You are here: Home / Archives for landscape

Featured Member: Cecil Holmes

March 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment

What kind of photography do you do?

Landscape, Scenic, Travel & HDR

Behind-Sougahougdee

Story behind this image: This is a waterfall located in Bankhead National Park in Central Alabama. The name of the falls is Sougahougdee Falls. Yeah, so most locals call it Scooby Doo Falls. This particular images was several exposures blended together in Photoshop in order to retain a proper exposure throughout the image.

How would you describe your style?

This is hard for me to do. I’m sure I have a style, I just don’t know how to describe it. If I had to, I guess I’d say it’s conservative with a hint of “on the edge”. Wait, did that make any sense?

What’s your approach to post processing?

It’s a simple approach. I like to spend more time behind the camera than behind the computer, so I utilize presets and plugins often.

Eastpoint

Story behind this image: This image was made in a little oyster community near Apalachicola, Florida called Eastpoint. These oyster boats litter the shoreline and await their captains for an early morning launch. This image was made moments before sunrise. The sky really put on a show that morning.

What or who inspires you?

Seeing great images inspire me. It could be on a TV commercial, billboard, photography magazine, book or online. It doesn’t matter the photographer so much as the image that inspires me.

Chrysler-Interior

Story behind this image: I am an avid HDR photographer. I know those three letters tend to start a war, but I have embraced and enjoyed it. This shot was taken on a friend’s property near Mobile, AL. The story goes it was a daily driver until a few years ago. When it quit running, it was parked here and not touched again.

What gear do you use?

Canon bodies, Canon and Tamron Lenses and Vanguard Tripods and bags.

Links:

Website: http://www.cecilsphotos.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cecilsphotos
Google Plus:  http://plus.google.com/107885421773779758674/posts
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecilsphotos/

Filed Under: Featured Member Profiles Tagged With: , , ,

Featured Member: Ken Hallstrom-Meade

September 4, 2012 By 3 Comments

What kind of photography do you do?

Landscape, Macro, Nature, Skyscapes (recently after photographing the Milky Way Galaxy)

DripDrop

© Ken Hallstrom-Meade

Story behind this image: On the way to work one day I noticed that the flowers on the sidewalk had just received an early shower, they glistened in the morning sun and caught my eye. The following day I brought my tripod and camera and setup hoping for a repeat show, I was not disappointed.  I was able to single out this bud with the Nikkor 105mm on full Macro mode (wonderful lens) and framed the bud behind out of focus. I’ve cropped a bit here also to fit in what I liked and trimmed out what was drawing my eye away. I love how the surrounds are visible in the single droplet.

How would you describe your style?

I like the unorthodox approach, there are too many – must follow rule of thirds, must fill the frame, must post process using top down-left to right approach. I find nothing that inspires my photography using these rules, while I do follow the rule of thirds most times, I do tend to look for a different approach, centering the subject, extracting almost all the color, warming the tones a bit. I like to capture an image and work with it in post process to make it look how I like it rather than how the scene looked. How else are you to stand out from the crowd if you follow the rules.

What’s your approach to post processing?

I use Lightroom exclusively. I think it’s extremely powerful and packed with all the features I require, most recently soft-proofing in LR4. I’ve dabbled in third-part add-ons that work with B&W images or HDR images but find that extends my workflow considerably. Lightroom has a powerful image management system and prefer it even over Nikon’s Capture NX2 which admittedly handles the Nikon Raw images better.

Milky-Way-Galaxy-over-Steamboat-Lake-CO

© Ken Hallstrom-Meade

Story behind this image: This is just breathtaking and magical, the stars reflected in the lake, the beetle kill pine tree in the foreground, the distant glow of Steamboat Springs (and some air-glow for good measure) you fall headlong into the Milky Way Galaxy. I’ve never seen the Milky Way Galaxy before, nor have I ever seen so many stars and I will never forget it now.

What or who inspires you?

I don’t draw inspiration from anyone in particular. My inspiration comes from the tools I have and the infinite surroundings of wherever I may be on any given day. Also the feeling of coming home, post-processing, printing and setting about mounting, matting and framing an image on the same day is a real ‘look forward too’ moment. There is no better feeling than numbering a new limited edition 1/50 or 1/250.

SunriseReflectedinWindow

© Ken Hallstrom-Meade

Story behind this image: This was just an opportunistic shot taken early one morning as the sun rose, I caught the reflection in a window nearby and found the colors warming. I’ve left the bricks and frame in the picture to let the viewer know this is a reflection in a window. It’s a warming picture and not one I would go out after.

What gear do you use?

