Not so Wildlife

Lately, I've been thinking of changing the name of this Blog to something like: Misadventures in Modern Photography !

Wildlife Photography ? The only wildlife I'll probably shoot for the next few weeks will probably be Grandkids !

At any rate, this vertical shot was pre-planned for a Magazine. I'm practicing; this shot won't be submitted. The actual shot I'll submit will be on the left side of the page with the text on the right. I know, because the writer emailed me a copy and it had a sketch in the original version and I promised to try and duplicate it as best I could with a photo. So, why practice? Because that's the way I like to do stuff, ever since reading that a National Geographic Photographer on assignment may shoot 20,000 pictures, just to get 10 or 12 of them published in an article. Hell, I bet I get my picture published in under 100 shots ! Then, maybe National Geographic might hire me if the cost of Gigabytes keeps going up !

The second photo I shot horizontal, at a different location and using another model. These are my Grandkids and when I take them along with 3 dogs, there's no point in bringing a tripod, extra camera or lenses. The grand plan is to wear them and the dogs out while checking the lighting and shadows at different locations along the beach. Hopefully, the 5 mile round-trip walk will get me a few hours of quiet in the afternoon, while they all nap ! But, as it turns out, I'm usually the one who winds up napping, right after lunch and the kids are bouncing off the walls with a sugar-high from the ice cream I cooked them for breakfast !

The last shot I took just to show the writer what kind of scenery is available and if it'll work, when the lighting is just the way I like it, a model will appear in the picture. Only it won't be done without my tripod. No dogs, no Grandkids, no hurry; the only one on a sugar-high will be me ! More later

Some Pictures Have to be Vertical

Even though myself and my cameras hate to shoot vertical shots, sometimes it's the only way to go. Unless you feel like shooting horizontal with a wide angle and 20 something MegaPixel camera, then cropping it vertical after the fact. That's what I ought to do; buy a bigger camera !

This shot isn't something a glossy magazine would want to print, but it'd be great for a newspaper. When I shot it the sun was going down. I saw the plane coming and knew I had to get my camera off the tripod, if I wanted to get low enough to the ground to compose the shot the way I did; airplane, people and flagpole all in the frame.

A newspaper isn't as concerned about a picture being noisy, as long as it's newsworthy. Magazines want sharp, clear and detailed images for their glossy pages. In newsprint even a sharp picture looks noisy because of the quality of paper it's printed on. The way to get a picture like this sharp, clear and noiseless would be to have your camera mounted on a tripod, ISO set at the lowest tolerable setting for the shutter speed you desire, and have a cable release attached to the camera to eliminate shake when you snap the picture.

I'm always yelling at my shooting buddy when we go on our weekly shooting excursions about using the tripod. You just can't beat it for getting great shots. Even if you don't have a cable release, you can use the timer on your camera to eliminate the shake you get from pressing the shutter button. Just don't try a timer when the subject is moving !

Now, when I'm out in the woods or on the beach trying to catch critters on the move I rarely carry a tripod. If it's light enough to get a 1/1000 second shutter speed, I can probably hold steady enough for a good clear shot while panning the camera. If the subject isn't moving and the light isn't that great, I try to find something to steady the camera on ( a rock, limb of a tree, anything sturdy ); even sit down and use my knees and elbows to form a human tripod ! You're just not going to get the greatest photos in the world without a tripod, so always use one unless there's absolutely no other way to take the picture.

This morning I went without a tripod. Why ? Three dogs and three Grandsons went on a three mile hike with me. I had to travel light and be able to move quickly. Didn't take any wildlife shots, but got some great shots using expedient methods. Where are they ? Going to a Glossy Magazine ! More later

Flowers n' Ferns

Luckily I packed almost all my camera gear in a bag for this trip. Thinking I'd get some nice close-ups of the Azaleas it was kind of disappointing the way the weather turned out. The wind in the mountains and harsh sunlight kind of wilted all the flowers.

