2012 Alaska Eagle Trip Report – Part I

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Master Photographer

If you’ve been paying any attention to my feed you’ve probably surmised that I am currently in Alaska. I am up here for the second year in a row to photograph bald eagles.

I’m here this time to accomplish different goals than the last time. On this trip I am helping a friend, reviewing cameras, working on an assignment, planning some new workshops and shooting almost exclusively on still cameras.

The last time I was here I shot more video than stills. It’s MUCH easier to just shoot stills. The experience from the last trip convinced me that the folks who shoot video full time deserve a bunch of respect. It’s hard, hard work.

On this trip I have been able to concentrate on various aspects of eagle photography. In this post I’ll show you some pretty pictures like I always do, but I’ll also show you some of the failures. I learned a bunch from seeing Scott Kelby do this on some of his recent assignments so I thought it might be helpful if I did the same.

I’ll have at least one more post wrapping up the trip but for now, look at what’s gone wrong
NOTE: All photos by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons – all photos imported into Aperture, cropped or straightened, edge sharpening added – no other post corrections made.

Eagle too low in frame.

Eagle correct height in frame.

Eagle wing clipped outside frame.

Eagle wing not clipped.

Eagle head turned off camera axis.

Eagle head turned properly in relationship to camera axis.

Shot flawed by nictitating membrane

Better shot minus nictitating membrane.

Eagle’s head merges with horizon – not salable.

Eagle’s head does not merge with horizon – makes it salable.

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Photographic Religions – The Religion of Low Light

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Master Photographer

Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons

I’m going to start a series of posts about what I call “photographic religions.” You know, the memes that get started relating to photography as if they are inspired by God himself.

When you meet someone who lives and dies by one of these photographic religions, it’s usually a clue that their photos aren’t great, but their grasp of one tiny bit of photographic science – out of context of course – surely is.

Today we’ll talk about the religion of low light.

I review lots of cameras and lenses here at Photofocus.com. In the last two or three years, the number one question I am asked about a camera is “How is it in low light?”

The first question used to be “How many megapixels?” We’ve pretty much vanquished the evangelists for THAT particular religion – but I can tell you the ardent supporters of the “Book of Low Light Shooters” are many.

It’s as if the ONLY thing that matters when you buy a camera is how it works in low light. Most of my audience is probably too young to know that in the film days, a film speed of 800 ISO (or ASA) was very, very, very fast. Most of us shot films in the ISO/ASA range of 25 to 100. If we were crazy we shot Tri-X at 400. The point is – hundreds of millions of photographs were made, sold and published using these low ISO films – and the films were grainy – and nobody cared.

Today – if a $200 camera isn’t perfect at ISO 25000 people brush it off. It’s all perspective I guess, but for me, the religion of low light makes NO sense.

First of all – I want ALL the light I can get. I want lots and lots of light. Give me buckets of it – scratch that – give me barrels of it. Dark out? Bring lights. No electricity? Bring battery packs! You can always make light. So low light performance is only relevant if you HAVE to shoot in low light – and most photographers don’t.

The quality, quantity and direction of light is what makes a photo. Not the LACK of light. All cameras operate better with more light. Period. End of story. Every system on the camera from autofocus to shutter press works better when we have lots of light. So chasing cameras that work in no light is wrong-headed thinking in my mind.

The biggest problem with the religion of low light is that people get so wrapped up in it that they buy the wrong camera. If low-light performance on a camera is superb, but it lacks other features you really need – or – contains features you really don’t, then you are needlessly penalizing yourself.

Look at the WHOLE picture – pun intended. Recognize that these cameras that perform spectacularly in low light often do so at a high price – and that price is lack of detail. Physics being physics, you can’t change the fact that in every single aspect of photography you are faced with trade-offs. Even digital forces compromise. And less detail is the compromise you make when you practice the religion of low light.

So I realize that by writing this post I have blasphemed the religion of low light but I hope I have also offered freedom of choice to those who wish to escape that cult. Perhaps I can convince some of you to look at ALL of a camera’s features before buying it – not just it’s low light performance.

