In Search of Good Light

I have mentioned in previous posts that one of the curses of landscape photography is that all too often, you get up early, show up to your chosen location, and the light decides to stay home. That doesn’t mean that you have to go home with nothing.

For example, this morning I woke up to a favorable forecast for some great under lighting for the clouds. Of course, when I showed up, no sun to be found. I also found out that I had left my filter holder at home. Now, I know that photographers don’t bother with filter holders and just handhold their filters, but I don’t have the steadiest hands and I like the freedom offered with holder. Today I was out of luck, but I took home so lessons.

There was little color in the sky with a dull surf.

Lesson one: always pack your bag the night before, especially if you are not a morning person. Seems kind of obvious, but it’s easy to be lazy the night before and just plan to throw everything in when you first roll out of bed. You will inevitably forget something.

Lesson 2: practice hand holding your filters, even if you have a holder. Why? Because your index finger simply does not look good in the picture next to the 200 year old lighthouse. You have to hold he filters just right to allow for the most comfort, stability, and to keep those pesky digits from floating into the shot. Or start a new series of pictures with you fingers next to famous landmarks, that’ll sell well.

So always remember, even if you don’t get the shot, use the opportunity to practice new techniques, learn a lesson, or try a new completion. Always take something home with you.

Until next time, happy shooting.

As a landscape photographer, I am in a constant struggle trying to even out my exposure between a dark foreground and a bright background. What most people don’t know is that there is usually a huge difference in the exposure times between the sky and ground. If my sky meters for1/30^th at f/16, my ground will meter a 1/2nd. Inevitably, if I were to shoot at 1/2nd or 1/30^th, I would lose the detail in either the sky or ground. A common failing of point and shoot cameras, and even some DSLR camera’s that is that it can only really detect a few stops of light range. So if your landscape is dynamic and there are dramatic differences in light, its likely those cameras will not be able to properly expose the image.

The tool I reach for to fix this problem is a Gradual Neutral Density filter. GND’s come in all shapes and sizes, each with a different application depending on the circumstances. The main purpose of a GND is to darken certain portions of the picture so as to allow for an even exposure between foreground and background. The majority of the day, the sky is at least a few stops lighter than the foreground and during dusk and dawn, that gap is much bigger. Often if you expose for the foreground, you blowout you sky, and if you expose for the sky, good-bye detail in your foreground.

That’s where GND’s come in. They are clear sheets of glass or plastic that goes in front of the lens, darkening half of it to allow for an even exposure. So say that your sky is 6 stops different than your foreground. If you throw a couple GNDs on the sky, you will have a nice even exposure. Of course with conditions constantly changing, these filters come in various stops to allow the right fit. The most common ones are .3, .6, and .9, which translate to 1-stop, 2-stops, and 3-stops respectively. These can be combined together to make up for a large difference between your sky and ground. Often while shooting sunset or sunrise, I am using at least 5-stops worth of GND’s. These filters also come in varies levels of transitions too, for more specific

This is a 30 second shot taken during sunrise. No filters were used and while the foreground is well exposed, the sky is blown out.

This is another 30 second exposure but with a 3-stop reverse GND filter used.

The most common type of these filters is soft transition, meaning that from the middle to the top of the filter, the change from lighter to darker is slower. The other common type are hard transition, which have an only a slight gradual from middle to top. On top of the two major kinds, there are more specific types like reverse and strip GND’s. A reverse is similar to a normal GND, but instead of the normal light to dark going from middle to the top of the filter, it starts dark in the middle and gets gradually lighter at the top. These are especially great at sunrise or sunset in that typically the brightest part of the sky is around the horizon and not at the top of the image. A strip GND is very specific in that only a small strip on the filter is dark. This is useful in only a few situations like if the sun is below the clouds giving great under light, but that little sliver of light where the sun sits is completely blown out.

I imagine this sounds pretty complicated to those that haven’t used them before, but the concept is simple enough. It darkens your bights so that everything in the image is evenly exposed. I can honestly tell you that if properly used, these can transform your images from bland to spectacular. There are various levels of these filters that make it easy for beginners to spend little to start to try it. A basic set of them with a holder will be less than $100, which is a cheap way to make better images in my humble opinion.

Until next time, happy shooting.

A 3-stop hard transition GND. Great when you have a defined horizon and a bright sky.

A 3 filter holder with a 77mm filter ring for wide angle lenses.

The 3-stop reverse GND. As you can see, not a huge transition, being a 3-stop.

The soft transition GND's (from left to right) 1-stop, 2-stop, and 3-stop

This year’s trip to Acadia was a case of mixed weather, but it yielded fantastic results. As I have told people before, pictures are at their best when Mother Nature is at her worst. While there were no real extremes during this trip, I was hit with a few different weather conditions that required me to adapt my way of shooting.

