Hurry up, the light is changing

My dirty little secret? I don’t spend a lot of time taking pictures.

It’s certainly not because I don’t like to because I love being outdoors and I love taking pictures.

Unless the weather is unusual during the middle of the day, I am enjoying the country sights of the country.

On an average morning, I might be shooting for an hour, two hours max. The light is the best then. It’s low, colored provides the kind of mood that light during the middle of the day doesn’t.

It’s really amazing how many different looks you can get at the same place and time. To do this you want to shoot quickly. The higher the sun rises above the horizon the less photogenic your scenery will be.

What makes this so easy is digital photography. Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.

Often what looks good in the viewfinder doesn’t look good on your monitor and vice versa. I overshoot and severely edit in camera and then edit again on the computer.

You also want to streamline your shooting technique. Mine is pared down to the minimum. I don’t want to be dragging every lens, filter and whatever else I have around. My camera is always mounted on the tripod. I’ve lost so many shutter releases that I finally got the brain storm to tie them to my camera strap. If the shutter falls out, it remains attached to the strap. These things are cheap. Five dollars each. I order them on Ebay a half dozen at a time to save on shipping from Hong Kong. Each release lasts a couple of months before the buttons stop working.

I’ve got a wide angle zoom mounted on the body. I like the look but carry one other lens in my back pack in case I want a different view. There is always a selection of filters in the pack but I rarely seem to use them, preferring shoot multiple exposures of everything.

The camera body is set to aperture priority, usually from f11-f22 and brackets automatically at -2, 0 and +2 EV. If I don’t need any of the extra exposures, I delete them on first viewing in camera. Again, it’s important to get out of the film mentality. It costs nothing to shoot a few hundred frames in an hour. If you don’t shoot it, you’ll never have the choice to keep it.

My landscape shooting used to be with a view camera and 4×5 or 8×10 sheet film. Even with these cameras I found it possible to get a couple of dozen good shots a day. With digital your numbers should be much higher.

Keep these ideas in mind. Travel light and shoot fast. This is digital photography not film.

Happy shooting,

Dan

The best and latest… do ya really want it?

Canon just released their new EOS-1D Mark IV camera in North America this week. Now don’t go running off to order yours online before reading this.

I was talking at work this week about the new Canon with a professional shooter who has used Canon for more than twenty years. What piqued my interest  are the rumors about the high end version of this model, a square sensor, 35 to 46 megapixel sensor camera body.

I won’t be selling my 21 megapixel body soon although the temptation of more megapixels is alluring.

My friend’s advice? Wait? Hold on? Do you want to be a beta tester for any company?

Equipment, especially anything electronic is refreshing at an amazing rate these days. Mechanical advances are incremental. There is only so much you can do with the laws of physics when it comes to optics but sensor technology and autofocus are completely different.

Greg remembers too well, the problems he had with his new bodies when they came out. Covering a sporting event the focus would wander all over the place. The result? Missed shots. Canon has for the most part sorted that out but is that a guarantee that the new body is trouble free? His advice? There is no way he would consider getting the new body at the moment.

Canon is not alone in this. Every manufacturer is guilty to some degree of pushing products out the door too fast in order to get the upper hand on their competition.

Me, I will continue to use a camera body that I know for a fact to be reliable. Until a piece of camera equipment is out for at least six months and plenty of others before me have blazed the trail, the status quo is fine by me.

Happy shooting,

Dan

The most beautiful places on Earth

I was just browsing the photo galleries of Outdoor Photographer Magazine earlier today. Judging by what I see, everyone who takes pictures outdoors either lives in Africa, Alaska or one of the mountain parks in North America.

Can these be the only interesting places to photograph? Nope. They are the easiest though.

Try testing your photographic mettle. There is a beautiful and mainly undiscovered landscape waiting to be found minutes from where you live. It is both breathtaking and awe inspiring. Different times of the day or of the year will transform the ordinary into the supernatural. I find the tail ends the day to be my most rewarding times outside.

Colors that are subtle to the eye are easily captured in camera. No need for color intensifiers or colored graduated density filters. Nature provides all the color you need.

I love to shoot in Jasper and Banff, how can a person not? Personally, my most satisfying photos are the ones that I have taken right around Edmonton. That could easily apply to anywhere just as easily. The lands around Edmonton aren’t known as a mecca for landscape photographers but the beauty is there, waiting to be found.