I had to sell up my Nikon D700 and the trinity of Nikons 14-24mm, 24-70mm and 70-200mm VRII lens in order to help myself and my family emigrate to Colorado, USA from Ireland. I moved to a D7000, my first venture into cropped sensors and then this year a Nikon D800 with 50mm 1.8G, 105mm 2.8G and 14-24mm 2.8G. I pack it all in a Kata Ultralite bag, and sit it all atop a Manfrotto 055Pro tripod with ball-head and RRS quick-release plate that attaches to the RRS L-Bracket on the camera, the plan is to gradually migrate to RRS ball-head and eventually legs. Small moves Ken small moves…

Links

Website: http://hallstromphotography.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hallstromphoto
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hallstrom-Photography/193621120720094

Filed Under: Featured Member Profiles Tagged With: , , , ,

Featured Member: John Miskelly

July 12, 2012 By 4 Comments

What kind of photography do you do?

Landscape photography mainly, but I have also been a keen street photographer for many years.

featured-member-john-miskelly-01

© John Miskelly

Story behind this image: Elgol in Skye, where it had rained for the previous 24 hours and then it cleared for a stunning golden light at sunset.

How would you describe your style?

I work hard to capture the wild and natural landscapes, primarily of Scotland and Ireland. A lot of my work is panoramic, as this is how we view the world!

featured-member-john-miskelly-02

© John Miskelly

Story behind this image: The Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland and I was there for the first time this summer. The light here was like nothing I’ve every experienced. It wa absolutely stunning.

What’s your approach to post processing?

I do relatively minimal post processing as I want the images to reflect reality and I generally only do enough work to ‘correct’ for the limitations of the camera and bring the image to the point where it represents what I saw with my eyes.

What or who inspires you?

I’m inspired by some great British landscape photographers such as Joe Cornish, David Ward and David Noton.

featured-member-john-miskelly-03

© John Miskelly

Story behind this image: The Giants Causeway is internationally known and is in Ireland where I live. This was a momentary flash of light at sundown and this image won me a Silver award (and a place in the top 50) in the Epson International Pano competition in 2012!

What gear do you use?

I use Nikon digital cameras, a D700 and now my brand new D800E! Lenses include the 24-70 and 70-200, all f2.8. I also carry a Fuji X100 with me at all times.

Links

Filed Under: Featured Member Profiles Tagged With: , , ,

Featured Member: Daniel John Bilsborough

May 24, 2012 By 3 Comments

What kind of photography do you do?

Travel photography and wedding photography.

© Daniel John Bilsborough

Story behind this image: This was taken at the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, it was early in the morning and I was standing on the seat of a soft top 4wd safari vehicle with half of my body out of the car. We drove up to this guy while he was standing in the middle of the road and after he bluffed a charge at us he moved into the flowers and we drove past taking photographs. Love.

How would you describe your style?

I dont really know how to describe my style, but my aim is just to show the world as it is. I draw a strict line between photography and digital art. It’s very easy to manipulate a photograph to the point where’s it can no longer be considered a photograph. I stay well away from that line.

© Daniel John Bilsborough

Story behind this image: I was snowboarding at one of the most beautiful places on earth, Bariloche Argentina. The view from the top of Cerro Catedral is indescribable, this is just a taste.

What’s your approach to post processing?

I use Adobe Lightroom for “development” work like colour correction, strengthening composition and usually straightening the horizon – that seems to be one thing my brain cannot cope with through the viewfinder!

© Daniel John Bilsborough

Story behind this image: I just LOVE blending landscapes into my wedding photography work. I had a perfect opportunity at Yarra Valley right here in Victoria Australia. This is Kara and James.

What or who inspires you?

Jasmine Star for the way she brings out natural expression in her subjects. And Jonas Peterson for his artistic style and ability to blend landscape and travel photography into his wedding work.

What gear do you use?

Nikon D700, 85mm F1.4, 50mm F1.4, 35mm F2.0 and 20mm F2.8. Oh and at wedding ceremonies I use my trusty 70-200mm F2.8. All Nikon Glass.

-

Links

Website: www.djbworldphotography.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/djbworldphotography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/djbworldphoto

Filed Under: Featured Member Profiles Tagged With: , , , , ,

Featured Member: Lubos Bruha

April 26, 2012 By 2 Comments

What kind of photography do you do?

I am amateur photographer based in the Prague, Czech republic. I am focused on landscape and nature. I especially like mountains and their wildness.

© Lubos Bruha

Story behind these images: These shots were taken on the photography October’s expedition in Dolomites, Italy last year.  We had to take our equipment together with tents, sleeping bags and other things essential for survival in the mountains from valleys to the tablelands under the tops. We hoped that mountains will compensate our effort and time spent during trip. But the reality has exceeded our expectation, so if we started to shoot, nobody complains about freezing, windy weather. We have returned after one week spent in the nature with our minds full of experiences and with the memory cards full of images.

How would you describe your style?

