Image City Gallery Members

Gary Thompson's Photo Tips

In the Tip of the Month Gary Thompson, President of Image City,
shares his special tips to help all of us take better pictures.
Check back each month for more examples.
All photographs copyright Gary Thompson or Phyllis Thompson.

	March 2010 Befriend the Local Folks Rain Pools at Cathedral Rocks A few years ago while photographing the Cathedral Rocks near Oak Creek Crossing in Sedona, Arizona I was unceremoniously evicted from an area that I had mistaken for public land. On the hike back to my van I met a woman who was about to enter the trail from which I had been removed. I alerted her that she was about to enter an area that was private land. She laughed and said that everyone walked down that trail to the creek. Upon realizing that I was a photographer she offered to lead me to a little known picturesque plateau that was on public BLM land. So, I trudged along a pleasant wooded trail with the woman and her dog named Blue. After about a half mile the path dropped steeply to a redstone plateau with a gorgeous view of the Cathedral Rocks. After expressing my thanks to the woman and petting my new friend Blue, I began surveying the landscape for a good orientation to capture this wonderful scene. The rain pools were fascinating so I ultimately settled down low on the ground at a pool with a prickly pear cactus. The late horizontal light just prior to sunset provided a warm ambience and long shadows for the scene. A great foreground, clear reflections, a beautiful subject and magic light - what else could I hope for? The moral of the story or in this case the "Tip of the Month" is to interact with people in a friendly manner. You will find it pleasurable and sometimes beneficial. Local folks really enjoy sharing their special places with people whom they believe will understand and appreciate their favorite locations.
	February 2010 When editing your images, disregard how easy or difficult they were to capture The Margaret Todd at Sunrise A trapping to which photographers often succumb is overvaluing images that were difficult to obtain, and undervaluing images that were easy to acquire. If one hikes four miles back into a canyon, takes two hours shooting many different images from precarious vantage points of a water fall, and then hikes the four miles back out of the canyon in a rain storm, there is a likelihood that the images obtained are going to be over rated by the photographer. Conversely, if a photographer is able to jump out of his or her vehicle and take a couple quick images of something, there is a definite tendency to undervalue these images because they were so easy to obtain. The reality is that other people will evaluate an image by its quality, totally independent of its history of capture. Therefore, it is important when editing your work to disregard how easy or difficult it was to capture images. Photographs need to be evaluated based on their quality as a product without regard to their history of acquisition. My example image of the Margaret Todd Schooner in Bar Harbor, ME was easy to capture and I initially undervalued it. Friends and customers encouraged me to print it. I did so and it has sold well.
	January 2010 Visit the Bookstores of Unfamiliar Areas *Churches of Marlowe* When on location in an unfamiliar area travel photographers can save a lot of time by browsing bookstores, libraries and news stands and by studying the work of local photographers. This diminishes the amount of time needed to drive around randomly searching for good photographic locations. I usually start by studying the post cards and then migrate to travel and photography books of the area. The visiting photographer then has some definite locations to consider visiting. Modern GPS instruments and detailed maps such as state DeLorme Gazetteers work well in helping to find these prime photographic locations. I enjoy learning and studying successful classical landscapes and then trying to improve images from these areas. This generally means that the lighting must be better in some way and/or I need to find a creative new perspective for capturing the ambience of the location. After working the more obvious viewpoints of a locale I often spend an hour or two trying to discover new ways of viewing the area as well as looking for smaller isolated images within the larger images. This is when one can find interesting ground cover, reflections, flowers, abstracts, etc.. Several years ago when we were traveling home from Maine I found a picturesque post card of the town of Marlowe, NH. We located the town with our Delorme Gazetteer and changed our driving route enabling us to photograph the town in late afternoon light. Realizing that our favorite view of the town would benefit from morning light we camped overnight and then drove back to Marlowe before sunrise the next morning. To our surprise Marlowe and its ponds were in deep fog. We initially enjoyed shooting mood images with the sun trying to break through the fog. When the fog lifted we were able to shoot the reflections of the Churches of Marlowe with soft front lighting. Without noticing the post card of Marlowe and adjusting our route home we would not have obtained this image nor several other images we captured in the Marlowe area.