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What If You Could Only Have Two Lenses?

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Master Photographer

This is a silly exercise but fun nonetheless – what if you could only have two lenses? Which would you choose?

The answer depends of course on what kind of photography you do. But I’ve been studying the publicly-posted EXIF data from thousands of photographs posted online last year and I came up with an interesting observation.

90% of the images were shot between 24 and 200 mm in focal length.

This is NOT a scientific test. It doesn’t take into account a large sample of specialty shooters such as wildlife or sports shooters who would need to work longer than 200 much of the time. But still, if you’re talking generically here – then the two lenses you would need to cover 90% of your shots are a 24-70 Zoom and a 70-200 Zoom. Yes I prefer primes. But for the sake of argument remember, we’re talking about just being limited to two lenses.

A fast 24-70 (f/2.9) and a fast 70-200 (f/2.8) would work almost all the time. If you cheat and throw in a 1.4 teleconverter you can get that 200 all the way out to 280 which might get you close enough for some sports and wildlife. And on crop sensor cameras you can go out and get pictures that appear to be made with longer focal lengths – but you lose the wide-angle side.

Both Nikon and Canon make spectacular 24-70 and 70-200mm lenses and each performs at a level that typically exceeds the photographer’s skill. They are usually a bit heavy because they are so fast (f/2.8) but they are sharp, reasonably artifact free and offer the focal lengths that most photographers need every day.

So if you’re one of the 100 people who e-mail each month and ask “Other than my kit lens, what lenses should I buy?” – I just gave you the answer. Good luck.

Lenses discussed in this post:

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens

Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens For Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

What If You Could Only Have Two Lenses?

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Master Photographer

This is a silly exercise but fun nonetheless – what if you could only have two lenses? Which would you choose?

90% of the images were shot between 24 and 200 mm in focal length.

So if you’re one of the 100 people who e-mail each month and ask “Other than my kit lens, what lenses should I buy?” – I just gave you the answer. Good luck.

Lenses discussed in this post:

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens

Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens For Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Photographing Cars Is Basically Like Photographing Mirrors

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Master Photographer

Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons

CROSS-POSTED at Carloves.com

Dealing with the inevitable reflections you get when you make pictures of cars.

I’ve been shooting cars on a regular basis lately. I, like everyone struggle with the specular highlights and reflections that cars produce.

I have learned five quick tricks that will make your next car shoot easier.

1. Wear all black clothing. If you’re wearing reflective clothing or bright colors these will show up in the reflections on the car. So wear black and you help yourself disappear from the shot.

2. Use a circular polarizer. Yes I know you love them for making the sky look bluer but their real purpose is to cut through and reduce glare. You have to be at the right angle to the car for this to work but a polarizer can help solve a bunch of reflection problems.

3. Use angle to your advantage. I rarely work with a tripod when making car photographs because I find myself constantly trying to re-position my camera to get a good angle. This angle will often be dictated by where the reflections from the light source are coming. So pay attention to angle and remember that shooting straight into the car usually produces the worst reflective result.

4. Use the cars natural lines and creases to hide specular highlights.

5. Don’t fret over every specular highlight. If they bother you that much, remove them in Photoshop. In my opinion, they give a car character. That’s why I decided to leave a few in the above photo.

The Difference Between Seeing It In Camera And Seeing It In Post

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Master Photographer

Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons

When Photoshop 6 lands it’s going to have even more cool tools than before and some of them will help you create the same effects you might get with a tilt/shift lens or a Lensbaby or a super fast lens. There are also several plugins that will do the same thing – I think that’s cool. But I don’t think it’s a substitute for doing it in camera.

Now mind you, I am no in-camera prude. I’m one of those guys who thinks if it starts life in a camera (however it ends up) it’s cool with me. But I also try my best (despite that position) to get it right in the camera. I don’t see those positions being contrary to each other.

