Soaring Amongst the Stars: What an Unforgettable Night

 Daytime temperatures hovered around 70 degrees, unseasonable to say the least for the first of December, and the blanket of air that arched across the daytime sky was a piercing clear blue. But as the sun settled behind the western ridge, those temps began to drop and the blanket of blue became a crisp and clean ebony universe filled with more stars than I have ever seen, their unexpected brilliance and shimmering nature uplifted my spirits and as I gazed upward through the canopy of trees that arch over my campsite, I felt as though I was being drawn high to join them amongst their lofty domain.

This adventure photography series I've been pacing through the past few months has brought me into contact with some incredible moments. The idea behind the series is simply about "The Experience of Being There"... to encounter nature through the eyes and heart of a photographer's mind set. But, it is more than that. It's actually more about the experience than the photographs. The photographs only serve to document the moments and their impact falls well short of the emotional influence generated by placing yourself inside an uncommon outdoor situation.

That single night camping out under the stars became an iconic moment within the Adventure Photography realm. I backpacked once again into my favorite location within the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park...The Bluffs. My intent was to do less photography and more just camping and relaxing. But I knew the evening was soon to fall upon me and the forecast was for a dark, clear night. With that in mind, I set about finding locations around my campsite that would offer a good field of view through the trees for some time lapse sequence photography. 

As the evening fell, a thin remnant of clouds began to glow above the distant ridge and shortly after, the sky rapidly grew dark and the stars began to wink into life. The first points of light were the planets Venus and Jupiter, two very bright lights to the southwest that hovered just above the ridge on the other side of the deep ravine below where I was camping. Shortly after Jupiter and Venus came into view, Saturn blinked to life almost perfectly evenly position between the two others. The three of them created a 45 degree arch across the darkening sky. Before long, thousands of other stars came into view, some brighter, some pin points, some with a fuzzy glow around them, some white, some bluish, some yellow in hue. Their seemingly random placement across the sky appeared to have a planned artistic symmetry applied to their placement with in the canvas of the night.

The tall trees surrounding me extended their reach upwards as though somehow knowing they added to the majestic nature of this incredible starry night. The first time lapse took close to 2 hours to complete, 200 15 second exposures taken at 20 second intervals. A quick look revealed that my campfire had provided an extra element to the scene by its flickering flames illuminating nearby tree trunks. 

The next two sequences were shorter, 150 20 second exposures taken 25 seconds apart. It too revealed a remarkable song of light arching across the night sky with the canopy of trees providing a guiding arm to their movements.

By 10pm, the constellation Orion came into view rising above the ridgeline. It is perhaps my favorite of all the constellations as it is big, bold, and bright especially on a clean and clear night like this one. With the naked eye one can see the Orion Nebula glowing as the middle star of the hunters sword. My goodness, it was so bright and clean, the sight of it was an experience of profound dimensions. 

I set up my camera pointing toward this collection of stars...same exposure values...and fired off the sequence. As the intervalometer triggered each image one by one, I crawled into my sleeping bag under a simple tarp strung between two trees. 

Time was taken to make a journal entry as the thoughts were fresh on my mind...and I dozed off to the rhythmic clicking of the camera and the yelps and howls of a pack of coyotes.

It must have been because the camera stopped firing off that awakened me. I crawled back into the brisk night air and gazed upwards again. There are no words than can describe the sight. No moon was out, yet the stars were so bright, faint shadows were being cast by their light. The sky simply glowed with starlight, like a symphony, the musical tones of their performance was almost more than I could absorb. I no longer felt the coolness of the night air, warmed instead by a sight so indescribably beautiful, it all but brought a tear to my eyes.

I repositioned the camera, reset the intervalometer, and fired off another sequence. Reluctantly, I crawled back into my sleeping bag under the tarp. The warmth it provided calmed my emotions and I simply laid there listening to the clicking of the camera every 25 seconds and the occasional howl of coyotes was joined in chorus by several owls hooting through the night. I do believe they were also in awe of this special edition of the night sky.

I must have dozed off again briefly, but before long the camera stopped clicking as its sequence was complete. One more excursion into the night air...one more long view through the canopy of trees...one more long gaze at the most perfect night sky I've ever witnessed. The visions generated by that moment, haunted me throughout the evening as sleep became a rare event and only around 4AM did I finally doze off. When I awoke, daylight was upon me once again.

A much better story teller writer possibly could describe the feeling of the night in a way as to truly capture the essence of the moment. Although, I'm not so sure really anyone could fully describe the impact it had on me. I've spent may hours over the years photographing the night sky and from time to time encountered dark and brilliant nights. None compared to this one. It was truly an Unforgettable Night. One in which my spirit was lifted high into the realm of the stars, and I felt as though I soared amongst them.

