Beyond The Campfire Adventure Photography Series - Kentucky Sky

It took two tries, but I finally was able to capture the sky along with some video footage I wanted for another short Adventure Photography Series video. The first attempt resulted in an entire series of video footage that was out of focus...most definately user error. Anyway, I figured out what I did wrong and made some corrections and was able to return the next day to discover the exact same conditions as the day before.

This is a short video highlighting a shoot at dusk against another fantastic Kentucky sky. Just to keep things simple and to create a sense of continuity I used the same musical score which I will probably use for all of the adventure photography series videos.

Please enjoy...

Shanty Hollow Adventure Photography Video - Part 1

Well, I just could not stand to stay inside in spite of the frigid temperatures, bad road conditions, and snow on the ground. Quite frankly, it was perfect for an adventure photography outing and Shanty Hollow was the perfect location to get started.

I had a great time stomping around the hills and bluffs, slipping like a toboggan on the slick trail. For the first time I took some video footage to support the Adventure Photography concept. It was a learning experience with more to come.

Check out the video posted on the page...I think you'll like it.

A New Endeavor for Beyond The Campfire: Video

It's a new year and Beyond the Campfire is moving forward to something new. We're going to create and post a series of Adventure Photography videos and I'm excited about the prospects. We'll keep it simple and stay close to home. Some of the topics we will attempt include a multi part series on Shanty Hollow, one of my favorite Kentucky places. We'll do some Hiking, some Fishing, Canoeing, and even try to capture on video one of the most intriguing phenomena I've ever encountered, The Summer Bats of Shanty Hollow. Along the way, we will include some photography how to video clips along with some of the still photos we take, and we will still make a regular blog post from time to time.

We also plan on taking some hikes and/or backpacking trips across Mammoth Cave National Park, just up the road. It's a great place to get away from the grind and enjoy a near wilderness adventure. There will be other adventures that come along, but for now we'll just throw out a few teasers to spike your interest.

This is a new endeavor for Beyond the Campfire, but we will make every effort to make it a high quality attempt. Check out the Intro Video now available on the main page.

Impactful Image Design - Unlocking Emotions Thru Composition

Photography is an emotional medium. Through it photographers find a way to express how they see the world, but creating an effective emtional stirring photograph requires the photographer to understand the principles and application of composition. The world is full of visual chaos characterized by all kinds of shapes, textures, and movement. Your job as a photographer is to create order out of that chaos and to find the most impactful composition. This job is best accomplished by understanding how to design an image.

Composition is too complex of a concept to fully cover in a simple blog post. Even so, it is such a key element of photography, we're going to look at some ways to inspire your compositions to help you create images with impact.

Composition simply defined is how you arrange the elements within your photograph.  Designing your image compositionally requires you to visualize two things: First is the Arrangement of the Elements, and second is How you use Colors to complement both the arrangement and the subject. It is not as complicated as it sounds so try not to over think the process. Allow your visual senses to tell you when it is right. Over time and with practice composition becomes instinctive...you will simply know it when you see it. The trick then is to learn how to visualize the image before you frame and then capture your story. There is no one right way to do this. More realistically, all of us must learn how to draw upon our inner sense of what visually looks right to us and use it to instinctively build an image. Place two photographers in front of the same subject with the same camera and lens and you will get two completely different compositions because we all place value on what we see in the world based on our own experiences.

Placing value on what we see is a key component to effective composition. Every good photograph will have a dominant subject or element. Placing a high value on that dominant element allows it to become the most important part of the process of seeing the shot. There are ways to isolate and bring to life your dominant subject, things like lens selection, aperture, vertical or horizontal framing, and using the background. Color and texture along with light angles and contrasts also are important to bring dominance to your subject. The dominant subject should also relate to the lesser elements within the photo, but remember that a simplified image is a more effective story telling image than one with a great deal of unrelated clutter on it. It does not mean your image lacks for complex detail, it simply means your dominant element becomes the priority component within the story by default when you compositionally remove all the competing junk. Everything in the image must be there for a reason and must not compete against the overall theme or storyline of the image. The key is to bring to life the dominant element so it becomes the center of attention.

Be careful to avoid always evaluating the importance of an element based simply on emotion. Emotion is certainly important, but sometimes it will cloud your vision causing the graphic design elements required for a good composition to be over looked and possibly lost in the clutter. Constantly be aware of what is in the background. Look for hot spots, and components that do not belong in your photo. Always think graphically and use the elements you are seeing in ways that enhance their importance. Lens selection can become a vital tool in helping you isolate what is truly important. Look at the scene and ask yourself  'What is actually capturing my attention here,'  then allow your efforts to focus in on the single most important impact making component. This is almost always where the most emotion can be discovered. Emotion is best defined through an effective use of light and color. Once all the important elements are defined and the unnecessary elements eliminated, the visual impact driver for the emotional element takes over.

Color is one of the most important graphic elements and influences the design process. Knowing how your camera reacts to light and captures color, or controlling white balance, is key to allowing color to become one of the dominant traits. Color projects a powerful visual message with different colors invoking different emotional responses. Warm colors such as reds or yellows are powerful emotional elements and generate a different response than cool more soothing colors like blue or green. Sometimes contrasts in color can generate a tremendous visual appeal by exploiting the natural vibrations between the colors. Using color is also why shooting early or late in the day is important compositionally. Those times of day will most often generate an overall warm or cool tone across your image.

