Archive for category Photography
Sunset Storm over Albuquerque
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on August 30, 2010
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Taken with Canon 5D and Canon 24-70 f/2.8. ISO 100, f/11, 1/4 second exposure. Exposure balanced with a Singh-Ray 3 stop, hard, graduated neutral density filter.
Cloudless morning, Mono Lake
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on August 18, 2010
Last week I spent a few days in the Eastern Sierra. My son leaves for the Navy early next week. The trip was the last chance to spend some time with him, outdoors, for quite a while. Other than the decision to move from one campground to another, it was a relaxing trip. We collected trout and mosquito bites before finally heading home.
While the weather was perfect for a vacation, it wasn’t very conducive to good photography. California summer “blank blues” were the dominant weather pattern. Regardless of the conditions I still choose to get out and experience the calm of the morning. After walking around and doing some shooting in the South Tufa area of Mono Lake, I turned and saw that the sun would be cresting the mountains at any second. I literally ran towards the water’s edge to get in position. I dialed in the exposure and with just a few seconds to spare was ready to catch the first ray of light.
To get the starburst on from the sun I dialed my aperture to f/22 (a setting I rarely use for any other reason).
Local Dogwoods
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on July 29, 2010
I just love Dogwood blooms. So delicate and fleeting, it’s a magical flower. When not in bloom it’s a rather non-descript tree/bush but for a week or so in spring, they’re amazing. I’ve had a love hate relationship with the dogwood in Yosemite for a of couple years now. The timing of the bloom has proven to be my undoing. Try as I might, I always seem to miss “the peak” by a week or so. Maybe someday I’ll get it right.
With just one or two non-native exceptions, the dogwood in Yosemite are all, white petaled, Pacific Dogwood. This image was taken much closer to home and is a pink variety of Eastern Dogwood. By much closer, I mean 175 miles closer. I made this photograph at the Jensen Botanical Gardens just 2 miles from my house. It’s a tiny little garden that now belongs to a local parks and recreation district. Park policy, for years, has been that photographers must purchase a $10 daily permit to make images in the garden. Apparently you can drag your easel and paints in without a problem but to take a picture it costs $10. After pointing out that disparity to a park official I’ve been told that I can shoot there any time. I’m not sure what the original thought behind the regulation was but it seems a bit silly.
I made the image with my Canon 5D and 24-70 f/2.8f lens. I’ve considered replacing the lens with the 24-105 to fill a gap in my range but every time I see the buttery smooth bokeh this lens produces at f/2.8 I change my mind.
Steps to becoming a better nature photographer – run the fences
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography, Tips on July 20, 2010
#3 – Run the fences
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This is my dog “Hops.” He’s a part terrier, part spaniel mutt that we got from the local SPCA roughly 13 years ago. At age 13, he’s basically retired from many of his “dog duties.” Standing diligently at the front door watching for strangers has largely been replaced by sunny naps in the back yard. He still has one routine that he does every day: running the fences. Any time he goes into the yard, he faithfully runs a lap around the perimeter. He inspects every bush, every smell, every inch of the fence as he makes his way around the yard to sure make his arch nemesis, THE SQUIRREL!, hasn’t encroached upon his territory.
A lesson can be learned from Hops. Both his attention to detail and the diligence with which he performs his task can be applied to your photography. If you’ve taken a workshop with Gary Hart you’ve heard it called “border patrol.” I’ve also seen it referred to simply as frame inspection. (I like to call it “running the fences” because I get to show you a picture of the Hop-dog.) The premise is simple. After you’ve found your composition, follow the edge of the frame completely around the viewfinder. Every item in your composition should have purpose. It a stick, bush or SQUIRREL! is sticking into the frame, look at it and make ask yourself what it’s adding to the composition. If you can’t come up with an answer, adjust your position and come up with a composition that doesn’t include it. This technique is another reason why I feel a tripod is absolutely necessary with landscape photography.
Having the camera mounted allows you to be very deliberate with your composition, it slows you down and lets you think about what you’re doing. The fact it keeps the camera still is just gravy. The next time you’re out shooting, slow down, be deliberate and run the fences. You’ll be surprised how many more “keepers” you start getting.
Cheers
Succulent flowers
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on July 15, 2010
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This weeks image is courtesy of another trip through my archives. I’m frequently guilty of picking one or two images, that I like, from a particular shoot and then forgetting to look at the rest. I made this photograph almost exactly 2 years ago but hadn’t processed it until a couple of days ago.
These tiny yellow, echeveria (sp), flowers are a departure from my normal photographic approach. I made this image at the NorCal Cactus and Succulent show at Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco. While there is a whole room devoted to judging of individual plants, most of the hustle and bustle is in the sale area. Vendors from all over the California set up on tables to sell their prickly wares. It’s a great opportunity for macro photography but it’s not without caveats. With the aisles between tables packed with shoppers, a tripod would be a considerable tripping hazard.
Knowing that I was going to have to work without my camera support I grabbed another piece of gear I seldom use, my MR-14EX ring flash. Perfect for macro shooting, a ring flash mounts on the front of your lens; in this case my 100 f/2.8 macro. It has flash tubes on each side of the lens allowing for very even illumination of your subject. In addition to helping freeze my own motion, the flash allowed me to isolate the flowers from the very cluttered background. While I shoot almost exclusively with natural light, for this shot the flash saved the day.
Cheers
Morning reflection
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on July 8, 2010
This is another image from my archives. Summer, historically, is the busiest time of the year for my IT job. It’s also the “crowd season” in Yosemite valley. I go to Yosemite to relax and sitting in a traffic jam isn’t my idea of relaxation. What is comes down to is that I don’t spend nearly enough time photographing during the summer months.
