Digital Photography

Hi. This blog is officially dead. Thanks for following the updates. You can find more information about digital photography through my weekly podcast, Pixelicious. You can find other information about digital photography at Access Digital Photography, or my personal blog: Doug Sahlin’s blog. I’m involved in other projects as well. To find out more, you can follow me on Twitter: Doug Sahlin’s Twitter account.

Thanks again for following my photography blog posts. I hope you learned a lot from them.

Machinery that’s stood that test of time and has been exposed to the relentless forces of Mother Nature, ages gracefully. The rusted metal develops a wonderful patina and texture.The image that follows is a piece of old farm machinery.  When I photograph an object like this, I believe less is more. If I had moved back to frame the entire piece of machinery, the texture of the rust would be lost.

Another thing to keep in mind when photographing old machinery is your choice of lens and exposure settings. To isolate the gear and chain from the rest of the machine, I photographed the image with an 85 mm lens at f/1.8. The large aperture limited the depth of field to the parts of the machine I wanted to which I wanted to attract the viewer’s attention.

Recently I was photographing wildlife in Myakka River State park. The sun was sinking low and I noticed a heron looking for dinner. I zoomed in tight and waited patiently until the heron found a tasty tidbit.

Corel Painter has been around for a long time. I’ve been using it since version 4. But I never could come to grips with the application and create images that looked like paintings. That all changed with Corel Painter 11. In Painter 11 you open the Underpainting palette and choose a style. You can also add an edge effect. The next step is to make a Quick Clone of the image. In the Auto Painting palette, enable Smart Stroke Painting, choose a Smart Brush from the Brushes palette and click the Play button. Corel Painter X adjusts the strokes of the Smart Brush to match the angles and curves of the shapes in the image you’re cloning. Here is an example of an image that was modified using Corel Painter’s Auto Painting feature.

Does your flash unit use AA or AAA batteries? If so, consider purchasing rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries are a downright bargain when you consider how many times you can recharge them. I use Energizer e2 rechargeable 2500 mAh batteries for my flash unit. I keep an extra set charged up for other devices such as my portable voice recorder, Flip video camera and other devices.

If you live near a city with lakes, you may be near a hotspot for bird photography. Many cities protect birds within city limits and create sanctuaries where the birds can breed and raise their young. If the lake is in the middle of a crowded city, it can be difficult to get a good picture without telltale signs of civilization in the background. To get good photographs of birds in a city park, try these techniques:

• Go early in the morning, or late in the afternoon. You’ll have better light to work with at these times of day. The harsh mid-day sunlight is not a good solution for any type of subject, including birds.
• Use a telephoto lens with a large aperture (low f/stop number). Using a telephoto lens enables you to photograph the birds from a distance. Even protected birds in a city park will be spooked by the sight of a human at close range. The large aperture helps to blur out the background, thereby minimizing buildings and other signs of civilization.
• Get down to the bird’s level. You’ll get a more natural looking photo if you drop down to the bird’s level. This often means kneeling in wet grass. Make sure you wear an old pair of jeans when you photograph birds. It’s also a good idea to look before you kneel so you don’t land in a pile of bird poop.
• Photograph on a cloudy day or a foggy morning. A cloudy day gives you wonderfully diffuse light without harsh shadows. If the day is completely overcast, you have no shadows. If you photograph birds in heavy fog, the resulting images won’t show any signs of civilization.
• Take one shot and move closer. Get as close as you think you can without spooking the bird and then take a picture. With one picture in the bank, move closer and take another. If you approach the bird cautiously, you won’t spook him and may end up getting an extreme close-up.

Bird photography is a lot of fun. When you find a great place to photograph birds, visit the place often and learn the habits of the birds. You can also learn a lot by finding information about the birds that inhabit your local park online. Many city parks also have informative signs or displays with pictures of the birds you’ll see in the area with information about the fine feathered friends as well.