Let us not forget an important basic design element: The Rule of Thirds. If you have been studying photography for very long, the concept of Rule of Thirds should already be ingrained into your mindset. If not, Rule of Thirds is simply a way of breaking the image into three distinct areas like a tic-tac-toe grid roughly at 1/3 intervals where important elements fall on or near where the lines cross. This just simply makes for an easy and more pleasing basic arrangement of the elements within the composition. The offset arrangement of the lines creates a wonderful and more interesting placement of your subject. The idea here is to avoid putting your main subject dead center in your image. Sometimes this works, bust most times it does not. I see it all the time in less accomplished photographers, yet it is an easily corrected problem simply by observing and understanding compositional rules. Also remember, being in the right place at the right time is critical for capturing images with impact. Doing so requires a willingness and ability to look beyond the ordinary to see the extraordinary potential of a location, and then making sure you are there at the optimal time. Lighting angles, time of year, time of day, weather conditions all play a part.

Composition is a complex design process filled with an almost infinite variety of possibilities. Sometimes the rules need to be precisely followed and other times breaking the rules will stir things up and create an interesting and effective composition. Hopefully, this short post will get you to thinking about how to unlock emotions through your picture design and with the use of effective compositional components.

The Trials and Tribulations of a Bird Watcher

About 35 or maybe 40 years ago I was out stomping around in an Oklahoma woods one day when a tiny bird fluttered into view. As often is the case, tiny birds like this one rarely linger very long before flittering off and so it was with this particular bird. Even though he was situated inside some heavy foliage, he did perch long enough and close enough for me to get a pretty good look at him and for the life of me, I could not identify what kind of bird he was. He was a medium greenish color, darker on top than on bottom, with a slight marking across his eye and white slashes across his wing and was maybe at most 4 inches or so long. On my way home I decided to find out what kind of bird it was.

Sissortailed Flycatcher - Oklahoma State Bird

Of course back then there was no such thing as the internet, you had to manually look up stuff at the library or buy a book or something to help you find things. I was so intrigued by this strange looking little bird that I purchased a copy of A Guide to Field Identification of North American Birds. It's one of those Golden classic field guide books with all the great paintings of just about every bird that fly's across North America. I spent several hours thumbing through that book and never did positively identify that little bird. The best I could do was make an educated guess that he was some kind of Vireo. But which one?

Nuthatch

It was the which one question that launched me into the world of bird watching. For several years I kept a list going but discovered just how difficult it really was to distinguish between one type of bird and another who looked very similar. There were times I was sure I had identified a particular bird only to discover that particular bird didn't range in the area I found him and only existed far out west. I wasn't very good at the craft needless to say, at first anyway, but improved and learned a few tricks and things to help out. I'm still not very good at it, but even after all these years, I will make time to spy on our feathery little friends, mostly photographing them from time to time, but some time just watching them.

Purple Finch

Kris and I both have been fascinated with a family of Robins who for several years have returned again and again to the same nesting location built in the fork of a little plum tree growing in front of our porch. We've seen several generations of Robins hatch, and grow, and fly off from that little nest. I'm gusessing of course that it is the same family, but I do believe it probably is as they seem rather protective of the location. If any other bird or Robin comes too close, well, they take a defensive posture and run them off.

Downy Woodpecker

Bird watching sometimes comes across as a rather passive activity in which only old folks and mild mannered people participate. Contrary to popular belief, it is a difficult and challenging activity that requires much more than random luck to be successful. The birds are even more difficult to photograph. You must be detail oriented and look for those tiny differences that identify a bird, things like is there a ring around the eye, or a slash in front of or behind the eye? What about the wing markings or the tail markings? How large is the bird, what kind of beak does it have? How does it fly, flutter or straight. What song does it make? There are subtle color differences between two distinct species that look a lot alike. Does the bird even belong in this area? How about winter vs summer birds. These are just a few of the details you must become aware of when trying to identify birds.

Dicksisle - Tallgrass Prairie

At one time, like most people every bird was a sparrow to me except of course the obvious ones like the cardinal, or blue jay or something. Every little brown bird I saw was a sparrow. I didn't realize just how many different kinds of sparrows there were, and not all brown birds were sparrows. When you look at sparrows more closely with the eye of a bird watcher, they become much more than the ordinary little brown bird. They have color and crowns, and topknots. They have white throats and rusty tops. They have face paint and speckled coats. Some are very dark while others are light in tone. When God said he had his eye on the sparrow, I believe I understand why now. They are fascinating birds.

Chickadee

Bird watching can become one of the most satisfying of activities and one of the most frustrating of activities. Regardless, it is a challenge I really do enjoy.  You do need a good pair of binoculars, a good field guide, and a willingness to give it a try. Photographing the birds is a natural extension of the bird watching mystic and maybe I will do an article on another time about bird photography.

Start your birdwatching activity in your backyard, or the local park, then branch out to other locations like a lake, or beach, or along a creek. The winter is actually a good time to go bird watching because the trees are bare and it simply makes it easier to see the birds.

Lark

One thing I did is was to make some copies of a basic outline of a bird and carry them inside my field guide. When I see a bird, I do not trust my memory, so I will make notes on the outline extending the beak out to match what I see, or the tail markings and I also jot down things like how large the bird is and color markings I might see like the eye or across the back or head. With this information, I can then go back to my field guide and have a good idea of what I am looking for without having to rely on my memory. Some birds are kind of rare in a given area and that is when it becomes fun and necessary to record as many details as possible.

One day I would like to go on a canoe trip on the Bayou Deview in the Big Woods of Eastern Arkansas where tantilizing sightings of the thought to be extinct Ivory Billed Woodpecker have been made. It's the largest woodpecker in North America with the last known confirmed live sighting made in 1944. It is similar appearance to the more common Pileated Woodpecker, but significantly larger and with more white showing on its wings. What a thrill that would be to find one of those...but the odds of finding one are extremely thin, but making an effort to do so would be a tremendous challege.

Ivory Billed Woodpecker

Kris and I this year have challenged ourselves to start a new bird list for 2018. I'm looking forward to adding to the list through the year. I still have that old bird field guide. It is dog-eared and the pages are coming apart, but it still serves the same pupose as it did 40 years ago when I bought it. I'm looking forward to the rewards, trials, and tribulations of once again seriously watching birds.