 

A Simple Outing - Canoe on the Water - Phone Picture and Video - A Bald Eagle and Some Gulls

 About a 30 minute drive from my home thru small country towns, down winding country roads that flow through, around, and over the rolling hills of south central Kentucky, is Barren River Lake. It's a gem of a lake characterized by clear waters, rocky bluffs, thick woodlands, and scenery that can often be overlooked if care is not taken to avoid doing so. As a photographer, my eye is always searching for a special moment of light, and too often I too have been found guilty of overlooking this wonderful location.

Today I made a special attempt to remedy that verdict. I drove over to Brown's Ford with the idea of dropping my canoe into the water and working my way to the tail end of the lake, about 2 miles, where Barren River and Long Creek converge. The particular spot offers a wonderful peninsula that separates the two water systems. 

Where Barren River and Long Creek Converge - Taken Summer 2021 from the Long Creek side - Barren River is on the other side. This is the end of a long peninsula. Winter water levels would be 20+ feet lower than what is shown here.

I wanted to work my way up Barren River as far as I could manage using a trolling motor to do most of the heavy work, to search for a campsite along the river bank for a potential canoe camping, photography outing sometime in the future.

Taken summer 2021

The previous summer I managed to do some fishing in that area with some photography tossed in. Along with catching a few nice bass, I captured a couple of very nice images, one of a deer swimming across a gap between two small islands with misty fog hovering in the background, and another of reflections cast across a hidden inlet.

Taken summer 2021

Barren River Lake is maintained through the year by allowing the lake level to rise in summer and to drawn it down during the winter. On this outing, it was approaching its lowest winter pool level, about 20 feet or so lower than the summer level, and what was a wide expanse of flat water the previous summer was now a narrow band of shallow water with exposed rock and sandy banks. There was also a good current flowing at the boat ramp. My attempt at working my way to the confluence of Barren River and Long Creek was thwarted as the water levels were just too low to allow for a comfortable use of a trolling motor and the current was too strong to paddle against for that distance.

Instead I turned what was an ambitious outing into a simpler outing and took my time paddling around the boat ramp area working down to a long curving bluff to enjoy a short moment on the water. As I began to float that way, a Bald Eagle emerged from the tree line to my right and flew across the gap separating the long bluff from the bluff nearest to Browns Ford. He glided with a graceful soar, barely working his wings, the white of his head and tail standing out boldly against the gray background. Then, he pulled his massive wings back in a slow motion arch, almost stopping in mid air to land on a high limb overlooking the channel.

I had no camera this time except for my cell phone and it was still packed away, so I just drifted toward my Eagle friend and came to within about 20 yards of him before he launched himself into the air. I followed his white head and tail as he flew along the long, curving bluff, to finally drift out of sight some distance away. Not a single photo I made of this magnificent bird, but the memory of the moment will last me forever.

For the next hour or so, I simply paddled around, briefly talking to an elderly fellow fishing off the bank, and I managed with my phone to snap a photo or two of the scenic point anchoring the long bluff. I'm guessing the trees with the white trunks are Sycamore trees, and the tree with the reddish leaves are beech trees with their fall season remnant allotment of dried but not yet dropped leaves.

 As I made my way back to the boat ramp against the current, a couple hundred gulls circled around, squawking as they do, to eventually land on the other side of a sandy mound.

 I beached the canoe and made my way over to where they were and managed to take a few photo's using my phone along with a short video clip. They are graceful fliers after all.

The day afield came to an end shortly after my gull encounter. I loaded all my gear back into and on top of my Jeep, always a sad moment. As it turned out, the outing fell well short of what I was wanting to do, but in the end, seeing the Bald Eagle and watching the gulls was reward enough. Just being out and feeling the canoe under me again, well...it was a simple outing, but one well worth the effort.

The "Art of Being There"

 The beauty of the fall season in Kentucky is breathtaking and hiking into the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park during this time of year can transport one into a visual canopy of color.

Capturing the feeling of this world requires more than simply physically walking down a trail with your camera in hand. It requires you to fully immerse yourself into and becoming a part of the surroundings. There is a kind of bonding one develops with nature when you allow yourself to let go of the everyday stresses of life and then receive the soothing comfort discovered here. It helps you to step outside the distractions of life, to be elevated above all the things that weigh us down emotionally, so you begin to see the hidden compositions drifting across the landscape.

 I wish I could get that feeling every time I go out, but it is almost impossible to do so. There is an Art to it, the kind of art that is difficult to define. It is the Art of Being There where you allow yourself to become a part of the surroundings, where you feel the subtle sounds of the woodlands,

 hear the splash of light filtering through the trees, see the wind brush across your face, then inhale the aroma of the flotsam of the forest floor. 

