Dave Showalter Tells Us How He Writes and Photographs for Wilderness Magazine

Dave Showalter is a nature photographer from Colorado who also specializes in conservation photography. His clients include: Outside, Outdoor Photographer, National Geographic Books, Backpacker, Wilderness, All Animals, Crested Butte Magazine and many more.

Dave recently had a photo essay he wrote and photographed featured in Wilderness Magazine, the journal of the Wilderness Society. His article highlights a grassroots effort to protect Noble Basin in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest from industrial-scale natural gas drilling.

As today’s nature and outdoor photographers face smaller demand for still images, the need to find other ways to market photography becomes crucial to business success. Writing is one of many ways photographers can see their images published.

Dave has been doing that for years, researching ideas and generating proposals before submitting them to editors and it has resulted in an impressive list of publishing credits. We asked Dave to tell us about this article and how he generates ideas and magazine proposals. … Continue Reading

The Magic of Discovery: Carl Battreall Captures the Drinking Moose

There are few images that captures the wilderness essence of Chugach State Park more than this photograph. I went down to this popular spot to get a reflection image of Polar Bear Peak. While I was setting  up the tripod and beginning  to compose, three moose appeared behind me. The two cows went to my left and the young bull walked to my right and into the water.

At first I was annoyed, he was ruining my shot! But then I realized he was  going to walk right into my composition. I had to think quickly, he was walking and drinking at the same time so I knew I needed make some quick exposure adjustments in order to stop his motion.

I had the camera set at f11 and the shutter was at 1/15th of a second, too slow. I had two options, increase the ISO or open up the aperture. The camera I was using was a poor high ISO performer and noise could be an issue in the shadows, even at ISO 200 (which was what the camera was set at). So I decided to sacrifice depth of field for a cleaner image and opened up the aperture to f5.6, making the shutter 1/60th. Luckily, I had a two-stop graduated ND filter already on the camera, so that really helped keep the mountain and sky from being over exposed.  … Continue Reading

For Love of B&W: Jim Bullard’s Tree Photography

Jim Bullard began photography at an early age and has been actively involved in picture making for over 50 years. He began photography with commercial and photo journalism but in recent years is primarily a landscape photographer. He still works occasionally with film but has been shooting mostly digital beginning in 2002.

For most of his years in photography he worked in B&W film using 35mm, medium format and 4×5 cameras. With the advent to digital he began working primarily in color. Last year after attending an exhibit of Ansel Adams prints at Shelburne Museum in VT he decided to revisit his B&W roots but to do so using the tools of digital photography working with both new images planned for B&W rendition and also revisiting some older digital images.

Jim is retired and works from his home but has work online and his blog. He sells prints of his work locally, at art fairs and by mail. … Continue Reading

Photographing Badlands National Park in 4 Hours

We have all been there. A trip somewhere for some reason that once wrapped up, leaves you some time to shoot. Not enough time to thoroughly cover an area, but enough time to do what you love best!

This happened to me a week ago. I was in South Dakota teaching a cowboy portrait workshop and when I was all wrapped up I had a free afternoon and evening to go shoot. I decided on Badlands NP where I had not been in many years. So I left my hotel about noon and drove the 2 hours there, paid the entrance fee, and went at it.

Obviously 4 hours is not enough time to shoot this magnificent park, or any park generally, but it is all I had. When the ranger gave me the park map I scoured it, calculated the mileage, and thought I could do the whole loop from the Pinnacles Entrance along Sage Creek Rim Road to Scenic, then on to Interior, and finish up along the Badlands Loop Road and its many overlooks.

It was about 2:00 and sunset was 6:20 and I felt I had enough time, so off I went. Here are some shots from 4 hours in Badlands NP. … Continue Reading

Floris van Breugel Captures Amazing Marine Bioluminescence

We love to discover amazing nature photography and that is just what we found when looking at Seattle photographer Floris van Bruegel recent blog post.

