Three Misconceptions About Photography

Everyone approaches photography based on their own ideas and perceptions. This is a good thing for it allows each of us an opportunity to create our own photographic visions. I always encourage novice and experienced photographers alike to try new things and avoid doing the same ole thing the same ole way all the time.

Over the years while talking with other photographers either via Facebook, or during a workshop, or simply having questions tossed my way there are a few misconceptions about photography that continue to come up. These misconceptions can in fact hinder your ability to progress your photographic skill sets. Let's take a look at them.


Number 1: You should always try to capture a scene exactly the way you see it.  This first misconception is probably the most common one and is also probably the one that is most difficult to let go of. Sometimes capturing a photograph of something exactly the way you see it visually is just fine, maybe even in most cases that is what you might want to do. However, clinging to this concept all the time can hinder your ability to capture emotion, or feeling, or mood. You see, your eyes see light differently than the camera does. Our eyes and brain are marvelous sensors that work together to interpret visible light in such a way as to render it as a normal view. The camera on the other hand looks at light reflecting off of an object and wants to interpret it as a middle tone value. Meter off a white wall or field of snow and the camera will turn it gray. Meter off a black wall or a very dark object and the camera will also turn it gray. This applies to all colors, not just black or white, and every color has a middle tone value. Knowing this gives you a tremendous advantage in that you can use it to create and capture mood. You can also use your camera's exposure compensation options, that +/- button, to brighten or darken the exposure often turning what might appear to be an ordinary looking situation into something with a great deal more appeal and energy.

As Seen Visually

+0.0 Compensation - Middle Tone Values

-1.0 Compensation - 1 stop darker than middle tone

The three images above are good examples. They were taken a few seconds apart in the same light. The first one represents the scene pretty close to what the scene looked like if you were standing there looking at it. Although the sun had already set, the sky was very bright with a gradual darkening toward the horizon. The second photograph represents an image allowing the camera to do what it wants to do...it shifted the light toward a middle tone value which created a lot more mood using the same light. The third image was taken using a - 1.0 exposure compensation reducing the exposure by one full stop below the middle tone value. A simple adjustment like this created a great deal of energy and mood. Same light conditions, three different results.

Had I relied simply on what I saw visually, I would never had taken the photographs. But, understanding how the camera sees light, and looking beyond the obvious, I was able to create an image that moved well past the natural lighting conditions.

Number 2: Your camera will always give you the correct exposure. This is another tough one for novice photographers to let go of and to grasp. Your camera's metering system regardless of which mode it is in will simply give you an average. Most digital cameras can use several types of metering modes. Matrix, Center Weighted, and Spot metering are the most common. Matrix will use a number of points scattered across the frame to determine the exposure setting. Center Weighted does the same thing except it places a higher value on the center portion of the frame. Spot metering allows you to select a single point as your metering point. All three have their advantages and disadvantages.

The thing to remember is that the exposure setting your camera selects is rendered as an average, and is related to the first misconception. This may or may not be an acceptable exposure for a given lighting condition. A light object sitting in front of a dark background will often not be exposed properly. The dark background will confuse the meter causing the exposure selection to be too light or bright. That is why if you use matrix metering while photographing the moon, the moon will often be way overexposed because the dark background will skew the exposure. Spot metering on the moon itself works much better for a situation like that one. A bright background does the same kind of thing only in reverse and will often cause a dark subject to be under exposed.

Think of your metering system as a way of getting a suggested or starting exposure. Then, based on the lighting situation, you can apply exposure compensation settings up or down to adjust the exposure to render the image like you want it. Simply setting your camera on a Program mode and letting it make all of the decisions will in most cases give you average looking photographs.

Number 3: It is cheating to apply post processing to your images. I still run across photographers who consider themselves purists and will only use photographs straight out of the camera as is. Nothing wrong with that philosophy per se, however very few digital images will come out of the camera not requiring some kind of post processing tweak. Sometimes you get lucky, but most digital images can benefit from some kind of minor tweaks. It is not cheating. Ansel Adams, possibly the best known American photographer, tweaked all of his photographs in the darkroom using dodging and burning techniques. His most famous images were not printed straight from the negative. In fact, most of his negatives if used as a straight print created rather ordinary looking prints. His compositions were wonderful. His exposures were dead on. His post processing, although done using chemicals and mechanical manipulation, turned his images into masterpieces.

He would have embraced digital photography and especially PhotoShop or any of the other image processing software now available. Post processing is a tremendous tool and can take a marginal image and turn it into a great image. Sometimes an image looks rather ordinary in color, but converting it to black and white and using a little creative cropping, that same image will be transformed into a wall hanger. I will often take an image with the intent of converting it to black and white.

