Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2016 i Outdoor Photographer

Photographer: Shane Black Location: Near the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. Equipment: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EF 24mm ƒ/1.4L II USM, Vanguard carbon fiber tripod and ballhead. Situation: You can find some of the darkest skies you’ll ever see on the Big Island of Hawaii. Adding in the factor of being on a dormant volcano and nearly 14,000 feet closer to space just makes it even better. I was hoping to shoot the night sky from the summit with some of the telescopes, but unfortunately rangers came around after sunset asking people to start making their way down so that no headlights would interfere with the telescopes or the telescope operators once it got dark. While driving down from the summit, I could…

BINOCULAR & CAMERA COMBO CARRIER Give the wildlife photographers on your list a safe and secure way to carry binoculars and a camera in easy reach. The Binocular & Camera Harness from Cotton Carrier has an adjustable harness that holds one camera in a side holster and a binocular bracket that works with most binoculars, holding them horizontally across the front of the harness. Two “Twist & Lock” mounts keep the gear stabilized to limit movement while walking. List Price: $189. Contact: Cotton Carrier, cottoncarrier.com. DRONE LANDING PAD Protect your drone (and its camera) from dirt and debris on landing and takeoff with the FlatHat Collapsible Drone Pad. With colorful patterns to provide a high-visibility landing target, they’re lightweight, portable and made of heavy-duty fabric that stretches over a flexible…

Reviewing images from my photo shoots and assignments over the past couple of months, I noticed an interesting trend: My photography continues to improve and evolve. The change in my photography has always been an integral part of my creative process, which feeds on pushing new boundaries and new worlds to explore. This dynamism is opposed to the concept of creativity as (to use the well-worn metaphor) a golden ticket, where one is working toward a fixed objective. The pursuit of photographic creativity is different for everyone, but I believe the basis for each of us is the same, to grow and improve our photography. The foundation for my creativity is a desire to explore new places and people, but also rediscovering locations and subjects I’ve photographed many times before…

Standing under a dark sky and watching a meteor shower is a breathtaking experience. Creating a compelling photograph of that experience, however, is difficult. Even the most active meteor showers, the Perseids and Geminids, produce only 50 to 100 meteors per hour, or just one or two per minute. Those numbers refer to meteors visible anywhere in the sky. Even an ultra-wide 16mm lens on a full-frame camera can only see roughly one-fifth of the sky. The longest exposure you can use with a 16mm lens before the stars begin to make obvious streaks is about 30 seconds. Put all those figures together, and it’s clear you’re unlikely to capture more than one meteor in a single exposure—if you even capture one. So how do you make a photograph that…

In conjunction with the launch of the Nikon D5 full-frame flagship DSLR earlier this year, Nikon also announced the Nikon D500, an APS-C sensor camera with remarkable similarities to the D5. The camera features a 20.9-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor and has the same EXPEED 5-image processor, 153-point AF system and advanced metering system as the new top-of-the-line full-frame D5. If you’re photographing wildlife or sports action, you’ll love the D500, as it has continuous shooting at up to 10 frames per second and, when using an XQD memory card (the camera features both XQD and SD card slots), it can record up to 200 frames in a single burst, even when shooting 14-bit lossless compressed NEF files. These days I do a lot of night photography, so I was pleased…

Carry It Off Q How do you transport your camera with a large telephoto attached and mounted on a tripod when hiking/re-positioning in the field? I typically just put the assembly over my shoulder and carry it in whatever position I find comfortable. But I have had people tell me that I can damage the mounting connections with that approach, as well as risk having the camera come off the ballhead. R. Zahren Via the Internet A It’s a generally accepted notion that carrying a camera/telephoto on a tripod over one’s shoulder isn’t a good idea, but we all do it. First off, it looks kind of cool, doesn’t it? The intrepid nature photographer, trekking through the brush, heavy tripod, camera and big lens slung over the shoulder. But frankly,…

