Calm Photos

Gearing-up for spring. Now that I’ve discussed why it’s so important for photographers not to make equipment and gear a priority, at the expense of developing a unique, artistic vision, I’m going to talk about gear. However, not the glamorous, souped-up digital SLR camera body with the highest megapixels, or that big piece of lens glass that will be the envy of the camera club. No, the one piece of gear that I have found to be the most beneficial – serving the photographer’s creative vision and not replacing it – is perhaps the least expensive. The simple tripod can do wonders in opening an entire new world of creative shooting, particularly as it applies to nature and landscape photography.

Spring on the Ohio landscape is full of flowing streams, woodland waterfalls, scenic sunrises and sunsets and beautiful macro subjects close to the ground. Almost all of these subjects require longer exposures, that is if the photographer truly desires to capture intricate details and tonal ranges. That wonderful “cotton candy” effect of flowing water can only be captured with shutter speeds that are well below the minimum for hand-holding most cameras with a normal length lens, 1/30th of second.

Nature photographers are also increasingly extending their creative capture techniques to include multi-exposure, High Dynamic Range photography. The most popular post-processing program for HDR work requires two or more exposures that match details, as well as include an exposure or two that’s underexposed (once again, slow shutter speeds).

There’s also the capture of sequential frames for digital stitch, panoramas, which when done properly should all be captured and overlapped using a platform that is carefully leveled and stable.

Perhaps the biggest benefit derived from the consistent use of a tripod for nature and landscape photography is the one not so obvious. Shooting with the tripod requires that the photographer artist to slow down, take his or her time and properly set-up for creating the photograph which best conveys his or her creative vision and artistic interpretation of subject and light. (more…)

The following landscape photographs and video are just a small sample of what I captured during last week’s trip to Zion National Park, on the northwest section of the Colorado Plateau in Utah. There are many more on the way. These were just a few I edited and prepared for posting online during my flight from Las Vegas to Columbus, using my MacBook Pro. The magic of the winter light in the canyons is hauntingly beautiful with the added benefit of the tourists of summer long gone.

Two landscape photographs taken during 2009 were recognized with awards at the Fall Conference of the Professional Photographers of Ohio. “Winter Beach” and “Sunflower Moon” won 1st and 2nd place, respectively, in the category of “nature non-master.” The digital print competition and exhibition were part of the program held on November 15-16 at the Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio.

On March 10 to 15 PPO will hold its Annual Convention at the Dayton Convention Center. Last March I entered six prints for the print exhibition at the Annual Convention. All six were scored high enough to be included in the print show and recognized with awards. That particular convention was the first time I entered images in the state-wide competition. In both the Fall Conference and Annual Convention prints are judged and scored by a select panel of professional photographers representing areas throughout Ohio.

“Sunflower Moon” is also featured in the recently published “Margins of the Day

1st Place Nature Category Fall 2009 PPO Print Competition

Sunflower Moon 2nd Place Nature Category Fall 2009 PPO Print Competition

A February sky over Calvary Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio.

I’m happy to announce my next full-day photography workshop, set for Saturday, November 21 2009 at Cox Arboretum MetroPark, just south of Dayton, Ohio. The primary topic of this program will be digital workflow for nature photography including image importing and editing using Apple Aperture, fine tuning and enhancements in Photoshop CS4, monochrome conversions using Nik Color Efex Pro and High Dynamic Range Photography using Photomatix. As of 10-6-09 there are already 10 people registered to attend. I limit my workshops to 20 attendees, so there are still 10 seats remaining, however, I expect these to fill within the next day or two. There will be another workshop this winter, most likely on a Saturday in late January or early February, so it’s always a good idea for those interested to submit their names and emails to my waiting list.

Digital Photography for the Nature Photographer Workshop Presented by Jim Crotty

In presenting my first, full-day workshop on nature photography, yesterday at Cox Arboretum, the topic that generated the most interest was my work with high dynamic range photography. This slide presentation was created from the images I used at the workshop to illustrate this particular creative technique with digital photography. I like to emphasize that HDR photography – the merging of two or more exposures of the same scene – is NOT digitally adding or altering the image. It simply brings forth a much greater tonal range amongst the existing elements within the photograph. The trick is not to be too “heavy handed” when applying the various settings for gamma, white point, luminosity, etc. when using the tonal adjustment tool.

The September 26 workshop at Cox Arboretum in Dayton went very well, despite it being my first time presenting a full-day program. I limited the attendees to just over 20 people. This was a good, manageable group. I will be presenting another full-day program on a Saturday this January, at which time I will probably concentrate more on digital workflow using Apple Aperture and various digital techniques using both Photoshop and Photomatix.