Tag: Yosemite

Dare To Be Different

Photography is about seeing, identifying, and capturing a subject out of the chaos of ordinary visual clutter… Here in Yosemite I was trying to be different, and not just take the iconic shot. Not place my tripod in the same spot as thousands of others, and avoid creating a commonplace Yosemite image seen many times before.

I am not the first to try do this for sure, but I think that the dark ice flows of the river on the top of the image, lead into the falls, giving a painterly feeling that the river flows into the falls, when actually the water from the falls flow into the river.

It’s this black shaded river with the chunky ice flows, that lead down into the falls reflected in the river that give this image it’s unique ironic symmetry. The black color is caused by the pine trees along the river; their shadows darkening that specific top image portion of the river. Even the bottom ice flow contributes to the overall success by framing the bottom portion, keeping the viewer’s eye in the photograph.

The pine trees shadowing the river, the ice flows in the perfect places, and the reflected falls in a clear space within the river, all at this one moment in my mind’s eye come together to produce a image with power and beauty.

“Strive to make a photo more like a painting, and a painting more like a photograph!”

Dare to be different!

Separate your image making from the crowds of other photographers, think about a unique viewpoint, a method that’s different, a different lens choice, an atypical composition, and/or an unusual technique–a wide angle lens for wildlife and/or a telephoto lens for landscape, as examples.

Also, think about what you are trying to communicate with your photography. What are you saying with each image you make? How do the various elements within your image contribute and emphasize your visual message? Does your image tell a story? Does it speak a visual language that moves the viewer’s heart?

Following these ideas and thoughts will improve your photography, stretch your photographic eye, and most importantly stimulated your right brain to new visual heights.

“An Abstract that captures the essence of Yosemite”, commented a fellow camera club member upon seeing this image that dared to be different.

Here is another Yosemite image where I dare to be different: Yosemite’s snow covered cliffs through the black oak limbs, contrasting the solid white cold granite walls, with the dark living tree trunks and branches.

Creating A Grand Scenic Image

Landscape Photography
(Creating a Grand Scenic)

Landscape photography is harder than you think. To create beautiful, sweeping, stunning grand scenic imagery is one of the most difficult types of photography. Most beginners include too much into the picture, leaving an image without focus and without a main subject—a subject that stands out and grips and tugs at your heart and emotions. Another common complaint for beginners is the term “record shot”. It used to describe an image without power and a strong subject where a photographer is literally is just recording the scene in front of his or her camera.

In addition, a “record shot” does not use or encompass some common photographic techniques: like leading lines, the use of a “S” curve, using shadows to add drama, contrasting colors with the use of late or early morning light, dramatic large foreground elements that stand out and contrast with the background, the rule of thirds to position the subject in a more pleasing compositional position, and finally to create a three dimensional image from a two dimensional medium. These aren’t all the ways to make a “record shot” into an image that you would proudly want to frame big and place prominently on your living room wall, but these are some basic techniques you can use to improve your landscape photography.

Diagonal lines add tension and are less static than horizontal or vertical lines, think of a diagonal line as of a fence leading you to the main subject, making the image more three dimensional. Ask where your eye goes! It should go to your main subject…

Another approach is to use a wide angle lens up close to make a foreground element more prominent. This works exceptionally well with wide angle lenses, creating within an image a foreground, middle ground, and background that give depth to the scene.

Graduated neutral density filters are essential tool for shrinking the range of light down to what your digital camera sensor can handle without clipping the highlights. Nowadays you can create graduated neutral density affects in the post processing as well as make many other targeted adjustments to an image. However, it is preferable to get the exposure correct in the first place.

Landscape photography is a big subject and takes lots of time, so study and practice creating images approaching those of the best landscape photographers of today and of years past. Study the master landscape photographers, their techniques, their style, and their compositions, Photography is an art, and has many principles and visual techniques that’s applied in painting and other forms of art. Study color too, the color wheel, and its relationships, complimentary color as well as pastel colors, good use of color can make or break a grand scenic image.

Location and timing, that perfect landscape light, is a crucial ingredient to a great landscape photograph-warm low light from the magic photographer’s hours, early or late in the day. Photography is all about light! Many successful and famous landscape photographers will find a location, but continue to come back to it many times for the right light, pre-visualizing the possibilities from a midday scout trip.

Bad weather can establish mood and drama, clearing or incoming storms offer fleeting but incredible moments to capture special scenic images, so spend more time photographing in spring, fall, and winter, and less time during the all blue skies and harsh light time of summer.

Take these ideas and incorporated them into your landscape photography, get out into nature with your wide angle lens and into the beautiful natural world and make some exciting grand scenic images. Make it more fun too, by taking a friend or friends with you…and smell the wildflowers, feel the earth and let it touch your soul and heart—inspiring your photography!

Yosemite In Winter

Yosemite in Winter
(Iconic or Non-Iconic Image?)

 How do you create photographs in Yosemite without copying someone else’ photographic style?  How do you avoid the iconic Yosemite image? The view points and vistas are all around you—Tunnel view, Valley view, Sentinel Bridge, Ahwahnee Meadow, and many more special roadside turnouts and locations. Every serious photographer who has visited Yosemite has placed their tripod at these locations.  How do you not copy legendary photographers like Ansel Adams, and many other well know photographers who have made many famous iconic images of Yosemite Valley’s special landmarks.  

In mid February the valley is flooded with photographers all trying to capture that sometimes elusive image of Horsetail Falls. They come from all over the country, and many make it a ritual to come back year after year at this time.  The El Capitan picnic area is jammed packed with photographers’ hours before the magical sunset time.  All these photographers will create a very similar image—images with just a slightly different crop, created using a different zoom settings or with a somewhat different lens choice.

In reality actually, if you’re in Yosemite Valley, as a photographer, you just have to take iconic pictures. The beauty and the awesome grandeur of the place calls to the landscape photographer inside of you–demands that you capture the great earth gesture of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the geological forces that created Yosemite Valley. Why go there and not try your hand at taking iconic images.  

What I am saying though is also to try to create an image that’s your own, non-iconic, that represents your style and vision.  Experiment, try to step out of your comfort zone, if you’re always using a wide angle lens then try a mid zoom for a different landscape composition. Make your photographic weakness, your new strength, by learning some photo technique beforehand, like star trails or painting at night. Or try a composition that does show the valley’s recognizable landmarks; see if you can create a memorable image without them.

Take all your photographic knowledge about light and composition and blend that with solid technique practiced beforehand, freeing your spirit and moving into a special Zen like relationship with your subject. This shouldn’t be hard in Yosemite!

I believe all great photographic images are created when you are in this Taoist state, in complete harmony with the world and your connection and relationship to it.  In this state your vision is expanded: you see more, feel more, and are more alive than before.  Enabling you in the moment to create great images!

If your successful, then, your non-iconic image of Yosemite will become the next iconic image…and along the way, you’ll develop a style and vision that’s recognizable and your own.

“When I am experimenting with a new idea, I’ll determine technical aspects well beforehand, so when I am shooting, I don’t need to think. This let’s me be as receptive to the moment as possible.” – Chris McDonough

 

 

 
“I am not interested in shooting new things—I am interested to see things new.” – Ernest Haas
 

 

 

 

 

 

“To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting beauty. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.”— Henri Cartier-Bresson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quotes from The Tao of Photograph, Seeing Beyond Seeing, Philippe L. Gross and S.I. Shapiro: by Chris McDonough, pg. 110, Ernest Haas, pg. 126, Henri Cartier-Bresson, pg. 106.

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