I am hosting the Tahoe City Photo Walk!
On Saturday, October 13 the whole world will be walking again with Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and #1 bestselling technology and photography book author, in his Fifth Annual Worldwide Photo Walk™ — the world’s largest global social photography event in the history of photography.
Added to this year’s event is a special G+ page for the Photo Walk. The Google+ platform will help people connect more easily across the globe, share images, and possibly host a hang out or two sharing some of their Photo Walk experiences. Each year the event gets bigger and bigger, and we anticipate that this year’s Photo Walk will be one of our biggest events.
I will be helping is helping North Lake Tahoe take part in this worldwide event by organizing a Photo Walk along the Truckee River on October 13th at 3pm to 6pm. For more information, visit http://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/tahoe-city-ca-united-states/ where you can also sign up to participate in the Photo Walk.
One of my biggest goals it to educate people on the art and joy of photography. There is something magical about this time of year in the Sierras and I hope to help you capture it. There is a giant leap between taking snap shots of beautiful scenery and making outstanding photographs. I am going to help you make that leap! We’ll meet up at the River Ranch lodge and walk the roughly 4 miles to the Bridge Tender where I hope we will make beautiful sunset pictures. Afterwards we can eat some incredible elk burgers at the Bridge Tender!
The Photo Walk is free and open to anyone who owns a camera – even disposable cameras! More Photo Walk details are available at: http://worldwidephotowalk.com/ or visit the Scott Kelby Photo Walk G+ page.
The 2012 Photo Walk is co-sponsored by Adobe. Additional sponsors include Kelby Training, NAPP, Peachpit, Adorama, Mpix, Wacom, Manfrotto, onOne Software, Tamron, Tiffen, Nik Software and B&H.
About NAPP
The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) is a dynamic trade association and the world’s leading resource for Adobe® Photoshop® and Photoshop® Lightroom® training, news, and education. An award-winning team of Photoshop and photography experts, authors, consultants, and trainers lead the association – keeping its members on the cutting edge of Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography techniques and technology. With 71,000 members in 106 countries, NAPP is the largest digital imaging and graphics association worldwide. Visit http://www.photoshopuser.com for more information.
What is the Point of Landscape Photography?
What is the purpose of Landscape Photography? It is an interesting question; these places exist in nature, and can be witnessed by anyone. Surely the purpose is not just to capture a memory, or provide those who have yet to see a location with the impressions of having been there. If so, anyone can do that with their cell phone. And no image can truly represent the grandeur of Zion, or the stately wonders of Yellowstone. And certainly great landscape images are routinely taken of places not so grand. Ian Ruhter is currently embarked on a project to capture spectacular landscape images in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles. I have seen stunning images of snowstorms in North Dakota (no disrespect meant to the fine citizens of North Dakota). So, there must be something greater to taking a fine landscape image than just a grand or majestic surrounding.
"Moon Over Truckee River 2"
You Don’t Have to Live in an Exotic Location
I am lucky. I live in Lake Tahoe, 3 hours north of Yosemite and just west of the incredible deserts of the Great Basin. I have no lack of stunning scenery to photograph, and make a fine living off selling these prints to appreciative clients. However, most of the photos that I see from my friends, tourists, or even those who proclaim themselves to be photographers, lack that certain something that would make someone want to buy it. When Ansel Adams saw a setting he wanted to photograph, he did not see it as his eyes and brain processed it, but rather as how he could make a final print look. Was there too much difference in contrast between the brightest lights and darkest shadows? He would envision his corrections. Was the sky washed out? He knew how to bring that depth back into the image. He was not just capturing a scene as his eyes saw it, but rather he was capturing the scene as his imagination saw it. He was telling a story with the photograph, keeping the viewer entertained with the singular moment that he created, rather than captured.
The landscape photographer must create the image. Otherwise what is the point of being a photographer? Anyone with a camera, which is everyone these days, can take a picture. F8 and be there is not enough anymore, and really it never was. The great photographers craft and shape the image from the moment they take the camera out of the bag until the moment they put the image in a frame.
Your Landscape Photography is Art: Approach It Like Michelangelo!
