Category Archives: Commentary

Commentary, Ideas, Tongue in Cheek

10 Critical Tips for Landscape Photographers

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1. Use a camera. The most important and basic tool of the landscape photographer is the camera. Using a camera greatly simplifies the process of capturing photographic images, and without one you’ll likely feel a bit lost. You may have noticed that pretty much all great landscape photographers use a camera – some use more than one! – so take a cue from the pros and make sure you have a camera, too!

2. Get a lens. Having a lens makes your camera much more useful. While a camera is critical to your work as a landscape photographer, without a lens the usefulness of the camera is greatly diminished. For this reason, virtually all successful landscape photographers end up, sooner or later, getting a lens to use with their camera. You’ll definitely want one, too – just like the pros! (Some cameras come with a lens built in – what a useful idea!)

3. Remove your lens cap. How many photographers can tell stories of forgetting to remove the lens cap before making a photograph, only to discover that the results were not what they had hoped for? But you don’t have to learn the hard way! Practice removing your lens cap at home – that way, when you are in the field you will have developed “photographer’s instincts” that will ensure that you remove the lens cap. (The good news is that with digital cameras you don’t have to worry about whether you loaded the film – but don’t forget your memory card!)

4. Photograph interesting things. Although it isn’t universally true, you will probably get more interesting photographs if you photograph interesting things. There are many things in the world, and not all of them are interesting. Look for the interesting things and photograph them. Look around – it is an interesting thing to do! Interesting, yes?

5. Pick the right brand. There are many brands of photographic equipment out there – cameras, lenses, filters, bags, you name it. Picking the wrong brand may hamper your photography; pick the right brand and you may not hamper your photography so much. So be sure to pick the right brand. If you aren’t sure which brand is best, talk to photographers – any one of them can tell you which is best… and why!

6. Light is important. Without light it would be pretty much impossible to make photographs, at least the typical landscape photographs. So if you plan to make typical photographs, look for scenes that are illuminated by… light! Light is your friend. Seek out light and when you see it make photographs. Think about it… how many of the photographers you admire work without light? So, do what the pros do – use light!

7. Pick the right subject. Pick the wrong subject and your photograph won’t be what you wanted it to be, so be sure to photograph the right subject. Seek it out and when you see the right subject make a photograph. Perhaps make several. There are so many subjects in the world that finding the right one can be a challenge, so be sure to apply yourself carefully to this task.

8. Colors are important. Unless you are making black and white photographs – in which case the only important colors are black and white. You’ll want to pay careful attention to color. The most important advice is to focus on color in your color photographs – just like the pros!

9. Focus on what is most important. Some people think that mastering technical issues is the most important thing. Others think that having the right equipment is critical. Some claim that the artistic quality of the photograph is important. (Don’t forget – color is important, too!) Before you make great photographs you’ll have to decide which is the most important in your work. Don’t waste your time being a generalist and trying to do everything – pick one and focus on it!  Successful photographers develop a speciality and stick to it.  And don’t forget the rule of thirds!

10. Find good locations. There are many popular spots to make photographs, and you can make photographs just like the pros if you seek out these locations and shoot there, too. You’ll have to be attentive, since these spots are easy to miss if you are talking on your cell phone as you drive past them. Some telltale hints include parking lots full of cars and lines of people with tripods. Stop and make a photograph – there is always room for one more tripod! You can probably make one that looks just like those that the other photographers are making! (Hint: You can also visit online photography sites ahead of time – both to find the locations and to save yourself from spending too much time searching for compositions when you actually get there. Your time is precious!)

Good luck!

(I probably should have saved this for April 1, but I couldn’t wait… :-)

For those whose first experience with my blog is this tongue-in-cheek post, I write serious stuff, too, and a related recent post might interest you: Photographic Myths and Platitudes – ‘Landscape Photography Lenses’ (Part I)

Commentary, Equipment

An Itinerant Photographer and His iPad: A Second Report

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Some time ago I posted “An Itinerant Photographer and His iPad: A First Report” – and this is a follow-up to that post, written after a few more months of experience with the iPad. It is also an expanded version of something that I posted in a photography forum in response to a question about using the iPad as an image backup device.

