NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY: The barn that caused a traffic jam

I was driving almost 60 mph on a back country highway, when I saw this barn. There was hardly a shoulder to park on, so I turned around quickly, stopped in the middle of the road, then ran into the field to snap this picture. When I got back to my vehical, two cars, (with people inside looking at me very strangely) were waiting for me to move out of the way.

Location: Middle of Nowhere, Michigan. Equipment: Fujifilm FinePix 4700 Digital.

Nature and Landscape Photography

Nature and landscape photography is a great field of photography, especially if you love nature and if you love to travel. You can travel the world taking pictures of beautiful scenes across many countries. Of course, this is landscape photography on a big scale. Not many people are lucky enough to start off traveling the world. But you can find beautiful landscapes right where you live. That’s the great thing about nature, it’s everywhere, and landscapes are everywhere. And that same sunset behind the mountain that you’ve seen everyday since you were a kid may look pretty amazing to someone who has never been to the mountains. Seeing the sun rise up out of the oceanfront may be absolutely astonishing to someone who has never been to the beach. It’s all relative. What you may see every day is someone else’s treasure. If you can open your eyes to the beauty and see it, then other people can see it in your photography. It can be simple and everyday or it can be vast and amazing. It’s all about the great pictures you take. You may see a night city skyline, a series of lightening bolts or an interesting cloud; it’s how you take the picture that makes it beautiful to someone else.

Taking Great Photos

Taking a good photo isn’t as hard as you may think. You don’t need the most expensive camera or years of experience, just 10 simple tips. Enjoy! Tip 1 - Use All Your Available Space Don't be afraid to use all the space in your photo. If you want to take a picture of something, it's ok for it to take up the whole shot with no or very little background showing. Keep distractions out of your shot Tip 2 - Study Forms This is a vital aspect to photography. Understanding forms in your photos. Don't see an object, she its shape and its form and find the best angle to photograph it from. Form is all around us and I highly suggest you read as many books on it as possible. Tip 3 - Motion In Your Photos Never have motion in your photos if you are photographing a still object. If there is something moving while you are trying to photograph a stationery object, your photo won't turn out anywhere near as well. Tip 4 - Learn To Use Contrasts Between Colors. Some of the best photos have shades of white, gray and black. You can take great shots with just one color on your subject, but the contrasts between colors in a shot is what makes you a great photographer. Tip 5 - Get Closer To Your Subject This is one of the biggest mistakes most photographers make, not getting close enough to their subject. Get up and personal and close the distance gap. You can always reshape and resize a good shot but you can't continue to blowup a distant object. Tip 6 - Shutter Lag Shooting action shots with digital camera's can be tricky due to shutter lags. What this means is, when you press the button to take the photo, it can take up to a second for the shutter to take a photo, by that time what you were photographing would have moved or changed somehow. This means you have to compensate for shutter lag by predicting what your subject is going to do and taking the photo just before it takes the action you want. More expensive digital cameras don't have this problem. Tip 7 - Pan If you are taking an action shot and your shutter speed is slow, pan with the object. Follow through with the subject, from start to finish and one of those shots will be a winner. You have more chance of getting a good shot if you take more then one photo. Tip 8 - Continuous Shots To pan like I suggested above you will need a camera that does continuous shots and doesn’t need to stop and process after every shot. Tip 9 - How To Take Fantastic Night Time Shots Night time shots can be spectacular, almost magical.... if done right! If not they can look horrible. Really horrible. Without adequate lighting, even good camera's can turn out bad photos if the photographer doesn't know what he or she is doing. Tip 10 - Study Your Manual Read the manual and follow their instructions on how to use it properly.

Being a Great Photographer

Is there any reason that you cannot take professional quality photographs? Not any more. We are in the digital age – and for photographers (by the way, that’s you) this is good news! You do not need a lab full of darkness and chemicals to set up a darkroom – digital allows you to take control of every step of your photography – from shooting, to loading on your computer, to editing and printing your images – all from your desk (or the kitchen table, if you so desire). You can do it all! Rather than be amazed at what the pros can do – be amazed at what YOU can do! Digital photography allows YOU to do what, formerly, was reserved for the pros: remove red eye remove shadows crop unwanted objects crop for close ups clone out undesirables change an image to black & white or sepia adjust the background make a collage of special images And this is just the beginning. You can do a tummy tuck and never leave the house You can melt away years with a clickety-click You can wave goodbye to wrinkles Of course, there is much more you can do in editing your images, but you get the point. Another digital photography beauty is the ability to shoot your people or events and view them ON THE SPOT! This can be done either through your digital camera’s viewfinder or by loading onto your computer. When you are shooting special events in your life this is a real plus. Getting developed rolls of film back from a reunion or vacation is heartbreaking if something went wrong (and even someone having their eyes closed, if it is during a wedding portrait, is "something wrong"). Practice makes perfect! If you believe this AT ALL, you can better understand why digital photography can help you learn to do great photography. Watch someone taking photographs with a medium format camera. At $$ per pop, notice how careful they are as to what they shoot, and how often. With digital you have no such limitations. You can shoot 300 pictures of sunsets, waterfalls, wildlife, wedding photos or your grandkids, and it is not a pain in the billfold. This does not mean go out and shotgun blast everything you see. You still want to keep in mind the need to have a reason (theme) for taking a photography - think about how to focus attention on it, removing what distracts from your theme, and adding whatever attracts or highlights your theme, to make it a great photograph. However if you subscribe to "practice makes perfect" I hope you also agree with the guide "repetition for emphasis." When you learn ONE thing in the field of photography, digital allows you to put it into application immediately and without limit. Digital cameras are becoming even more affordable for the average shutterbug. You can purchase a quality point and shoot digital camera or a pro-sumer DSLR and neither will require a home loan. Yes, digital photography is not only the wave of the future – it is a wonderful way for you to enjoy one of the truly great hobbies and – for some – a very rewarding career!

Beam of Light

I was told recently that some of my photographs are "dream like" Well....the photo below has me baffled. First, notice the beam of light. The light cannot be a lense reflection of the sun, since the beam is illuminating the trees and lake. Second, the sky was clear that day, so the beam didn't come from between clouds. I didn't notice this phenomenon until recently. If anyone has the scientific reason for this, let me know. Otherwise, I'll agree, and say at least this photo is definately "dream like".

Black & White Photography

A lot of interesting points exist in the area of black and white photography using the digital cameras. For example shooting in black & white becomes more interesting with the use of filters. Experimentations can be done by the enthusiastic photographers as to how a particular color would appear in black & white. This can be demonstrated by the fact that perhaps a red filter placed over the lens lightens any red color in the picture making them appear as lighter shades of gray in comparison to other colors like blue green. This process can be very challenging and in the same time very interesting! It is true that digital black and white photography can be used often for the purpose of portraiture and taking pictures of landscapes and can also become very effective in abstract shoots offering a graphical view of the subject to be photographed. The ultimate truth is that the black and white digital photography can make the world look complete different from what it is through the human eyes.

NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY

The barn that caused a traffic jam

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Nature and Landscape Photography

Taking Great Photos

Being a Great Photographer

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