A Tad Wet Here
Vermont has been in the news lately. Yes it was wet here last weekend. Here in Danby we got about 7″ of rain. Yes, there are many roads and bridges that were washed out and yes travel is a bit inconvenient but this is Vermont and we don’t let any stinking rainy day dampen our spirits! Just another reason to get out the tractor or excavator or shovel and get some work done…no big deal. That being said, for all of you who are thinking about coming up to Vermont to photograph the fall colors, this storm will have no effect on your success. And for all of you especially prescient photographers who have signed up for my workshop the storm will have no effect on the workshop. All my sites are good to go and the farm and my fields are in fine shape. In fact, it may keep part of the annoying common and vulgar horde away if the memory lingers. I’ll throw in a favorite fall color shot just to tweak your interest. Enjoy!
Sometimes you get lucky
Middle of the day, August, on the beach, needing shots, light is terrible. That just about wraps up my summer photography. But I can’t just walk away, I have got to get some images for the book. So what do you do? I have two choices the way I see it: either be grumpy and leave and curse the photo gods for their cruelty or wander around and praise those same gods and hope they will pass something great your way. Just for the record, there is nothing wrong with being grumpy. But every so often something happens and I get lucky. Of course it helps to pay attention to everything that is happening around you and be always ready to shoot but luck plays the biggest part. I was on the beach in Maine, mid-day, light awful in desperate need of summer beach shots. looking around I saw a little boy running up and down a sandy path to the beach playing a game with his dad. I walked over, asked his dad if I could take his son’s picture and blasted away. I got one chance, on run before the boy stopped. I kneeled down to his eye level, put the autofocus point on the boys chest and blasted away at 8 frames a second. 40 images later the shoot was over and I went back to the car happy to have gotten a shot. These are my favorite two images. I love his joyful expression and his little running body. But I really love that I don’t have to go back at mid-day and try for more shots.
Photographing Lighthouses
Since we are on the topic of lighthouses I thought I would share four suggestions on how to get your best shots. These may seem obvious to you now but when you are out in the thick of battle some things become a bit less obvious and your composition will suffer. First- If you are doing a grand scenic shot choose a composition that includes water (and rocks if they are present). A photo of a lighthouse without water removes any context from the image. Lighthouses are where they are to protect boats (which float on water) from shallows and rocks. So by including both water and rocks (or whatever boats need protection from) in your composition you are telling the complete story of the lighthouse. Second- Always wait for the light in the lighthouse to appear to push your shutter. A lightless lighthouse looks dead and forgotten but with the light visible the lighthouse looks strong and alive and ready to warn away passing ships. All lighthouses have a cadence to their lights which makes the appearance of the light predictable. Just count the seconds of the interval a couple of times and be ready to shoot when the next interval comes around. There are some lighthouses where the light is never visible (its shielded) to people on land. For these I try to pick a time and viewing angle that puts the rising or setting sun directly behind the glass crown of the lighthouse. This illuminates the lighthouse and nicely animates it. Third- Shoot at twilight. Twilight is the time of day 45 minutes before sunrise and 45 minutes after sunset. During this time the sky gets to be a beautiful cobalt blue and there is just enough light to show details in the landscape. Everyone always shoots lighthouses at sunrise or sunset but I think twilight is better. Besides, twilight always happens no matter the weather but sunrise and sunset are very temperamental. And finally- Rather than taking the same old, same old shot look for some other way to photograph the lighthouse. Is there a puddle nearby that might hold a good reflection? How about a window for a reflection? Have you thought about doing just a piece of the lighthouse- the top or window or from inside? Are there grasses nearby that could act as a foreground or other buildings that could be used in your composition? How about a different time of the year? during a winter storm? On a clear starry night? Lighthouses are wonderful subjects to photograph but don’t always go and try to do the same thing each time. Try something different, you may be surprised at what you get.
