ESTABLISHED 2010 - Beyond The Campfire was created to encourage readers to explore the great outdoors and to observe it close up. Get out and take a hike, go fishing or canoeing, or simply stretch out on a blanket under a summer sky...and take your camera along. We'll talk about combining outdoor activities with photography. We'll look at everything from improving your understanding of the basics of photography to more advanced techniques including things like how to see photographically and capturing the light. We'll explore the night sky, location shoots, using off camera speedlights along with nature and landscape. Grab your camera...strap on your hiking boots...and join me. I think you will enjoy the adventure.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

The Photographer's View of the World


Yellow wild flowers, with a hint of mustard and green, spread like a blanket across the small pasture which
was surrounded by trees on three sides and wooden fence row along the road. Being late in the afternoon the low angle of the sun richoched off and through the flowers causing them to vibrate with a brillant flavor almost glowing from within. It was Kentucky at its best with warm spring temperatures and a clear sky filled with an ocean-like blue. I pulled well off the road and stepped and with camera in hand began to photograph this wonderful little patch of color from the edge of the fence. Within a few minutes I heard a voice from across the road shout, "Can I help you with something?" I turned to find a middle aged lady standing on her porch directly across from where I was standing. I thought maybe she might have owned this little pasture at first, but discovered later she was just a neighbor. Our conversation continued something like this.

"No, I'm just taking some pictures."

"What are you taking pictures of?"

"This little field here with all the yellow flowers."

"You mean all those weeds. Why would you want to take pictures of weeds for?"

I smiled and made one final comment, "I'll be moving along here in a moment. Sorry if I disturbed you."

This encounter was not the first time I had been asked what I was doing while I was taking pictures. Seems more and more I am confronted by people for no particular reason while photographing an interesting place. The interesting thing about this particular conversation was the different points of view the two of us had about the field. The person asking me saw only a field of weeds with no real value to it. I saw a magical moment of light filled with possibilities.

The Photographers view of the world is certainly different than the average persons view. Most anyone can stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon and marvel at the beauty, but photographers have an uncanny ability to see beauty in ordinary things like a field full of weeds. Not sure exactly where it comes from, the ability to see beauty in ordinary things, but I suspect the initial stirring to life that feeling of 'something wonderful is here' must first come from the heart where our creative instincts seem to reside.

As an artist who uses the camera to capture a vision, I've grown accustomed to looking for what others do not always see. Often times, I'll see it well before I can capture it, but what I am actually seeing is not always how I want to capture it. The camera gives us the ability to translate light into the form we desire. Like an artist, the ability to do such things become instinctive, you just see it first in your heart and then in your mind as the form of the composition begins to take shape. Understanding how the camera captures light is an important technical element to have not unlike a painter knowing how to use the brushes and pigments of his craft. It comes with practice.


To view the world as a photographer requires one to see the world from the perspective of light as opposed to an object. Objects can distract us from the real potential of the moment. Looking beyond the object and seeing how it may appear when bathed in golden light elevates the photographer toward viewing the world as an artist would see it. When doing so, even a field full of weeds becomes a magical moment of light.




Thursday, March 2, 2017

The Photographer's Home Territory

Some years ago we moved to Kentucky from Oklahoma. Oklahoma as my ancestral home will always retain a special warmth for me, but we've been in Kentucky now for 13 years and it has for many good reasons become our home. It did not take long to recognize the scenic beauty that surrounds where we live and before long I began to explore the nooks and cranny's that define this part of Kentucky. As a result I created, several years ago, an on going project called 'The Alvaton Collection' which consists of photographs taken in and around the Alvaton area in south central Kentucky, most of them within a few miles of where we live.


As a photographer I am always envious of the ability of many of my photographer friends who travel across this great land and even the world for some of them, to photograph the scenic wonders waiting for them. They come up with some amazing photographs of wonderfully exotic locations. I've never been able to do such traveling for various reasons, so instead I simply focus on my Home Territory and discover great images just waiting for capture outside my front door.


The photographers home territory is the most important location to shoot for many reasons, the most obvious being the convenience of it. Most photographers probably do spend a lot of time shooting in their respective locations, but I'm not so sure many of them focus on just one geographic locality; that is to stay within a few miles of their home and capture its flavor and appeal through all seasons, lighting conditions, and scenic structure. The Photographers Home Territory can provide a tremendous amount of photographic rewards and what is so appealing about it is, because of its closeness, you can capture it year round in every kind of lighting conditions.


The idea is to look beyond what you see everyday and start looking at it with a photographers eye. That old dilapidated barn you pass by every day and hardly pay attention to while driving to work can become a mysterious symbol of days gone by when captured on a foggy moggy morning at first light. That ordinary cornfield takes on a nostalgic glow when the first light of morning filters through its stalks.


Just about any farm pond can become a magical wonderland on a cold freezing morning.



Even if you live in the city, capturing the essence of your home can become a tremendous adventure when looking at the streets and buildings in different light through a photographers eye.


The idea here is to get started. Create a project, call it whatever you want to, but concentrate on your home territory and over time as you build the portfolio, you will gain a new respect for the scenic value of where you live. It is a great way to develop your photographic skills and to improve your ability to see photographically.