Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2015 i Outdoor Photographer

For nature and travel photographer Chris Burkard, surfing and climbing and kayaking are more than just the subjects he photographs. They’re integral to the life he lives. “I’ve found that if you’re able to live that lifestyle,” Burkard says, “rather than just be, like, ‘This is what I want to shoot for work, and this is what I want to shoot for myself, and this is what I want to put out in the world…,’ well, if you just decide to live it, I think that benefits a lot. If you’re not having the experience yourself, then it’s not really going to come through in the imagery no matter how hard you try.” As a globetrotter, Burkard learned long ago that he needed a compact, convenient camera—one that literally wouldn’t…

I love to photograph in the fall—colorful foliage, beautiful light (with the sun at a lower angle) and usually pleasantly crisp temperatures. What’s not to like? When planning a fall trip, it’s important to go at the right time. There are various websites that track color changes, and they often supply dates for prime color in previous years. I usually plan on going slightly past the predicted height of color. I don’t want to arrive early and find lots of green, and if I’m late for the color—that’s fine with me! In The Camera Bag Fall weather can be variable and unpredictable, so I carry camera protection. Plastic bags or garbage bags with a hole in one end will do in a pinch. But I like the Kata Element Covers;…

Grand Canyon is as difficult to photograph as it is breathtaking. The canyon’s layered detail shrinks in a lens that’s wide enough to adequately convey its scale, while its overwhelming scale is lost to a telephoto lens focused on its detail. Grand Canyon is really two worlds: the year-round, relatively accessible, always bustling South Rim and the warm-month-only (mid-May through Thanksgiving), relatively remote, more peaceful North Rim. Separated by 10 crow-flying miles, it’s a grueling, 18-mile hike and a scenic four-hour drive between rims. South Rim Tips The section of the Colorado River visible from the South Rim moves more or less east to west. Among the vista points with good views to the east, for sunrise and afternoon rainbows, are Grandview Point, Mather Point, Yaki Point, Powell Point and…

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I love to photograph the patterns of nature. Even when amid the grand landscapes of nearby Yosemite, I often turn my eyes and my camera toward intimate details near at hand. I bought my first camera in 1974, which thankfully came with a set of extension tubes and a 50mm lens. I was fascinated with the details of nature, and focused more on graphic close-ups rather than the scenic landscape. I also used my 4x5 film camera to isolate nature’s details. The ability to tilt and shift the lens is a great advantage in controlling the depth of focus to create sharpness throughout the frame. With the view camera bellows extended to its maximum length, I could focus very closely, but not quite at “macro” lens magnification. My enthusiasm for…

Can a realistic landscape photograph be creative? I think the answer is yes, but only if you have a clear understanding of what creativity really means. For a landscape photographer, creativity doesn’t emerge, fully formed, from the void. It emerges when the photographer makes a new, unexpected, but suddenly obvious connection between bits of seemingly unrelated knowledge already stored in that photographer’s head. Unlike painters and novelists, landscape photographers can’t sit in a darkened room, conjure an image or story out of nothing, then put their vision down on canvas or the printed page. Landscape photographs must be grounded in reality. Creativity in landscape photography is founded on knowledge of the terrain where the photographer plans to shoot, coupled with an understanding of key concepts in atmospheric optics, geography, astronomy,…

In many parts of North America, the warm colors of fall are beginning to yield to the first snows of the approaching winter season. As illustrated by Gary Hart’s beautiful image on this issue’s cover and Charles Cramer’s stunning portfolio, “Transitions,” this time of year offers opportunities for capturing exquisite landscape images for those who are willing to rise early and arrive prepared for uncertain conditions. In other parts of the country, particularly the Southwest, milder conditions and cooler weather make this an ideal time to explore. In “Grand Canyon Hotspots,” Gary Hart guides us to the best viewpoints for photographing this natural wonder, from popular locations on the South Rim to less photographed vistas on the North Rim. If you’re planning a trip to the Southwest, it’s also a…

Location The Enchantment Lakes are located in the upper Cascade Range of Washington State, southwest of the German-themed town of Leavenworth. The area is accessible by two main trailheads just off of Icicle Creek Road. Each route leads to the same fabulous destination; however, the overall distance and elevation gains are much different depending on the path taken. No matter the choice, a climb of no less than 4,400 feet is required to get to just the first of the countless lakes near the top. The area features stunning granite spires, pristine lakes strung together by creeks, never-ending larch trees and curious mountain goats. There are multiple ways to enjoy the park, but the best way for photographers is to apply for an overnight permit, allowing for multiple attempts to…

Located in Torres del Paine National Park, in Chile’s Patagonia region, the Grey Glacier is a stunning place to visit. Blue and white pillars of ice stand silent in a line as they wait their turn to plunge into the ice lagoon below. Once calved, large icebergs catch the wind and sail 14 miles across the lagoon to the beach. They make their final stand for weeks, melting slowly, too stubborn to let go. The “Grey” in the name doesn’t describe the glacier, but rather the large amounts of sediment from melted ice in the lagoon that stretches from its face. The glacier gets its deep blue color when sunlight hits its surface, scattering the blue wavelength and absorbing the red wavelength. Getting to Grey Glacier is an hour boat…

In the pursuit of landscape photography within the American Southwest, one inevitably comes upon the ancient architecture of the Ancestral Puebloans. Hidden among the cliffs and canyons, often tucked into sandstone alcoves, their dwellings and rock art leave a rich legacy of humans integrating with this land for thousands of years. As photographers, these prehistoric sites ask us to understand the geometry of shapes and converging lines, the connection of earth and sky, and the resonating power of place. The ancient buildings rise from the sandstone landscape with the imperceptible transition of geology to masonry bricks standing against the sky. Rock art embellishes natural formations, leaving narratives lost in the wind. These sites portray the human struggle to find harmony with nature, a rich story to ponder in our modern…

The problem with most desktop backup drives is that once you’ve reached your storage capacity, you’re faced with either storing the drive and its bulky enclosure indefinitely, or buying a new, larger-capacity drive and transferring all of your images to it. G-Technology’s G-DOCK ev with Thunderbolt offers an innovative alternative. The dual-bay dock hosts two drives that can be configured in either RAID 0 (“striping” for greater capacity) or RAID 1 (“mirrored” for data redundancy). For our purposes, configuring the drive as RAID 1 is the way to go—whatever data is on one drive is automatically copied to the second. The G-DOCK ev is compatible with three drive options: the G-DRIVE ev (500 GB or 1 TB); the faster G-DRIVE ev 220 (2 TB); or the fastest, the solid-state G-DRIVE…