In a way, painters and other artists have it much easier. A painter has a blank canvas and his imagination to convey the points or emotions he wishes to convey, but the Landscape Artist Photographer has to deal with the real world. We must use what we see, in the arrangements we see them, to convey our feelings and emotions, for if we cut and paste objects into our image, we no longer have a photograph, but a Digital Collage.
"Sagebrush at Mono Lake"
So how does a Landscape Photographer create an image if he must deal with the world in the way he encounters it? We have all sorts of tools to use to manipulate what we see: we can vary the lens, the filters, and the angles that we shoot; we can shoot in film, because each type has different characteristics; what paper we print on, how saturated we make the colors, or what area can be burned or dodged. Those are just some of the thousands of choices we can make to influence the image and control the final print. We are only limited by our vision and our style.
So, Why Landscape Photography?
Because it is one of the most challenging genres there is. Getting beyond just taking a picture of a pretty lake or rock or tree, and getting into actually conveying an emotion or entertaining a viewer is a grand leap that involves great thought, planning and really seeing the world differently. That is your challenge as a Landscape Photographer, or as a photographer in general. Go See the World Different. Show them what they don’t see; give them emotions that they missed.
Is Landscape Photography Really Art?
Is Landscape Photography Really Art?
It happens to me all the time. A client comes in to my gallery where I represent many different artists, and they comment on how they appreciate painting, or sculpture, or {enter genre here} more than photography. They say, “I mean all photographers do is point the camera and click a button.” HA!
Photography is an Art Form
If you think otherwise, go out and try to take a moving, impactful image. I mean really, I don’t even know why I still have to make this point with people, but I find myself doing it way more than necessary. Photography is about so much more than snapping a photo of a pretty scene. Anyone can go to Tunnel View in Yosemite and snap that photo. Only a select few have the patience, the knowledge, and the skill to create an image from that scene that qualifies as a work of art. Don’t believe me? Try it.
The Principles of Art are Critical to a Great Photograph
These principles are not unique to photography, but have been around for millennia. The Greeks were using them in their frescoes, Michelangelo used them in the Sistine Chapel. Courbet, Van Gogh, Picasso, they all used them. Every great work of art has these in common, and photography is no different. Composition, line, shape, balance, the golden mean; if you don’t know what they are, and want to take great pictures, go learn them, and then learn how to incorporate them into your photography. You will see a HUGE difference is your imagery when you do.
The skill and craftsmanship necessary in Photography is subtler, but just as important
“But it takes so much skill and talent for a painter to refine his skill!” It does, but no less than a landscape photographer’s. The photographer starts crafting his final print long before he ever captures a scene in his camera. He studies the tones in the image, the lines, the shapes the composition, and visualizes what his final work of art will look like. The digital tools he uses makes the process easier than when we were in the darkroom, but it is no less necessary today than 20 or 30 years ago.
To all the collectors of Fine Art Landscape Photography out there, I praise you for recognizing the spark that exists in a great image. I thank you for rewarding those photographers who grasp at that moment in order to bring you their vision. Photographers: keep plugging away and refining your art. Keep on bringing beautiful images to the public. To the non-believers: Go try it yourself. Get beyond just snapping photos at vista points along the side of the road and try to show the world something different, show us they world in a way that only you see it. As always, I would love to know what you think. Leave me a comment below!
How YOU can create Amazing landscape photographs by getting off the beaten path
Have you ever captured what you thought was an amazing Landscape Photograph only to later notice that 50 other people have the same image? Well, living in and around Lake Tahoe, I run into that problem all the time. There are literally hundreds of easily accessible spots all over the Lake where you can take some great images, and they are images that almost everyone here has done before. As a Fine Art Landscape Photographer, I use my vision and my knowledge of the camera and photographic techniques to differentiate my creations from other people’s. But there are other, obvious ways to get images that no one else has. And that is to go where no one else is going! Get motivated and show the world what no one else gets to see!