Our Certified Wildlife Refuge

Wildlife photography can be a wonderful way to use your camera equipment. It is also more difficult to accomplish than one might realize. However one way to break into this type of photography is to start in your own backyard and photograph song birds. What makes it even more enjoyable is to turn your place into a certified wildlife refuge through the National Wildlife Federation.

For many years now my wife and I have photographed the birds that inhabit our one little acre. We are blessed to live in the country and are surrounded by hundreds of acres of farming landscapes along with wooded patches, prairie remnant grasses and wildflowers. There are several ponds nearby along with a small flowing creek that provide sources of water. As a result we are regularly visited by all kinds of birds and other wildlife. Our one little acre stretches, about 400 feet, like a giant wedge from in front of the house all the way to a wooded area along the back portion where all kinds of trees, blackberries, wildflowers, deer, squirrels, bats, hawks, song birds, the occasional covey of quail, snakes, and other species visit.

It became clear early on that this one little acre, surrounded by all the supporting elements for a productive habitat, has become a fun wildlife refuge naturally in its own right. We have a water source, natural food plants, lots of trees and nesting locations, along with brushy areas, wood piles, and protective cover. We also have supplemented the natural habitat with a variety of trees and birdhouses to attract bluebirds and other colorful additions.

The National Wildlife Federation will provide you with a wildlife habitat certification as long as your location provides for the following:  Food sources, a water source, nesting opportunities, cover, and sustainable practises like not using chemicals. You can find out more information by visiting: https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/Certify

It is easy and fun plus you will in a small positive way help the environment and that is something we all should be willing to do.

The Portable Reflecting Pool - A Great Way to Photograph Song Birds

Recently, my little one acre country yard was certified as an official Natural Wildlife Habitat. We really did not have to do too much to obtain that certification, just make sure we met the requirements for food, shelter, water, and a natural setting free of chemicals. Being surrounded by farm country and a wealth of natural habitat already, it is only natural we would have an abundance of critters roaming around. It was fun none the less to receive the official certificate.

My wife Kris and I always enjoy the birds that flock to the feeding stations and she has become quite the bird photographer capturing many creative and interesting images. Along with her, I will from time to time take a few images myself. One thing we do is place a few natural limbs and twisted root or driftwood remnants along the banister around the deck. With a few strategically drilled holes and using the natural flat surfaces, we sprinkle sunflower seeds and milworms which all the birds seem to like. We also hang balls made of twisted sticks and such with some sunflower seeds mixed with peanut butter smeared over them and also we hang a couple suet cages. Seems all the birds like those as well and both the limbs and stick balls offer a different photo opportunity.

One creative photography thing I recently tried was to build a shallow and portable reflecting pool. It is nothing complicated, just a basic frame with some white board tacked to the bottom to provide a solid surface. The white board then was covered with a large leaf bag to create a shallow pool that holds water. At one end of the pool I placed some rocks and a large piece of driftwood to give it a natural look. I also made sure there was enough flat surfaces on the limbs to sprinkle some sunflower seeds and milworms to attract the birds. In time I will experiment with the natural setting look and try different combinations.

When placed across the banister and filled with water, it makes an easy and simple reflecting pool. Oddly enough, the birds have yet to warm up to it. I suppose with it being something new introduced to the environment they seem a little spooked by it. It will take them a day or two to get accustomed to it. Even so, a couple of brave finches tried it out.

The idea with the reflecting pool is to allow for photographing the birds a number of ways and in varying lighting situations. Natural light of course is the easiest with the best being a bright overcast day which allows for soft even lighting and relatively fast shutter speeds. Dark overcast days will also work, but usually you have to bump the ISO up a notch or two to obtain a fast enough shutter speed to capture the birds clearly as they tend to hop around a lot. One thing I want to try is to add some artificial lighting to simulate a specific kind of light.

What I plan to do once the birds begin to use it more, is to place two speedlights on stands behind and to one side of the reflecting pond, both zoomed to their 105mm setting to focus the light onto a narrow beam, and on both I will place an orange warming gel to simulate a late afternoon sun backlight. Then I'll place another speedlight without any kind of gel on it in front and to one side, but also powered back just to add a bit of frontal fill light to capture that all important catch light in the eyes.

The trick then is to lure the birds onto the log with some tasty milworms and sunflower seeds and capture them along with their reflection. I am curious to see how this technique will add interest to the finished images.

The Story Behind the Photograph - The Spillway

A Photograph is a time machine for it can in an instant transport you back to a moment from long ago. Details about where and how and more importantly, why the photograph was taken, instantly come to mind. It is amazing when you think about it how such insignificant obscure details suddenly flood back into memory. The story leading up to the capture is often just as important as the image itself.

Continuing with the focus on The Story Behind the Photograph, we will take a look at the dramatic water flow falling over the old Okmulgee Lake spillway. What might otherwise appear as an ordinary photograph of a scenic location, tells a much more important personal story...a story reinforced by a personal loss. When I absorb the image of this torrent of water, a lifetime of memories flood my thoughts. This will be the last in the series and I hope those who may have read these stories were not only inspired, but stopped to take a closer look at the stories behind their own photographs.

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My ancestral home is Oklahoma where the folks talk with their unique Okie drawl, and the landscape is as varied as almost any place around. There are prairies, pine covered rugged mountains, rolling mixed hardwood forests, muddy rivers and clear gravel bottom streams that meander across the state. Extremes of weather are the norm and Oklahoma experiences more tornado's per square mile than any place in the world. It's a distinction they would probably just as soon let some other place have for the most part, but the unpredictable and often destructive weather in the state is as much a part of life there as anything else.