I made this image a couple of years ago on an Eastern Sierra workshop. We were shooting the sunrise at North Lake, near Bishop, CA. As it often happens in California, we were greeted by blank blue skies. After shooting a few standard shots of the area I started looking for alternatives. It was a very still morning and the lake was like glass. I knew I wanted to shoot a reflection so I just started walking the bank until I found something to catch my eye.
These rocks, quite boring on their own, were just enough to anchor this frame and give context the the flowing lines and early morning color on the hillside. Sometimes simple is good.
Cheers
Bodie Church – infrared
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on July 1, 2010
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(Bodie, CA was a mining town in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. I’ve written about the area previously so if you’d like to know more about it, take a peek here.)
Yesterday afternoon, I had lunch with Gary Hart. One of the things that ended up as conversation fodder was image processing. While Gary and I vary greatly in regard to actual workflow, we share the same basic philosophy that the image should be created in the camera, not on the computer. While Photoshop, Lightroom or whatever product you use, is certainly an essential component in the process, it’s my feeling that the software shouldn’t be where the creativity comes from.
I took this image several years ago using a Canon RebelXT that I’d converted for infrared use. I’d always liked this shot but it had a giant airplane vapor trail through much of the area to the left of the church steeple. After several failed attempts at removing it, I relegated the image to the archives where it’s been until yesterday. The conversation, with Gary, reminded me that there was a new tool in Photoshop CS5 that I hadn’t tried yet: content aware fill (CAF).
Unlike the healing brush or clone tools, content aware fill looks at the pixels in the area and makes an intelligent effort to match the surrounding image. I clicked on the selection tool and drew an ellipse around the jet trail. I right clicked on the selection, picked “Fill,” ”Content Aware” and the jet trail magically disappeared. Even though all of my cloning efforts left noticeable traces, CAF removed the trail and perfectly blended the change.
Software didn’t create this image but it certainly saved the day.
Cheers
Stars over Tenaya Canyon
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on June 19, 2010
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In December, I’ll be giving a talk for a local chapter of The Photographic Society of America. They’ve asked me to speak about night photography at their quarterly meeting. In preparation for the talk, I’ve been going through some of my night shots and stumbled on this one.
Gary Hart got me hooked on shooting at night. I took this image 3 years ago, nearly to the day on one of his workshops. It was a small group but we became fast friends. I still hear from many of those folks on a pretty regular basis. One of the reasons we got so close was the sheer amount of time we were together. Gary had this great idea to do a workshop specifically around shooting moonlight. We shot with the moon rising, the moon setting and landscapes using the moon as the only light source. The timing of the workshop was such that we were experiencing nearly the longest days of the year. What all that boiled down to was about 12 hours of sleep in 4 days. It was exhausting but I came back with some great images and made some new friends. Near the end of the workshop Gary asked if I’d be interested in assisting on his workshops, which I’ve been doing ever since.
This shot was taken from Glacier Point in Yosemite. Glacier Point sits directly across from Half Dome. From several vantage points in the area, you can see Yosemite Falls, Nevada Falls and Vernal falls. You can also see the Little Yosemite valley and Tenaya Canon. Even though this is a 30 second exposure, the stars appear very crisp. Their sharpness is due to the fact that I was shooting a very wide angle lens (Tokina 12-24 f/4 @ 13mm). Stars appear to move because of the rotation of the Earth. The wideness of the frame meant that in 30 seconds the stars moved only a small percentage of the distance across the frame. On a longer lens, the streaking would have been quite noticeable.
Cheers
Nature Photography Day – cont.
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on June 16, 2010
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Last week, I posted about NANPA’s Nature Photography Day. The premise is to connect, or reconnect, with the natural world that’s local to you.
Too often nature photographers associate “nature” with a location. I freely admit that I’m guilty in that regard. I do so much of my shooting in Yosemite that I often forget to look for images closer to home. Yesterday’s event was a good reminder that even if you’re stuck in the suburbs there is still nature around you. Birds, gardens and a myriad of small fuzzy creatures are sharing your neighborhood. When was the last time you stopped and paid attention?
My ‘day gig’ kept me very busy yesterday so when I got home last night, I grabbed the camera and headed out into the yard. After looking around, I settled on this image. Not only is it nature, in my own yard, it’s locally grown organic food. These golden beets made the perfect subject and a very adequate reminder that nature starts at home.
To make this image I grabbed my Canon 7D and 15mm fisheye lens. I knew that I wanted the shot to be “in the dirt” which is why I grabbed the fisheye. I love the perspective the lens gives when placed low and close to the subject. Used with the 7D I don’t get the full 180 degree field of view but that camera lets me use live view to compose via the LCD. Without the use of live view there’s no way I’d have gotten the shot in such tight quarters.
As an added bonus, the beets are delicious.
Cheers
Forest in infrared
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on June 7, 2010
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The human eye is an amazing device but we can see only a portion of the visible spectrum. I love the otherworldly feel that this infrared image of the forest, in Yosemite, brings.
Infrared has been within reach of film photographers for years but digital has really helped advance the technique. It’s a great addition to your bag as it extends the shooting day. Traditional landscape photographers rarely shoot in the harsh midday sun but that’s exactly when the best IR images are made.
This is an older image but I found myself missing Yosemite and the forest so I went digging through the archives for an appropriate image. To really exaggerate the scale I used the widest lens I owned at the time; a Tokina 12-24. It was just barely wide enough.
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