When that happens, your camera becomes more than a tool…it becomes an extension of your emotions. The art of being there is what this Adventure Photography series is all about.

Yet it is more, for there will never be enough words to fully describe how it works because it is different for everyone. It's a feeling really, the kind that radiates deep from within yourself. It's more than simply recognizing that it can happen, it's experiencing it and living it all at once.

The Art of Being There as a photographer elevates those moments to a level well above what is ordinary...you are uplifted emotionally and everything becomes synchronized so much so, it all simply falls into place.

Backpacking Mammoth Cave National Park - Destination: "The Bluffs"

 Over the years I've done a favorable amount of backpacking, enough anyway to feel accomplished at the endeavor. I've done far more canoe camping but both are excellent outdoor activities and they share some common elements that tend to blend their requirements into similar techniques. I recently made a return visit to spend time backpacking into the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park. While it is but a few miles up the road from where I live, the location has remained a somewhat neglected outdoor resource for me. Even so, there is an abundance of above ground outdoor opportunity awaiting anyone desiring a near wilderness adventure.

This year I jumpstarted my Beyond the Campfire Adventure Photography video series with the intent to motivate myself into getting out to photograph and explore the great outdoors more while I still have the ability to do so. As I climb toward the big 70 in age, my physical ability to purposely stress myself beyond what is ordinary has started to diminish to some degree. 

Although I've stayed in pretty good shape for someone my age (lost 35 lbs, strength training at the gym, jumping rope, punching a heavy bag...and so on), my old body sometimes pushes back reminding me to slow down and take it easy for a little while. I've learned to listen to it in spite of the fact that my hearts desire tells me I'm still 25 years old.

My backpacking gear consists of mostly 25 years and older equipment...all venerable and functional...but, a bit on the heavy side. Today's modern, lightweight equipment was just a pipe dream back when I first started backpacking. Back then my budget allowed for only rudimentary and often heavy gear collected from the likes of the local Army Surplus Store, garage sales, and the local discount sporting goods store...a good portion of it was homemade make-do gear.

Similar to Mine

I use a 40-plus year old Coleman Peak One packer stove...probably one of the most dependable and useful pieces of gear I have. In all those years, it has never failed once. By today's standards, it is quite heavy, but it also includes the ability to fine tune the blue flame from a simmer to a fly me to the moon flaming torch. It will boil a pot of water in nothing flat, and a single tank of fuel will last for several days.

My old sleeping bag, also a Coleman Peak One, is also about 25 years old. It is filled with somewhere around 4 lbs of Quallofil fiber...where each strand when viewed thru a microscope contain 4 separate chambers...which gives it a temperature rating down to Zero degrees Fahrenheit. It's a bit bulky but has kept me warm on some very cold nights out in the boonies. A homemade flannel liner adds about 10 degrees to the temperature rating.

The newest piece of equipment I have is my self-inflating sleeping pad I purchased on a clearance sale about 15 years ago. One of the best investments I ever made.

I use 2 packer tents. One is somewhat larger and heavier than the other. On this trip I chose to use the bigger one because I wanted a little more elbow room for my camera gear. Made by Camp Trails it is a two man tent that actually fits one person and comes with a nice full cover rainfly which came in handy that night as a gentle rain fell pretty much all night.

The backpack I haul all of this gear around in is, again, about 25 years old. It is a JanSport Internal Frame large capacity pack. It has several outside pockets and various other straps and rings and things to attach whatever suits your style. It has been quite durable in spite of some abuse over the years.

Those are my main pieces of equipment along which I include various other assorted odds and ends to make up the 10 Essentials of Backpacking.

On this particular trip I included 2 cameras, 2 tripods, extra batteries, 2 extra lenses, and a fanny pack just for the camera stuff, because I wanted to shoot a lot of B-roll video footage and have enough flexibility to photograph the scenery as I saw fit. I normally would not have carried all of that extra weight, but in the long run I used all of it and the results were pretty good even if I say so myself.

The hike into the Bluffs area is pretty flat with some up and down dips and climbs until the last side trail that leads you to The Bluffs campground. There is about a 1/4 mile very steep drop down to the campsite and, consequently a 1/4 mile long very steep climb out. The climb out is much more difficult than the drop down especially when carrying a full pack.

Along the trail I encountered several muddy places but was easily able to skirt around them. You are pretty much walking through a cathedral canopy of trees, and during the fall, the colors are amazing. I made this trek the first couple days of November and although there were good splashes of color, the peak of the fall season had not arrived...(a week later it was in full swing).