	December 2009 Simulating Depth in Semi-Abstracts The Red Door of Taos While photographing a red door in Taos Pueblo, NM, I noticed a brown post off to my left. The post was supporting a roof like structure over the doorway. Realizing that I was using a traditional two dimensional perspective which would come across quite planar, I moved back away from the door and reframed my image to include the post. A longer lens was needed to maintain the door's perceived size and to keep it's strategic position one-third over and one-third down in the frame. By including the post I was able to create a better feeling of depth as compared to shooting the door in isolation. It was important to leave a little space on the left of the post to provide balance and to enhance the feeling of the third dimension. I focused on the side of the post and stopped the aperture down to f-22 to insure sharpness throughout the image. Though it is good to strive for minimalization, sometimes it is desirable to include a foreground or framing element to simulate depth even in a semi-abstract or isolation image.
	November 2009 Secondary Sunrises Autumn Sunburst at Great Bend I categorize my sunrise images basically into three categories Pre-Sunrise, Sunrise, and Secondary Sunrises. A Secondary Sunrise means the image is captured about fifteen minutes to an hour after the sun actually breaks the horizon. During that time there is often very dramatic light with long shadows. Side and back lighting through or on clouds, trees, vegetation, buildings, and other structures can add to the drama. Most of my successful sunrise images, particularly my exhibiting ones, are actually Secondary Sunrises. My example image was taken about forty minutes after sunrise. Using a small aperture, f-22, I was able to burst the sun's rays as they pierced the leaf canopy. I particularly liked the way the very early light bathed the tree trunks, rocks, and leaves on the right side and in the foreground of the image. The lighting is tricky under these conditions so I bracketed my exposure from minus a third of a stop through one stop over exposure. Another benefit of the small aperture is that it produced a large depth of field enabling good sharpness throughout the image. A nice feature of a Secondary Sunrise is that if you are late for the actual sunrise you sometimes get a wonderful second chance.
	October 2009 Rainbow Images Grand Rainbow There is a tendency when shooting rainbows to use wide - ultra wide angle lenses in order to capture the entire arc of a rainbow. This, however, reduces the size of the components of a landscape and generally diminishes the impact of the scene. The rainbow colors themselves are rendered thin and distant in the image. In order to better capture and thicken the spectrum colors of the rainbow and to increase impact I like to use a long lens and emphasize the rainbow against a prominent subject in a landscape. A couple of years back I was photographing the Grand Canyon during a rainstorm when suddenly a beautiful rainbow developed. My first reaction was to use a wide angle lens and to include the entire arch and as much of the Grand Canyon under the colorful arc as possible. When I looked through my viewfinder it became apparent that I was not capturing the magnitude nor the magnificence of the rainbow or the canyon. It suddenly occurred to me that I should include only a section of both that seemed to have particularly good lighting. I quickly changed my wide angle lens for my 100-400 mm zoom lens and ultimately zoomed it out to a 400 mm focal length. I knew instantly that this created a much more powerful way to capture the beauty and magnificence of both the rainbow and canyon. I carefully recorded the image with my camera locked securely on a solid tripod using full polarization, mirror lock-up, and a cable release. Using a long lens and isolating a portion of the rainbow and landscape minimized the component elements but maximized their impact.
