Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2018 i Outdoor Photographer

Congratulations to the winners of The American Landscape 2018 photo contest! To see all of the finalist images, visit outdoorphotographer.com/photo-contests/the-american-landscape. GRAND PRIZE Serenity By Peter Coskun “When I made my first trip to Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, I had a vision of what I wanted to photograph. It unfortunately was a dry year, and many of the waterfalls and creeks were at low flow. A friend of mine invited me to join a hike to one of the more remote waterfalls. We made our way up the trail only to have to drop back down a very steep embankment full of slick moss, mud and poison oak. When we got to the bottom where the creek was, I saw the scene that most come here to photograph. Being rather uninspired…

“Day 52: Last night we nearly got flooded out of our camp on a mid-river sandbar, the rising water caused either by upstream rains, hydro-cycling from the nearby Columbus power plant, or both. Today, Pete and I paddled 33 long miles. We had an easy float in the morning, with a deep current cutting along the bluffs near Fremont, and we passed the sacred Pawnee Indian site ‘Pawhuk.’ Man, you could feel a strong spirit on the river there…But this afternoon 30+ mph headwinds and a shallow, elusive channel made it one of our hardest canoeing days so far. We are exhausted. The silver lining was we counted 20 bald eagles, a dozen federally endangered least terns, three large flocks of pelicans, two muskrats, a water snake, and Pete may have just…

Over the last several years, consumer drone technology has progressed at an impressive rate. Five years ago, I bought a first-generation DJI Phantom quadcopter, which was released in January of 2013. These drones didn’t come equipped with a camera, so I attached a GoPro with a rubber mount. This resulted in motion-sickness-inducing videos as the camera was making all the same moves as the Phantom. I attempted to add a gimbal to stabilize the camera and improve the quality of the video, but I was never able to get that to work very well. After playing with the Phantom for several months and learning the basics of flying a quadcopter, I got bored and put it down. Later in 2013, DJI released its first drone with an included camera, the…

In this issue, we’re considering new perspectives in nature photography from the viewpoints of talent, technique and technology. In our feature story “Leading The Field,” we talk with Ashleigh Scully, who represents for us the next generation of wildlife photographers. “For me,” says Scully, speaking of her photographic motivation, “first is definitely the love of nature and wildlife.” Still in high school, Scully is already quite accomplished, having received several awards for her work. It’s inspiring to see someone so young with a focus on making an impact through images. In our interview, Scully describes her approach to photography and her drive to make images that capture the personality and emotion of her subjects and their familial interactions—images that she hopes will foster support for wildlife conservation. Sometimes finding a…

Photographers who are consistently able to create compelling and evocative pictures with a normal lens have always impressed me. This ability can only mean a highly developed eye, in control of composition through use of camera position, perspective, light, design and anticipation. Wide-angle or telephoto lenses, while perfectly valid and immensely useful tools, can sometimes be leaned on excessively as a sort of compositional crutch—a means to add visual drama through their significant departure from the way in which we experience the world through our eyes. Before the invention of photography, a goal of painters was to master the rendering of natural perspective in a way that was convincing to the viewer. If the perspective felt unnatural, then the painter’s attempt to create an illusion of reality might be considered…

Daydreaming “In July 2017, I had a fantastic opportunity to spend a week in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska, for an exciting photography adventure,” says Heather Genovese. “It was my first time visiting Alaska, and I immediately fell in love with the lush, pristine landscape. One of the many highlights of the trip was watching these adorable cubs run and play. They reminded me of when my siblings and I were kids. I could almost hear them say, ‘Mom, she’s picking on me!’ as they took turns pinning each other down. I was lucky enough to snap this shot as they took a very brief break from playtime to enjoy a moment of peace.” See more of Heather Genovese’s work at momentsbyheathernicole.com.…

What makes a world-class nature photographer? What path might lead someone to a career making pictures of wildlife all around the world, for instance? With Ashleigh Scully, a teenage photographer from New Jersey, we see a future master photographer in the making. By all appearances, she’s the kind of person who inevitably turns her obvious talent and extensive passion for wildlife photography into a lifelong pursuit. Of course, she’s still got plenty of time to figure it out. You see, Scully is a high school student—and not an imminently graduating senior, but a solidly in-the-thick-of-high-school 16-year-old junior. Sure, she acknowledges the dream of maybe working for National Geographic someday, but what photographer hasn’t considered as much? Smart and dedicated, she already recognizes that no matter how good you might be…

You know how it works when discovering new locations. You’ve seen it once somewhere, and you immediately start planning the perfect shot, including light, fog and all the fancy conditions that need to be there to make it the money shot. Usually when you get there, however, something is missing. That’s why you go back to the place until everything fits in perfectly, and you finally take the picture you worked out in your head. At least I’ve been doing this a lot. In fact, I’m doing it so often that my friends started giving me a face palm when I tell them I’m going back to this specific tree formation or that waterfall within the Black Forest of Germany over and over again. They can’t understand how much fun…