Expectations – Quiet Light Publishing Blog

February 15, 2014February 15, 2014

Winter and The Great Lakes Project

With 88% of all five Great Lakes frozen over it is a historic winter. As part of my Great Lakes Project and a book with the working title The Sweetwater Seas, you just have to shoot as much of the winter scenes you can. Lake Michigan is 77% frozen over with ice, hasn’t happened since 1993/94 winter. As an aside, the book project has become a bit more interesting and I am currently working with a TV Producer and a writer to see if more can be done with this project. It has been very interesting and insightful to get other folks input into one of my book projects rather than working it alone. We have refined the direction of the project and as all projects do you may plan on going one way and end up a totally different direction.

Yesterday I was planning to fly around Chicago and make some late afternoon images of the city with the ice out on Lake Michigan. Yet the day’s overcast didn’t lift as expected by noon, so we waited and waited and I kept in touch with my pilot until I had to make the final decision of go or no go. Because the sky was still a high overcast it would have been just a blown out white sky – not what I was looking for. With great reluctance based on what I could see, what the satellite images said and my gut feelings I made the choice to call it a day and try again soon before it all melts. And of course right after I made the no go call the sky cleared! It would have been one of those days where you were either a hero with a great shot or the goat because it just didn’t work.

Because it was also a full moon evening I went down to Lighthouse Beach once again. With the clouds still on the horizon to the east I knew seeing the moonrise in time to get a shot of it would probably not be in the cards. Yet the beauty of the sky and ice gave me a lot of things to do in a few ways. The 15-20 foot ice cliffs with the thinner ice out beyond in white were beautiful in the evening light.

Changing your expectations of what you planned on at any one time often leads you to unexpected pleasures. Going with the flow of the day can lead to something not planned and yet maybe better than what you had planned – you may never know. I am very happy with what I found on the beach that evening. I am glad I wasn’t so disappointed with not flying that I didn’t come on down to the beach. The clouds kept the moonrise out of sight until it was too dark to get a good photograph so my hope of getting the moon and ice this year has disappeared. Yet other images did present themselves.

Ironically as I pulled into my garage I saw the moon up in the sky – way too late for any photography. For the most part it is always best to shoot the full moon the day before, in this case on the 13^th not the 14^th because it rises about an hour before sunset giving you enough light in the landscape to balance with the exposure for the moon. The last shots I did were over 2 seconds in length, so the moon would actually move in the exposure and make it look oval.

Too see more images use this link: http://www.mackphoto.com/BlogImages/LHB140214

Other Winter Images and Video’s from this year as part of this project can be seen with these links:

http://www.mackphoto.com/BlogImages/LighthouseBeachWinter/

http://www.mackphoto.com/BlogImages/RawlingsPt/

http://www.mackphoto.com/BlogImages/ChicagoWinter/

http://www.mackphoto.com/Creative/video-LakeMichiganWinter.php

Cheers,

Richard

March 30, 2010May 3, 2010

High ISO and Perspective – Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

Elk, Great Smoky Mountains NP — Elk, Great Smoky Mountains, NP

I recently read an article by George Lepp in Outdoor Photographer which reminded me of a few things I talk about in the Quiet Light Workshops. With the advent of the digital world and especially today’s cameras with high ISO settings photographers – and especially landscape photographers – need to remember to think outside of their usual comfort zone. Today’s camera ISO’s, or as film folks think, ASA, can now go to an incredible 25,600! Remember when ASA 800 seemed on the edge? As landscape photographers we are used to working at the best possible ISO of 50-100 for the finest in detail. Yet in digital the loss with higher ISO’s is minimal. Yes, there will be some additional noise but nothing which can’t be overcome with noise reduction software.

When shooting my last book Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes I had the need to extend the ISO of my camera’s (Canon 1Ds Mark III) highest setting to 3200 when I was shooting the elk in Cataloochee. It was nearly dark when the elk began to actually begin their rut and clash their heads together. Since this is what I had come for I had no choice. I confess, as I was shooting them I was fairly sure I would need to come back, so imagine my surprise when later that night the images looked great in Photoshop!

Last week I was in Texas and once again wanted to play with expanded ISO’s. This time not because I was forced to but to see how it would help you be more creative. I was visiting my aunt and uncle’s ranch Rookwood near Brenham. Aunt Char is a great photographer herself and was excited to show me around. The wildflowers were just beginning to come out. I found that by using the higher ISO’s I could handhold when necessary to get a better angle. I also played with the depth of field so I could show workshop participants directly the differences in looks when you step out of the landscape photographer mode and use a shallow depth of field to highlight an area of an image. The Indian Paint Brush and Bluebonnets in their fields became my subjects for this study. The fact is by changing the way we work we open up endless possibilities to how we see.

Sometimes we find ourselves doing things the way we have always done them – low ISO and stop down all the way to make sure that image is sharp all the way through. And sometimes it is best to break that “rule” of landscape photography. This may seem a very simple idea, but sometimes we need to be reminded to step outside our comfort zone and see the world in a different way.

If you would like to see more images from Texas you can use this link: www.mackphoto.com/blog/Texas/

To see the Great Smoky Mountains National Park book go to www.quietlightpublishing.com

If you would like more information on my workshops please visit www.quietlightworkshops.com

Go on and get out of your zone! Experiment!

Peace,

Richard

October 23, 2007December 18, 2007

In nature photography you often get something you didn’t think you set out for…

In nature photography you often start out to get one image and end up with something quit different. That happened to me last week. I had received a call from an agency in New York which supplies Fine Art prints to institutions and individuals and they wanted a selection of images of water and sky. Well I originally sent them a selection and they responded that while nice they wanted a more “minimal” image. So, having seen the sky was clear blue at the studio one late afternoon, I set off for Lighthouse Beach on Lake Michigan. When I arrived there were only a few small puffyclouds floating overhead. Perfect I thought. So I shot some variations on these and in the 45 minutes I was there the storms moved in from the southwest!

All before my eyes the huge thunderhead moved across the sky and the afternoon light illuminated it beautifully! As I moved around the beach capturing different images with this thunderhead it kept moving on past until lightning was coming out the bottom. Unfortunately I did not capture any of this, but did get the storm brewing overhead in a dramatic way. All in all a rather fruitful 45 minutes one late afternoon. And not what I expected on my way out the door of the studio, but even better! These are the times you look to the sky and just say, “Thank you!”

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