	September 2009 Shoot the Seasons Photos Spring Sunrise at Great Bend and Autumn Sunrise at Great Bend When you find a good photo location that you enjoy visiting, as expressed in an earlier tip of the month, revisit, revisit, & revisit until you become intimate with that location. Then really have some fun by intentionally using these revisitations to capture the nuances of the different seasons. There are few places equal to upstate New York for enjoying four distinct photogenic seasons. Our Springs are refreshingly beautiful. Our Summers are lush and green. Our Autumns can be vividly colorful, and our winters can be delicately white and pristine. To top off the varying seasons is the fact that the weather and lighting will almost always be different. We in the Rochester area really live in an outdoor photographer's paradise. The Great Bend area of the Genesee River in Letchworth State Park has always fascinated me. I began shooting the "S" curves of the river from many vantage points several years ago. One of my favorite positions utilizes two trees for framing the sides of an image used in harmony with a slanted rim foreground. When the light is right I have been able to capture some excellent images at this location. One Spring, during the last week of April, light bathed a row of trillium lining the cliff's edge and I was able to record an early morning image. Motivated by my Spring success, I returned several times during that year's Fall season and on one day was fortunate to catch fog in the canyon during peak foliage with soft diffused lighting. I often exhibit these two images side by side and both have sold well. On a few occasions they have been purchased as a pair. I have been working on a winter image at this location but will never quite be able to achieve the same perspective because the wonderful "Tree of Character" on the right of the frame has recently fallen into the gorge. I have lost a true friend. I entitled the two images Spring Sunrise at Great Bend and similarly Autumn Sunrise at Great Bend.
	August 2009 Double Exposure Photo Ghost Ships of Wiscasset I have often said it is the quality of light that initially motivates me to take a photograph. However, sometimes the light is quite ordinary and I find an interesting subject that begs to be captured photographically. Even though I might feel an emotional attachment to a subject, shooting under the conditions of ordinary light generally produces an ordinary image. A technique I learned years ago from an excellent photographer, Doug Shumacher, is to capture the ambiance of a subject by taking a double exposure. Use one exposure to provide motion or emotion and the other exposure to capture the essence of the subject matter. One hazy, lazy day of summer I was hoping to photograph the old somewhat decrepit schooners marooned in the waters of the Sheepscot River, near Wiscasset, Maine. A look at the schooners and it was obvious that they had survived beyond their practical usefulness. Even though they were well grounded onto the bottom of the river, their masts and bodies protruded high above the surface of the water. Their rough, rustic appearance indicated that they had participated fully in history. To subtlely capture the mystery element of the schooners, I first took a macro image of an aesthetic section of wood grain, under exposing it by 1.33 stops below my camera's recommended meter reading. For the second image on the same frame of film, I recomposed a general landscape image that included the schooners, and used an exposure of 0.67 stops under the recommended meter reading. The two under exposures add up to one full exposure, but not evenly. The result is that the wood grain of the first image lightly and mystically flows over the more discernable scene of the schooners. I titled the image Ghost Ships of Wiscasset. A year or two later the two ships in reality became ghosts as they were destroyed in an act of vandalism. Some of the newer digital cameras are capable of shooting in-camera multiple exposures. If your camera does not have this capability, you can use Photoshop or other programs to derive a similar multiple exposure effect.
	August 2009 Shooting the Classics Photo Silhouettes at Mesa Arch Some photographers avoid shooting well-known classic location landscapes. I personally like the challenge of shooting such images. These are the among the most difficult scenes to capture since so many people have seen the classic version of that particular location. In order to be successful you have to benefit from perhaps the most dramatic light that ever bathed that landscape or in some way show it in a new creative manner. Mesa Arch has become an icon of the American Southwest and as such is now a location that is sought out by most serious nature photographers who travel to that area. In my example image entitled Silhouettes at Mesa Arch, I was attempting to magnify and silhouette the Washer Woman Arch along with three other mesas while still framing it under the wonderful red glow of Mesa Arch. To accomplish this I moved back about 40 yards from the normal spot used by photographers and selected a 100-400 mm telephoto lens zooming it to about 300 mm. I shot several bracketed images with different viewpoints while a Swiss hiker patiently waited for me to finish shooting. He finally asked my permission to move up into the arch to take a couple quick images with his point and shoot camera. I urged him to do so feeling guilty about how long he had politely waited. As he crouched to take a rather traditional image with his camera zoomed to wide angle, I observed that his silhouette balanced the Washer Woman and the other background mesas rather nicely. I asked him to remain perfectly still, and while he patiently obliged, I shot several bracketed images. The combination of using an unusual focal length lens and the inclusion of a human silhouette enabled me to capture this unique image of a classic view. Can you find the "Washer Woman Arch" in the image? Would you believe it is about two miles from "Mesa Arch"? It bothers me when some photographers down grade the classic locations as cliché spots. The reality is that these photographers have generally not worked these areas creatively to produce original images.