"Lake Aloha Night Reflections 1"
Make Sure you Relax
My good buddy, Scott Thompson of www.scottshotsphoto.com and I did just that last weekend. We escaped the crowds and the cars of Lake Tahoe and got out into the Desolation Wilderness for a day of just shooting and relaxing at Aloha Lake. The Forest Service limits the amount of people who can overnight in the area to just 36. 36 people camped throughout several hundred square miles. Now, Lake Aloha is only about 7 miles from Echo summit off of 50 hwy, so it’s not too far, but certainly a long haul for carrying a full load of camera gear (and a fishing rod). But the fact is, only the most dedicated photographers are going to hike that far, with that much gear (our packs weighed about 50 lbs each), in order to create images.
Scott Thompson Fly Fishing on Lake Aloha
Shoot Your Heart Out
So, after a glorious day of relaxing, fishing, and relaxing some more we started shooting right about 8 pm. We shot for about 4 hours, getting sunsets and nighttime landscape photographs that I promise, no one but Scott and I have. We created unique imagery by getting out and going where few other photographers are willing to go. And I promise you, there are few better ways to relax than spending a day in the wild with a buddy, fishing, and creating photographs.
"Lake Aloha Night Reflections 3"
Take Action towards creating a Great Landscape Photograph
A mentor of mine once gave me a great piece of advice: Look where everyone else is taking pictures, then go somewhere else and create great pictures.
So here is what I want you to do:
1. Start thinking of a list of places you would love to shoot, that not many people are able, or willing to get to.
2. Figure out the Logistics: How long will it take to get there, will I have to camp out over night, what type of food should I bring, what sort of Camera gear do I need etc.
3. Start gathering the items you will need. It will be much easier to start if you have everything put together already
4. Step out on to the trail!! Get the daydream of “man, that would be a great place to shoot,” out of your head, and make it happen!
Do me a favor, and in the comments below, let me know where you have shot before that is off the beaten track, or even better, where you would love to go and shoot. I look forward to your comments.
"Lake Aloha Night Reflections 2"
4 Keys to great landscape photography
What makes great, or even good, landscape photography? It would be easy to say its just a matter of opinion, but I have never met a person who has seen Ansel Adam’s Moonrise over Hernandez and not thought it to be amazing. Like anything in photography, there are no hard and fast rules, only general guidelines, but the follow 4 points are a great start.
Ansel Adams Moonrise Over Hernandez
Focus
Make sure your subject is in focus. I am sure you have heard of the group f64, Ansel Adams, and Weston, et al. They shot their images at f64 so that everything in the frame was in focus. The sharpness matters. Take a look at any photograph. Your eye will instantly track to the sharpest point in the image. That point had better be your subject, otherwise the viewer will be confused, his eye wandering around the image and leave with a disquieted feeling.
Fern Leaf - Your eye instantly goes to the sharpest object in the image
Foreground, Subject, Background
In Landscape Photography, and really, in any form of photography, layers give context to the image and help to build the story or emotion that the photographer is trying to convey. While not a hard and fast rule, every image should try to have a foreground, a subject, or middle ground, and a background. Remember though, your subject should be the most interesting and noticeable part of the image. Use techniques like selective focus, or compositional techniques to draw attention to it.
Kings Beach Pier - The foreground is the planks that recede towards, the subject, which is the end of the pier. The background is the lake and the mountains and the clouds
Composition
This is such a broad topic that whole books have been written on the subject. Leading lines, Rule of Thirds, Balance, the list is long and important. If you don’t know them, learn them, and most of all employ them in your landscape photography. Not every compositional rule needs to be employed in each photograph, but almost (and I only say almost, because I am sure someone out there can find a good photograph by Man Ray or some body that completely left these rules behind) but almost every photograph uses them. In fact, they are not even techniques exclusive to landscape photography. They have been used by artists for millennia in all media for creating pleasing works of art.
El Capitan Reflections 2 - This image uses the compositional techniques of the rule of thirds and leading lines to draw the viewer in
Emotion
Lastly, most importantly, and most difficultly, is emotion. What is it that the photographer is trying to convey? Ask yourself when you come upon a scene that you wish to great on a photograph, “how does this make me feel?” It is moody, is it cheerful, dramatic? Any host of emotions can come to mind, and none of them are wrong. But make sure that you convey that feeling in your landscape photography. If it is dramatic, take steps to ensure plenty of contrast. If it is moody or unsettling, make it dark. Make you image match the feeling you have while taking the picture.