Happy shooting,

Dan

HDR is Finally Mainstream?

Outdoor Photographer, an American magazine is probably the most mainstream and influential of all the outdoor photo magazines right now.

It features the work of some of the higher profile shooters as monthly columnists and guest contributors. As the magazines go, so do the people that read them.

The cover article is on GASP! HDR photography. For those that have never heard of the term, that is High Dynamic Range photography. Very simply, like film, a ccd chip has a limited range of light that it can record. In extreme lighting situations, like shooting into the sun, chip physics limits how much light can be capture. Emphasize highlights? Emphasize shadows? Compromise with a middle tones photo and lose the highlight or shadow of the scene?

Unfortunately CCD technology is not at the point where the dynamic range of an extreme scene  can be captured in one exposure. The easy way around this is to make a series of multiple exposures that are bracketed to over and underexpose the image. You end up with different exposures of the same scene that might have all the highlight detail but no shadow detail. Shadow detail with no middle tones or highlights or a normally exposed image which loses highlights and or shadows.

These images are combined various ways. The easiest and best results for me have been with Photomatix.

The thing about Photomatix that makes it so good also makes it so bad. Pulling their adjustment sliders while tonemapping can give you a realistic effect just as quickly as a haloed, cartoony look. Because of this, HDRs have come to be known as gawdy and unrealistic cartoons.

The author of the article has presented a series of natural looking images that no one would suspect as being HDRs. Hopefully this opens the eyes of some of the naysayers who think of combining exposures as some sort of unholy cheating. The purists can argue all they want but the moment you use anything physical to record your landscape, be it a paint brush or a camera, you can no longer claim to be a purist. Every piece of equipment extends their limitations upon what you can do. Is combining exposures any different than using one exposure to make an image? Not for me.

Not every scene needs the HDR treatment. Most of mine do for a very simple reason. I usually am shooting into the sun where there is an extreme range of light. One exposure is find for most middle of the day images or scenes where the sun is at your back but shooting into the shadows or into the sun needs that extra help.

HDR is not a panacea for every situation. There are scenes where HDRs and Photomatix fail miserably. Because there is a time delay, albeit a short one between exposures, anything that moves becomes problematic. Have trees or grasses blowing in a strong wind and ghosting occurs. You can retouch a branch or two but if there is a lot of movement going on everywhere, the shot is pretty well useless.

Unless I am shooting people, my SLR is set to shoot everything as a -2, 0 and +2 EV exposure. This provides me with enough latitude for most situations. When I get home, I then have a choice of using all or one or two of the exposures in my final image.

Almost everything I post on this blog is an HDR although you might never know. I don’t label images as such or tell the world what my exposure information or lens choice was because that is unimportant when viewing the photo.

HDR can broaden your horizons, literally, allowing you to get more detailed and more realistic images in your portfolio. Shooting multiple images also reduces the need for extra, expensive and bulky filters to carry. It’s one less thing you need to bring along or worry about when in the field.

Now that Outdoor Photographer has given HDR it’s official blessing, I hope we see more dynamic and varied images. Shooting with the sun at your back always is so, old hat. LOL

Happy shooting,

Dan

I love winter… Alberta’s lovely

Continuing from yesterday’s post, so there I was driving around looking for an old church I had been two during the summer.

I had a rough idea where it was and the sun was dropping quicker by the minute or so it seemed. No churches on the horizon. Up and down the range roads and township roads I wandered.

Every few hundred meters I would see the most amazing snow drifts along the roads. All beautifully shaped and swirling. Replace the snow with sand and you could quite easily be in the desert.

When I finally realized that I wasn’t going to find the church while there was the littlest bit of light in the sky I pulled over and quickly grabbed a few frames of this snow drift. I hopped into the trusty Toyota and headed home passing kilometers and kilometers of interesting snow drifts as the sky darkened. We are blessed.

Photos in Alberta are everywhere. You only need look a little closer to find them.

All the best and happy shooting,

Dan

Top 5 Photos of 2009

Over on Darwin Wigget’s blog he had an interesting post asking photographers to post their top 5 photos of the past year.

If you have children, you understand how difficult this is. I love all my children but on the other hand, I don’t love all my photos. I tend to forget about them as soon as I have uploaded them for stock and am chasing the next rainbow.

Any one of these photos could easily be replaced by others that I have shot, with the exception of the old prairie cemetery that I often visit. I’ve become fond of the place and have become fascinated with the stories of those whose bodies rest there.