	July 2009 Be Flexible Photo Sunrise at Abrams's Creek Last month I wrote about the importance of pre-planning particularly for sunrise shoots. This month I would like to caution against being too focused on your plan. If on the way to a planned shoot location you catch yourself yelling, WOW!!, you should pay attention to your senses. "WOWs", usually mean you are on to something special. These occurrences should be treated as unplanned opportunities that need to be investigated. A few years ago Phyllis and I were camped near the entrance to Cade's Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Preplanning had placed us almost directly at the entrance, poised to enter the cove (high mountain valley) at first light the next morning. On that next morning, while making the short drive to the cove's entrance, we observed a picturesque stream with wonderful backlit silky fog. We were "WOWED", and fortunately adjusted our plans, and began photographing this beautiful stream intending to take a few minutes to record it's moody atmosphere. An hour and a half later, after shooting about a hundred images, we were still captivated by the scene. First light in Cade's Cove was postponed to the next day. My example image is entitled "Abram's Creek". Recent news from Kodak makes it ironic that this month's photo tip was recorded on Kodachrome slide film.
	June 2009 Plan Ahead Photo Sunrise at Pemaquid Point II In photography and in life in general, it is useful to be organized and to plan ahead. This is especially true for sunrise photography. I try to pre-run my sunrise shoots so that I know the day before exactly where I want to initially place my tripod the next morning. Even after driving to the image location I am usually still a little groggy from the required ungodly wake up time. It is therefore somewhat comforting to be able to set up my tripod in a good location without any deep thinking and with minimal stumbling around in the dark. My example image is a June sunrise at Pemaquid Point, ME which required a rude 3:00 AM wake up. I had previously planned where to place my tripod, so all I initially needed to do was to safely negotiate my passage through the rocks to my pre-planned position. Even the passage through the rocks had been pre-planned and practiced the day before. When the sky began to glow and the sun rose, my adrenalin increased and I could then begin thinking more clearly and creatively. For the next hour and a half it was exciting to move around trying to capture the varying moods created by the warm sunlight and the long shadows it produced.
	May 2009 Revisit, Revisit, Revisit Photo Round Rock at Otter Cliffs One of the strategies used by master landscape photographers is to visit and then continually revisit locations that resonate with them. Every visitations serves to increase understanding of the location and how light affects the scenery. With each visit the photographer further develops intimacy with the surroundings. By observing, analyzing, and trying new approaches the photographer improves his or her ability to capture the moods of the locale. Variables such as lighting, weather, and seasonal conditions, provide the photographer with tools to communicate ambiance and different moods of the scene. In my example image Round Rocks at Otter Cliffs, it took me 13 sunrise visits over a three year period to capture the warm red glow on the egg shaped foreground rocks. The rocks are normally almost bone white. On the 13th sunrise a beautiful red glow painted the rocks for about three minutes and I was rewarded for my persistence.
	April 2009 Study the Scene before Entering Photo Cabin in the Woods by Phyllis Thompson I have often advised students to study the scene before racing off to shoot it. Here is an example with the photograph Cabin in the Woods taken by my wife and fellow photographer, Phyllis. When Phyllis and I were leading a photo tour to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we drove by a picturesque cabin in Cades Cove. After parking, we jumped out of our vans and all of us, except Phyllis, moved quickly into the wooded areas to each side of the cabin. Our intent was to use leaf canopies and other wooded elements as foreground in shooting side and angle views of the cabin. Phyllis studied the scene from near the road and observed the subtle echoing "s" curved lines of an above ground root, a winding stream, and an echoing shadow. She combined them to create a wonderful foreground that covers about 70 percent of her overall frame. Phyllis placed the cabin slightly off center in the background to complete her landscape. Soft sunlight touched the grass areas to render interest and a pleasant mood for the viewer. We all captured good images of the cabin, however, Phyllis' image was by far the most creative and aesthetically pleasing. The lesson to be learned is to "survey and study the scene before entering."