Even though I now live in Kentucky and call it home, my life and times in Oklahoma still retains an important and powerful influence. Over the past fourteen years, as time allowed, my wife and I would return for a week or so almost every year to visit family and friends and of course I would pack my camera gear and spend as much time afield as I could. Places like the Tallgrass Prairie is a favorite location for photo adventures, but sometimes as is the nature of the Oklahoma weather, conditions would deteriorate to where making the drive up there is not practical. So it was on this occasion.

Oklahoma in general gets about 40 inches of rain per year across most of the eastern portion of the state and it progressively gets drier the further west you go. The problem with the rain is summed up by an old joke; yeah, we get 40 inches of rain every year, but it all comes in one night. Oddly enough, there is some truth to that old worn out joke. On this particular trip, Oklahoma was experiencing a rainy spell like I had never seen before. For days on end, it rained, hard at times. It seemed it just did not want to stop. So any trips to the Tallgrass Prairie were postponed as a result. Instead, I spent more time visiting my dad in the small town of Okmulgee, about 40 miles south of Tulsa. My mom had passed away a few years before and my brother had passed away about a year or so after that, so it was important I spent as much time as I could with him. He was 90 years old and pushing 91, but still got around pretty well.

Just west of town was the scenic Okmulgee Lake. Built during the depression, it has over the years developed a reputation of being a hidden jewel that few people know about except the locals. As a result of all the rain it was filled to capacity and the old rock spillway located at the northeastern end of the lake was putting on quite a show as tons of water flowed over its top. An artist must have designed the spillway because the way it was constructed, when there was a heavy water flow, there were protruding rocks and cracks and channels built into its face that forced the water into shoots and gaps creating a wonderful demonstration of a living and moving falling fountain.

One afternoon, I picked up my dad and took him out to see the spillway. Of course he had seen it many times before, but neither he nor I had ever seen it flowing with the power and energy it now showed. My dad was a photographer, in a way, with a long history of shooting film. He was pretty old school though, and digital cameras seemed a bit too complex for his 90 year old mind to grasp. But, he seemed fascinated with all the buttons and capabilities of my Sony A65 as I explained to him how it worked. When I would show him how I used Photoshop on my laptop, he was truly amazed. We had a good time standing in front of the spillway, but I could tell he was getting tired but I wanted to spend some time photographing this spillway moment.

It was a very dark, overcast day, but the low hanging clouds showed strong textures. It was still raining, hard at times, and the spillway flow seemed to just go on and on. I knew capturing this as a photograph would be a challenge because of the width of the structure was such, it was almost impossible to get all of it within the field of view of my 18mm lens, the widest angle lens I had. I moved around and backed up as far as I could without standing in the road. Being a dark overcast day worked in my favor as the shot required a long exposure which would give the flowing water a soft white appearance. I wanted to include part of the sky to capture the ominous feeling of the day,so I also used a 1 stop graduated neutral density filter to bring out more detail in the sky. Within a few minutes I had my shots, but before we left, I snapped a quick photo of him standing in front of the spillway. He always liked to clown around and on this occasion he struck an awkward pose and we both laughed at his silliness.

The Last Photo I took of my Dad

After we returned to his apartment, I downloaded the images onto my laptop and I showed him how I built the images from the raw digital files I had captured. He was again fascinated with the process, especially when I converted it into a black and white image, but he did not understand how any of it worked. His photography mindset was anchored in 1944 using an old 35mm Argus C3 rangefinder camera during the war. He still had one sitting in his closet, but never used it having graduated to a newer Minolta film camera a number of years ago. Even though he always retained a heart for adventure and the power taking pictures supplied to his life, he rarely took many photos any more.

We spent the afternoon talking about the spillway, the upcoming OU football season, his favorite television show, Bill Oreilly, and eventually headed out to get something to eat. We had a good day, but I had to return to Tulsa and connect again with my wife's family. A day later, on a finally bright and clear day, we made one more quick trip to Okmulgee and the spillway before we said good bye prior to returning to Kentucky.

He seemed frail and quiet while we walked along the front of the spillway and soon returned to the car as his legs were getting weak. After we dropped him off, he looked sad waving his thin arm at us as we pulled away from the parking area of his little apartment. It was like he sensed something, but I did not pick up on it at the time. Two weeks later, back in Kentucky, I received a call...he had passed away that morning, his heart simply gave out and stopped.

Most photographs I have captured generate a feeling of fun and excitement and so they should. When I take time to look at the spillway photo, my heart is always saddened for I know it was during that moment I was spending the last days with my dad. Today, I have his old Argus C3 and his Minolta film camera, they still work. They are precious tokens from his life.

All the family I grew up with are gone now, I'm the only one left, but I also have a time machine sitting inside several old large boxes. They are filled with a hundred years of photographs, and I can go back to visit the family captured on them anytime I desire simply by looking inside. I enjoy having a time machine.

The Story Behind the Photograph - The Nebula of Orion: Where Stars are Born

The beauty of photography is its ability to be expressed in so many ways. I have often promoted the idea of what I call Cross Training where as a photographer I want to pursue as many kinds of photography as I can. The reason being, by doing so you will strengthen your overall understanding of the photographic process. One of the most fascinating and challenging forms of photography is Astrophotography. It forces the photographer to look at the exposure process from a different perspective and at the same time offers up a fascinating opportunity to see a part of creation that is virtually invisible to the unaided eye. However, with the camera's ability to accumulate light, even what appears invisible can be captured by using a few relatively simple techniques. Photographing the night sky requires one to not only expand more deeply into the elements of photography, it also requires you to develop a basic understanding of the night sky itself. When both are combined, the results can be spectacular.

As part three of the 'Story Behind the Photograph' we will take a look at one of the most challenging photographs I've ever captured; The Nebula of Orion: Where Stars Are Born

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The winter night sky and the summer night sky offer two differing vantage points for observing the heavens. The summer sky provides a fascinating view toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Bracketed by the constellations of Sagitarius and Scorpius, our view toward the center of the galaxy is filled with bands of dust and gas and billions of stars. With just a simple wide angle lens, a tripod, and a dark sky, you can capture amazing images of our home galaxy as it arches above the southern horizon.