LOCATION Grand Teton National Park is located north of the town of Jackson in northwestern Wyoming and is only 10 miles away from Yellowstone National Park. Lodging options in the park include hotel/motel rooms, rustic cabins and tent cabins, and five campgrounds are open during the summer months on a first-come, first-serve basis. Grand Teton is so wildlife-diverse that it makes you feel like you’re entering a different world. The breathtaking mountain range is straight out of a fairy tale. The closer you get to it the more surreal it seems—like spires from another world. Contrast this with the beautiful river, ponds, grassland and animals, and it makes for an unbelievable experience. One of the most popular landscape photography spots in the park is Schwabacher’s Landing. Located on the Snake…

The monsoon storm struck Bryce Canyon at amazing speed with ominous skies, lightning, violent winds and pelting rain. Sitting in my car, I waited for the storm to begin lifting. I knew amazing light would filter through the cloud cover during this transition from storm light to sunlight, creating magic on the land. By waiting, I was rewarded with a spectacular rainbow that seemed to rise out of the distant formations of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Any photographer will tell you creating stunning images is “all about the light.” But what does that really mean, especially for landscape and nature photographers who are at the mercy of, and unable to really control, natural light? Natural light is the light, sometimes beautiful and sometimes harsh, that streams down on us every day.…

Photo By Kerik Kouklis This photograph was made during a night photography trip to Joshua Tree National Park. I was wearing a headlamp with a red LED and carrying a green handheld laser. I strolled through the scene from the right to the left, pointing the laser at the ground. It took several tries before I got what I wanted. Sony a7R II, Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD. Exposure: 30 sec., ƒ/4, ISO 4000. Photo By Jason Bradley A nighttime scenic at Hidden Valley in Joshua Tree National Park, taken at the annual Bradley Photographic Joshua Tree Workshop. This effect was created by painting light onto the rocks and the back of the Joshua tree with a small snooted Maglite. Nikon D800E, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm F2.8G ED. Exposure:…

The word “wildfire” tends to be associated with destruction. Forests are burned, property is damaged and human lives are lost fighting wildland blazes. A wildfire is viewed as the enemy, something to be conquered, and understandably so when lives and homes are at risk. But historically, fire also has been used as a tool to benefit people. Burning areas of vegetation to improve hunting success and to stimulate new growth of edible plants was common practice by many groups of Native Americans. And today, fire may be used to control invasive plant species. If we take people out of the equation and look at fire as a natural phenomenon, we see that it’s a regular part of many landscapes around the world. When lightning strikes ignite dry vegetation and there…

While I was attempting to contact Shane Black for this interview, Emmy Award-winning producer Jon Kroll suggested that I try smoke signals or engage a carrier pigeon. Fortunately, neither were necessary to locate the (occasionally) Ohio-based photographer. Kroll and his producing partner, Rupert Thompson, “discovered” Black as more than a million others did, coming across his breathtaking “Adventure is Calling” time-lapse video. They tracked him down in a remote area of Death Valley and hired the young photographer to create similar imagery for their Fox reality show, “American Grit.” Whether creating time-lapse or stills, the landscape and astrophotographer and his cameras thrive in a world without artificial lights—except for the occasional flashlight and headlamp. Outdoor Photographer: Let’s talk about your recent work for “American Grit.” Shane Black: The producers brought…

The most important piece of equipment for night photography is a camera that exhibits low-noise with long exposures. The larger the sensor, the better a camera’s light-gathering ability, so a full-frame camera will generally do a better job than an APS-C model. Cameras with high ISO capabilities are also an advantage; the higher the max ISO of the camera’s sensor, the better the image quality you’ll likely get from long exposures. Beyond the camera itself, there are a few accessories that you’ll want to bring with you—a few of which are necessary. Sturdy Tripod This one is probably obvious, since night photography requires exposures of up to 30 seconds for sharp stars and 30 minutes or more to render star trails. Any movement of the camera during exposures this long…

Nature Of The Beast   While on an extensive tour of Namibia, Michael Cohen was waiting out a storm in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park when he witnessed an incredible sight: two male lions in pursuit of a male giraffe. “As the chase approached us,” Cohen recalls, “one lion stopped running and just laid down in the tall grass. The older, dark-maned lion shown here continued the pursuit on its own, finally breaking into a full sprint just as he was closest to our position. “The lion circled the giraffe, cutting off its escape route, staring up at its much-larger prey as the giraffe raised its hoof in defense. Spoiler: This lion was eventually joined by the second lion, and they successfully managed to take the giraffe down, although getting kicked…