David’s Blog
Tidepools!!
I'm up in Tofino, British Columbia, on the Pacific side of Vancouver Island doing a workshop for Santa Fe Photography Workshops. This is one of my all-time favorite places to teach and photograph because there are so many subjects to shoot and all the locations are easily accessible and close to town. Within 30 minutes of our base there are bears prowling...
Depth of Field — Part 2: The Grand Landscape
The other side of mastering depth of field is photographing the grand landscape. In part 1 I talked about photographing a portrait where you will need both the appropriate f-stop and subject. The correct f-stop will allow only your subject to be in focus and the correct subject will have enough distance between it and the background to allow an out of...
Depth of Field — Part 1: The Grand Portrait
Depth of field is one of the foundation concepts in photography and yet it is one that many of my students still don’t quite understand. Well, they think they understand it and they mostly do but the practical implications of using depth of field are almost universally poorly executed. Everybody knows that depth of field refers to the amount of the final...
A Season to Grow
Grass--growing grass, drying grass, baled grass, chopped grass--is the engine that powers the Bromley farm. A cow turns grass into milk and manure. A framer turns milk into money and turns manure into fertilizer to grow more grass. It is a simple yet elegant cycle, repeated every day, twice a day over the years, over the decades and over the centuries. The...
Trish in the Barn
“So is this what it was like when I first started coming here?” Roger straightens up between the two cows he is milking, pushes his cap back and starts to slowly shake his head. His eyes though are in full twittering delight and with great drama, between not so quiet bursts of laughter, he places a hand on my shoulder and mustering up all the solemnity he...
It’ll Be Interesting
“Hi. This is Roger,” a voice squeaks through my phone, “What’cha do’in?” “Ahh, nothing, “ I say suspiciously, knowing that I often am but he seldom is, especially at this time of night when there are still chores to be done. “Why don’t you come on over to the barn?” “Its after dinner, Roger, I’m already in my jammies.” I fib, slouched in my chair a glass...
Good Morning, Hugh
“Good morning, sir” I say as cheerfully as I can this early in the morning to the old man in front of me. We are standing in the cow barn, in the cross aisle that separates the old part of the barn from the really old part. Fifty Holsteins in two parallel rows stand to either side of us eating their haylege as they wait to be milked. Their chomping sounds...
New Boots & Milk Trick
1 SEPTEMBER 05 “Hugh, I bought a new pair of farm boots today.” “Oh, yeah, Whadcha get?” “Oh, just a pair of rubber boots – barn boots – for mucking and the mud.” “Like these?” he says pulling up his pant leg to show me a pair of old brown rubber boots he has probably had since the Great War. “Sorta like those, but I didn’t buy mine in Paris during the...
Stuck Calf
“Why don’t you come on over? It is something you have never seen…it’ll be interesting.” This is Roger-code for: a cow has done something really stupid and you’re not going to believe it unless you see it. That is the innocent part of the message-the first part. It is the second part, the ‘it’ll be interesting’ part that is not so innocent. ‘It’ll be...
On Becoming a Pro
Chapter 4 - American Vision - Amphoto Books Imagine yourself as a participant at a workshop that features John Shaw, Wayne Lynch and David Middleton as teachers. In the late afternoon, you are invited to join them on the terrace of the lodge for a beer and conversation. After the beers arrive and all pretense of formality depart you decide to ask them...
New Photo Year
The Nature Photographer's Year The most common question I am asked as a professional nature photographer is “When is the best time to go to ______?” You fill in the blank - Texas or Tucson to photograph wildflowers; Vermont or Colorado for Fall colors; the Rockies for bugling elk; Alaska or Africa; Churchill for polar bears. As far as I know there...