Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2013 i Outdoor Photographer

Photographer: Tim Ernst Location: Twin Falls of Devils Fork, Richland Creek Wilderness Area, Ozark National Forest, Arkansas Equipment: ALPA SWA tech camera, Phase One 45+ back, 55mm lens, B+W polarizer, Ries tripod Situation: Tim Ernst is one of the featured photographers in the "Pro Fall Color Hot Spots" article in this issue of OP. Ernst makes his home amid the scenic beauty of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. Deeply carved ravines like this one are hallmarks of the area. Ernst describes where this photo was taken: "The Richland Creek Wilderness Area is located in northwestern Arkansas in the heart of the Ozark National Forest. When it rains in October, it’s perhaps the most spectacular scenic area in the central United States. There are many waterfalls, cascades and emerald pools, as…

CANON EOS 70D As the newest addition to the Canon EOS line, the EOS 70D is an advanced step up from the entry-level DSLR still camera and an exciting venture into video shooting. The camera features a 20.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, and its innovative dual-pixel CMOS AF system provides precise and smooth autofocus performance, enabling users to shoot video close to the quality of video shot with a camcorder. Quick action stills are captured with a 7 fps burst rate and a 19-point cross-type AF system. Low-light shooting is possible with the 100-12,800 ISO (25,600 extended). A built-in WiFi transmitter allows quick image sharing and wireless asset transfer from the camera to your smartphone or tablet using the free Canon EOS Remote App, along with full control and triggering of…

For many nature and travel shooters, the boom in ecotourism has provided many new, exciting photo opportunities. Places that used to be known as "rain-soaked, muddy, impenetrable, jungle hellholes barely fit for beast or bug, and certainly not for man," are now simply called "the rainforest." And that brilliant bit of rebranding has resulted in us flocking to these inhospitable places in droves, toting our digital image-making and editing gear along with us. If I had a nickel for every photo enthusiast I’ve seen who wanders into the tropical jungle in search of images of the myriad exotic rainforest flora and fauna that live there, only to emerge wet, muddy and pictureless, I’d have one of the bigger houses on Easy Street. And, yet, there are pictures to be had…

The Best Of The Assignments Submissions From outdoorphotographer.com Top selections from the Fall Color Assignment from outdoorphotographer.com AS THIS ISSUE WAS BEING FINALIZED IN AUGUST, I RAN A FALL COLOR ASSIGNMENT AT OUTDOORPHOTOGRAPHER.COM. The submissions were excellent, and we reached out to several photographers to publish their work here in the magazine. These photos are all from previous years, obviously, but I’ve kept the Fall Color Assignment open through the end of October so you’ll be able to send in photos from this year’s display, as well. 1) PHOTOGRAPHER: Mark Geistweite LOCATION: Conway Summit, Eastern Sierra Nevada, California EQUIPMENT: Canon EOS 60D, Tamron AF 18-270mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD I had already scheduled my annual fall trip for the first week of November 2011 in Yosemite Valley. I had…

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVE ALLEN RICHARD BERNABE KURT BUDLIGER TIM ERNST JOHN FIELDER MICHAEL FRYE NATE PARKER IAN PLANT JASON SAVAGE AND GUY TAL To capture the best of autumn color, you have to be in the right place at the right time. We reached out to a group of nature photographers for their insights on where to go to get photos of the vibrant colors of the annual leaf turn. Despite the regularity of the Earth’s course around the sun, it’s actually difficult, if not impossible, to predict a good fall color year. Microclimates, rainfall, temperature variations and other factors that aren’t fully understood all come into play. As you read this article, please share your own favorite places for fall color with the OP community. We’ve created a Fall…

Have you ever looked at your photos and detected an annoying lack of sharpness? You used a pro-quality lens, you anchored the camera on a sturdy tripod, you were shooting at a low ISO and a moderate shutter speed, you might even have used mirror lockup, and you had your lens stopped all the way down. That recipe has been the standard for most photographers looking to re-create the tack-sharp look of an old-school 4x5 photograph. And, yet, as you print your photo, the whole print just lacked the crispness that you expected. Some shooters faced with this have assumed that they have a sub-par lens or that the lens needs back-focus fine-tuning, but the real culprit is likely to be diffraction. Most landscape photographers have been imbued with the…

