In Blog #6 I was a bit embarrassed to admit that when I was highly emotional about getting a Teton Valley shot of the fog, I didn’t do a very good job of thinking straight. I may be exaggerating a bit but as I develop my photography, I am fairly relaxed most of the time while getting landscape shots and I often feel “part of the environment.”
I am finding that as I grow as a photographer, I take time to think about what I want my image to “say” rather than rushing to take a bunch of photos. Early in my retirement I visited a number of National Park. I seldom took time to feel part of the environment and rarely took time reflecting on what I wanted to share with my photos – my approach wasn’t exactly click-click-click but it wasn’t emotionally thoughtful either.
But now I often feel comfortable taking time to think about what I want my photos to say, especially in Grand Teton National Park because it is like home to me. The experience with the environment and the increasing confidence in using my equipment changed my approach. Take a minute to think about your approach … are you click-click-click or one-with-the-environment or something in the middle?
Since my bracketing confusion from Blog #6 I have taken time to review and practice using the exposure bracketing function in my Nikon 610. It isn’t terribly complicated but if I don’t practice using such functions, I am likely to have problems on a photo shoot in the dark before sunrise. Practice doesn’t always make perfect but it sure helps me in photography. A couple days ago the weather report seemed good which gave me a chance to see if my practice helped. So I planned to go to one of my favorite Grant Teton locations – Schwabacher’s Landing.
Sunrise was at 5:45 am and I live a little more than an hour away from the park, so I needed to get a good start. The sky was fairly dark and clear and there were a number of people lined-up in the iconic location at Schwabacher’s Landing where I had taken images dozens of times. I decided to move on to a place up-river which I have found to be beautifully relaxing. I call it “North Schwabey” and really enjoying spending time there by myself as part of the environment.
I walked along the foot path of a narrow ribbon of the Snake River. As I set up my tripod, I could see the sun lighting up the mountains with clouds building in the background. I could feel a story building, but the light was very dim in the foreground. It was time to use bracketing to deal with the high dynamic range of light.
After I set-up my tripod I stood on the path by the ribbon in the river and felt relaxed watching the clouds form and the mountains begin to light-up. I was alone and I felt very engaged with the environment. I took a quick shot to see about my exposure and my 1/30th at f13 was a little under-exposed but I was ready – Bracket Time.
Here is the 2nd bracket shot at 1/125 at f13. Even darker but using Lightroom HDR will solve the problem … although once I got home I thought maybe I shouldn’t be so tempted to always set-up my Exposure Compensation at -1.0.
My 3rd bracket shot at 1/8th at f13 is really over-exposed but the HDR will use this image to give some light to the foreground. Now it’s time to put the three images together with the Lightroom HDR and then clean it up a bit.
And here is the final HDR image. Do you feel that you can walk down the path and follow the ribbon of the Snake River into the mountains? Maybe? Do you feel relaxed and involved in this beautiful place? Or maybe you are thinking there might be a storm coming? My feeling is that this image is relaxing but not a “WOW, that is amazing type of image.”
After taking this image I hung around “North Schwabey” for quite awhile enjoying the view and walking along the stream. As the sky lit-up I turned around and began to walk back to the iconic view of Schwabacher’s Landing and noticed an amazing OMG sky. It took me about 5 minutes to walk back and less than a minute to set-up my tripod to take this picture up the river a bit from many other photographers. I got a real eye-catcher of a shot but I have to say that I like my “North Schwabey” shot better because it has a clear message. What do you think?
It is so easy to fire-away and try to get lots of good pictures when you start as a photographer. But I believe I have arrived at a place where that approach can undermine my growth as a photographer. I’d like to be at a place in my advancement as a photographer where I typically feel one with the environment. I’m certainly not there regularly but when I do find myself engrossed in the environment, I look forward to working with the image and also enjoying the time I am spending.
Where are you at? Have you moved past the click-click-click stage? Do you set aside time to practice with your photo gear: it’s OK, there is quite a bit of photo gear I have that I don’t feel confident in using? If you are a landscape photographer do you plan a photo shoot with enough time for you to get set-up without a rush?