A newer version 

There is a source of water near the campsite. A spring flows over the edge of the first bluff you encounter with enough flow to create a small pool of water at its base. It good clean water and it's enough to easily fill several water bottles but the water must be treated before drinking. T o do so, I use a pumper style PUR Hiker water purification system (now called Katadyn) that will filter out pretty much everything that could make you sick. I've never gotten even the slightest grumbling in the tummy after drinking the filtered water...and the taste is fresh and clean.

It was another one of those really good additions to my gear collection.

Photographing the trip involved a series of B-roll video clips where I set up a camera on a tripod then film myself walking a little ways down range...walking back to retrieve the camera...then continue on. I wanted to video sections that provided not only scenic value, but also captured a representation of what the trail was like. Doing this obviously took more time, but it was well worth the extra effort.

Photographing the area was at times a challenge because it was difficult to see through all the clutter and focus in on a good subject. Even so, there were numerous photo ops available with the bluffs and within the surrounding canopy of the woodlands. The lighting was tough as most of the first day it was bright and sunny with a cobalt blue sky. Pretty to hike in and look at, but difficult to photograph because of the harsh contrasts such conditions produce. That became the real photo challenge...how to capture the scenic value without capturing the harsh contrasts?

I was able to build a fire and spent a while after sundown sitting around the warmth of its flames. It was the first time all day I felt like I could relax. 

There is something magical about a campfire. I've built hundreds over the years and no two of them were the same, but each of them told a similar story. It's a story about why we need to sometimes put life on hold and travel into the wilderness to experience what it has to offer the soul. Sometimes Life gets in the way of Living. 

A campfire helps us to step away from the stresses of life, to experience the calling that resides within our hearts. Backpacking, in spite of the physical demands, pushes the Mute button on Life, so we can begin living a little.

A New Video Series Project: Adventure Photography

 Sort of bringing the Blog back to life but with a newer approach. Will be posting a new video series over the next few months. Adventure Photography. This series will carry the theme "It's about the experience of being there". First on the menu includes the Introduction Video, followed by Parts 1 and 2 of the Shanty Hollow Series: Photographing Shanty Hollow Woodlands and "First Light" Canoeing and Photographing Shanty Hollow.

Series Intro

Shanty Hollow Part 1:

Shanty Hollow Part 2:

Shanty Hollow Part 3:

Shanty Hollow: Part4 - Winter Wonderland

Add a Measure of Creative Depth to Your Photography

I would venture to guess that most photographers are most content when they are simply having fun with their camera. Maybe on vacation, or possibly just on a simple walkabout, capturing the world around us provides not only an easy creative outlet, but it also captures special moments within our lives. That is the way it should be, just have fun with it, then use the photographs to revisit those special life adventures.

Sometimes though as a photographer, I need to find a more meaningful outlet, to allow creative instincts an opportunity to explore more thoroughly the photographic possibilities waiting for discovery. That is when I begin to look more closely at how I can best use this tool called a camera to capture the world around me in ways that is less an exact reproduction of what I see, and more of a creation of what I feel. Doing so helps to generate a greater creative depth to the images I want to capture.

How to do this is open to interpretation because everyone contributes their personal insights into what they want to accomplish. Even so there are some common ways to apply creative depth to your photography.

One of the best ways is to learn how to use off camera flash. There are literally hundreds of videos and articles out there explaining the X's and O's of the technique, so I will not go into that discussion here. Instead let's explore some of the reasons why this type of photography can add creative depth to you photographs. First of all, any photographer worth his or her salt knows that light is the most important element in a photograph.

Quality light can turn an ordinary object or situation into a work of art. Natural light of course is the most commonly used, however when you begin to use off camera flash you start to explore the realm of controlling the light. With off camera flash you can control the intensity, the angle or direction, the color, and timing of the moment. You can throw in a little fill light, or contribute the maximum amount of light required for a shoot. It can be used with people, places, or objects, and it can be combined with the natural ambient light, it can even be made to look like natural light. In short, you become the master of the lighting moment. This allows you to visualize how you want the image to appear, the shadows, the reflections, the back light, the boldness or subtleness of the light becomes yours to control.

Another way to add creative depth is to take your camera off AUTO or Program Mode and learn how to manipulate exposure. Use the +/- exposure compensation tool on your camera to add or remove light from your composition. This allows you to darken or lighten natural light and to apply a specific tonality to a specific area of your composition. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to capture the world exactly the way you see it. You have the ability to interject your desire onto your photograph.

A third way is to use post production software to enhance your photographs. This is not cheating, this is simply allowing you to project your vision into your photograph to create from what might be an ordinary image, an image with power and eye catching ability. Ansel Adams, probably the most famous American photographer of all time, applied this same concept to his photographs except he did not use a computer (they didn't exist then), he did it in the darkroom using various kinds of print papers and print exposure techniques. There are countless how to videos and articles available on Photoshop and Light Room, so there really is no excuse for not learning how to do this. Even very basic, routine applications can improve almost any photograph and allow you to create your vision.