Under The Sea Lion "During the winter months, Steller sea lions congregate off of Vancouver Island in British Columbia," explains photographer Jon Cornforth about the Steller photo opportunity he found here. "I visited the Hornby Island Dive Resort intending to scuba dive with these curious, but enormous pinnipeds (fin-footed mammals). The water is quite cold, so I wear a full dry suit, which allows me to spend about an hour at a time diving with them. Frequently, gangs of 20 to 40 playful juveniles will mob me. This image was created while a sea lion posed inches in front of my underwater camera in order to check out its reflection in my large, eight-inch dome." To see more of Cornforth’s work, visit www.cornforthimages.com.…

With the peak of fall color season rapidly approaching, this issue of OP has a number of articles to help you get your very best images of the season. Rod Planck is a professional nature photographer and workshop instructor whose work has appeared in OP many times over the years. In his article "10 Tips For Fall Color," Planck offers up several ideas for getting unique photos during autumn. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the brilliant foliage, and what I find most valuable about his tips is how he suggests working the bright colors into a variety of compositions so that you’re not just making photos of red and yellow trees. By using reflections, atmospherics, abstracts and sometimes ignoring the leaves in favor of other unique aspects of the…

Relax. It doesn’t happen on just one day. The autumn season is fairly short, but like 5:00, it’s always fall somewhere! In Alaska, beautiful color (with large mammals in their prime) can be photographed in August and early September; in Colorado, it’s great in late September and October; in Northern Patagonia, fall color peaks in April. It’s mostly about altitude and latitude. We’ll talk about attitude later. Still, you can’t set your clock by fall’s appearance in any location; many variables affect the onset and duration of fall foliage. Rainfall and temperature conditions experienced during the preceding seasons determine the quality of fall foliage, and even within a particular geographical area, different species show their color at different times. The eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California has…

So how’s the gallery doing? This is another open-ended question I commonly get from visitors to our galleries in Truckee and Calistoga, California. Myhusband Olof Carmel and I started our photography business doing art shows over 10 years ago, and opened our first gallery in our hometown of Truckee in 2006. We converted the downstairs of an old historic house that we had acquired near Truckee’s historic downtown. Thanks to the construction skills of Olof, we were able to upgrade the old house to a commercial space that complied with all the local building and zoning laws. We put up our Carmel Gallery sign out front shortly after Christmas 2006 and waited for our customers. Since we were known in the community through the various art shows and the local…

Rod Planck shares some of his favorite techniques for the leaves of autumn Use Reflections 1 Not everybody thinks about using reflections when they have the goal to shoot autumn colors. But using reflections can save a photographer on a bad day. If it’s particularly windy or there’s harsh sunlight, go into a forest with a shaded stream. Suddenly, the chaos of the wind goes away, the reflection in the water increases the color saturation and beautiful colors can be made. I prefer using a long lens, like the telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm ƒ/4D IF-ED lens in this image, to isolate the reflection instead of a wide-angle where you end up chasing the length of the reflection. Nikon D3S, AF-S Nikkor 300mm ƒ/4D IF-ED, Gitzo GT3530LS tripod, Kirk BH-1 ballhead…

The tablet revolution has brought new life to e-books. We’ll show you how to make an impressive and full-featured e-book from your photos. Traditional photo books have dropped off significantly in today’s market. The expense of a large print run and the manhours required to create, edit, assemble, proof, publish and print a book has become prohibitive for all but the very most well-known photographers whose name recognition can guarantee significant sales. Custom publishers like Blurb have stepped in to fill some of the void that has been left, but these "one-off" books can cost more to produce than many nature photographers want to spend. Photo e-books have the potential to be a game-changer for all kinds of photographers, whether that’s an amateur who wants to produce a photo book…

Photograph Yosemite In 2014 2014 Because Yosemite becomes a completely different park with each season, Gary Hart Photography offers Yosemite photo workshops in winter, spring, and fall (summer is for the tourists). Each workshop highlights a special condition of the season: Horsetail Fall and winter snow in February; waterfalls, wildflowers, dogwood, and a moonbow (lunar rainbow) in April and May; vivid fall color and mirror reflections in early November. Additionally, most workshops are timed to include a full moon rising above Yosemite Valley. A lifetime of visiting and photographing Yosemite allows Hart to get his groups in the right place, at the right time, for all conditions. Great locations, night photography, expert training, image review, small groups, and fantastic participants are among the many reasons Gary Hart’s workshops always fill…