Fast forward to winter and the night sky changes and so does our view. Instead of looking inward toward the center of the galaxy, we are now looking away from the center toward the outer edges where wispy bands of stars orbit and we begin to look toward deep space. The constellations also change, and one of the most prominent is the constellation of Orion, the Hunter.

Orion forms a basic X in the southern winter night sky and consists of a variety of stars including four stars forming the corners, three bright stars forming his belt, and three stars below the belt forming his sword. One of the sword stars is actually a nebula, a place where stars are born, and it is one of the few nebula's of this type visible to the unaided eye appearing as a slight smudge forming the center star of the sword. This nebula when seen close up in all of its glory is one of the most beautiful in all of creation.

It is here dozens of new stars are being created within a gigantic fan of gas and dust consisting mostly of hydrogen , which also accounts for the reddish hue. It is also one of the easiest nebula's to capture using simple photographic equipment. But, to do so requires an understanding of basic celestial mechanics. You see, as the earth spins, the stars appear to move across the sky. This movement can be measured quite precisely and equals so many degrees per minute (I don't recall the exact number). To be able to photograph this relatively dim nebula, you must be able to do three things; use a long telephoto lens to make it large enough to see, use a relatively long exposure to accumulate the dim light, and because of the long exposure and long focal length lens, you must be able to track your camera across the sky at the same rate as the apparent movement created by the spin of the earth.

It sounds more complicated than it really is. Yes, you can purchase expensive camera or telescope tracker devises that work quite well, or, using a bit of ingenuity, you can build your own. The most common home built tracker is called a Barndoor Star Tracker. It is simply two pieces of wood with a hinge at one end and a drive mechanism located at the other end. There are some precise measurements required, but that falls outside the discussion scope of this story, but there are numerous examples available.

The drive mechanism must turn exactly at 1 rpm, or one full revolution per minute. It also requires that it be aligned rather precisely with the north star, actually just to one side of the north star. Once every thing is attached and aligned, and the drive mechanism is activated, this simple devise will quite accurately track deep sky objects for up to several minutes allowing your camera, which rides on top, to take clear and sharp long exposures bringing into view that which is not visible.

And so it was, one March evening in 2014, my Barndoor tracker devise was attached to a sturdy tripod and a small 1 rpm motor was attached to the drive mechanism. With some trial and error, the tracker was aligned with the north star, and using my 500mm lens, I zoomed in on the Orion Nebula. It took several attempts to get the exposure and focus correct and also a few slight tweaks of the north star alignment, but I eventually enjoyed what proved to be an amazing evening of shooting the night sky.

Standing outside on a cold winter evening under a clear sky is almost like viewing Heaven from afar. On this particular evening it seemed as though I could actually see to heaven and back as the night proved to be dark and clear, adorned with silver jewels. Hovering above the southern horizon, Orion the Hunter shimmered in all of his glory, bold and bright, unmistakable by its form, unbelievable in its clarity. It stood like a beacon as though its placement was purposeful and it shined as a visable symbol representing all the other hidden wonders residing just out of visual reach.

The tiny 1 rpm motor was activated and gently hummed as the connecting arm it turned rotated the drive shaft which slowly moved the barndoor tracker allowing it to counter act the rotation of the earth and stars. Using a remote shutter cable, I pressed the shutter release and counted from 1....18, 19, 20. A few seconds later, across the view screen appeared the reddish glow of the Orion Nebula. Using the viewer zoom, I took a closer look and realized my measurements and alignment on this occasion appeared to be dead on right. After a few more shots, I rushed inside to download them.

The image required some slight tweaking in Photoshop, brightness, contrast, color corrections, noise reduction, sharpening, all in small increments to enhance the elements already there...and a final crop to bring the nebula to its final appearance. Being my most vocal critic, I tend to find fault in almost all of my images, but even after close inspection, this capture exceeded every expectation.

Several previous attempts to photograph this same nebula had resulted in frustratingly blurred and imperfect images resulting from improper alignment of the tracker. But, when I took a close look at this one, the surrounding stars appeared as sharp pin points of light and the subtle delicate textures of the red, pink, and blue giant gas cloud floated across the darkness of space in a choreographed dance of color. Embedded within that cloud were the glowing beginnings of new stars having just formed not so long ago in celestial terms.

Orion Nebula - Where Stars are Born

All the hard work, the research, the trials and lots of errors, the endless nights standing in the cold air when the conditions were marginal, had finally paid off. With this single photo, my view of the heavens changed. The Nebula of Orion, where stars are born, became more than just a winter constellation, it became a photographic pathway to the hidden wonders of the heavens.

The Story Behind The Photograph - Shanty Hollow Morning

Almost every photograph I share has a story behind it. When I take time to browse through them, the memories associated with the moments leading up to their capture often will refill my thoughts with pleasant apparitions. With few exceptions, those memories reflect a sense of nostalgia from times past when moment, preparation, and opportunity combine to create an extraordinary photographic event.

As the second installment of 'The Story Behind the Photograph', we will take a look at one of the most remarkable photo adventure events I've experienced in recent years. This one I call,  'Shanty Hollow Morning'.

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The weight of my Old Town Camper canoe pressed heavy across my shoulders as, long before daylight, I slid it off the rack atop my Jeep to have it settle across my collar, balanced precariously between tipping and riding on an even keel. As I carried the canoe and slowly spun toward the water, the ambient light shimmered across the surface of the straight edge smooth lake and stars suspended themselves in a bowl-like ebony-laced arch high above in the clear morning air.