In the first part of this series, I posted some tips for photographing wildlife and being safe. Here are some other things to consider when photographing wildlife:

• Never feed the animals: You may be tempted to feed an animal to coax it within range. Not only does this put you in potential danger, it also causes the animal to lose its fear of humans.
• Look for changes: When you’re photographing animals in the wild, they blend in with the scenery and can be hard to spot. Blending with the background helps the animal hide from from potential predators. Look for changes in color and slight movements as you hike on trail or drive down a park road.
• Travel out and back: Arrive at the park early and drive the length of the park looking for potential hot spots for wildlife photography. If you follow my sage advice and travel with a buddy, he can drive on the way out, and you can drive on the way back. This gives you both an equal opportunity to capture some great photos.
• Use your vehicle as a blind: If you’re traveling in a white van or SUV, the vehicle can double as a blind. When you see something interesting, park the vehicle and exit from the side opposite the animal you want to photograph. You can photograph from the front of the vehicle and your buddy can photograph from the back of the vehicle. I recently used this technique in a state park and was rewarded with a wonderful photo of a deer . The keeper was the second photo I took. The deer heard the click of the shutter when I took my first shot and raised her ears. I quickly took the second shot seconds before she bolted. You can also park the vehicle by the side of the road in an area where you’ve seen wildlife before. Stand on the side of the vehicle that’s opposite the area where you expect the animals to appear. Wait patiently and look through the vehicle windows. When you see something interesting, quietly walk to the front or back of the vehicle and take the picture.
•  Know your subject: Animals are somewhat predictable. After you photograph an animal species for a while, you get to learn its habits. An animal generally moves its head in the direction it’s about to travel. Another benefit to knowing your subject is being able to figure when they’re stray from cover to feed.

Wildlife photography is a lot of fun. The trick is to practice until you’re perfect. Shoot lots of pictures and get to know the wildlife sanctuaries, state parks, and animal preserves near your home. Visit them over and over until you know the lay of the land and its inhabitants like you know your own neighborhood. Then you’re well on your way to creating wonderful wildlife portraits.

Placement of the horizon line is another important consideration when photographing the sunset, or for that matter, any landscape. Many photographers put the horizon line smack dab in the middle of the picture. This gives a confusing message to the viewer, he doesn’t know where to direct his focus. If you remember one of the rules of composition called the Rule Of Thirds, you divide your image into three sections vertically and horizontally. Place the horizon line in the upper third, or lower third of the image. If the sky is the most important element in your sunset shot, place the horizon line in the lower third of the image, which draws the viewer’s attention to the sky. If the reflection of the clouds in the water is the most important part of your image, place the horizon line in the upper third of the image.

It’s been said that Ansel Adams could predict whether or not there’d be a great sunset in Yosemite by looking at the sky half-an-hour before sunset. Ansel knew the weather patterns of Yosemite like the back of his hand and could predict what would happen. Study the weather patterns where you live. Observe the cloud movement in the late afternoon and soon you’ll be able to predict whether or not you’ll have a photogenic sunset.

A great sunset photo always grabs the viewer’s attention and draws him into the picture for a closer look. Use the information in this tutorial when you’re photographing the sunset where you live. Photograph the sunset often and you’ll end up with a portfolio full of great sunset shots.

There are a couple of different ways you can photograph a sunset. If I’m going for the grand view, I use a wide angle lens such as my 17-35mm Tamron, and choose the smallest possible aperture for a large depth of field. Sometimes I go the other route and choose a telephoto focal length and a fairly large aperture for a limited depth of field. Recently I photographed a sunset at Caspersen Beach, which is a few minutes from my home. I used my 24-105mm lens and zoomed to 105mm, with an aperture of f/7.1. I focused on some nearby sea oats. The sea oats were in silhouette and in sharp focus, the clouds were a little soft, and the sun was a soft out-of-focus orange orb as shown in the following photo. But due to the telephoto lens, the sun is relatively large in the resulting photo, which makes it clear the photo was taken as the sun was setting.

Burrowing Owls are protected by Florida State law. These feisty little critters live in burrows, but will come out to investigate. I photographed this inquisitive owl near a public library in Cape Coral, Florida. Burrowing Owls were one of the characters in Carl Hiaasen’s book entitled “Hoot”, which was also made into a movie with Jimmy Buffett.

Exposure information:

• Lens: Tamron 200-500mm
• Focal length: 500mm
• Shutter speed: 1/1000 second
• Aperture: f/7.1
• ISO: 320