Steven Bourelle Digital Arts

How often do you think about photography and the photos that you take? I do it all the time. Not a day goes by that some thought about photography doesn’t pop into my head. Many times these thoughts are ideas, or visualizations, about pictures that I want to take when the conditions are right for a certain subject

Take this picture of the Wind Point Lighthouse along Lake Michigan in Racine, WI for example. Not to long ago I read a blog post by Greg Russell on his website Alpenglow Images. The post is titled House on Fire ruin – A Vertical Panorama and it’s about how he shot a vertical panorama by stitching together three horizontal pictures. The minute I finished the post I knew the subject I wanted to try this technique on, Wind Point Lighthouse.

Having shot the lighthouse many times, under many different and conditions, I knew in my mind the composition I wanted and the conditions that I wanted to take it in. Let the waiting game begin….

About a week later the conditions I wanted came to be. We had been out shooting an old mill in Illinois when, on the way home, I realized the conditions were perfect for my lighthouse shot. So we drove out there and I took my three horizontal pictures of the lighthouse. When I got home and stitched the pictures together, I was blown away by the result. There in front of me was not only the image I had envisioned, but something much nicer. This was the best picture I had ever taken of the light.

Then another vision came into my head, I saw this picture in black and white. I immediately began to work on the black and white version that I saw in my mind. Everything fell together nicely and within an hour I had this image.

I find that as I get older and more experienced in photography, I’m pre-visualizing photos much more. I still love going out, being spontaneous and taking what Mother Nature gives me, but there is a certain, wonderful feeling when you see an image in your mind, wait for the right conditions, and then make it a reality.

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This image was made when I still lived in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada. I happened to see this sunset in the side mirror of my truck while I was driving. Luckily I had my camera with me, so I made a quick u-turn and sped to an area to photograph it. I had shot a lot of pictures of the sunset when I realized that this would make an awesome panoramic picture. I fired off the three shots that make up this image just before the colors began to fade. Two minutes later, the sunset was over.

I try to always keep the possibility of a pano in mind when I’m out shooting. Many times I’m so caught up in the moment that I forget about panos, that’s what almost happened in this image. Other times, I’ll see the scene and know right away that I’m shooting a pano, (The header image for this site is an example) .

When I shoot a pano, I like to keep the picture count down. I try to make the pano with less than 5 pictures. I feel 3 or 4 are the perfect number. The main reason for this, I don’t care for long, skinny panos. I like my images to have some width to them. 3-4 pictures creates a nice width to the pano.

It’s important to remember to overlap each picture and try to keep the horizon as level as possible. I actually find it easier to keep the horizon level if I hand hold the camera while shooting panos. Of course if your shooting at slow shutter speeds, this is impossible, so make sure your tripod is very level.

I use the free program AutoStitch to stitch together my panos. It does an amazing job of aligning the images and matching the colors and contrast. Of all the pano programs I’ve used, and there have been many, AutoStitch is the simplest and best. Unfortunately it’s only for Windows, sorry Mac folks. There is a program for Macs called AutoPano Pro, and it uses the AutoStich engine

So, the next time your out shooting, remember the panoramic image. Some amazing images can be made by combining a few pictures together.

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With winter’s cold having settled itself into the Midwest and no end to it in site, I thought I’d share with you how I keep my hands warm in the coldest of temperatures.

This is my third winter in Wisconsin and I now know how important good gloves are for winter photography. For my first winter here, I had a pair of Black Diamond fleece gloves that are wind proof and very warm, but working the camera with them was cumbersome so every time I touched the camera, I took them off. This led to some very cold hands. In fact, one time I was probably on the verge of frostbite since I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore.

Since I love those gloves and didn’t want to replace them, I decided last winter to see if I could adjust and shoot with them on. I found that I could do it, but I also found that my thumb would bump buttons on the back of the camera and change  settings without me knowing it. It became very distracting having to double check my camera settings all the time. I also discovered that if these gloves got wet, they were useless.

This year I decided it was time for a change. While we were on vacation in California I found a pair of gloves that I thought might work this winter.

The gloves I bought are made by Red Ledge. They are wind proof, water proof and very warm. They are actually fingerless mittens that have a fold back top. The top is secured in the open position by very strong Velcro. The thumb also folds back on these gloves.

The first test for these gloves was this fall. While shooting fall colors we had some temperatures at or near freezing. The gloves worked great, but I was concerned about my bare fingers sticking out. It wasn’t bad at 32 degrees, but once the temps dropped into the single digits and the windchill went below zero I wondered if these gloves would work.