Although I attempt to capture in camera the image I visualize as closely as I can, almost all of my images undergo some post processing adjustments, however small, however slight they may actually be. One thing I have also learned over the years is to not be afraid to break the rules. Breaking the photographic rules will sometimes lead to an amazing revelation about photography and the results can be spectacular.

Adding a measure of creative depth to your photographs is a personal adventure almost anyone can learn how to do. It is more a matter of desiring to discover the limits of your own creative instincts and have a willingness to try something new. Much of it comes from within and all you are doing is applying your inner visions to the tools you have available.

Capturing a Deep Woods Photo

One of the most difficult kinds of photographs to capture is a photo taken within a deep woods, especially when the prevailing background color is green. In most cases you end up with an image with a harsh green tint cast across the entire frame. This is just the nature of light and requires a bit of creative white balance tweaking to prevent. Even so, a photo with that one prevailing color tint can in its own right become an interesting image. Most of the time though, I tend to photograph the deep woods with the intent of converting the image into a black and white.

Deep woods settings do tend to lend themselves well to black and white, however, depending on the kind of light that is filtering through the green canopy, this too can be tricky. Often you will encounter a wide range of contrasts ranging from very dark shadowed areas to very bright sunlit areas. This range more often than not becomes the problem as the camera simply cannot deal with that wide of a range of contrast. You will lose a great deal of detail in either the light or dark areas with one or the other being blown out.

Most times I will shoot with a circular polarized attached to my lens. This helps to reduce the glare and allows for a certain amount of control over the lighting. I will also usually expose for the brightest areas and let everything else simply fall where it wants to within the exposure. I do this by shooting on Aperture Priority and then using the +/- exposure compensation to bring the brightly lit areas into an exposure range where detail becomes apparent. Then during post processing I will bump the mid-tones and dark areas up a bit to bring the image exposure more inline across the full spectrum of what was captured.

HDR is of course another option, where you take a series of images using different exposure values and allowing the software to blend them into a finished, more evenly exposed image. As this blog is mostly for novice and less experienced photographers, I'll leave the HDR discussion on the table for another time, but I will say HDR, although it has its place, is better suited for certain kinds of lighting situations like inside a Cathedral. The idea with a photograph in my opinion is to make it look natural and HDR, unless it is expertly crafted, can often make the image appear a bit "Over Cooked".

Many times, photographers at all levels will make the assumption that whenever they are photographing something, they must capture the scene as though it is an exact replication of what was seen. Yes, sometimes this actually does work, however, creative photography allows for you the photographer to capture less about what you see visually, and more about what you felt while you were there. This is open to interpretation by each photographer, but photographing the deep woods is a perfect opportunity to explore this concept.

What you want to accomplish is to create an image that imparts that sense of place and wonder. The Deep woods is often filled with both, but you have to not only look for it, you must feel for it as well. Sometimes it is just a momentary glimpse, the way a tree hangs out over a creek, they way a large boulder fills the frame, or how the trees themselves line up...or any other number of ways.

Photographing the deep woods can be one of the most inspiring and challenging of photographic opportunities. Just keep open the idea of capturing what you feel and look for those compositions that reveal the essence of the woods you encounter.

What The Ansel Adams Style Project Taught Me

When I started one of the most interesting photographic projects I've ever tried, The Ansel Adams Style Project, I wasn't sure where it would lead, but discovered along the way just how important a project like this can become. I never believed I would ever attain the prowess of the name sake of this adventure, but this project proved itself not only fun and rewarding, but instructional and revealing. What the venture taught me will be carried forward in my seemingly never ending quest to capture that one perfect image and hopefully provided a measure of inspiration to continue pursuing this fascinating form of photography known as Black and White.

I've always been a huge fan of black and white photography having had my early development as a photographer heavily influenced by its nuances. More often than not though most of the time in more recent years I simply would take color images and realize later how they would actually look better as a black and white, then convert them. The Ansel Adams style project forced me to look at the world through a black and white filter to do what Ansel learned during his development as a photographer, to visualize the outcome before ever snapping the shutter.

Visualization. A process of knowing the results before they occur. It is probably the most difficult aspect of photography for most people to fully grasp. Even experienced and technically competent photographers often struggle with its significance. Yet, it is one aspect I have attempted to refine over the years, not always successfully, but in a manner where I begin to experience the excitement of creating what I see in my minds eye.