In order of date shot, here goes. First, the Athabasca River in Jasper. For me, shooting in the national parks has always seemed like I was cheating when trying to get a nice photo. How can anyone go wrong in a place so beautiful? One of the reasons I do like Jasper is because it seems to be less photographed than it’s mountain sister, Banff.  Cliches abound in Jasper and Banff. I’ve ranted about this so many times here on the blog. I always try for an angle or spot that I’ve not seen a photo of before. Here is a different angle of the old Athabasca River in January. My two girls were with me on this trip and the air was so fresh that you could almost touch it. Snow crystals were sparkling in the air as the light bounced off of the snow. The girls and I had a great weekend in Jasper while mom had to work  back in Edmonton.

Around Edmonton we had a couple of days of crazy winds and I was itching to get out to photograph the drifts that had formed. There were some monstrous ones that had completely covered the small secondary roads. Like many of my photos, this one was taken about five minutes from Edmonton. You needn’t travel far to find beauty in nature.

March brought me back to the mountains, this time with my girls and wife. While they were up skiing in Marmot, I was being a good dad and frolicking in the snow. People drive by this spot on the Icefields Parkway and yet, I had never seen an angle of this river and mountain. I owe this photo to one of the most adventurous people living in Jasper, Dieter, aka Lobo from Clubtread. Dieter’s an amazing man who lives in Jasper and has probably seen more backcountry of Jasper than anyone living.

I came upon a post of his on Clubtread describing his hike to this spot. Accessible in winter, it’s difficult to get to when the melt is on because the Sunwapta becomes difficult and dangerous to ford. Thank you Dieter for rekindling my interest in Jasper after almost thirty years of not photographing mountain landscapes.

I shoot where I live. This pic got me featured on the front page of WordPress a few days ago and got views from all over the world. A gorgeous prairie sunrise at -40 Celsius. Man, it was cold but winter has become my favorite season. I think it’s also the most beautiful and under photographed.

Finally, the photograph that says more about how I feel about shooting the landscape than any other I’ve taken this year. For me a good photograph has the ability to take you away from where you are and put you in a different frame of mind.  Over on Flickr, where I post most of what I shoot, it seems to have struck a chord with many who viewed it.

The prairies of Alberta rival any place on earth for beauty. It is there, everyday, to be photographed and experienced. I have always been one to march to the beat of a different drummer, cherishing being different. Perhaps that is why I don’t post anymore on the better known photography forums on the internet? One of my pleasures is driving a few minutes outside of Edmonton, where few would think to stop and take photographs, and find things to photograph that excite me.

Every day is an adventure for me on the prairies. Fresh. Exciting. Surprising.

If you have a top 5, send me a link and I’ll post it. I think it’s a great idea to spread around. Thanks Darwin.

All the best in the new year,

Dan

Keeping it simple

I was out last night looking for an old church that I stumbled upon this past summer. I didn’t find it. If the skies cooperate, I’m heading out again to look for it.

As drives go this wasn’t a very productive one. But then, who cares, there is no keeping score for me when I shoot. No schedule to keep. No editor to satisfy.

I was reminded while the wind was howling and the temperature was in the minus twenties Celsius the importance of dressing appropriately and keeping your camera gear and technique simple.

For those who haven’t lived in the northern latitudes a little explanation of cold is in order. After living my whole life in Alberta I describe cold in two ways. There is cold and then there is hurting cold. Hurting cold isn’t just uncomfortable and you shiver a little bit. Hurting cold is painful. The pain can become so intense that you want to cry. In a strong wind at these temperatures, skin can freeze solid in a few minutes. Take off your gloves to add or remove a filter and you’ll find that your dexterity is gone. You lose interest in doing anything other than getting back to someplace warm and windless.

My routine is very simple when it get’s like this. Camera set to bracket my three stop exposure, aperture priority, usually at f16 or f22, it varies but it also depends upon how much depth of field I need. The camera is on a tripod where the legs splay wide apart and the center column is especially short to get close to the ground. And I wear snow pants over my regular pants because after a few minutes of lying down or kneeling pants become wet and there goes even more heat away from your body.

This isn’t the time of year for leisurely composing and contemplating your image. Bang, bang, bang. Get up, move to another spot. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Quick. Simple. Effective.