Original

Cropped Black and White

Take these two images. The first one appears rather ordinary with a lot of empty space along the bottom. By cropping out that empty space and converting it to black and white, this ordinary image becomes much more powerful and interesting.

When I capture a photograph, I always attempt to get the exposure and composition as close as I can to perfection in camera. Even so, the majority of my images will undergo at least some simple tweaks like brightness, contrast, sharpening, and sometimes color correction with a small amount of saturation boost both up and down. I always encourage novice photographers to learn some basic post processing skills. You can find a lot of videos online that cover just about anything you need to know.

There are other misconceptions about photography, but these three tend to be the ones I see and hear about all the time. It is okay to experiment, to try new things, to push your photography to a new level, and to question the status quo. The worst thing you can do is to allow yourself to stagnate and become trapped by a lack of understanding and misinformation. Take charge of your photography. Let go of preconceived notions that you must do things a certain way. Only by doing so will you allow yourself to expand your photographic world.

Creating Time Lapse Videos - Kentucky Skies

We've all been fascinated by those amazing time lapse videos made by professional storm chasers and photographers alike. I have from time to time created a few rather ordinary time lapse videos using software that was not particularly suited for it. Using that other software was a time consuming process characterized by trial and error, mostly error, in coming up with a workable video. Even so it was fun to do and I learned a great deal about how to make videos of that nature.

Today, I now have some software, ProShow Producer, that makes it much easier to create interesting an exciting time lapse videos rather quickly. Lets take a look at the process.

First of all, to create a time lapse video you need to capture a series of images at a set interval spaced over a specified amount of time. The best way to do this is to use what is called an Intervalometer. An Intervalometer is a device you connect to your camera that allows you take a series of images without having to manually release the shutter each time.

There are a variety of them available designed to fit all makes of cameras and they cost anywhere from under $30.00 to well over $150.00. I purchased two of them from Aputure a few years ago, each costing under $30.00, one for my Sony A65 camera and one for my Nikon D3200. They are both identical except for the connector, and they both work very well.

They all fundamentally work the same way where you set a time delay between shots set to run for a specified number of shots at a specific interval. There are two ways to use them to make the exposure. One is to set your camera on Manual and your shutter speed to the Bulb setting. You then use the Intervalometer to control the exposure and the time interval between each capture. This setup works well for night time photography where long exposures are required. The other way is to allow your camera to set the exposure like you would for an normal photograph, but you simply set the interval between each capture. This works well for capturing time lapse of the sky.

To capture a time lapse sequence you will want to setup your intervalometer interval to capture an image at least every 5 seconds. This can vary depending on just how quickly you want the video to move, but something around 5 to 7 seconds between captures should work well.

You also want to capture at least 100 images, 200 or even 300 would work better and will give you a time lapse video that runs for an extended time. 100 images will give you a few seconds of time lapse.

Setup your camera to cover a greater extent of the sky with just a small line of the ground to act as an anchor. Stormy skies with lots of texture work very well, but summer blue sky and fluffy white clouds also work well. Actually you can time lapse just about anything that has movement, it is just a matter of getting the correct setup and being there.

After you capture the 200 or so images, you will want to download them to your computer. Once they are downloaded, you can do a mass processing to tweak the images. In Photoshop or Elements there is an option called Process Multiple Files. This allows you to make some basic edits that apply to all of the images, and then load those images to a separate file. This edited file is the one you will want to use.

ProShow Producer makes it very easy to create a time lapse. The easiest way to do this is first load the first image by itself into the timeline. Once it is loaded into the timeline you will want to adjust the transition timer to 0.0 and the Slide timer to 0.07 of a second.

I tried different timer settings and 0.07 seems to work the best. Next, you can select all the other 199 images and paste them into the next slide position. ProShow will automatically insert them into the correct location and it will also pickup the timer settings from the first slide. Now you have 200 images all linked together using the same settings.

From here it is simply a matter of creating the actual program. You can if you want to, add a beginning introduction slide and an ending exit slide, but it is not necessary. I rendered the program as an MP4 format slide show at 720 resolution at 30 FPS. It took a few minutes for it to complete. This completed video file can then be used or inserted into another full production program when you are ready for it. The attached time lapsed video is the results...rather fun and easy to create.

Adventure Photography Series - The Moving Waters of Shanty Hollow

Shanty Hollow Lake is one of my favorite places. Filled with an abundance of outdoor adventure opportunities, it is a great place to spend a few hours or a full day. As part of the Adventure Photography series, I recently spent a rare spring-like February day hiking the trails and photographing the streams and waterfalls that can be discovered here. Please enjoy this second in the Shanty Hollow adventure series; Photographing the Moving Waters of Shanty Hollow.

