowell, who wrote about it and demonstrated it wonderfully through many of his fantastic landscapes. The term refers to the reddish pre-dawn and post-sunset lighting effects sometimes seen on mountain peaks. There is some debate as to whether it also refers to the light cast directly by the sun at the moment of sunrise or sunset, or if it only refers to an indirect red cast on the mountain top while the mountain is still in the earth’s shadow. Either way, it is a beautiful sight to behold.

Mt. Whitney glows red in pre-dawn light, Alabama Hills, CA

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I got a chance to see intense alpenglow recently when I visited the Alabama Hills on the eastern side of the Sierra. In the photo above, you can see the intense red of alpenglow touching the peak of Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental US.

Why is alpenglow red? The longest and slowest moving light waves in the visible spectrum are red. As light travels through our atmosphere, the faster wave lengths (blue) are absorbed – only the red penetrates. Alpenglow is an extreme version of this light absorption because of the increased amount of atmosphere light has to travel through at this time of day. Here we have the sun rising on one horizon (east), striking an object on the opposite horizon (west). The red wave length is the only end of the spectrum that makes it through all that atmosphere. The fact that there are no features obstructing the sun as it rises across the Nevada desert, combined with the fact that the peaks of the eastern Sierra rise over 10,000 feet straight up, make the Alabama Hills one of the best places on earth to view alpenglow.

Light from the rising sun creeps down the face of Mt. Whitney at dawn, Alabama Hills, CA

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Here we have another shot of Whitney taken less than four minutes after the first photo. Here the darker purple of the earth shadow moved down the face, and the red color was more orange as the sun rose above the eastern horizon. Even though it was only four minutes later, there was less atmosphere for the sun light to traverse, shifting the color away from red and toward the shorter wavelengths.

June 20, 2010March 29, 2017

A change of scenery

In a post a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned making corrections to your background while still in the field. Another trick you can sometimes employ is to get a different look by changing the background completely. This works best when using long telephoto lenses (400 mm and up).

A great egret poses in soft evening light, preparing to fish for dinner

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The great egret in the photo above was perched on a short fence, and eying the water below. He seemed to be looking for the best place to fish for dinner. I was directly in line with the angle of the sun, so as to reduce any side lighting on the egret. The foliage of a berm far behind him created a solid, even color.

I got several head poses that I liked, but since my subject was being so patient, I wanted to see if I could get a completely different background. The berm was not very high, and the evening sky above it was a nice light blue. I moved to the right and lowered my camera until I was close to the ground. This removed the berm from my background completely, and gave me the photo below with a background of sky.

A great egret poses in soft evening light, preparing to fish for dinner

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Because my lens was a long telephoto, I didn’t have to move far to change my background. This is great when my subject is wildlife, and they can decide to end the photo session at any moment. However, I use the same idea even when photographing friends with shorter lenses. Taking the time to look around for different background options can give you different variations on the same subject and can lead to new, interesting photos.