First the last image is stellar. Enjoyed reading this post more than those preceding it. Want to know what lens you used on the last shot. You have inspired me to use the HDR development option. I am in spirit with you on coming more in to the rhythm and being in sync with nature. Birding sometimes places me in nature where landscape images call for capture. The eye phone works, but would like an incumbent some option. Any thoughts welcome.
Michael, the final image was one of those OMG when I turned the corner and saw the “fireworks.” It is unusual to say the least. Thanks for the comment about reading the post; I wasn’t sure how the “audience” would response. The lens I used about 80% of the time is a 24-120 f4.0 Nikon. It is so flexible for most of my landscape images. I bet your chase of the birds leads you to some very interesting environments. Must remember to bring a lens other than a huge telephoto 🙂
Even though I’m a technical photographer, I find creating images that generate an emotional response in the viewer are the most effective for me. I try to keep my emotions out of it, as frustration can make harder for me to think clearly.
That’s especially true when I forget bracketing on my computer, too!
As a “scientist” teaching psychology, making a jump to listening to my emotions is a bit of a change. As a teacher of interpersonal communications my focus was on listening to others emotions. Nature, especially environments like GTNP, make it a lot easier and natural to just sit back and experience and enjoy the beauty all around.
Your HDR shot turned out really well, Randy. All that practicing paid off! And kudos to you for getting that extra shot. I can’t even count how many times I’ve walked away from a scene only to realize later that I should have stayed.
As to emotion, I can’t imagine not feeling something when out on a shoot. But it also seems logical that knowledge and practice help a photographer to function appropriately despite an excess of excitement.
It doesn’t surprise me that you experience a lot of emotion when shooting in our GTNP environment. Having this lock-down gave me some time I normally wouldn’t use to checkout photography skills I should have learned quite awhile ago. So I guess there is some plus to covid-19. I have found over-and-over that I feel “stupid” (I hate using or hearing that word but …) when I go to a photography class or listen to a photography lesson online, when the teacher says “This is gonna be easy …” and then I have trouble understanding it. But taking the time to practice really helps even when I had felt “dumb” that I didn’t understand the first time I was “taught.” I think avoiding words like “easy”, “simple”, “stupid” or “dumb” helped me to be a better teacher of teachers. I NEVER said “This is going to be simple for everyone.”
Nice review of your thought process. We all need to reflect more on the scene before hitting the trigger. Especially on non moving subjects. We all find what works for us. Some of my thoughts about bracket for non-moving subjects. If 3 brackets, I often use 2 stop separation. For 5 brackets, I’ll use 1 stop. You can always process the images before the merge to perfect the highlights and shadows.
If there are no brackets you can fake it. Create 2 virtual images. Process one for highlights and one for shadows, then do a merge. This might work for some older images in your library.
Doug, My Nikon 610 only has a 3 stop bracket system. I do set it at a 2 stop separation and now I’m feeling more comfortable with it. Since my favorite time to take photos is sunrise … and my usual place is in the mountains, the HDR is quite helpful since the striking time to shoot is when the sun lights-up the mountain top BUT the foreground is often 2 or more stops behind. Learning is a nice route to take in anything 🙂 and I’m finding the trail in photography, thank in part to my peer mentor friends.
Randy – You are so right! I’ve screwed up many a shot by being in a hurry. I would underscore your advice that a key to being relaxed is to be prepared.
Last winter I planned a 2 AM shot of the “Blood Moon”, but found that I had to wait for low clouds to pass to get a clear view. My window was short, and the buttons on the back of the camera felt unfamiliar with cold fingers and the camera on the tripod facing almost straight up. I should have practiced the remote shutter release and mirror lockup in the warm comfort of my house the evening before.
Thanks for the stunning images.
Ron
Ron – Yep, those times when we seem to have no time we are most likely to goof it up. Thanks for the comments. I hope to upgrade the gallery sometime in the near future .. and I’ll try not to rush into it.