One thing I’m certain of is this. For me anyway, it’s easier to compose and think of the shot in the camera than in post. I learned this when I was playing with Lensbaby glass – and then again when shooting with f/1.2 glass and then again when shooting with panoramic cameras rather than just cropping in a pano. I could just “SEE” better as a photographer when it was right there in front of me. New ways of composing pictures presented themselves that I wouldn’t think of in post.

I’ve tried to duplicate in post those things I saw in camera and had some reasonable success. But the problem is that when you’re in the field, you are better suited to find or (SEE) the shot using those tools than you are in post. At least that’s how it is for me.

So if you’re thinking you don’t need that tilt – shift lens because you can blur the background in post – you may be right, but you also may be cheating yourself out of an opportunity to get something better in the field.

Seven Things I Wish I’d Have Known When I First Became A Photographer

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Master Photographer

Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons

They say you master something once you’ve made 10,000 mistakes doing it. If that’s true, then I must be a Grand Master at photography because I seem to have found a way to make 20,000 mistakes. As I talk with young people about photography some of the same misconceptions and questions come up over and over and I realized – I wish someone had taken the time to sit me down and share a few things with me when I first started out that would have saved me at least 5,000 of those mistakes. So here goes nothing. I’m going to let you know what I would have liked that advice to be.

1. Do not spend any time making serious photographs if you are not seriously passionate about it. Every bad photo I ever made started going bad because I wasn’t really into it. I was just going through the motions. It’s like kissing your sister so to speak. You have to care about what you are photographing, how it comes out and what story the image tells or you’re going to be disappointed.

2. Understanding how your camera REALLY works, as in every button, every switch, every menu and sub menu and sub, sub menu, will save your bacon over and over and over. The camera needs to be an extension of your eye – not something that gets between you and your subject. Learn how to use your camera and stop changing systems so often in the great hope that the NEXT big thing will make you better. It won’t. Learning how to get 100% out of what you have right now WILL!

3. Speaking of gear, focus as little as you can on gear and as much as you can on your subject, their story and how you’re going to share it. The “hey you take good pictures – you must have a good camera” line gets old. I guarantee you that it’s not the camera that makes the shot – it’s the photographer. It took me a VERY long time to figure this out. As a geek and a tech head I kept jumping into the science side of photography and the gear and the gadgets thinking THAT would save me. It didn’t. It sent me backwards. I now realize the gear is nothing more than the hammer looking for a naill.

4. Find the light first, the background second and the subject third. This statement will be controversial to many of you – some of you will yell at me because I said it. That’s because you haven’t made the 10,000 mistakes I had to make to understand it so go ahead and yell, but once you stop yelling pay attention and you’ll save yourself some pain. EVERYTHING starts with light. I can have the prettiest subject in ugly light and get no shot. And if the background is distracting, nobody notices the subject. So start with great light. Seek it out. Know it. Search for and yearn for it. Love it. Bathe in it. Dream about it. Then go find it in front of a nice clean background and THEN put your subject right there. You’ll win every time you do that.

5. If you photograph people or make pictures professionally understand that being nice is better than being good. When I listen to the people who primarily buy photographs (women are responsible for most portrait session purchases) they constantly refer to their photographer as nice. I rarely hear them say that he/she is good. My point is not that you don’t have to be good – you do. But concentrate on being nice. It took me far too long to realize how important this is and I am STILL working on it – as many of you can attest.

6. The best photographs in the world happen when the photographer or the subject or the viewer or some combination of the three are in a place where there is solid, real emotion and/or love. I know this sounds corny but if you can learn to love the subjects you photograph, you’ll take more care and make fewer mistakes. If you find real emotion in your work, you’ll cause others to feel those emotions. Thinking this doesn’t matter is the biggest photo-related mistake you can make. It took me 10 years of photography to understand this. Hopefully (and likely) you are smarter than me and you’ll get this right sooner than I did.

7. I have to stop this list somewhere so I’ll stop here with this. Understand that serious photography is about protecting memories, telling stories, keeping moments in time that have passed alive for the future and sharing all of the above. If you can think about that every time you press the shutter, you’ll make fewer mistakes and become a great photographer.