I always find it comforting in a way to hear again the familiar hollow sound a canoe makes when you lift it off your shoulders, gently flip it upright, and lay it on the water along the edge of a small lake. There is no other sound in nature, especially early of a morning, no other familiar movement that can compare. You feel blessed in a way, for this simple action generates a life long memory so ingrained into your mind it far exceeds the ordinary act used to create it. So it was, again, on this Kentucky morning filled with anticipation of what might come.

Even though summer was deep within its realm, the morning air was damp and unseasonably cool. Indeed, summer mornings in Kentucky offer a canoer/photographer some of the best conditions one can hope for with calm winds and layers of mood enhancing fog. As a photographer conditions like these provide excellent opportunities to capture exceptional moments. They also provide moments of soul heeling we sometimes require.

Leading up to this morning, I found myself caught in what seemed liked a perpetually high level of work related stress. A moment alone with nature was something my mind and body craved from within their deepest reserves for those reserves were depleted to the point of exhaustion. They required a day afield to replenish the low energy levels. As I stood next to the canoe in the pre-dawn light, the heeling process was already at work. Within a few moments, my gear was loaded, and I gently shoved away.

Paddling a canoe under a dark sky creates an odd sensation of movement without feeling like you are moving. The sky hovers motionless, the water appears black and seems to stand vacant and empty around you, yet you feel the canoe gently surge forward with each stroke of the paddle.

The ambient light was bright enough so the surrounding hills formed a strong silhouette against its glow and slowly with each movement of the paddle, those hills rolled behind me. It took about a half hour to reach the upper end of the lake where it arched east and west to form a hammer shaped head. I paddled a short distant to the west toward the dam, then spun the canoe around to face what would soon be a rising sun. 

I attached a wide angle lens, then made a preliminary adjustment of the field of view to include the front half of the canoe, then simply drifted for the next twenty minutes or so, making subtle adjustments with the paddle, absorbing the quiet, relaxing my inner self. In time the sky grew brighter and with the slow ascent of the still hidden sun, the thin blanket of fog began to stir, moving almost ghost-like across, then lift from the surface of the lake. I am always amazed at how nature creates its own path. The coolness of the air combined with the warmer water to generate a dancing fog so light, so airy, the slightest puff of air alters its course which catches the subtle rays of light in ever changing subtleties. As the fog rose higher, a larger cloud lifted above the tree line on the far side of the lake. 

The sun, trying now to find its path into daylight, cast a beam of light through the hovering form and set it aglow. This glow then reflected off the impossibly smooth surface of the lake now filled with uncountable fingers of mist shooting upward following invisible currents of air. Ever so slowly, I turned the canoe to align it with the glow of the morning light, waited for the ripples to settle, positioned the camera angle to just undercut the sky, and snapped the image.

When the image appeared on the view screen, I knew a moment of pure gold once again displayed across my visual imagination. My soul cried internally at the serenity and beauty displayed before me. I lowered the camera and simply watched the morning play, dance and spin in front of me. Later, as I paddled toward the lower end of the lake I felt replenished. Uplifted by the experience I rose above the moment to become suspended by a renewed strength, thankful for the moment God had once again revealed to my heart, reinforcing an understanding to my weakened soul of why I do such things. 

There is more to photography than taking pictures...the stories behind the photographs reveal more than the simple image alone can visually explain. Seeking out such revelations opens the heart of a photographer and fills it with a secreted form of art, one requiring only a moment such as this one to express openly what lay hidden deep within.

The Story Behind The Photograph - Wild White Indigo Sunrise

Every photograph contains two stories. The first one being the visual message you the photographer are attempting to show. The other one being the story behind the image, or what it took to capture the photograph. In many ways the second story can often be the more intriguing of the two but because of its nature, it is almost always known only to the photographer.

Great photographs rarely happen because of random chance. Most are captured only through perseverance, planning, and vision.  Capturing something truly unique is as much about how you manage to place yourself at that point of best potential as it is understanding the fundamentals of photography. Sometimes luck does play a roll, yet simply being there requires a choice. Seeing the opportunity requires you look beyond the ordinary. Capturing it requires the ability to command the moment both technically and artistically.

Over the next several posts we will take a closer look at what it took to capture a specific image. Let's begin with one of my favorites; Wild White Indigo Sunrise.

The damp, prairie grass closely hugged the full length of my legs as I walked in the predawn light into this Oklahoma landscape. Even though it was late spring, the morning air was cooled by a whispering, but stiff breeze as it caressed the upper reaches of the blue stems and the myriad other prairie grasses. With each step I felt my soul move closer to heaven and at once I was transported to an ancient time long before white men trekked across the plains to settle new lands. My senses were filled with the sweet prairie aroma, familiar, yet somehow foreign to my civilized nature. I paused for a moment and cast a gaze toward the sky. Nothing but thick clouds stretching beyond the horizon threatened to circumvent an attempt to capture one of those legendary prairie sunrises.

When I reached a shallow high spot that fell away toward a long valley stretching to the horizon I stopped and placed the camera tripod onto the rocky ground, and extended its legs between the grasses to form a secure platform. My large camera backpack by this time felt heavier than I remember it being and I slipped the straps off my shoulders and gently placed it on the ground. There was just enough daylight forming to allow me to see. It wasn't the dramatic pre-sunrise light I hoped for, but a somber gray mood was cast across the prairie and with it most of my hopes of a great morning of shooting.

Around me prairie birds began to stir warming up their songs to announce the arrival of dawn. There were no other sounds but the breeze, the birds, and my labored breathing. The morning breeze rose toward a wind causing the loose material of my long sleeve cotton shirt to flap. I noticed the tops of the grasses were beginning to arch more and more, leaning over, then springing back in time with variances of the wind, and the morning progressed toward what would be sunrise, a hidden sunrise clouded behind that vail of overcast hugging close to the ground.

I locked the camera onto the tripod, installed my long 50 to 500 mm lens, a good one to start with just in case some bison appeared deeper across the valley. I had given up hope of catching the sunrise, but instead hoped to see something of the wildlife I knew roamed, or flew, or scurried across the prairie in this area.