Winter Storm at Tahoe Vista 1 - How does the clouds and the storm in this image make you feel? Emotion places a crutial part in making a great piece of art.
This list isn’t the be all and end all of how to make great landscape photography, I said that from the start, but when you go out to create photographs, keeps these points in your head, and apply them to your work.
You use Color Filters for Landscape Photography?!@$!?
Bonsai Rock Sunset 4
Why color filters?
I have heard people complain about, or otherwise bemoan the use of color filters in photography. They believe it is cheating, or creating a scene that was not there, as if it is akin to cutting out a moon or an eagle and placing it in the photograph. I am all for people having their opinions and letting artists shoot they want to shoot, but I would like to explain why I like using color filters to create my Images.
Notice that I used the word create. Not take, or capture, or push a button. I create images. I feel that is my job as an artist and photographer. If I see a scene that I think has potential as a great landscape photograph I don’t just turn around and snap a picture. I take in the scene, and look to what the final print could be. Of course I use my experience and eye for composition to compose the scene, but I also imagine where I could add more contrast or more saturation to direct the viewer’s eye. What do I want the viewer to pay more attention to in the photograph? These places will get more light and saturation and contrast. What do I want him to ignore? These areas will be in the shadows.
A painter has the luxury of creating what he sees onto a blank canvas. He only adds to the painting what he wants the viewer to see. However, the photographer has the added constraint of creating art in the world he sees around him. If we want something to stand out or minimize it, then we must find away to make that happen with light. Color filters help me do this.
Whale Beach Sunset 1
“Oh, but those colors didn’t exist in the original scene! That is a misrepresentation of what it looked like!” The same people who say this will rarely have an issue with using neutral density filters to darken part of a frame and keep a part of it brighter. So at this point it is squabbling over what wavelength of light the photographer chooses to let into the camera. Ansel Adams did this all the time. Thanks to his knowledge of how certain black and white films would react to certain colors of light, he would place color filters over his lens. That is how he got those great puffy white clouds against the dark sky, how he got green leaves to go dark and yellow leaves to go white. He, the photographer, the artist, exercised choice over his final product and used technique and skill to manipulate light to create the image he wanted.
Who cares what such and such photographer did, I shoot for myself!
“But Galen Rowell didn’t use color filters!” But I am not Galen Rowell, is the easy answer. The better answer is he manipulated the scene, used his skill and vision as a photographer and artist in other ways. He specifically chose his film so that he could get deeply saturated images; saturation that was not there in the scenes when he saw them. He used neutral density filters to darken some areas and lighten others. Rowell was an artist and used his techniques to get the final product he wanted, Color filters for me, fill the same role as film choice and neutral destiny did for him.
In the end, I do not look at myself, or create images as a documentary photographer. I am not a Xerox machine, nor do I expect my clients or patrons to pay for an image that they are perfectly capable of producing themselves with an iphone. I am an artist. I interpret the scene that I see and use my knowledge of photography and light in order to reproduce what I see in my mind. Color filters are just one of the tools that I use to achieve this vision. If you want a photograph of a scene that simply documents what the scene looks like, you can do that yourself. You do not need an artist to do it for you.
Kings Beach Sunset at Griff Creek
That is why I use color filters. I enjoy the deep saturation of blues and oranges and pinks that can exist in the sky, and I used color filters to enhance these characteristics. I manipulate light to create the image that I as an artist want to create. If it was as easy as finding a scene and pushing a button, what is the point of being a photographer?
Sportsshooter Academy Day II
Day 2.
This workshop can be exhausting. While it doesn’t necessarily start early in the morning, it does go late into the evening. Even after the critiques and image reviews, some of the best parts of the workshop are hanging out with the students and getting to know your piers. I spent quite a bit of time with two amazing photographers, Maya Sugarman and Michael Chen. Like I said in my last post, my attendance at the workshop was kinda last minute. I had planned to stay at the nearby Los Alamitos Army Air Station, or barring that, sleep in my car, but these two took me under their wing and very graciously allowed me to crash on their floor. We ended up scheduling our days together and developing a pretty solid working relationship. These types of friendships are, to me, more valuable than making the images at a workshop like this. The images are great, one or two might even make it into your portfolio, eventually to be replaced by something better, but friendships and the respect of your piers is something that is invaluable in this industry.