Along with Visualization, I've always tried to live within the creative confinement of the art form, looking for light in all of its forms. Doing so sometimes causes one to drift toward being, dare I say, a bit depressed, because, well I do not always find the inspiration to create what resides within all artists. Searching for such things can become a bit futile when attempt after attempt falls short of expectations...and then...all of sudden, it falls into place. One such moment occurred during this project when I hiked into Shanty Hollow and discovered to my delight one of the most dramatic moments of light I've ever encountered. These are the events that make it all worth the effort, when stage, moment, and light converge to present the delicate flavors of nature in a magnificent encounter.

Worth all the effort? Actually, the effort came naturally, what was revealed was just how important it is to try something new every once in a while, to jump start creative instincts, to reopen the imagination,and to even relive and re-experience what the great masters might have accomplished. 

What I outwardly gained from this project I can only share in a feeble attempt at writing about it. What was truly gained resides inward in a deeper context of revelation and accomplishment. Rarely am I moved by the photographs I take, yet somehow when I view the haunting image taken within Shanty Hollow, I understand more fully why I started the project in the first place.

The Ansel Adams project started as a "let's see what turns up" kind of adventure. It finished as one of the most inspirational and exciting projects I've ever attempted. Even though I've set it aside as an exclusive project for now, it's really not over, for I will continue to explore this fascinating form of photography. Who knows, maybe that one great photograph I've been chasing will be generated from this ancient form of photography captured in a most unlikely place.

The Ansel Adams Project

When it's Just Not Working...Turn Around

Grumbling, I picked myself up from a rather ungraceful fall after just encountering a loose rock strategically placed on the down slope side of the trail for some unsuspecting soul to step on. Then I continued on my way and limped to the bottom of the Shanty Hollow Falls ravine and stepped onto the gravel banks of the outlet creek.

It was a bright sunny day, not the best kind of day usually to photograph within a heavily wooded area. The bright sun poked its rays well into the ravine creating a great deal of bright hot spots and dark contrasty shadows. At first I simply surveyed my surroundings and grimaced at what was there and started to reluctantly take photographs at what at first seemed to be rather nice looking compositions. Upon closer examination I realized what I was capturing fell well short of what my eyes were seeing. After several more unsuccessful attempts, I stopped and simply stood motionless, just staring at what was in front of me trying to figure how to visually make sense of what was there. Nothing seemed to work photograpically, then, I remembered an old photographer's trick...when it's not working, turn around... And so I did.

To my amazement what I saw set my photographic juices to flowing as the mid-day sun applied a brilliance of light to the leaves whose incandescence filtered deeper into the ravine to cast a glow across the horseshoe shaped amphitheater. I have often said that a photographer sees with his heart, and my heart was moved when I saw how the ravine was alight with an almost unnatural luminosity. It was amazing light, like none I had ever witnessed before and I instantly understood how here in front of me the natural world was to reveal the best of what I had hoped for. Photographing it proved a challenge because of the heavy contrasts, but I knew the results were going to be exciting. I found this revelation to be fitting because I was there following up on an Ansel Adams Style project where I wanted to capture nature in the same kind of style Ansel Adams might have used.

He once wrote about how the light he encountered in the high Sierra's set him on the path to becoming a photographer. His life changing words were filled with inspiration and insight and revealed a deeper understanding of what his purpose was to become. The light I encountered on this day had a similar effect, maybe not so dramatic as what he became, but the powerful, revealed light within that ravine spoke to me using natural, visual words of insight.

Sometimes photographic moments do have simple solutions. We just need to remind ourselves about the simplicity of doing something like turning around and looking in the other direction. Whether shooting a sunset, a rain squall, or from inside a shaded ravine, looking the other direction often reveals something new and unique.

Too often I find myself locked into a single way of thinking about the results I expect from a photo shoot. In reality, it is only when I let go of preconceived notions does the real opportunity reveal itself. Turning around and looking the other way sounds so obvious, I am amazed at how often I fail to apply such a simple solution to the bigger problem. Light is, as always, what I want to capture, not objects, and by first looking for the light, the purpose of the objects suddenly come to life.

I used a polarizer filter to reduce the glare, and held a graduated neutral density filter to the front of the lens to help balance the brighter upper portion with the darker shadowed areas. After several shots, I knew I had captured a remarkable moment of light and could not wait to download the results. I turned around again and carefully made my way out of the ravine.

Chasing the Night - Capturing Star Fields

Photographing the night sky has become one of the fastest growing types of photography. Using even basic equipment and a little knowledge of the night sky once can capture some fascinating objects. In recent years I have spent more and more time chasing the night photographing subjects like the Milky Way center, and few planets like Saturn and Jupiter along with a few deep sky objects like Andromeda.

