Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2016 i Outdoor Photographer

Let’s begin with you. Maybe you’ve just purchased your first DSLR, or maybe Santa thought you were extra-good this year and left you the latest mirrorless camera under the tree. Or, you’re like most of us and you’ve had your camera for a while, but you’ve been using it in auto mode because all those buttons and options leave you feeling a bit overwhelmed. You may even be a “weekend warrior” with a solid grasp of your camera’s controls. Whichever scenario fits you, chances are, you’re longing for more creative control of your compositions and confident post-processing skills. You’re itching to learn professional “insider” techniques so you can produce images that reflect the inspiration and emotion you see and feel when you look through the viewfinder. Whether a true beginner…

Like many who make their living with photography, my income is generated in several ways. One is by teaching Lightroom and techniques in digital workflow, and another is working with photographers to develop their images and produce fine-art archival pigment-ink prints—which is a fancy way of saying I run a digital print lab. Through these two endeavors, my experience has been that learning how to print well, which is a somewhat subjective thing, isn’t easy. Subjectivity aside, by “print well,” I mean knowing how to pay attention to detail and tone, to shadows and to highlights, to print with consistency and predictability, and with an understanding of how an image may or may not translate onto a certain medium. I’m referring to having clarity about the vision you have for…

Coromandel Peninsula Dawn on the Coromandel Peninsula brings more gorgeous crystal clear light. A gentle breeze wafts the branches of the trees. That movement precludes any merging of exposures in post-production. This one frame must be a perfect exposure and the key tool here is a LEE 0.75ND hard grad filter holding back the exposure of the sky. Fresh snowfall at Morraine Lake The peaks beyond the steely blue-grey glacial waters of Morraine Lake are partly shrouded by the swirling low cloud cover. I’m using a LEE 0.9ND soft grad filter to retain detail in the brightest part of the sky. Languedoc I love to have movement in my images, here I wanted to blur the swaying red poppies in the foreground. A LEE 0.9ND ProGlass Filter enabled me to…

One of my favorite Internet memes is a Venn diagram with no intersection between the two sets (the circles don’t overlap). One set is labeled “Your comfort zone,” and the other is labeled “Where the magic happens.” It’s a simple visualization of the idea that to grow and improve, we have to be willing to take risks and motivate ourselves to try new things. Sometimes it’s as simple as being willing to reevaluate long-established habits. The tradition of New Year’s resolutions embodies this spirit of fresh starts and new perspectives. As photographers, one of the most effective ways to step out of our comfort zones is to travel to new locations and explore different subjects. Joining a workshop is an opportunity to do this, with the extra advantage of learning…

Outdoor photographers are always searching for the next “best” photographic location. They travel hundreds and even thousands of miles to take pictures, often bypassing their own “backyard.” Yet within 30 miles of everyone’s home, there’s some wildness to be found. Whether that be an urban park, an undeveloped woodland, a pond, lake, river, a refuge or state park, all you need to do is explore and you can find something interesting to photograph nearby. Two years ago, I moved near the American River in Sacramento, California. Little did I know it would become the focal point for my photography. The American River Parkway is visited by more than five million people a year. Most of them bike or run along the paved trail that runs 23 miles from Sacramento to…

Winter can be an exciting time to get outside and expand your photographic portfolio. When the ground is enveloped in a blanket of white, even familiar surroundings can take on an entirely different perspective, and there are many opportunities to capture unique images. Winter does present certain challenges that photographers normally don’t have to deal with during other seasons, however. This article offers a number of tips garnered from what I’ve learned over the years through experience, and may be useful for making your winter photo efforts more productive and enjoyable. Snow Can Trick Your Meter One of the most challenging things in winter is achieving correct exposure. All camera metering systems are calibrated to base exposure on neutral tonality or neutral gray. White, snow-covered landscapes will influence and most…

Want to significantly reduce the size and weight of your camera system without sacrificing image quality or durability? The latest Olympus OM-D system cameras offer impeccable image quality, an array of precision lenses and cutting-edge technology, with dust-, splash- and freeze-proof construction, ideal for outdoor work. SPEED & STABILITY The 16-megapixel OM-D E-M5 Mark II boasts impressive speed. With its 81-point Fast AF, you can capture wildlife at up to 10 frames per second, with a maximum shutter speed of 1/8000 sec. It’s also incredibly stable when shooting handheld, featuring the world’s most advanced 5-Axis Image Stabilization, which corrects not only horizontal and vertical camera movements, but also pitch, roll and yaw, providing an industry leading 5 steps of compensation for both still images and cinema-quality 1080 Full HD video…

Location In the heart of Death Valley National Park are the Mesquite Flat Dunes, located in southeastern California, with a small portion of the park extending into Nevada. The park is located 133 miles from Bakersfield, California, and 110 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada. Among the many dunes in the park, the Mesquite Flat Dunes are the best known and the easiest to visit. The dunes are viewable right off Highway 190, about two miles east of Stovepipe Wells, where you can RV or car camp, or stay in a hotel for base camp. There’s a large day-use parking area and bathrooms, and many of the park’s other best attractions are each about an hour away in all directions. The park is open year-round, day and night, and a good…

So often, photographers talk about the color of light and its influence on the interpretation of a landscape. That’s probably why landscape photographers chase the warm colorcast that’s produced near sunrise and sunset. This phenomenon was never so evident to me as in an image I took in Glacier National Park during sunrise. The view of Grinnell Point from the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake is one of the most commanding and frequently photographed. To get a unique shot, I hoped for some exceptional lighting, as compositional choices were somewhat limited. This section of shoreline was chosen for the foreground rocks that seemed to cradle the reflection in the lake. Clouds from overnight rain greeted me as I walked the shore to a location that I had eyed the day before.…

If you’ve been waiting to upgrade your photo printer, both Canon and Epson have recently introduced major updates. From Canon, we have the imagePROGRAF PRO-1000, a step up from their PIXMA PRO line. Epson’s offerings include three models in their new SureColor P-Series: the P400, P600 and P800. All of these printers allow you to take advantage of the high-resolution image files from modern digital cameras to make large borderless prints, with the Epson P400 and P600 producing cut-sheet sizes up to 13x19 inches, and the Epson P800 and Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 printing up to 17x22 inches. The Epson SureColor models also offer the ability to print on roll paper for panoramic photos. We had the opportunity to work with the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 and Epson SureColor P600. Both printers…