If I could have had this conversation with myself 30 years ago, I’d have become a good photographer MUCH sooner. I hope I at least helped you do that because it’s too late to do it for myself. I had to bungle through this crap on my own. No wonder I”m considered “cantankerous!”

Best wishes!

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11 Photographers You Should Absolutely Be Following On Twitter

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Master Photographer

(Who You May Not Know About)

I am VERY surprised to find that some of the best photographers, photo educators and outright great human beings I know don’t have more Twitter followers. So this is in Twitter-land “Follow Friday.” It’s a day when you suggest people to follow based on your own personal favorites. Normally you’d do this on Twitter but I’m devoting an entire blog post to it because frankly, I think many of you are missing out on some amazing information from some of the best folks I know. Mind you, this is not the ONLY group of people I think you should follow – to get the whole list just visit my Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/scottbourne) and click on my followers. You should consider following all those people. But for the purpose of this post, I deliberately tried to pick some people who don’t have a bunch of followers yet – relatively speaking anyway – and who I think should have MORE followers. (Note – several of these individuals are or have been contributors to Photofocus so if their names sound familiar – you know why.)

In no particular order – (11 Photographers You Should Absolutely Be Following On Twitter ) or you could title this list – “If you’re following me, you should be following these folks too.”

@TamaraLackey
Tamara does it all. She’s a mom, wife, business owner, photographer, educator and one of the sweetest, nicest, most loving humans on the planet. She is one of the top children’s portrait photographers in the world and she’s very passionate about everything she does. I feel like I won the lottery every day I wake up because I get to call her a friend. Whenever I’ve needed her help with anything, she’s been there for me – sold out – 100%. You’re lucky if you get one friend like this in a lifetime and she’s one of mine. But also – she’s got massive photography skills and shares them freely. So follow her here – http://www.twitter.com/tamaralackey

@Robert_OToole
Robert will be a new face to many of you but he’s been my shooting/teaching partner on several wildlife outings and he knows more about photography AND Photoshop than most humans or aliens for that matter. He’s a fantastic nature photographer with a great spirit. So follow him here – http://www.twitter.com/Robert_OToole

@Robertophoto
Roberto Valenzuela is no doubt one of the brightest young stars in the wedding industry. His life reads like a novel. He’s one of the top ten wedding photographers in the world and he happens to be a concert guitar player and is married to a beautiful, real-life, rocket scientist. (Seriously!) He’s one of the best photography educators around, and a very humble and nice guy. I really, REALLY want to be him in my next life – although I am sure that thought terrifies his wife. So follow him here – http://www.twitter.com/Robertophoto

@Catherine_Hall
Another young gun who’s recently exploded onto the photography scene through her appearances on TWIT and at other photo events. Catherine is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. She’s multi-talented and curious about everything which makes her more likely to be artistic than the average Joe/Jane. Her photography is amazing and she’s also an opera singer. What more could you ask for? So follow her here – http://www.twitter.com/Catherine_Hall

@RoshSillars
Rosh proves that nice guys don’t have to finish last. He’s a powerhouse in the photography/social media category who shares and shares and shares and does so with valuable information – all the time. He’s been generous to me personally and to all the photographers in the Twitter community. So follow him here – http://www.twitter.com/RoshSillars

@Jpcaponigro
John Paul Caponigro is an artist – pure and simple. And his art photography is outright captivating. I’d say from the perspective of fine art photography, nobody does it better than he does. But he’s also one of the most brilliant teachers on the photo circuit. If art photography is your thing, JPC is your man. So follow him here – http://www.twitter.com/jpcaponigro

@StacyPearsall
Stacy is a real-life war hero. She’s the first female photographer to win the combat photographer of the year award and the only one to win it twice. She’s been on NBC and Oprah and every single time I see her slide shows I cry like a baby. On top of all that she’s sweet and compassionate and a very, very good photography teacher. She’s my hero and she should be yours too. So follow her here – http://www.twitter.com/StacyPearsall