	March 2009 Reflection in a Landscape Photo Moraine Lake The use of reflections when composing images is always fun to do. You can utilize this technique with any kind of lighting. By moving lower or higher, or by moving left or right you can change the perspective and introduce unusual and creative versions of an image. In my example image of Moraine Lake in the Canadian Rockies I didn't have any spectacular lighting. However, the soft diffused lighting of a cloudy day worked well to even out the intensity of highlight and shadowed areas. This, in combination with a perfectly calm day, produced optimum conditions for capturing the mountain reflections in the still of Moraine Lake. I took quite a bit of time moving around in order to find a pleasant and balanced foreground that would contribute the perspective of depth for the overall image. Fortunately the wind remained minimal and the lighting consistent. Moraine Lake is nestled beautifully in what is called the "Valley of the Ten Peaks". In this image you can see four of the valley's ten peaks.
	February 2009 Winter Photography Photo Winter at Wolf Creek The snows of Winter cover the scars of the landscape and sometimes create picturesque scenes. When a fresh snow falls I love to get out early in the morning and drive to some natural area. Along the way I try to recognize potential image capturing scenes. Winter fog, hoarfrost, and snow clinging to the branchs of trees all provide excellent subject matter and/or supporting ingredients for interesting compositions. One Saturday morning, I awoke to a beautiful fresh snowfall and as soon as I could, I drove hurriedly to Letchworth State Park. I rapidly hiked down a trail from outside of the park to one of my favorite locations, Wolf Creek Glen. Knowing that the sun would soon melt the pristine snow clinging to the branches, I worked quickly to record many bracketed images. After about a half hour, the sun's rays began to melt the snow on the tree branches and the magic of the scene diminished. While driving home, I allowed my cameras to warm by leaving my bag open in the back seat. Upon arriving back at the house I realized that the cameras and their attached lenses were still quite cold. Therefore, I placed them in freezer bags, zipped up the bags, and then brought them into the house where I let them set for a couple of hours before opening the Ziploc bags. This was done to enable the cameras to warm gradually while preventing condensation from forming on the cold camera surfaces. I highly recommend this procedure whenever you shoot outdoors at temperatures below freezing.
	January 2009 Side Lighting at Sunrise or Sunset In the two previous tips of the month I wrote about avoiding lens flare when shooting sunrises and sunsets by "sunbursting" the sun with foreground and by being aware of the 180 degree view. Another very useful technique when photographing sunrises and sunsets is to use side lighting. In other words, don't shoot directly into the sun but utilize sunlight coming from the side. This kind of light can be quite dramatic with long shadows. I have found that by placing the sun anywhere from 45 to 135 degrees from the axis of my lens works well. Be sure to use your lens hood and be aware of lens flare, particularly if the angle is between 45 and 90 degrees. I usually use a polarizing filter because it will have maximum affect with side lighting. In "Sunrise over Bar Harbor", I took the photo about two minutes after the sun broke the horizon at about a 60 degree angle from the axis of my lens. The wonderful warm, glowing light bouncing from the foreground rocks lasted for about two minutes. Although most of the magic light dissipated quickly, I was able to shoot many other high-quality images for about 90 minutes utilizing side lighting and polarization. After that, Phyllis and I treated ourselves to an exquisite breakfast at the Café This-A-Way in Bar Harbor. This is our ritual reward for rising so early for sunrises.
	December 2008 180 Degree Sunrises and Sunsets Most of us have a tendency to shoot sunrises and sunsets directly into the sun. Although this can be very productive, especially if there are interesting back lit clouds, an alert photographer will remember to observe lighting conditions in all directions. Turn your back to the sun every once in a while and look 180 degrees from the rising or setting sun. Sometimes you will see beautifully front lit clouds and dramatic front lit subject matter. My example image was taken at Birch Point State Park in Maine. There was a wonderful sunset in the west but I couldn't find interesting subject matter in that direction. It started to rain and I turned to the east and was astonished to find colorful clouds and a rainbow. I immediately turned my cameras to the east and began photographing. My rainbow images were good, but my example image with radiating clouds and rock patterns is my favorite. The blue color results from the reflection of the blue sky on the wet sand and rocks.