Directly in front of me about 10 yards away the silhouette of a lone Wild White Indigo plant rocked back and forth with the wind and the day grew brighter, still gray, but light enough now to be able to see across the valley. The overcast too changed as more texture appeared across its subsurface area and the winds began to stir the clouds lifting them higher above the valley. I checked the time, the sun would be full up as sunrise was behind me now by a few moments. I again looked toward where I believed the sun was hidden behind the cloud cover, the sky grew a bit brighter and a pale cast of color appeared between a thinned layer of overcast.

Pointing my camera toward this pale color, I zoomed and focused, but it just did not look right, yet as I was looking through the view finder, the lone wild white indigo plant suddenly darted across my field of view. It was bouncing and rocking back and forth with the wind, and I tried to focus on it as best as I could. At the same time, that thin band of color, suddenly grew brighter as the clouds parted just enough to allow the sun to almost burn through. Across the field of view, a bulls eye apparition of gold, yellow, and orange mixed with the thinner blue-gray clouds and then without much warning, the hidden sun almost burned a hole in the clouds and created a brilliant spot across the dark overcast. The Indigo plant continued to sway in the wind and I knew this moment would not last long. I focused on the indigo plant to take a shot but the wind pushed it over...I waited...waited...waited...the brilliant color began to fade, then the wind calmed for a brief moment and the indigo plant lifted upright into my field of view. I snapped the shot. Not more than a few seconds later, the cloud cover once again engulfed the sun and it was gone.

Moments such as this one are rare encounters along the journey of a photographer. A degree of luck played out during this photo shoot, but had I not already scouted the area, rose well before sunrise, driven for an hour, then hiked in the darkness to be there, this encounter would never have happened. I love photographing Oklahoma's Tallgrass Prairie as it provides an array of opportunities found in no other location. It is truly a land of color, a world of adventure, an enchanted place where what once was...still is.

Five Most Important Photography Things I learned in 2017

Photography is a passion with an almost never ending array of new possibilities. Seems I am forever seeking to improve, to move forward, to continue to seek out that one perfect photograph. Along the way, every year I learn something new, and after every photo shoot I recognize areas needing improvement. There are times I fall into a state of complacency where instead of bringing visions to life, those visions seem to stagnate into the ordinary. Even though that one great photo I long for still seems far away, progressively, step by step, I do improve.

At the end of each year, to reinforce the learning process, I often take time to evaluate how that year progressed. Here then, is a short list of five things I learned about photography in 2017 and why they are important to me.

First of all it is important to not be so rigid but remain flexible. I've learned to tighten my photographic potential by focusing efforts toward a single type of photo shoot. This does not contradict my views on Cross Training where you pursue different kinds of photography. I still believe over the long haul, trying different kinds of photography is the best way to gain a balanced understanding of photographic techniques. What I mean by tightening your photographic potential is to expand how you approach any single type of photography. In my case, I began to focus portrait photography into a more tightly controlled event where the purpose was to create a single image with a specific look. Portrait photography is simply one type of photography I do as part of the cross training. By taking a tighter approach to it, I was forced to take a more creative look at lighting. Most location shoots can be done effectively using a single or maybe two speed lights and a simple light modifier, or even just natural light. But, focusing on a single look, requires you to evaluate not only the lighting on your subject, but how light can be used to add interest and depth to the background. It also rejuvenates your creative juices forcing you to think beyond the ordinary to create an interesting combination of subject vs location.

Secondly, it is important to photograph your life. Ask yourself, "What is really important to me right now?" and set about finding ways to document those things. It does not matter what it is. What matters is how you view those events and how you can capture them in such a way as to provide an interesting visual representation of what they are. As one example, this past year I realized my old Jeep was aging faster than I was and it was in need of a great deal of maintenance upgrades. After spending many hours working on it to bring it back to a point where its life could be extended, I realized how important that old vehicle has been to me over the past 20 years. Oddly enough, I almost never took any pictures of it, so I set out to do so...and will continue to do so in the future.

Thirdly, do it for yourself and don't worry about what others think or care about. If I have a fault photographically it is where I hope others would see the world the same as I do and they would also discover just how interesting and exciting some of the photographic challenges I've set for myself could become. For the most part, I was wrong to think that way and as a result I found myself being disappointed far more than I should have been. What I learned was that not everyone will have the same enthusiasm levels for what you are wanting to do and it is important to not allow yourself to become disappointed to the point you want to give up trying. The creative actions found in photography are directly associated to your own personal desires and dreams. All of us are different in that regard and we should encourage not only ourselves to follow our own dreams, but to encourage others to follow theirs, then cheer for them when they succeed.

Number four on the list revolves around the creative process and how it not only relates to the capture of photographs, but to building the tools we can use to do so. I work on a very limited budget and cannot simply go out and purchase new expensive tools when I need them. Sometimes, for a whole lot less expense, you can make them yourself. A DIY project can provide a great deal of joy and satisfaction, not to mention the practical benefits of using those tools. This past year I built two sets of Strip Lights based on original plans I found on the Internet. My versions were slightly modified from the original design, but it did not take long to discover just how useful they are, plus they provide a creative lighting edge you can not find using any other lighting source. Getting involved in projects like these simply adds to the fun of photography. I also took a long exciting look at post processing and began to experiment more with layering multiple zones of light to create a single image from several images. It did not take long to realize just powerful a technique this can become. With careful planning, creating dynamic portraits becomes a reality. It adds another dimension to the creative process and once you understand the principles, it is quite easy to do.