Adventure Photography Video Series - Chasing Sandhill Cranes

Spent the better part of a cold blustery full day and then a little more photographing Sandhill Cranes in the Lucas area on Barren River Lake. Sandhills are amazing birds that migrate through Kentucky where about 3000 to 4000 spend the winter roosting on the mud flats and feeding in the corn stubble and soybean fields.

Producing this video was a challenging project. Although the Sandhills are exciting to observe, they tend to shy away from people making it difficult to get in close enough to capture interesting behavioral activity. Fortunately, they will a times land near enough to side road where you can use your vehicle as a blind and get some shots.

Please enjoy the video and provide some feedback so I can improve the production process.

The Power of Tonal Values

Ever heard of the Zone System? If not it is an exposure method championed by Ansel Adams where you can assign different tonal values to the scene you are photographing. Those values run from completely black to completely white with varying degrees of gray spaced between. In the middle is the neutral middle toned gray value.

In this post we're not going to become too deeply involved about how to use the Zone System, but we are going to look at how and why understanding the Power of Tonal Values is important.

First of all, this graduated scale applies to all colors and every color when applied through its full spectrum will have a middle tone value. To keep things simple we're going to look at only the gray scale, but keep in mind the principles apply to all colors.

What your camera's metering wants to do is give you an average of the light it detects. It doesn't matter if you use a full matrix metering or single spot metering. The results are going to be an average of all the tones and brightness values it see's. Matrix metering does a pretty good job of getting the overall exposure correct, but it is still just an average. So if you point your camera at a black wall the camera will want to make that black wall appear a middle toned gray. Point it toward a white wall, and again it will shift the exposure so it appears to become gray. That is why when we take pictures of snow, where the snow is dominant, it can appear to be gray.

I use matrix metering most of the time simply because it does a pretty good job of averaging out the exposure, however I will use spot metering under certain situations. Spot metering allows for metering a single small area and using that reading as the basis for setting your exposure. A good example of this is to meter a models face when there is a great deal of back light. (Peoples faces do have different tonal values of course depending on their complexion due to their race or lifestyle.) A bright back light can confuse matrix metering into thinking it needs to shift the exposure down to turn it into that middle toned gray. This will cause the models face to become much darker than it actually is. By metering on her face, locking the exposure in based on that middle tone, the camera will ignore the back light and expose for her complexion.

Neutral tones also contribute to landscapes. A good landscape image especially a black and white image, will possess a range of tonal values from almost pure white to almost full black. When the scene contains a variety of tonal values, matrix metering works pretty well to capture the full range of values. Sometimes in post processing you can enhance a certain value such as bright or dark areas to add a higher degree of  tonal complexity to your image. Doing so gives the image a great deal more depth.

Notice the image above. In this picture you will find tonal ranges that run the full spectrum from almost white to black with just about every tone of gray between. A slight tweak in Photoshop helped to enhance the bright areas, and bring life to the various middle values. When viewed as a larger image you can easily see how it has a great deal of depth to it. This is how you use the power of tonal values to its fullest. Knowing how your camera will react to the available light, will give you a greater ability to create images with depth.

When your subject has a dominant tonal value like a snow scene, you must always expose for the brightest area. If you simply allow you camera's metering to do what it wants, it will always give you a middle toned value, but you can compensate for that by using the Exposure Compensation button on your camera. That is the +/- button most often located on the top or on the back of your camera This allows you to tell your camera to add light or remove light from the exposure it wants to use. Take snow for instance. If your scene is dominated by the snow, your camera will want to make it look grayer than we want. To correct for this, simply move the +/- setting into the + side. The +/- settings are broken down usually into 1/3rd stop values like 0.3 stop, 0.7 stop, 1.0 full stop all the way to as much as 3.0 stops brighter or darker. How much to move it depends on the situation and requires a bit of experimentation. Sometimes + 0.3 is all you need, sometimes +1.3 is required. What you have to do is to avoid over exposing the snow...a little gray is okay because snow does have texture and we do not want to blow it out.

The photo above demonstrates this idea pretty well. There is a tinge of gray in the snowy areas because there is texture filled with shadows and exposed material across the snow, but the snow itself appears white. Again this image contains a full range of tonal values.

There are situations where an object or scene contains a splash of white while the rest is mostly middle toned values or darker. If  you simply expose for the darker areas, that white splash can often be blown out. In that case, you can use the exposure compensation in the opposite direction and drop it into the minus side, something like -0.3. This will slightly darken the middle values, but will keep the white splash from being blown out.

