When shooting wildflower or floral portraits — pictures of single flowers or small groups of flowers — it’s often difficult to achieve both sharpness in the flower(s) and pleasing, poster-like, out-of-focus backgrounds. In the past I ususally went for the pleasing background, picking the most important floral part, like the stigma or edge of a […]
Photo Tip: Beat the Gray Sky Blues ___ 04/2007
The Northwest (US) where I live features some of the planet’s grayest skies, a nightmare of gray on gray for sometimes unending weeks at a time. In summer, on the coast, it mostly ruins photography while kayaking, but those same gray sky conditions present opportunities as well. Just ask Ansel Adams. A gray sky provides […]
Photo Tip: Dynamic Diagonals __ 01/2007
Photographers should regularly remind themselves that pictures aren’t reality, but are static, two-dimensional representations. Whether it’s on paper or your monitor, a picture is a frozen world. To thaw the freeze, show action, or re-create movement, look to the diagonal line, among the strongest of compositional elements. Diagonals imply action. Take a tree as an example. […]
Photo Tip: Patience in Bird Photography ___ 09/2006
You’ve found a wildlife shot to match your vision. Getting the shot often requires something more. Call it doggedness, tenacity, perseverance, or simply patience.For the last few August days, I’ve been photographing juvenile Green Herons that migrate through Seattle’s Lake Washington Union Bay each year. Most perches the Herons hunt from are crammed against the […]
Doing the Splits: Digital vs Glass Graduated (Split) ND Filters _ 08/2006
After hiking to Spray Park at Mt. Rainier NP (August, 2006), I shot a few frames to compare a graduated (split) neutral-density filter with achieving similar results in Photoshop. If you’re not familiar with split filters, they have darkened glass on half of their surface, to hold back the light, with clear glass on the […]
Photo Tip: Take Your Eye Off the Viewfinder __ 07/2006
Serious film photographers wouldn’t think of it, but point-and-shoot digital shooters routinely snap photos with camera at arms length. Not just holding the digicams straight out in front of them, but overhead, down low or off to the side. Some point-and-shoot LCD’s even cleverly fold out and twist to aid in composing, though this isn’t […]