When you go out on a shoot like this, you better be flexible. Mother Nature takes a turn for the worst, you just have to outsmart her. For this shot I got up high in a tower and looked down into a valley where the wind wouldn't have much effect on me or the scene. I set my tripod in a position where a concrete barrier protected it from the breeze. The Giant Ferns in the upper-center of the frame weren't moving, so I knew the valley was also, sheltered from the wind. I stopped-down a few clicks on aperature and used the camera's 2 second timer, held my breath and fired-away.

To this day, I couldn't tell you what an Azalea looks like; even if I tripped-over a flock of them ! What I really wanted was the picture of the Giant Ferns ! About a month ago, I shot this curly wachamakallit, golden plant sprouting at the base of another mountain. I was on a Cherry Blossom assignment that day and it was another windy day on the top of a mountain with me trying to get nice, slow shutter speed shots of (ugh) flowers moving in the wind ! The gal writing the story I was shooting for spotted the plant on our way down the hill and started shooting it with her point and shoot (toy) camera. I noticed the way the sun was hitting it, just right and knew if I took the time to set-up my tripod, it'd be too late; the sun would move. So, I just laid down behind a log and rested my lens on a log and captured it !

One of the things I really like about the web; if you post something (you have no clue as to what it is) on a website and be honest about it, somebody out there will tell you. A few days after I posted it, it was identified ! It's a baby Giant Fern and IT's EDIBLE ! To me, that's what Flower Photography should be all about !

Now, all I have to do is find out the scientific name of these Giant Ferns and I might get a Nature Magazine to buy them. I can Google that easy. Meanwhile, anybody out there who can tell me how you cook them ?

Spring Has Sprung: An Azalea Festival (Photo)

Been over a week since I Blogged. It's Spring, already? Well, I'd better get busy. Next thing you know my taxes will be overdue and the IRS will be hunting for me.

This photo was taken in the northern mountains of Okinawa during the last week of the Azalea Festival. I'm not real crazy about shooting flowers, or buying them, or even smelling them; must be a GUY thing.

What makes girls so crazy over flowers, anyway? If you can't eat them, I have no use for them. But, WAIT; maybe if you shoot a great picture of them, you can make a MILLION DOLLARS selling it!

Luckily I brought all my cameras and lenses on this trip. By the time a friend and I got into the hills and walked halfway up the mountain the sun was glaring down on us and would've made the lighting too harsh for shooting flowers. So, my million dollar was taken with the help of some cloud cover. Look for it soon in some Woman's Magazine.

When I saw this group of tourists and flower fanatics with their cameras crossing the bridge, I just had to get a shot of it. I just waited for a cloud to pass by and block-out the sun and fired away.

Gotta run; 7 Grandkids are going on Spring Break and will probably spend the next 3 weeks at my house eating ice cream for breakfast (that's about all the breakfast I know how to cook). Then there's that IRS thing and, oh yeah, Wildlife Photography and Blogs to do. More later...

Dog Days of Summer

It's been awhile, so I figured I'd better post something. So, I dug-up this shot from the 1st of August, last Summer. This is Cheese, my wife's dog. He's got to be close to a year old by now. Still chews my flipflops when I forget to sprinkle them with Red Pepper, though, the son of a bitch !

It's a new week, already and I still haven't fired either of my cameras since, I don't remember when. The never-ending rain just keeps never-ending and, so far, I haven't gotten bored enough to try any indoor photos. I've pretty much kept busy with these freakin' computers; getting even more tangled-up in the web. So, I cant complain, even though I yell at websites and my laptops " IT IS ME STOOPIT", when they deny me access because Windows or Google or somebody forgot my password !

Anyway, all the administrative crap I'm always complaining about paid-off last week when my Okinawan Bullfight Story hit the web and now the whole world can see it: http://www.apogeephoto.com/ It doesn't pay anything, but it's an honor for a cameraman to get there. Stay tuned for a WILD BOAR HUNT ! COMING SOON; if I survive !