The Subway This well-known spot in Zion National Park, Utah, gave Joseph Rossbach a chance to get a subtle fall color photo. "Zion has some of the best fall color scenery in the southwestern United States," he says. "In addition to the amazing color, the park is virtually empty in November, with the tourist season dropping off in late September and early October. For those photographers in great shape and feeling adventurous, consider tackling the nine-mile round-trip hike to The Subway in the Zion backcountry (permits required). The Left Fork of North Creek is one of the most beautiful locations in the entire Southwest, where you can photograph red Navajo sandstone and falling waters mixed with lush fall color and, of course, The Subway, one of the most iconic scenes…

ARKANSAS Location Little Hawksbill Crag presents a dramatic view overlooking the White River in Arkansas. Situated directly across the river from the small town of Calico Rock, the overlook is easily accessible without hiking, which makes it a popular place for picnics and bird watching. Finding it can be a little tricky. Drive south on Highway 5 from Calico Rock until you cross the river, take the first road on your right, Culp Road, and in two miles you’ll see a pull-off with boulders blocking access to the edge of the cliff. (You used to be able to drive right to the edge!) The lookout is situated on the eastern edge of the Ozark National Forest covering over a million acres of the rugged Ozark Mountains. A predominance of hardwoods…

When Marc Adamus was a kid, he loved spending time studying maps of exotic locations. He could imagine being there, exploring faraway places and seeing the sights firsthand. To this day, whenever he plans a trip, he uses a topographic map to envision what things will look like from a given place and time—previsualizing his photographs from thousands of miles away, with nothing more than the squiggles on a topographic map. Love of maps may be the only traditional thing about him. Adamus is at the fore of a new generation of landscape photographers who haven’t just embraced digital tools, but embraced their impact on aesthetics, as well. Multiple exposures, focus stacking and exposure blending are all part of his workflow. He uses these techniques not to construct surreal images,…

I remember my first zoom lens, the Nikkor 80-200mm ƒ/2.8, as a gift from on high, a bulky chunk of metal and glass dropped down from another planet. How was it possible to get the equivalent of three to four of Nikon’s most popular lenses of that era—the 80mm, 135mm, 180mm and 200mm lenses—all wrapped into one? This new technology for wildlife and nature photography seemed to be an obvious advantage, but you couldn’t find a positive commentary on the benefits of a single, multi-optic lens anywhere. As far as all the magazines were concerned, zooms were proof of an amateur photographer. That was somewhere around 1985. Goodness gracious, time does fly when you’re having fun and testing new equipment. Today’s multi-range zooms produce razor-sharp images, as did the original…

Rugged Ballhead A ballhead is the most popular type for landscape photography because it lets you position the camera as you wish, then lock it there with a twist of a knob. Threeway pan-tilt heads let you control movement around three axes individually, but take longer to put the camera in position and are better suited for studio work. Bird-in-flight specialists like gimbal heads, which support the camera and supertele lens, but let you track quick-and erratically moving subjects, something you can’t do with other head types. The best ballheads operate smoothly, and securely lock the camera and lens into position with no creep. A large-diameter ball provides sturdier support. It’s definitely better to get a ballhead that’s too strong than one that’s too weak. The Arca-Swiss Monoball Z1 (rodklukas.com)…

The polarizer works its magic especially well on fall colors. Rotated to the proper angle, the filter can bring out those rich colors by eliminating the polarized reflections that desaturate them. It can deepen the blue of the sky and penetrate atmospheric haze (but not solid particulate matter like dust or water droplets), increasing contrast by eliminating polarized rays. The polarizer also can reduce or eliminate polarized reflections from nonmetallic surfaces like water. Wait a minute, a polarizing filter eliminates polarized light? Doesn’t it polarize light? Both. The polarizer polarizes normal non-polarized rays, and can, when rotated appropriately, block polarized rays. Normal light waves vibrate in all directions perpendicular to their path of travel. A polarizer allows waves vibrating in only one direction to pass, blocking all other waves. You…