I want to be prepared to capture beautiful moments offered by nature. I am trying to be maximalist, therefore I spent lot of time by preparation, regardless of activity related to photo shooting – place selection, trip planning, composition, exposure and post processing. I like colors and structures, gaming between highlights and shadows.

© Lubos Bruha

What’s your approach to post processing?

I have to say that I am thinking about post processing during selection of composition. It also depends on amount of available light and final scene in my head. I am convinced that it is almost impossible finishing with good image if you are starting from image with bad composition and exposure. So I prefer to do utmost things during the shooting. My digital darkroom is composed from arsenal of Photoshop and Photomatix features.

What or who inspires you?

Mostly Mother Nature, it can surprise me every time regardless of place. From old school photographers I like work of Ansel Adams and Josef Sudek, from todays I am finding inspiration in the work of Ian Cameron, David Noton and Jiri Stransky.

What gear do you use?

I have Canon EOS 50D with following attached lens: Sigma 10-20/4-5.6 EX DC HSM, Canon EF-S 17-55/2.8 IS USM, Canon EF 100/2,8 MACRO USM, and Sigma 120-400/4,5-5,6 APO DG.  These all fixed on the tripod Vanguard AltaPro 264AT. For the better light processing and desired exposure I’ve used square filters from Hitech. Pretty heavy equipment for hiking :) .

-

Links

Website: http://photo.bruha.net
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lubosbruha

Filed Under: Featured Member Profiles Tagged With: , , ,

The Tuesday Composition: Compositional Shapes

October 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Layers, Yosemite NP, California

Layers, Yosemite NP, California

If you like this article, you can now get the book! Joe has expanded the “Tuesday Composition” series into an inspiring new ebook on composition, especially for nature photography. Check it out: The Tuesday Composition.

In previous posts in this series, I’ve talked a lot about how the elements within an image play into how we view it. How lines guide our eye through images, how highlights in the image attract our eyes, how the direction things are moving, or looking into, play into composition. But for much of this conversation we’ve ignored one of the elephants in the compositional room–the shape of the image as a whole. Is it square or rectangular, landscape or portrait, thick or thin? For the rest of this article I’ll call this the “format” of the picture. (I apologize in advance for any confusion with other senses of the word format, e.g., medium-format.)

Often, the choice of what format to compose our image within isn’t made consciously. Instead, often we (and I include myself in this) are guided by what camera we use, and pragmatic considerations about presentation and framing. Most of my images have a 3:2 aspect ratio. It will come as no surprise that this is the same format as the sensor in my digital cameras, as well as the format of the openings in the standard window mats I buy in quantity. This isn’t entirely bad, it does help create a certain consistency of “look” to shows of my work. Still, it’s not a choice that should usually be made unconsciously.  Some images, some ideas just work better in different formats than others, and with the plethora of pixels that come out of modern digital SLRs, often little is lost when we crop an image to improve it. [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Tuesday Composition, Tips and Techniques Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Shoot the Moon!

May 9, 2009 By 1 Comment

Snowy Pinnacles at Dusk

Snowy Pinnacles at Dusk

One of the wonders of the night and twilight skies is the moon, and yet the moon can be a challenging subject to integrate into a landscape shot. There are several reasons for this, exposure problems, apparent size, depth of field, getting the moon near the horizon and subject movement all take their turns at making landscape photography with the moon a challenge. In this post, I’ll outline the different challenges in incorporating the moon into your landscape photography, and then provide some suggestions for how to work with these different limitations.

The first problem most people run into is the size problem. For a variety of reasons, we usually “see”, subjectively, the moon as larger than it is, in a pure angular sense, it’s actually quite small, perhaps half a degree in diameter. How big of a telephoto do you need to handle this? Well, if you spent over $100,000 on Canon’s biggest baddest EF lens and popped it onto a full-frame camera with a 2x teleextender, the moon would still probably barely but entirely fit in the view. That’s 2400mm of effective focal length, so if you include the moon in a 24mm image, you can guess that the moon is going to be a lot smaller (not quite 100 times smaller, but that’s not a bad guess) than the frame. If you imagine a big moon in a wide, wide landscape, you’re likely to be disappointed, the math just doesn’t work.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Nature Photography Tagged With: , , ,

Review: The Lightning Trigger

April 10, 2009 By 11 Comments

Lightning across the Painted Desert. © Joe Decker, created during an artist residency at Petrified Forest National Park

Lightning across the Painted Desert. © Joe Decker, created during an artist residency at Petrified Forest National Park

In my last installment, I discussed some of the joys and challenges of photographing lightning. One of the tools I use to capture images of lightning is Stepping Stone Products’ Lightning Trigger which is particularly valuable for daylight lightning captures. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Gear Tips and Advice, Nature Photography, Other Photographic Peripherals Tagged With: , , , ,