Favorite New Image
I have been traveling to Maine a lot lately getting images for my new “Memories of the Maine Coast” book. Summer is a tough time to photograph along the coast because the light is pretty dreadful between 9am and 4pm. This means I am up very early and very late and then do very little for most of the day. I guy can eat only so much ice cream! Portland Head Lighthouse is said to be the most photographed place on the coast and I can’t disagree. I have been there on some days when there are several bus loads of people swarming the place. I have also had terrible luck photographing there in the past. All my previous times I have been skunked by very mediocre light but finally, on this last trip I got a nice enough sunset and some good wave action and finally got a pretty nice shot. I won’t be the best shot I’ll ever get of Portland Head but for now it is my best. Hope you like it.
Fall Acadia Workshop
I wanted to let you all know that there are still a few spots left on my Fall Acadia Workshop (October 19-23) on the wild and wonderful coast of Maine. I am doing this workshop with my great friend and enthusiastic teaching partner, Brenda Berry. Those of you who know Brenda will be relieved that she is there to soften the blow of my hideous personality and those who don’t know Brenda will be just plain thankful. Acadia National park is the best place for photographers on the east coast and October is the best time of the year to be in the park. While some may think the dates are late to catch the peak color, because of the ameliorating effect of the Gulf of Maine peak color is delayed along the coast. these dates should be just about perfect. And while the colors of the New England forest will be wonderful the colors of the harbors and the colorfulness of the lobstermen will be just as great. The book on lobstering and lobstermen that Brenda and I just completed came out in June and we are excited to share our favorite places and characters with you. Remember, Brenda and I will not be taking pictures during the workshop, all our attention will be focused on you (whether you like it or not!) so not only will you get some magnificent images you will also learn a great deal and grow as a photographer. Does it get better than that? If you have any questions about this workshop I will be glad to answer them for you. If you send me dark chocolate I will be glad to declare you an accomplished and truly gifted photographer. If you sign up for this workshop and send me dark chocolate I will extoll your virtues to all who breath and give you a free book that Brenda and I will sign (as soon as I get the chocolate off my fingers). If you insist on just signing up and not giving me dark chocolate I can’t be held responsible for anything that might happen. It hasn’t been pretty in the past. Its a great workshop at a great location at the best time of the year with at least one great instructor. That’s not so bad, is it? So sign up, you can regret it later. To put your name on the list for this workshop (despite what you have just read) contact Santa Fe Workshops 505. 983. 1400. They’ll understand your hesitation. [nggallery id=12]
The Clean Underwear Crowd
So I have been thinking a lot about deleting lately – deleting, being deleted, not being deleted- the standard stuff. Don’t know what has come over me but it seems to be on my mind recently. It might be because in my last couple of workshops I have heard some amazing stories by non-deleters. Yes, that is right, non-deleters and you know who you are! Non-deleters are those who never delete anything as well as those who do a very cursory editing job and delete all the really obviously awful images but then stop never to return. Either way the result is a mishmash of images that span the spectrum from hurray to horrible and are far more unusable than they are useable. One very good photographer I had a workshop had gone on a long international trip a couple of years ago and had not yet really begun to edit his images. Two years and not yet any deleting! What is he waiting for? I also have a great friend who still hasn’t finished editing her pictures from the Galapagos trip she took four years ago or the Alaska trip she took two years ago! And this is not to mention all those students who tell me that they haven’t quite gotten around to working on (deleting!) their images from the last shoot they did. Hundreds and thousands of images just sitting around forgotten, some of which are great but most of which aren’t. Am I the only one not running a half way house for bad, unwanted images? Here are some of rules for you non-deleters on editing images: 1. Just because you took a bad shot doesn’t make you a bad person. 2. It doesn’t get any easier the longer you wait. 3. If they were bad then, they are bad now and they will still be bad later. 4. Unlike wine, focus, composition and exposure don’t improve with age. 5. Proximity to new better shots doesn’t improve old bad shots. 