One question that seems to come up a lot is whether it is possible/viable to use the iPad as a backup device for making copies of your files in the field. There at least two reasons that you might want to copy your files from your camera’s memory to an external storage. First, you may want to create duplicate backup copies of the image files on your camera memory cards for safety reasons – it is risky to have only single copies of them. Second, some might choose to do this so that they can economize by using a single memory card, transferring files from the card when it is full, erasing the card, and starting over again. I’m not convinced that this makes a lot of sense given the relatively low cost of memory cards today and the risks of having only a single copy of your files.

You can transfer raw files directly from your camera to the iPad using a USB cable and the “camera connection kit” adapter. Here are ome observations based on my experience doing this:

  • It works – you can move your raw files to the iPad and view them there.
  • The process is very slow. Thumbnail previews appear quite quickly, but downloading is a very long process during which I usually find something else to do.
  • You need to think through the memory issues carefully. Your raw files are quite large and the maximum memory in an iPad is currently 64GB. I have the maximum in mine which leaves me about 32GB for photographs. (I have a lot of music and video files on my iPad – perhaps more than the typical user.) There will be very little space for photographs if you get the 16GB model and the 32GB might be tight depending upon what else you store on it.
  • You can view the raw files directly on the iPad. They are not optimized – and raw files need some sharpening and so forth to look their best – but they are fine for previewing images and sharing with others who might want to quickly see what you came up with. Don’t underestimate the value of being able to share files this way. I notice that sharing the images with others on the iPad is often a more natural and pleasant experience than sharing them on a laptop – viewers will frequently hold the iPad and pass it to one another in ways that are rarely seen with laptops.
  • The raw files cannot display at full native resolution – there is some upper boundary currently built into the iPad – though they do  display at a resolution that is considerably larger than that of the iPad screen.
  • I may be missing something that would make the task simpler, but I don’t find it very easy to delete the files from the iPad once they are transferred to my computer.

A bottom line is that you can use an iPad for backing up files in the field, but you need to be aware of several issues before you decide to depend on this. The issues include the very slow file transfer speed and the importance of making sure that the unused memory on your iPad is sufficient for the files you will transfer. With a 64GB iPad, the vast majority of users will have more than 32GB available.

(If the speed and storage space limitations of the iPad are a problem for you, there are other options for backing up in the field. There are specialized back drive products that are designed for making backups of your camera memory cards, or you could use a regular laptop. The tradeoff its greater storage capacity and access to more photo editing applications include shorter battery life and greater size/weight.

What about image editing on the iPad? Several programs are available the provide varying levels of image editing capability.  I use Photogene. It is competent and well-worth the very tiny cost. It provides basic editing features that can let you create decent (but not stellar) jpgs for upload. It does a curve, cropping, black and white conversion, color adjustments, simple sharpening and so forth – but it most definitely is not Photoshop or Light Room. That said, I’ve used it for doing quick edits and web posts from the field. For what it is and for the very low cost, I recommend it. (iPad apps appear so rapidly that it is quite possible that other options will be available by the time you read this.)

Can an iPad replace your laptop? The iPad is only sort of a laptop replacement – I like to simply say that “an iPad is not a laptop,” though it can perform some tasks that you might otherwise use a laptop for. It is great for web browsing and OK for email, though extensive typing on the virtual keyboard is awkward and error-prone. I am fine with it for short emails and short web posts and reading the updating social media sites. You can do better with an external keyboard, but this starts to defeat the small size/weight and convenience of the iPad and makes a laptop look like less of a burden.

Battery life is excellent. Apple is not lying when they claim 10 hours per charge.

The tiny size and small weight make a significant difference. Even my small laptop seems downright large after carrying the iPad instead. It is small enough to easily slip into a side pocket of my camera bag when traveling. I left the laptop at home and carried only an iPad on a weeklong trip to New York City. I was very grateful for the size and weight savings and only mildly inconvenienced by missing some of the power of the laptop I would usually take. What with tripods, lenses, bodies, flash equipment and other gear, I welcome the smaller size/weight of the iPad when a regular laptop is not really needed.

One other reason to have an iPad is that publishing is likely to move increasingly to forms that can be distributed on devices such as the iPad. Photographers would do well to experience and understand this first hand, especially if they intend to distribute their photographs electronically and/or write about photography.