My first day there, the weather wasn’t particularly bad, but unfortunately, the sky was relatively flat, so I wasn’t able to capture any drama. This was a good chance for me to play around with my new 10-stop ND filter and I was able to get a few cool shots on the rocky coast.

The next day brought the worst of the weather I was to face on my trip as it rained for the whole day. I am not one that is easily deterred from being out in the rain, but it does make shooting a little more difficult. Since I often employ a handful of gradual neutral density filters to create a fair amount of drama in my shots, rain then becomes a problem. Once those filters get wet, its impossible to get a clean shot with them. While the rain kept me away from the coast most of the day, I was able to head to take advantage of the abundance of water that had now swelled the normally babbling brooks. I spent over an hour photographing Jordan Stream, which had now become a raging torrent. Toward the end of the day, there were a few brief windows where the rain ceased and I was able to get some shots around Thunder Hole and Sand Beach.

This was some of the most dramatic sky I have seen on Mount Desert Island.

The next morning brought the sun back, and the clouds began to part around sunrise. Unfortunately, when the clouds left, the temperature also dropped about 15 degrees and there were 30 to 40 mph gusts. Once I put on a few extra layers, I spent the day capturing a quickly moving and shifting sky. Toward the evening I headed to the west side of the island and met up with local and fellow photog Nate Parker. He took me to a secluded beach and we were greeted with a fantastic sunset. Conditions were changing fast and it would go from completely cloudy with rain to a dramatic colored sky. I was able to get some great shots along the water.

The next morning was somewhat of a let down after all the dramatic scenery of the past few days. As I rose early, bleary eyed, I was greeted with a nearly cloudless and flat morning. I still fired off a few shots, but unfortunately wasn’t given any overly pleasing results.

Overall, despite the rain, this trip was a success. I was able to get a handful of dramatic shots that will find a nice home in my portfolio. I will definitely be making it out there again sometime next year.

Until next time, happy shooting.

This was a 1-minute exposure. I love how it gives the foreground a real misty look.

Hey Folks. Right now there is an idea in the works, merely in its infancy, for a summer tour. In the hopes to expand not only my portfolio, but my mind as well, I would like to take a summer and tour the American Northwest. I have always dreamed of heading into the mountains, but here on the East Coast, I am only given the White Mountains of Maine and New Hampshire. While these are still a gorgeous set of mountains that I have grown to love, at barely over a mile high, they are hardly the peaks I yearn for.

Right now the idea would be to head to a lot of the national parks out there, and there are some choice ones to choose from. Currently the list would include Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Glacier, Redwood, Crater Lake, Yosemite, Olympic, and a number of other small areas like Mt. Hood.

As I would like to one-day move out west, this will also be a good chance to check out some places to live. I will hit the cities like Eugene, Portland, and Seattle.

I am looking to you, my adoring audience that may have been out there and might have some recommendations as to where I should go, places to sleep, or trips on how to save money and keep this trip as cheap as possible. Right now it will be kept to strictly camping with the occasional hotel stay.

Also, I you want to throw a few bucks my way in exchange for a print or two, that would also be greatly appreciated.

Until next time, happy shooting.

One of the more obvious stops before you get to the loop road in the park is the Jordon Pond House. It is hard to miss between the large building and the massive amount of people walking around. Best known for the restaurant and gift shop, this building is often crawling with families and senior citizens.

However, to avoid the crowds, get here right after sunrise, and you will have the place to yourself. Once you get past the house, toward the pond itself, you can really start to work the view. The downside to this locations, is that it easily one of the most taken shots. Looking across the pond, you see the two iconic “bubbles”. However, where you can stand out is that by getting there early, you can get some

great light, the last of the fog that hags over the water, and if you are lucky, you can spot a few loons make their rounds.

Last time I was there, I was fortunate enough to have a deer come crashing out of the woods in front of me and she was polite enough to stick around for a few minutes and let me take her picture. When fall hits, the tree’s surrounding the pong all-light up like fireworks, and you can get some real punch in your images. If you have the time, take the few minute long hike around the pond, but their aren’t too many fantastic vantage points.

Next Up: Thunderhole

Until next time, happy shooting.

This lovely photogenic doe loved posing for me

 Have you ever caught yourself staring at a picture and wondered to yourself “how in the hell did they do that?” or “how did they know that was going to happen?” Well, I hope that I can answer a few of those questions for you in a series of entries that I am going to be posting on here called “Tools of the Trade.” In these entries, I will outline either a piece of equipment I use or a shooting technique, or a post process edit I use.

My hope is to shed some light on the behind the scenes of landscape and nature photography. Feel free to email me any questions or ideas you have for Tools of the Trade and it might get featured as a blog later on!