	November 2008 Sunbursting Sunrises and Sunsets One of the main obstacles in shooting directly into the sun during sunrises and sunsets is that lens flare is almost certain to occur. To counteract this, I sometimes sunburst the sun against a silhouetted subject. I step down my aperture to f-22 and rather precisely position my tripod and camera so that only a tiny sliver of the sun is showing. A tiny sliver is about 1/50th or 1/100th of the sun. Any larger amount of sun will almost certainly produce lens flare. To check on lens flare and the sunburst itself I push in my depth-of-field button to observe the effects of the f-22 aperture. In my example image, I used a sunburst to capture my rendition of the often photographed Mesa Arch. Note that the image was taken about 20 minutes after sunrise but, because of the sunburst, still communicates the feeling of sunrise. The large difference in light intensity of the sunrise and the back and underside of the arch made it necessary for me to bracket my exposures widely. I generally avoid using a polarizer when shooting into the sun as it usually has no effect and increases the probability for lens flare.
	October 2009 Painting with Snow Flakes Snow storms present opportunities to create "painterly" effects in winter scenes. These effects are best achieved when the storm has large, fluffy, floating snow flakes. I like to freeze, figuratively speaking, the snow flakes against a dark background by using relatively fast shutter speeds like 1/125 second if possible. Usually this means that I have to sacrifice the depth of field by using large apertures. The short depth of field is generally not a problem in that most of the image will be muted anyway by the snow flakes frozen in space. If you use slower shutter speeds like 1/30 second or if the storm is driven by strong winds, the result will not be painterly, but will look more like a rain storm. The example rural landscape, entitled "Winter Windmill", was taken in Staunton, VA during a heavy snow storm.
	September 2009 "S" Curves "S" curves in streams, rocks, trails, roadways, and wherever present provide excellent compositional possibilities. Some say the "S" curve is naturally sensual. I'm not sure, but I do know that when used in an image it can be very pleasant. My example image is of "Sleepy Hollow Farm" formerly called "Gray's Farm". It is located in the back country of Vermont a few miles north of Woodstock. The sweeping portion of the "S" curve provided by the driveway is not only pleasing, but also leads the eye smoothly down into the image and ultimately to the rustic barn. In this instance even a portion of a full "S: curve is effective. The heavy rain from the fallout of a July hurricane enhanced the ambiance and moodiness of this composition.
Bubbles	August 2008 How to deal with Photo Block Occasionally photographers experience "photo block" like writer's develop "writer's block". On those hopefully rare occasions I like to dramatically change my photographic strategy. If working a landscape with fairly normal lenses and little success I might try an extreme wide angle lens (~ 15 mm) and make the foreground about 75 percent of the image. Another approach might be to take a 400 mm lens and isolate on only one small but interesting portion of the landscape. Sometimes I will try in camera multiple exposures. When shooting my example image I was leading a group of photographers on Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park on a rainy and dreary day. Nothing seemed to have interest to me. As the leader of the group I needed to put up a good front and to be enthusiastic. I happened to notice some interesting sea foam bubbles along the water's edge. Quickly I replaced my normal zoom lens with a macro lens and went in very close to the sea bubbles. In the macro mode I was able to see colors and reflections that I had not initially seen. I first noticed the strong triangular lines reflected from my tripod. A huge rather ugly blob in the center of the triangle turned out to be my body's reflection. In order to break up the blob I threw my arms over my head into a "touchdown" signal and took several bracketed images using my two second shutter delay. I shot almost a roll of film with about 50 percent of the images being quite good. Amazingly, this has been a good selling image. Two of the images were independently purchased by women whose boy friends were sky divers.