VERDICT:

It will make sense for some photographers and some circumstances, but not for others. There is no universal “right” answer to the question of whether the iPad is a useful tool for photographers – the real question is whether its features will or will not be useful to you. For my part, when I don’t have to do more than minimal editing in the field and I want to share electronic versions of photographs and travel light… I prefer to take the iPad rather than my laptop.

What do you think? Do you use an iPad for photography-related purposes? Are you wondering if it will work for you? Leave a comment via the link found below.

Commentary, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

McGee Mountain and Little Alkali Lake, Dawn

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McGee Mountain and Little Alkali Lake, Dawn
McGee Mountain and Little Alkali Lake, Dawn

McGee Mountain and Little Alkali Lake, Dawn. Owens Valley, California. October 10, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn light in the eastern Sierra on McGee Mountain, reflected in Little Alkali Lake, Owens Valley, California.

There are higher peaks along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada – much higher! – but I can think of few that catch the dawn light more beautifully than McGee Mountain just north of McGee Creek in the area around Mammoth Lakes and Crowley Lake. The slopes of the mountain are open without obstruction to the dawn light as it works its way down from the peaks, and the light passes across the face and accents the relief of alternating valleys and aretes. On this early October morning an early season storm had left the upper slopes covered with snow, and beyond the slopes of McGee Creek Canyon leading up toward Mount Morgan are still in shade.

I photographed this scene from well out into Owens Valley, where I was almost alone apart from an occasional car passing by on the distant road – and apart from the bellowing beasts in a nearby herd of cattle! Steam rises from some of the many hot springs in this geothermally-active area of the eastern Sierra, and a bit of mist floats above the reflective surface of this alkali lake.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Commentary, Ideas

What Do YOU See?

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Earlier this week a reader posted a message on Facebook about one of my photographs (probably one of the more perplexing ones to some viewers/readers – a black and white photograph of a wall) and said: “not to be meant as criticism: but why did you take this picture – what intrigued you about the scene?”

I thought this was a great question, and I answered as best as I could. (Admittedly, I’m not always fully aware of precisely why I make a particular photograph – I may simply know at some intuitive level that it is interesting to me.) My quick answer was:

First, I’m intrigued by minimalist geometric (and sometimes natural) subjects. There were several things that caught my attention here, including: the gross difference between the large (almost but not quite) black area on the right and the thin and brighter area of the window frame on the left. I also liked the way the faint (and fading) shadow continues the line of the one bit of structure than interrupts the vertical pattern on the left side. And, although it isn’t visible until you see a large print, the larger area on the right side of the frame is far from plain – it is a fabric-like texture that is, itself, divided into rectangular squares.

It was, of course, first shot in color. I’ve gone back and forth on the color v. black and white question. The colors are so muted that you might actually think that the color print was black and white, so I’ve more or less decided to go with black and white.

Finally, you might think of this as a sort of “study” in which I’m experimenting with some very simple form ideas. As you might have noticed if you follow my stuff much, I post a photograph every day – and I have no illusions that I can produce 365 great photographs every year! :-)

And then I also included: “I’d be interested to hear more about your thoughts and reactions to the photograph. Ultimately, that interests me as much or more as my own thoughts.”

Part of her response included:

… I find it fascinating, in all its “mutedness” – but it is such an unlikely picture – and image of something that doesn’t easily catch someones eye. People pass this scene by – or better – they do not even go there (why would someone go to a wall besides a window – we’d not face it, we’d turn our backs on it). So ordinary, yet fascinating…

Her response was wonderful, and made me think of some things implicit in the photographs that I had not recognized until she suggested them. I had thought of the “mutedness,” which I thought of as a sense of “quiet” in the image. But her idea about how “people pass by the scene” and the comment about “why would someone go to a wall beside a window…” made me realize some things about the photograph that I had not thought of – partly precisely what she noted, but beyond that some idea that the photograph suggests things that are not really in the frame, and one thing that is at least odd about it is that the subject is the thing that a visitor to this place would be least likely to look at.  I often learn a lot about my photographs from others. That may seem like an odd thing to say, but I can almost never see my photographs quite the same way that others do – if for no other reason than because I created them.