Perseus Double Cluster

Most of my images fall well short of what is possible when you combine quality photographic equipment with very dark and scenic night sky areas, but they are still fun to do and what makes it most enjoyable is because it is "now" real time.

One of the most intriguing things to do when photographing the night sky is to simply point your camera toward a dark area and see what you get. Most of the time it will simply be a scattered collection of stars spread across your field of view, but sometimes you discover some interesting sky objects.

Beehive Cluster

Star field photographs are just that, a photograph of a random series of stars. What makes them intriguing is the patterns they create. Stars of course are made up of a variety of types and colors with some being red, some bluish, some yellow, and some white. The colors do have a meaning with the various tones indicating how hot they are and in some cases how large they are.

When you find clusters of them, well now you have discovered a real deep sky object. Some of the more famous ones include The Beehive Cluster, and the Perseus Double Cluster, along with Pleiades or also called the Seven Sisters. These are beautiful clusters and reveal just how amazing is the night sky.

I will not get into all the techniques involved, just wanted to write a simple post and share some of the more fascinating images I've managed to capture. More information can be found within this blog by doing a search using Night Sky as a key word.

The Ansel Adams Project

Light becomes its most surreal when a photograph is viewed in black and white. It is as though whatever it falls upon becomes wrapped within a veil of luminosity that is at once unique and familiar, yet it carries within it a vibrancy that transcends the distraction color imparts on an image.

Keith Bridgman Photography

Ansel Adams, probably the best known American Photographer of landscapes, captured the color of the American west almost exclusively in black and white. His influence travels far beyond his mastery of photographic technique and impacted the age of conservation awareness like no other person. His images stirred the imagination into action and transformed a nation who at the time of his greatest works was struggling to climb out of a great depression. His genius was second to none, his eye for detail defined modern photography, his visual influence changed a nations understanding of who it was.

I have long enjoyed black and white photography ranging all the way back to my youthful earliest days of using a very old Kodak No. 1 Brownie camera my grandparents once owned, and developing those negatives and small prints inside a closet darkroom. It was magical to watch the image transform within the chemical trays. They were nothing more than simple snap shots of my day, things like our pet dog, or the car in the driveway, or a pool of rainwater reflecting light across its surface. The foundation of my photography was laid during those days and in spite of the modern technology available today, those simple images serve to remind me of my photographic roots.

Keith Bridgman Photography 

I first learned about Ansel Adams when I was a college student, although I had seen several of his images previous to that time. His story fascinated me even then at how he transformed from taking snapshots using the same kind of Kodak No.1 Brownie camera I had also used, into one of, if not the foremost authority on landscape photography. I would sit in the library and peruse though a book containing some of his images and was mesmerized by their clarity and stark beauty never once believing or even thinking that one day I would attempt to capture images in his style.

The Ansel Adams project is simply my attempt to rekindle some creative energy by going back to the basics of photography. I could never imply that I would ever match the power and impact of his images, but to shoot in his style forces one to backtrack creatively and to see the world in a different perspective by looking at the world based on the contrast and light created by shades of gray. 

Shades of gray, it sounds so simple, yet in reality capturing the world through the eyes of black and white is more difficult than it seems, for you not only must recognize the intrinsic photographic value of a landscape, you must also look beyond the visible clutter color imparts on a scene and see it as a series of contrasts and shades. Then, for this project at least, I must visualize not only the potential, but the technique Ansel himself might have used to compose his images.

Keith Bridgman Photography

For thirty days, I will add to my collection of black and white images and explore photographically the world close to home shooting nothing except landscapes and other points of interest using the Ansel Adams style. It is perhaps is one of the most unique and challenging projects I've ever attempted, yet one where my excitement level of the potential that may develop is as high as the Sierra Mountains where Ansel created some of his most enduring images.

The S-Curve: Composition's Secret Weapon

Nature in all of its forms offers the photographer an unending array of photographic events. Capturing nature effectively can often prove to be an elusive endeavor, but we keep trying, keep pursuing the art of photography until at last we discover that one magical moment. Composition plays a vital role in being able to capture magical moments and effectively using composition to portray your vision can be influenced by some basic understandings like using one of natures secret weapons; The S-Curve.

Taken using a disposable 35mm film Camera

The S-curve in a scenic landscape serves to move the eye, to lock it into what is important. It leads the viewer toward what you the photographer wants them to see. When anchored between blocking compositional elements such as a darkened treeline or a distant ridge or even a shadowed hillside, the S-curve then becomes the most important part of the image. Those blocking elements serve to keep the eye from wandering off the page so the story line then becomes more condensed and is no longer simply a portion of what you are seeing, it becomes the main focus of why you are even looking.