@Bmoorevisuals
Brad Moore is a superbly-talented photographer who’s concert and landscape photography ranks up there with the best. But he’s a humble guy, having earned his way through the ranks first assisting Joe McNally and now Scott Kelby. (Not a bad resume.) Since he’s often in the background he doesn’t get the attention I think he deserves but you should know of him, his work and his tweets. So follow him here – http://www.twitter.com/bmoorevisuals

@Rhedpixel
Richard Harrington and I have worked on book projects together and taught at NAB, MacWorld, Photoshop World and other places. He’s simply one of the best photo educators alive and his video work in particular (for those of you shooting video on your DSLRs) is the creme of the crop. He’s written more books than I can count, authored and offered more training sessions at every single major photo and video convention, and hosted tons of podcasts and videos to the point that he should have a million followers – and yet he only has 8262 followers as I write this. You can learn from this man. So follow him here – http://twitter.com/rhedpixel

@nicolesy
Nicole S. Young is an amazing young woman. I met her a few years ago and offered her a tiny bit of mentoring and then realized she didn’t need my help. She was always a super star in the making. Now the author of several excellent how-to photo books, and a rock star at iStockPhoto, Nicole Young also teaches Photoshop (or any other photo subject) with zero ego and nothing but desire to help. Let her help you. So follow her here – http://twitter.com/nicolesy

@skipcohen
Skip Cohen really isn’t a photographer per se – but he’s been around the photo industry for 40 years. In addition to being my good friend, and co-author with me of my latest book Going Pro: How to Make the Leap from Aspiring to Professional Photographer, he’s been an executive at Polaroid, President of Hasselblad USA, President of WPPI/Rangefinder and now runs his own consulting company called MEI. Skip is a living legend in the photo business and offers insight you can’t get from a newbie. So follow him here - http://twitter.com/skipcohen

If you didn’t make this list please don’t take it personally. I have an agenda here. I’m trying to get these specific people some notice and I plan to start doing this once per quarter. Twitter has been an amazing resource for me and I think it can be for you too. So start following these folks and jump in with both feet. See you on the Twitter.

P.S. I am not friends with all these people but I am close to many of them, friends with most and lucky to even be acquainted with the rest. They are all giants in the photo industry in one way or another and all are people I admire.

How To Find The Story In Your Photograph

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Master Photographer

Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons

One of my favorite blogs is OneWildWord.com.

While the ladies who run the site are posting information for writers, I often find that what they post could be used by photographers too.

Take this post for instance – Find your real story by asking these questions - If you simply think of these questions in terms of photography, you’ll find a quicker and better understanding of the concept of photographic storytelling.

I’ll mash this up and create my own list based on Carol Despeaux’s list.

# What story do I want to tell? (Because we all have so many stories inside us).
# What details in the scene in front of us relate to the story’s main theme?
# Is there enough information to create an entire picture story? (5-7 shots that viewed together tell an entire story)
# What items in the viewfinder do NOT relate to the story? Remember, the difference between an amateur and a professional photographer is often the fact that the pro knows what NOT to include in the picture.
# Will the average person who views the photograph without any caption or backstory know what it’s about?

In my mind, as a photographer, there are few things more powerful than a picture story. Use these ideas to jump start your own photographic storytelling and hat tip to onewildword.com for the inspiration that led me to this post.

Photography Composition Basics – Balance

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Master Photographer

Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons

One of the most enduring themes in art is the concept of harmonious balance. Balance is something the human eye just naturally gravitates to. It’s something that is automatically pleasing to most people.

When you’re composing a shot, look for ways to introduce this concept. It can be done using many of the traditional “rules” of photography such as iteration, repetition, rule of thirds etc.

In the image above, I introduced simple balance into my composition by shooting the two birds perfectly juxtaposed against each other – side-by-side but facing away from each other.

It’s no Pulitzer-prize winning photo, but for the purpose of this brief tutorial, it should give you some ideas on how you might introduce balance into your next image.