He captured a natural phenomenon known as Marine Bioluminescence where living marine organisms emit light like Firefly’s.

He captured numerous images in different states of Luminescence and then created a great storytelling image that is stunning.

Here is Floris’s entire article on the process of capturing the image, re-posted with permission. … Continue Reading

For Love of B&W: 5 Examples of Nature Images

I have always enjoyed black and white photography. There are many masters of the medium who have created phenomenal photography from Ansel Adams to John Sexton and Bruce Barnbaum. And there are many more than I could name here or even know of.

When I attended Brooks Institute in the 1970′s, we spent the first year doing nothing but B&W and I often joked that I bathed in B&W chemicals and slept on the drying racks.

I guess it was no joke when later I found I was allergic to something in the B&W chemicals and that ended my days in the darkroom.

My appreciation for B&W never ended but I never really created B&W fine art nature photography until I began dabbling with Photoshop B&W Adjustment Layers. Still I was not that enamored.

Last month Topaz announced B&W Effects and I am hooked finding myself digging up RAW file in Lightroom to process in B&W and here are 5 recent examples.

The other reason for this post besides showing some of my work is to invite you, our readers to submit your ideas for our ProFolio feature showing portfolios of B&W imagery. If you have some phenomenal B&W imagery let us know where we can view it and consider featuring you. … Continue Reading

How To Photograph Lightning and Live to Tell About It

by Jeff Colburn

The wind blew at over 40 MPH as lightning hit the ground about two miles away. It was getting closer than I liked.

My only emergency warning system, the hairs on my arms standing up, was useless in this wind. Suddenly, the wind died down to about 20 MPH, and my arm hairs were at full attention. That means that a charge rising from the ground was going through me, and attracting lightning.

I grabbed the camera and tripod and jumped into the car. Two seconds later there was a blinding flash and deafening thunder clap about 100 feet away. I had cheated Death, and my own stupidity, again.

Photographing lightning is the most amazing type of photography you will ever do. And probably the dumbest thing you can do with a camera, but I love it.Here are some tips on lightning and safety: … Continue Reading

10 Tips for Fall Color Photography

Fall has arrived in many areas and photographers are getting ready or are heading out to shoot their favorite places.  Many will go to the usual locations like the Smoky’s or New England while others will photograph less known and less crowded locations.

There are many aspects to successful fall color photography and the first important issue is planning.  There is no perfect way to predict the precise dates for peak fall color but since there is nothing worse than arriving to late or to early.

A little research can go along way in determining a good average time frame to visit a specific location and the net is full of postings based on peoples experience. The rest may be chalked up to luck.

Photographing fall colors is like many other nature subjects where you seek the best light, a strong composition, technical excellence, and a worthy subject.

Here are a few tips on creating great images of fall foliage: … Continue Reading

Today, This Labor Day: I Honor Professional Nature Photographers

Today is Labor Day. A holiday instituted in the late 1800’s to honor the contributions of the American labor workforce. In fact, my home state of Oregon was the first to make it an official holiday in 1887 and 7 years later it became a Federal holiday.

The original federal holiday was not conceived to honor workers but rather was quickly proposed and passed into law to avoid conflict with workers following the Pullman Strike.

Today it is observed as a day off from work, a three day weekend, and the last blast of summer in many areas. In my neck of the woods, school starts tomorrow. Although the original holiday was created to avoid conflict, Labor Day has become the official day we honor the labor force; American workers.

Today on this Labor Day, I wish to honor my colleagues: the professional nature photographer and their contributions to America and the World. … Continue Reading

Russ Finley Photographs The Perfect Storm Over the Grand Canyon

I was on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon looking for a place to get my evening shots when many things came together to make this shot possible.

The clouds had building all afternoon and by the time the sun had set the sky was quite ominous and even threatening looking.

It happened at just the right place. The storm moved across the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and I was at Yaki Point on the South Rim.

I was there with the typical sunset crowd and at a safe distance from the storm moving across the North Rim which is 10 miles away. … Continue Reading