S-curves can be bold and dominant, or more subtle and suggestive. Regardless, they serve to take your eye into the image. They can provide a platform upon which the remainder of the composition resides.  It is important to include them with other strong elements that compliment the reason the S-curve is there. Other building blocks serve to frame the image to isolate the importance of the curve. You the photographer must then position yourself in the most advantageous location to take advantage of the natural flow of the curve.

Light can also influence the nature of the S-curve. Used effectively, you can actually create a curve that may or may not be all that noticeable. Blended with blocking shadows and framing elements, then allowing the light to glow across the image toward the viewer is an effective way to render how S-curves tell the story.

It takes an experienced eye to see past the chaotic distractions and to focus in on what is important. Visualization is key here, where using your knowledge of how the camera captures light, you are able to generate the desired emotional balance that so effectively stops a viewer and keeps their eyes on the story you wanted to express.

Over time the process become instinctive and you feel the situation as much as you see it. You begin to look beyond the obvious and drill into the sublime to see the finished product before you ever take the shot.

When this begins to happen, you pass beyond accepting the ordinary to dwell within a realm where creating the extraordinary becomes a part of why you are a photographer. Using natures secret weapon, the S-curve, just makes life as a photographer a little bit softer.

Evaluating Your Own Photo's - Passing the "Eye Test"

I am probably my own worst critic when it comes to evaluating the photographs I've taken and that is probably a good thing for the most part. I am constantly looking deeper into an image to identify what works and what does not work. By doing so, I feel like I've gained a great deal of discernment about what makes a great photograph. Along the way I've also learned just how wide of a gap exists between what I think vs what other people think. Although I do value evaluations from others, I don't always agree with them simply because they were not there working under the conditions at the time and they simply do not know what your intent was in creating the photo. Those things do affect the image. So, critically evaluating your own photos becomes even more important and doing so helps you recognize what works for you, and that after all is what is most important.

Taking time to critically evaluate your own photos will often reveal inadequacies in your technique especially the lighting, but it also includes composition issues. Evaluating your photo's can take any number of paths, however what I find most useful is to ask myself two questions.

1. What works with this photo.
2. What doesn't work.

Then I begin to drill into the image breaking it into components and separately evaluating the merits of the different segments. By using this simple approach you will be able to focus in on what is important. The answers to these two questions will certainly vary with each image, but, one answer I always avoid is to simply say, "I just like this picture." An answer like that does nothing to improve your critical eye. Even so, every image must pass the "Eye Test" first even before you begin to drill down into the merits of the image. If it doesn't pass that preliminary eye test, well...maybe you should move on to another image.

Let's take a closer look at the photo above and try to answer these questions, just to give you an idea of how it might be done. Of course everyone is different, but the idea here is to develop and improve your own critical evaluation tools.

What works with this photo?  

First of all, let's look at the "Eye Test". Their expressions work very well here. Mother and Daughter show a genuine connection to each other through their embrace and by doing so they are projecting a positive connection to those who might view the image. They both have nice genuine smiles and do not appear to be overly "posed". The background is plain and does not interfere with the overall composition, and there appears to not be any overly glaring elements that stand out. To me, it passes the eye test. 

From a technical point of view...The lighting is pretty good (Two speedlights were used). They are well lit with no extra glare coming off the mothers glasses. The whites show detail as do the darks and midtones...and there is a good range of whites, midtones, and darks scattered across the composition. The back lighting is soft and not overwhelming but just enough to provide some highlights across their hair which helps to separate them from the background. The focus is on them with the background just out of focus. Compositionally, they are spaced slightly to one side within the frame and they appear as a natural fit within the frame as well.

What doesn't work?

The Eye Test...I would prefer the mothers hand which is spread out and lying across the top of one of the large rocks, would not be so widely spaced. It should be more curved inward and lying naturally on the rock instead of looking like it is supporting her arm. There is also a bit of a "Hot Spot" in the upper left which could distract the eye away from the main subjects. However it is somewhat balanced by the whiteness of their tops and the softer middle values of the rocks especially on the lower right.

From a technical point of view...Overall it is good, not much I see technically from this image that distracts from the image except their faces are a little soft and the eyes are not quite as sharp as they should be. This is possibly caused by the Gaussian Blur that was added to the image and then removed across the faces. The GB is what created that softer background look...a nice addition but can create a too soft look if not carefully applied. 

So...you get an idea of the thought process I go through when I evaluate an image. All of the Positives tend to be strong elements but always can be improved, while all of the negatives are easily corrected. It is a matter of applying what you learn from an exercise like this to your shooting in the field next time. It is something you must make a conscious effort to do at first and eventually you will begin to instinctively see these things before they happen. This technique can be applied to any kind of photograph, so give it a try sometime.