As for Shooting, I chose to hit up lacrosse in the afternoon and woman’s soccer in the evening. I chose Lacrosse for the portrait opportunities, as Tim Mantoani was going to be there with his lighting equipment. Tim is one of the top commercial sports photographers in the country. If you have played any EA sports video game, you have seen his work. I was really looking forward to his tutelage. However, so was everyone else, and I was the last on the list to work with him. Maya and I however searched out some other places and people to shoot. This brings me to the second great thing about what SSAVIII does for a photographer: It forces you to think outside the box to find great shots. We had a set up area to make portraits, but the lighting would be somewhat consistent for everyone, and after a while the same poses and people would be used. Maya and I found some great texture on the wall of the arena, and grabbed one of the Lacrosse players to pose for us. I loved the resulting images.
Soccer was much harder for me to shoot. As you know the field is big, and I did not have long glass. I was forced to look for unique images in the crowd or in the surrounding venue, and then wait for the action to come to me. I am not quite as happy with the results. Long glass would have helped, but lets face it, photography is not about the gear. I was shooting out of my comfort zone. I like portraits, that’s my happy area, and I would need to push outside that zone to really excel.
Sportsshooter Academy VIII Day 1
As many of you may or may not know, my orders to the Middle East were canceled at the last moment. While I am severely disappointed at this, I was able, through the grace of Bert Hanashiro and Samy’s Camera in Orange county, to get the last available spot at the Sportsshooter Academy. So, after a brutal day of travel, from San Diego to Reno and then back to Irvine, I am at THE coolest sports photography website in the country.
This workshop is truly one of the best in the country. The instructors here are some of the best sports photojournalists and photographers in the country. I spent yesterday with John McDonough, a staff photographer with Sports Illustrated, and Tim Mantoani a renowned commercial photographer from San Diego, shooting a boxing club in La Habra Ca. I was happy with my results, but the biggest reward from being here is not getting a great opportunity to take the photos that I love. The best part is looking at everyone’s images at the end of the day and listening to the instructors critique the days work. It is inspiring to see what all the students come up with. Each individual brings a different way of looking at events we all saw, and it really drives home the point. “SEE DIFFERENT!”
In the Narmy Now!!!
Hello all, It has been a while since I posted last but I have been pretty busy being a sailor the past few months. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I have been a soldier though. It all started in the beginning of July when I was officially recalled to active duty. I had to report to Naval Base San Diego to under go medical screening to ensure that I was fit enough to go to a combat zone. This isn’t as much of a given as its sounds, when I went through this process a few years ago, I was rejected for some odd reason. However, I was good to go.
Now rather than put me on a place to Bahrain, where the 5th fleet is located, and where I will be based out of for the next six months, I journeyed to the wonderful resort town of Columbia South Carolina, and Ft Jackson, for training on how to be a Narmy Soldier. Columbia is such a wonderful place to be in July. 105 degree temperatures with 90% humidity while wearing 60 lbs of gear is a great vacation. While I was there they gave us training on weapons, and IED’s, and Body Armor, and dehydration.
Ft. Jackson is an Army boot camp and our instructors were all Drill Sergeants, so I was a little nervous about how were going to be treated. However, officers and enlisted were training together, so really we were all treated as professionals rather than fresh recruits. Some people really should have been sent back to boot camp though. We had dentists in tie died shirts and doctors wearing high heels. They took the training as a joke rather that approaching it as what it should be, valuable info that could save our lives should we end up in a bad situation. Anyway, here are some out takes and images from my two weeks down there.
Great Sunset and Baseball, Reno Aces May 13th
I would like to preface this with the fact that the speed limit through Reno is 55, and not my previously assumed 65, a point of knowledge that had me running a bit behind for the game last night. David Calvert was nice enough to get me a press pass for Friday’s and Saturday’s games again, which provided a great way to end an otherwise hectic day. (more…)
