Share Two and Critique #3

For my first one, I would also like to bring up the shadows to draw some more attention to the shore line of the creek. I also like the water moving through the shot.

For my second one, I have a landscape from just before the Beartooth Pass. I didn't quite line up the shot in line with the rule of thirds, but I could crop it in to bring the focus more on the mountain, and lighten the shadows a little.

Bird Photography

In the spirit of my midterm project, and the amount of theoretical bird photography I would be doing, I found an article with useful tips and equipment listings for this specific type of wildlife photography. This person recommends a telephoto lens of at least 500mm. The author also emphasizes the importance of shutter speed for this type of photography. There is also a section dedicated to locating the birds and how to approach with tips this author has found useful, like: don't wear bright clothes, approach slowly and quietly, in a zigzagging pattern, try not to move when the bird is looking, don't stare, shoot from a distance while approaching so that the shutter doesn't scare the bird.

For all of the useful things in this article, I didn't find the camera settings portion particularly useful because the settings were all listed for Nikons, and I currently have a Canon. This author clearly has a lot of experience, but it seems to boil down to using your best judgement when approaching wildlife, have a fast shutter speed and a telephoto lens, and use a blind whenever possible.

This is the article

Share Two and Critique #2

These pictures are from Red Lodge, around the Beartooth pass. I think they could use some editing, but I'm pretty happy with the raw files too.

I liked this overlap of the mountains, but I had to move the mountains to the lower portion of the shot because there was a road in the way. The light also wasn't ideal, so I need to bring up some of the highlights and see if I can get some more detail.

This is a play on the light reflecting through the leaves and really bringing the yellows even brighter than they actually are. 

I like this shot because of the clarity of the ripples of the water, and the distortion of the rocks of the stream. Looking at this shot after taking it, I don't know how I feel about the plant overhanging into the middle of the shot, it makes it look more natural, but it wasn't what I wanted a lot of the focus to be on.

Backlighting Wildlife Photos

This article was written by Melissa Groo, and she makes a really interesting case for its uses when capturing animals. One of the main considerations that she lists is that it opens a new door for easier shots when the wildlife are easily scared or in a bad position for pictures. These pictures also need special consideration because there may be lens flare, or distractions in the form of dust or bugs that may catch the light in addition to the subject.

Backlighting a subject could draw some intense attention to the outline and other features of the subject. I just wonder if the details of the subject are also washed out in the picture because the eyes are naturally drawn to the outline of the subject. Maybe if its done well, the other rules of dominance can be used to keep the audience's attention on the subject, and allow the viewer more time to look at all the smaller details of the animal that make it unique.

This technique may be easier for me to try because there isn't always good lighting in the conditions I want to capture, which are usually low light, with light only supplied through windows. However, if I were to try this technique on some of the horses, I would have to be really careful about stray hairs and other things that would draw attention away from the subject.

This is the article