This color image of Sandhill Cranes is a good example of using the minus compensation value. Of course this was all preset before the birds took flight. The background was a bit darker than middle value, so I wanted it to look that way, but the birds were a middle toned gray, yet they have some white splash across their wings and under their chin. By presetting the exposure with a minus compensation, I was able to retain a full range of tonal values. Much of this comes with experience and experimentation...sometimes a good guess helps as well.

When there is a strong mix of light and dark values in a scene, there are times when employing a slight reduction in light will work to your advantage. The next image contains a wide mix of very bright and rather dark areas. If we are not careful, the darker areas will fool your metering into thinking it needs to brighten the exposure more than it should. This can often result in blown out light areas. So by employing a slight minus compensation value something like -0.3, you can still retain detail in the dark and light tones without blowing out the white areas. Also, remember shadows, either cast or deflected, are good on snow. They add detail and form to what can often look rather flat. A little gray is okay because it helps to define texture in snow. All you need is an illusion of white...almost white...with a tonal value slightly grayer than pure white to make snow look great.

There is no real cut and dried method to using tonal values in your photography, it is important however to understand the principle and then applying it to your photography. Sometimes we guess right and sometimes we don't, but to simply allow your camera to do what it wants to do all the time will result in average photographs. To capture the world in such a way as to bring depth and strength to the composition, employ the power of tonal values to what you are doing.

Another Wonderful Kentucky Sky

About a year ago I stumbled onto a location where a few isolated trees offered a nice opportunity for an interesting photo shoot. The trees were not unique and appeared much like any of the other ordinary trees you can find in Kentucky. The unique thing about these trees was they grew isolated in a small clump along a high spot that allowed them to be silhouetted against the sky. As luck would have it, they were also located at a bend and split in the road allowing for easy access. A small cemetery was also located inside the triangle space where the trees were growing adding to the country flavor of the location.

Even though sunset photos can more often than not, offer more of a cliche than a unique composition, I still enjoy photographing them. Usually broken clouds are required to produce that amazing glow in the sky we all enjoy. But, sometimes a cloudless sky can also create a tremendous amount of color and glow at sundown. The trick is to place something in front of the setting sun to break up the scene and allow the drama of color to unfold. It is also important to understand how your camera will react to this kind of light.

Let's take a look at a recent shoot and see how these images were created. The first thing to remember is what your camera's exposure meter wants to do. If everything is set to neutral settings and you simply allow your camera to set the exposure it wants using a priority or programmed mode, it will set an exposure that will bring the scene to a middle tone value. If what you are looking at is indeed a middle value then you can trust your cameras metering. If however it is very bright, the camera will darken it some to achieve that middle value exposure. If it is dark, then it will brighten it some to achieve the same results. Boosting or retarding the exposure by employing the +/- exposure compensation value button will tell your camera to add light or remove light from the exposure value it want's to set, or, you can set everything manually and compensate up or down either your aperture or shutter speed. We're going to assume you have at least a fundamental understanding of this principle.

The idea behind this particular shoot was to capture the glow in the sky behind the trees without blowing out the sky or making the sky appear too dark. Your camera has an uncanny ability to accumulate light and transform it into a range of colors you simply cannot see visually. In this case, I positioned myself where the sun would fall behind the clump of trees and I waited...taking a few shots here and there to test the results of the exposure. When the sun finally set below the horizon, all that was left in the sky was that glow. I wanted the shot to enhance this glow, to give the sky that radiant after sundown appearance. For the composition I placed the trees high in the sky and slightly offset with just enough of the ground along the bottom to comfortably anchor the scene.

Your camera will interpret this after sundown glow as a middle tone value and create a wonderfully graduated color effect that radiates away from the brightest center portion. What you must avoid is allowing the scene to become too dark or too bright where all the detail in the sky is lost in either blown out values or so dark they cannot be seen. A silhouette against this sky glow is what I was shooting for. A simple application of the +/- compensation to brighten or darken it will bring your exposure into a comfortable range. It takes a little experimentation to achieve the desired results. Using the tress to add interest and form enhances the compositions value by creating a simple yet pleasing layout. What might have been an ordinary, cloudless setting sun most people would simply ignore, became a wonderfully magical moment where the sky, the trees, and the light combined to generate a fun photograph.

I also managed to take some video footage for this years Adventure Photography Video series which was included in the previous post. All in all, it was a fun outing and I was able to once again take advantage of another wonderful Kentucky sky.

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'.

                                          *****

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.