Happy shooting,

Dan

Best Wishes in the New Year From the Frozen North

Best wishes to all in the New Year!

This might be an odd photo for a New Years wish but I shot it on the last day of 2009 and in some odd way it seems appropriate to me.

We finally had a few hours of sun around Edmonton after a week of gray skies, fog and great hoar frost.

When one door closes in nature another opens and so it was on December 31 when I woke up and saw a few stars twinkling along with a setting moon.

It was a bit chilly out in the country. The Toyota’s thermometer read -33C. Luckily there was no wind or it would have been terrible. Dressing for the weather makes the trip not only more enjoyable but safer as well.

I read quite often on different photo forums about equipment. Equipment and more equipment. It’s an easy trap to get caught in. If you see a photo and the shooter describes in detail his lens, camera body, filters, exposure, etc. you can be fooled into thinking that is why his pic looks great. You would be wrong. The equipment didn’t make his photo better, his being able to see did.

I believe that you can get more done with less equipment.

-33 Celsius is an extreme but it is a great example of why you needn’t have all that extra stuff in your camera bag. Even though I was dressed for the weather, after fifteen minutes outside my hands were getting really, really cold. Adjusting the focus. Releasing the shutter. Repositioning the camera and tripod. All these things require fine movements which you don’t have when you’re wearing heavy mittens.

There are folks who would have you believe that you have to have filters to get great colors. At -33C there is no possible way I’d be placing filters in front of my camera lens. Rather than depend upon filters paying attention to light and choosing when you shoot will do more for you photos than any filter of any kind could ever do.

Ten minutes outside and the back of my SLR is covered in frost. My glasses need to be continually wiped of the ice on the lenses and I have to hold my breath when composing through the camera viewfinder so that I don’t get any ice forming on it. If I do, I can’t see what I’m shooting.

Now imagine with wooden fingers playing with filters. No way.

Keep your shooting simple and keep your equipment bag light. Your photography will become better. You’ll become less reliant on equipment and able to do more with less.

All the best in the New Year,

Dan

The Magic of Winter

We are in the middle of winter here in Alberta and I love it.

For those lucky enough to get out of the house the past few days have been magical. With a thick covering of hoar frost on everything around us you needn’t travel far to see what a winter wonderland looks like.

I’m still waiting for the thick cloud cover to lift and provide more direction and color with the light but in the mean time, I’ll gladly take in the frosty views.

The sunrise photo above was taken during one of the brief moments of clear sky we’ve had and when the sun did show this pasture completely changed how it looked.

Light is so important to your photos. More than filters or lenses or anything else, light has the ability to take the mundane and make them even if only for a few moments, magical.

Enjoy the frosty times here in wild rose country.

Happy shooting,

Dan

A Quiet Resting Place

I’m not much into symbolism in my photos. However the photos look, there usually isn’t a great plan or agenda when having fun outdoors. There’s just something haunting walking through a foggy prairie cemetery during the middle of winter.

What touched me was the many old markers that had fresh bouquets of flowers. Friends and families still paying their respects to loved ones who had passed away many decades ago during the holiday season. I think that says lots about those who haven’t forgotten their predecessors.

On Sunday morning I was out trying to get a few new winter shots in the fog. I love the fog for photos but for most of the time I was looking for an opportunity to stop the truck, it was ungodly thick. Too thick to see the road. Too thick for the light to have much direction and color and too thick for there to be anything in the way of detail in the snow.

I somehow managed to find this cemetery that I had been to a few times before. It was my first winter visit here. Some of the older grave markers on the prairies are very iconic and classical looking. When I arrived at the church adjoined to the cemetery I could hardly see the markers only twenty meters away.

The shapes of the taller markers caught my eye and I made my way over to the graves being careful not to step on them or to make tracks where I might want to take a picture.

After processing the images the detail is in the snow but just barely. There is subtle shading and texturing that is only just visible on my monitor. As I often do in Photoshop, I play around with different processing techniques to try and bring out detail or change colors. While opening images to color match with I noticed a few textures that I’ve used in the past. Throwing one onto a layer above the photograph changed the look and the feel immediately. I knew that’s what was missing with the straight image.

A little, very little in the way of processing and voila. A different twist on the Alberta prairie.

A little experimentation and this image looks totally different than I had originally envisioned. Not always a bad thing. I usually like my landscapes straight up but it’s nice to change things up once in a while.

Happy shooting,

Dan