Schooner and the Rowboat	July 2008 Be alert for the Magic Moment When taking photographs be alert for the "magic moment". If time and light allows, I try to patiently work an image to determine the best composition. During that time I take a few shots in case the light or part of the composition changes. While working the scene try to anticipate changes before they occur. Scan the sky to see if light changes are likely to happen and be aware of movement within the composition. In the case of my example image, "Schooner and the Rowboat", I had taken several images of the schooner using the rocks as foreground. Suddenly I noticed two men in a dinghy rowing out towards the schooner. Hoping that they would actually approach the schooner, I waited until they reached a complementary position before taking the image. My images of the "schooner" with foreground rocks were actually quite good, but the image with the addition of the men in the dinghy has been one of my all time best selling prints.
Mossy Forest	July 2008 "Blah Day" Photography On "blah" lighting days I love to go to forested areas. The soft, diffused, subtle, lighting of cloudy overcast days is wonderful for leveling the light intensities of shadows and highlights. When using evaluative or matrix metering on these kinds of days, the camera's recommended reading for a "right on exposure" is usually quite good. The accompanying image of a forested area on Deer Island, Maine was taken on one of those dreary "blah" lighting days. On a bright sunny day this scene might be quite beautiful to the human eye, however the resulting print would probably have much too much contrast.
Texas Falls	June 2008 Bad Weather Means Good Photography David Muench has a saying that, "Bad Weather means Good Photography". I have found this to be very true. Some of the best sunrises and sunsets occur when strong storms begin to clear. This image of Texas Falls in Vermont was taken during a heavy rainstorm which was part of the fall-out of a July hurricane. I used 400 ISO print film in my Pentax 6x7 camera with a polarizing filter to capture this scene. At F/16 my shutter speed was four seconds. I call this a "Two Umbrella Shot" - one over my camera & tripod and the other over my camera bag. I wore a waterproof parka, rain pants, and hiking boots. In these kinds of severe conditions you can get great images if you are prepared, stay calm, take your time and work carefully. I always bring rain gear and two umbrellas on my photo journeys. "Rain can be beautiful"!
Early Morning at Big Sur	May 2008 Fog and Haze can Create Mood Just as foreground can be used to create the impression of 3D character, fog and haze can also be used to produce this perception. By creating the feeling of depth the viewer identifies with the landscape and remembers past experiences associated with similar scenes. These experiences trigger feelings and mood is communicated.
Autumn Leaves at Beaver Meadow Creek	April 2008 Foreground Creates Mood Arguably the most important compositional factor in dramatic landscapes is the use of foreground. By including strong foregrounds, the impression of 3D character can be created. When the viewer perceives depth they feel like they can step into the image. This triggers subconscious memories of things like: the fragrance of foreground flowers, the granular texture of foreground rocks, the fresh cool moisture of dew, or the warm feeling of sunlight scintillating across rocks. These triggered remembrances cause emotional responses and communicate mood.
Wave of Zion	March 2008 Watch for Interesting Patterns In composing images, look for repeating patterns and/or shapes. This repetition is called "echoing" and can be very pleasant to the viewer. In the image, "Wave of Zion", there are three areas of echoing: foreground, middle ground, and sky. Notice that the curved lines within each area are not only parallel but also have radiating character.
Winter at the Hogback	February 2008 Winter Snow Photography Most of us as photographers, when using exposures recommended by our camera's meter, have taken disappointing images of picturesque snow-filled, winter scenes. These images are generally too dark and sometimes appear bluish or grayish. To capture the pristine whites of a beautiful snow scene when using matrix, evaluative, or overall metering, overexpose the image by one full stop and bracket your images by a half stop over and above that exposure. In other words, expose images containing significant amounts of snow by +0.5, +1.0, and +1.5 stops above your camera's recommended settings. Photographers shooting digitally should also check their histograms to insure that the exposure is well balanced and that you have not overexposed too much so that highlight details have been lost.
Fall Cascade at Stony Brook	January 2008 Keep it Simple This is sometimes referred to as the KISS concept. After you finish taking a photograph, but before you move your camera, ask yourself what first attracted you to shoot this image. Then move in physically or zoom in tight on that component of the image that first attracted you. Chances are that the resulting image which isolates the attraction will be more powerful and communicative than the original image that contained more information. Most photographers try to include too much information. Remember in photography more is generally less.

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