6. If you can’t decide no one will care which one you pick. 7. If you don’t want to look at an image, we really don’t either. 8. If you think it might be bad, so do we and we are sure. 9. If you like only a small part of your picture the large part is dreadful. 10. Nirvana can only be reached through dispossession (deleting!). So what is the hold up? Glad you asked. I think most people would rather be out taking pictures rather than in working on them. This is a good thing but this desire must be tempered. If you don’t spend some time editing your images your collection of shots will be useless; you won’t be able to find the shots you want, the shots you do find will not be your best and you will forever be frustrated. Here is my rule for deleting: Every image I keep I am happy and proud to show people. I identify my best images of a scene, a shoot, a subject or a circumstance and I get rid of all the rest. I am only going to show or use my best ones, why would I keep the others? I think this is what happens most of the time. You go out and spend some time taking wonderful pictures, at least what you think are wonderful pictures. Then when you come home you look at what you shot on your computer and you are disappointed- they aren’t as good as you thought they would be. So you go through and skim the very best, process them and then stash them away for later use. But you never go back to the great vulgar hoard of images you took because you are disappointed in them and you would rather not be reminded, thank you very much! You do this for a few of months and all of a sudden it’s a year and before you know it you are 4000 images behind! Yikes! 4000 might as well be 4 million or even 4 billion, you’ll never get through them so you give up and shoot some more vowing never to look back at the mountain of images threatening to bury you and your computer. Here’s another rule: if you have already filled several terabytes of storage with your images you haven’t quite mastered the subtle butchery of deleting. How am I doing so far? Let me try to readjust your thinking on all this. First, when you initially look at your images on your computer you are looking at them unprocessed. This means that their potential is unrealized. Taking a picture is the process of collecting data, that is all. Just as in the old film days, these pictures must be processed. This is where Lightroom or Aperature or whatever program you use comes in. If you don’t process your images they will always be less than what you thought and you will forever be disappointed in the pictures you take. Second, when you first look at your images go through and get rid of all the obviously bad ones. This should be a very quick and efficient process. If it is not you need to take a class with Scott Rouse of LightroomLab.com to learn how to do this. Then go through and pick your favorites, the ones you really like. Then go through and do it again. Don’t do any processing yet, just pick the images that speak to you or sing to you or chorus to you. Any images that remain, and there should be plenty, throw into the trash and say ‘bye-bye’, ‘good riddance’, ‘hasta lumbego’, ‘ta-ta.’ Now you can go through and process the keepers, keyword them and do whatever you do to keep your images organized. But do this only for the ones you know you are going to keep. Don’t bother with the trashers, they are about to be history. This technique also works for
Still Here!
I”ve got to stop reading all the wonderful and sweet comments about me you all are sending my way. I am beginning to believe them! Thank you all so very much. I really do appreciate each one of them. As a last comment on this entire affair I will say that I am back to normal now (sorry!), riding my bike, cutting firewood, going to the farm every morning, doing all the things I have always done. I must admit that the personality improvement that so many people wished for did not occur (sorry again!) so my critiques of your images will not suddenly become any more pleasant (or helpful for that matter). But not all was lost. I did learn a few new latin medical terms for cardiac health. My favorites are ‘darkus chocolatus’ and ‘pinot noirae.’ I expect to be a devoted follower of both! Now, can I get back to being that old cranky photographer? By the way, the tufted puffin head shot above was taken at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport the day before my workshop started. I had pretty crummy strong light so the best I could do was a backlit portrait against a darkly shadowed background. I shot this hand held at f8 with my Nikon 28-300mm lens. The puffin was sitting on a rock about 4 feet away. If you are ever in the area, the aquarium is a great places for taking pictures. Not only can you photograph puffins but also sea otters, rhino auklets, black oystercatchers, giant green anemone and all kinds of bizarro sea creatures in tanks. Go early on a cloudy day and the light will be magnificent. (Thank you all again!)