Category Archives: Commentary

Commentary, Ideas, Locations

Thoughts About Photographing Icons

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Earlier today I posted a photograph of an icon, Yosemite’s Half Dome. The idea of photographing such a thing evokes a variety of thoughts and concerns that I suspect many photographers understand: Is it too easy? Has it already been done? How will the shot stand in comparison to those that have already been done by greater and more famous photographers? Why bother?

It is interesting to see the variety of ways in which photographers respond to this issue. At one extreme are those who perhaps chase the icons, realizing that they are beautiful and compelling and that there sure as heck is a market for them. (Experiment: Take two of your best photographs from a famous location, one showing an icon and one showing something less familiar, and post them at Flickr… and see what happens. :-) At the other extreme are those who fall into the camp represented by a photographer who, when asked how to photograph icons more or less replied, “Don’t.”

I suppose I’m somewhere in the middle. Let’s use Yosemite Valley as an example since it is so familiar and since I frequently have the opportunity to travel there to do photography. I most certainly do not head straight for icons when I shoot there. In fact, when I photograph in the neighborhood of most of the icons you will frequently find my camera pointing the other direction. After visiting the Valley for decades, I think I’ve come to understand there is much more to this place than the post card shots.

However, icons are icons for a reason. Every so often I’m in the company of someone who is seeing the Valley for the first time, and through their reaction I am again reminded of the visual power of some of the icon scenes. (I wish I could experience what it must be like to emerge from Wawona Tunnel for the first time having never seen that stupendous view of the Valley before!) So I will shoot icons, but I suppose I at least think I’m more selective about how and when I’ll shoot them. I look for a different angle, a way to position the icon as a background element in a photograph of something less iconic, or perhaps unusual conditions.

It isn’t for me to say how successful I might be at this, but it seems that it is perhaps more of a challenge to find a way to shoot an icon in an interesting way than it is to shoot something that is less familiar.

So the photograph I posted earlier today fits into this category – you can’t get much more iconic than Half Dome! I’ve been trying to learn to understand this particular location – the variables of season and time of day and weather and technical issues about capturing the scene – and I now have a couple images in mind that I’d like to shoot here eventually when the time is right. This one gets close to one such shot I have in mind… but I’ll be back at this overlook many more times.

Commentary, Technique

If ‘Photoshopping’ is Cheating

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I recently read (another) article suggesting that work done in the post-processing phase using digital tools lessens the value of the photograph and suggests that the photographer is less than competent or perhaps “cheating” – and that real photographers get it right “straight out of the camera.”

There is much more to say about this bizarre notion, but for now here is a little “thought experiment.”

In order to believe that image modification in digital post-processing is cheating or otherwise lessens the value of a photographer’s work as art, it seems to me that you would have to accept that a whole list of analogous traditional film photography techniques  must be equally wrong, including:

  • use of filters
  • use of swing, tilt, shift
  • choosing a film based on its “personality” (One word: “Velvia”)
  • dodging and burning
  • selecting and/or altering film development methods in order to alter the image
  • selecting different grades of paper for different prints
  • using any focal length other than “normal” – whatever that means
  • cropping
  • spotting prints
  • any use of artificial lighting or reflectors
  • pre-exposing negatives
  • the original USM technique done with negatives
  • any corrections to the color balance of the original capture
  • all black and white photography – as the world is never black and white

Of course, every one of these and more are standard stock in trade for photographers working with film and traditional darkroom techniques.

Commentary, News, Photographers, Publications

First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness

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So, you like landscape photography, right? And you are aware that some of the most beautiful photographic subjects can be found in the back-country of California’s Yosemite National Park, right? And you very much enjoy looking through and absorbing the work of photographers who know the place especially well, right?

You need to pick up a copy of First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness, published by Heyday Press.

The book features the wonderful photography of a group of photographers whose experience in the park is extraordinary and varied: Charles Cramer, Karl Kroeber, Scot Miller, Mike Osborne, and Keith S. Walklet. Right now copies of the book autographed by all five photographers are available from the Ansel Adams Gallery.

(For the record, I have no financial interest in this book and if you purchase through the links in my post I receive no compensation from the sale. I just like the book and the photographers a lot and think you might, too!)

Commentary, Equipment

New Canon Instant Rebates on Lenses

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It looks like new rebates are available on Canon lenses, at least via B&H Photo/Video. Given the recent increases in Canon lens list prices, this may be a good opportunity to save some money on that lens you have been waiting for. The list of eligible lenses includes some very popular ones.

If you are ready to spend over $5000 on a 200mm f/2 lens (!) you can save $500. Many other lenses offer instant rebates in the $100-$150 range with some less-expensive lenses offering smaller rebates. Lenses available under this offer include: