The Future Professional Outdoor Photographer is………

…a storyteller!

You have certainly heard, maybe even said it yourself; anybody can take a picture! While that has always been true even before digital, the level of high quality photography is more prevalent today and easier to achieve. Why is that?

It is a combo of many things. Digital technology has made the ability to capture and process an image very easy. Software has brought many tools for interpreting a RAW file into a unique personal vision for the photographer. The web has brought us the greatest learning tools ever known. It simply is not that hard to learn how to create wonderful photography.

Yet one thing has always been there challenging professional photographers. It has been there from the early days of film to the today’s digital world. It is the biggest roadblock to success in photography.

Maintaining a current business model! … Continue Reading

Watch This Stunning Kayaking Video

If you are an avid, or not, photographer looking to make movies with your video capable dSLR, then you probably spend time looking at the work of others. I do because I want to learn how great adventure and nature filmmakers create their moving images. Simply to learn.

I look at camera angles, lighting, movements, high speed motion vs. slow speed motion, audio, music, and most importantly; the story. I spotted this video  on Chase Jarvis site that brilliantly shows all those ingredients I mentioned, masterfully molded into a 7 minute film on kayaking in Mexico. The A-team is Anson Fogel and Skip Armstrong of NRS and Forge Films, collaborating on this project; Cascada. Take a minute and be inspired.

CASCADA from NRS Films on Vimeo. … Continue Reading

Shoot Adventure Silhouettes for More Marketable Imagery

Often when we photograph we are concerned about good light throughout our subjects and light that provides enough detail to tell the story we want told. We might use reflectors, flash, or HDR techniques to maintain important detail with strongly lit subjects.

But there are also times when we can create simpler photographs that tell a strong story and silhouettes are easy way to do that. They can tell just as effective of a story, set a mood, or create mystery and it’s those storytelling images that buyers of imagery look for when licensing images.

Last year we ran a post on creating nature images using the silhouette technique. These images included Sajuaro cactus,  lighthouses, forests, and windmills. What’s different is these images are adventure images and add the human element, a proven ingredient of top selling images. If you are an adventure photographer then silhouettes are one more approach to telling the adventure story and create more marketable images. … Continue Reading

One Camera and One Microphone: Filming a Conservation Project

by Jerry Monkman

When Canon introduced the 5D Mark II a few years ago, I decided to give shooting video a try. I
had long been shooting still photos for land conservation projects and it seemed to me that
turning some of those projects into short videos could be a great way to tell the story of the land
being protected. I had no experience shooting video or recording sound, but what the heck – I
now had a camera that shot video, so I was all set.

As usual, I may have overestimated what I was getting myself into, but after six months of
practice, I was able to pull of this video for a client who helped foster an easement that will keep
the Anderson Farm in agricultural use for future generations. … Continue Reading

Why You Should Always Be Loaded for Bear

I was on a recent photo-shoot and when packing up I loaded all my camera gear that I thought I would need into the back of my truck and off I drove for a few hours to the assignment. I load it up all together put it in the back of my truck so I can mentally scan the gear and make sure I have everything I need for the shoot.

It was early in the morning and on the way there I spotted a deer in a farm field amongst the grasses and nicely backlit by the sunrise. I wanted the shot. I had to get the shot! But cameras were packed in the back.

I pulled over anyway hoping that I could open my truck canopy and grab the camera, attach the 300mm lens, and get an image that would make the cover of next year’s wildlife calendar. … Continue Reading

Coming Soon: The Tripod App

When Spectrums Collide: Selective Processing With Infra Red

by Lee Mandrell  

A Simple Infrared Selective Color Project

As they so often are, it was another perfect day in the Smoky Mountains. I’m an avid color landscape shooter, but I am always on the lookout for infrared shots as well as anything I think might separate my shots from the norm. I happened upon this scene at the end of ‘The Roaring Fork Motor Trail’, just at the edge of Gatlinburg, TN. My wife and I asked the shop owner if we could shoot the old dodge truck that resides on the property. She informed us that we could take pictures, but we had to stay on the outside of the fence, and also to let her know if we felt we got anything worthwhile. To me this meant shooting what has been shot thousands of times before me. … Continue Reading

Photographing With A Purpose

It’s common for photographers to wonder what they should be photographing or to ask the same of their stock agents. We all want to make money as our businesses rely on a steady stream of cash flow, but what should we photograph?

There is often no easy answer since we capture images for a client we don’t know yet if we are in the stock business. Many nature and wildlife photographers, unless on assignment, photograph what appeals to them with no client or market in mind. It can be like throwing mud and hoping it sticks.

In some ways you can look at images for license as two types: one with broad market appeal and the other with a niche market appeal.  I have done many assignments and my stock agent used to encourage me to negotiate stock usage for all my assignment images. … Continue Reading

Six Remarks on Composition

No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it,
and is sure of his method and composition.
Claude Monet

Introduction
Composition is an important aspect of good photographs. I have written about it at length in my books and my essays, and I continue to do so.  Here I want to offer some remarks about composition that I wrote recently.  These are not organized the way my essays or book chapters are.  Instead, they are simply numbered and they are not necessarily related to each other.  Read it as a loose list of items written as they crossed my mind and that I wanted to share. … Continue Reading

5 Techniques for Drawing the Viewer Into Your Photograph

There are many ways to use composition to tell your visual story in a photograph. As photographers we can create stronger images when employing compositional techniques that guide the viewer through the image.

We all know the eye sees differently than the camera, so it is a skill to organize the elements into a composition that resembles what our minds eye saw.

Since a photograph is a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional scene, there is a need to show the viewer that the scene has great depth, or the subject is close or far, or small or large. … Continue Reading