For number five I've learned to let go of preconceived notions about how to work with people in general. In a way this is related to number three. Working with people, even friends, can sometimes disappoint you if those people appear to let you down. As a general rule, eventually people will let you down. The trick is to not get too worked up about it. Three times this past year I had hopes of participating in some creative photo shoots I dreamt up. All three times, those hopes fell apart because people who seemed enthusiastic about participating seemed to always find excuses for not following through. My general rule of thumb is to give someone the benefit of the doubt two times, and then offer a third, after that I stop and move on. In spite of these setbacks, I also had several wonderful shoots where the moment was amazing and the results were wonderful because of the enthusiasm of the people involved. The joy and excitement from those shoots far outweighed the disappointments.

Photography requires a constant growth from those of us who pursue it. When we stop trying to learn, stop trying to discover new adventures, or settle for complacency, that is when we should consider placing the camera in the closet and doing something else. So far, even after decades of pursuing that one great photograph, I still find myself hungry for the adventure. I relearned how the process of discovery will help you retain a youthful vigor, and when you do discover something new, well...the long journey to get there turns out to be the most important part.

The Neurotic Photographer

I suppose it is our nature as photographers to act a bit neurotic when we are on a photo shoot.  Probably stems from trying to second guess the conditions wondering through all the what-if-scenarios…what if I were at the other location…what if I waited too long or left too soon…what if I used a different lens…what if I should be on top of the ridge instead of at the bottom…what if I had come the day before or waited until tomorrow…you get the idea.

A neurotic photographer always seems to be in a hurry and distracted, but somehow it works to our advantage. My thoughts are always working, my vision is always searching, and my creative instincts kick into automatic mode. As a result more often than not, some obscure frame of reference suddenly appears. It is less about finding an object to photograph. It is more about seeing it hidden amongst the chaos. I suppose it takes a chaotic mind to produce visions clear enough to find those hidden jewels.

I will often find myself skidding to a halt because something appeared out of the corner of my eye. Sometimes color is the trigger, other times it is a shape, and less often it is a combination or collection of signals that trigger the shutter in my neurotic mind. Out of the blue, my thoughts create an image out of the myriad of visual singles. What was obscure becomes defined. What was chaotic becomes clear. There is no way to quantify the process or even explain how it happens, it just does. What is most difficult is to find an ordinary photo opportunity, one that looks ordinary to the unaided eye, yet being able to see beyond the moment and create a visual image in your mind from the potential of what is there. Only truly neurotic photographers have this ability…or so it would seem.

The neurotic photographer does seem to focus more intently on the world around him. Where others might simply pass by, he sees potential. What others might consider mundane because they are only looking at the moment, he looks beyond the moment and sees it as it can be. The neurotic photographers mind will rapidly compute lighting angles, times of day, seasonal changes, weather conditions, and how all of them will positively affect what might actually be a mundane, ordinary view at the moment. Then he returns, multiple times if necessary until the lighting angle, time of day, season and weather coincide with the vision he created in his mind. Once there, an instinctual command of the mechanics of photography replaces all of the neurosis, and the creative process kicks in. 

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I were no longer a neurotic photographer. I suppose I would become a mechanical photographer who takes pictures of things and relies on random chance as opposed to someone who visualizes, then captures all the glorious colors of light. The neurotic photographers mind is a colorful thing of beauty. I hope I never lose mine.

Dealing With People: The Hardest Part of Photography

The X's and O's of photography tend to become the easiest part of being a photographer. With a little ingenuity and thought most photographers can come up with creative ideas and exposure solutions to just about any kind of situation. It is simply a matter of understanding how the X's and O's apply to what you are wanting to accomplish. What is most difficult is actually dealing with people.

Most of my photographer friends probably understand what I mean. People can be frustrating and uncooperative, but they can also be charming and a delight to work with. Sometimes you get lucky and work with someone who is excited about the opportunity and just naturally flow through the shoot. They make your job very easy and fun. Then there are some who simply do not understand what you the artist is trying to accomplish. It's not so much they are uncooperative, they just do not possess much energy and it shows in the way they work through the shoot. Yes, it is your responsibility to create an environment where your client feels comfortable, and there are techniques you can use to put your client at ease. That alone can be a challenge especially if your own personality is rather reserved.

It has probably been the most difficult thing for me to overcome because I do tend to be rather reserved most of the time. When I first started photographing people, I concentrated so much on the X's and O's, I often lost connection with who I was shooting and the results were often subpar. However, I have learned a great deal by watching other photographer friends and how they seamlessly blend their shooting with their connection with the client. They make it look so easy and I often find myself envious of their smooth technique. But, this is a learnable skill, one that takes practice and observation along with an understanding of how people react. In short, a smile and some encouraging words go a long way to develop a good working relationship with someone.

By far the most difficult people to work with are those who simply will not follow through with you. You probably know the types. There are the ones who get all excited about doing a shoot with you, then as time goes by you try contacting them about times and locations, multiple times, but they simply will not respond. In some cases they might give you a 'let me get back with you,' routine, but they never do. I'll give almost everyone the benefit of doubt once or twice...in some cases maybe even three times. After that, I stop and go on to something else.

Then there are the ones who continually find another reason or excuse to not follow through. They will in time get back with you, but its always later than you need and usually with another reason why they cannot show up. Again, I give them the benefit of doubt a few times, but after three excuses it becomes clear the photo shoot opportunity is simply not a priority to them and its time to move on.

I suppose the worse ones are the ones who leave you hanging. They never respond to communication attempts, they don't do anything and simply leave you hanging out there wondering if they even got the message. Maybe I was raised differently, but where I come from that is considered rude. Oh, I'm sure they do not intentionally go out of their way to be rude, they just simply do not consider how their actions, or lack of action, comes across to others.

Dealing with people is the most difficult part of being a photographer, but that is part of the equation and one we must learn to work around and keep smiling. I try not to allow those kinds of things bother me, but still...it would be nice if people instead of leading you on, leave you hanging, or ignoring you, would simply say, " I think I'll pass on this one...thanx for asking." That would be the polite thing to do...just say'n.