I thought about this a lot during the fall and decided to look into some thin glove liners to wear under the mittens. While at the Bass Pro Shops store one day I found some liners made by GameGuard. They’re made for hunters, but they work great for photography too. They’re thin, cotton gloves with very small rubber beads on the palm. Because they’re thin and fit snugly, you can feel your camera controls perfectly, and the small rubber beads help you keep a hold of the camera.

Last Sunday this glove combination got put to it’s first real test. We were out photographing the ice shelf along Lake Michigan (See photo above or the rest here.). The temp was 18 degrees with a windchill of 3. How did the gloves do? Awesome! My hands never got cold. The couple of times my fingertips started to get cold I just flipped the mitten top down and they warmed right back up. I had no problem working the camera controls or changing lenses and because the thumb top flips up, I didn’t have to worry about accidentally changing settings.

I don’t know if this combination would work for everyone, but it seems to work well for me. So if you’re going to be shooting out in frigid temperatures this winter, you might want to consider a glove setup similar to this.

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In Part 1 of this article I talked about photographing fall colors as if the colors weren’t even there. Instead of making the colors the subject of the image, you compose the image with other elements and then use the colorful trees to enhance the scene by showing them in their natural environment. In this post I’m going to talk about using the colors as the subject of the picture and how composition stills plays the most important role. I’ll also talk a little about lighting and how it can be used to enhance the colors.

Obviously there are times when you want to shoot fall colors and have their brilliance as the subject of the picture. We need to remember that composition is still important though. I try to find elements within the colors to help enhance the image, like tree trunks, a branch or even a single tree trunk. A curving tree trunk works great as a compositional element to help draw the eye through the scene. It also adds contrast to the image, making the colors of the leaves look nicer than they would by themselves.

Sometimes the sky can be an interesting element too. Some nice clouds in a deep blue sky will make the colors pop. Be careful with the sky; too much sky will take away from the colors. You want to make sure that most of the frame is filled with color and only a little bit is sky is showing. Another thing to think about when adding some sky to the picture is the tree line. Try to compose the image so the tree line works together with the sky and any clouds that might be there.

One more technique is to use the colors themselves as compositional elements. If there are multiple colors such as yellows, greens, oranges and reds, try composing in such a way that the colors work together. Use the colors like you’d use a boulder or a tree in a landscape image. Use them to help move the eye through the scene.

Now for a couple lighting tips. Personally, I prefer to shoot fall colors on cloudy days. The colors tend to pop more and you don’t have to deal with the contrast caused by bright leaves and shadows. Cloudy days are great for shooting within a grove of trees. You can really capture the beauty of the whole grove.

One thing to remember when shooting on cloudy days is to keep the sky out of the picture. On a cloudy day the sky is most likely going to show up as a washed out white in the image. Not only does that dull the colors, but it just doesn’t look good. So keep the scene below the horizon. If you feel the sky needs to be in the shot, then keep it as small as you can. Another thing to watch out for is your shutter speed. It’s going to be a lot slower on a cloudy day. If there’s a breeze blowing, and most fall days there is, then you need to adjust your shutter speed accordingly. To me there’s nothing more annoying than having a couple of blurred leaves in an otherwise sharp picture.

Fall colors on sunny days can be amazing, but capturing them can be a challenge. Some trees, like the cottonwood, really pop in the bright sun, others can actually look dull. The aspen looks amazing when back lit, but looks flat and colorless when the sun is in front of it. On the other hand the same aspen is beautiful when the sun hits it at an angle. You really need to walk around the tree to find the best colors. 

I love shooting back lit fall colors. The contrast between the bright leaves and the dark shadows can make some very dramatic images. Standing under a tree and shooting up through the branches is an awesome way of showing fall colors at their brightest. When doing this make the tree your partner. Use it’s branches and it’s trunk to hide the sun behind. Remember your composition and use those dark branches as elements in it. Also watch out for sun flare. Even with the sun behind a branch sun flare can still sneak through.

If you’re trying for back lit landscapes, it can be quite a challenge. One thing to remember, have something besides a lens hood to shade your lens. I always have a hat on, so most of the time I use it to shade my lens.  I also carry with me a very high tech piece of black poster board. I cut the poster board into an 8×10 piece and then folded it into quarters. It fits nicely in my bag and works great to shade your lens. Believe it or not, I’ve used this same piece for about 10 years now. Though as I look at it right now, it might need replaced this year.

Fall is the greatest time of year to me. I’m at my most creative in the fall and I feel that some of my greatest images have been made then. The techniques I’ve gone over in this two part series are techniques that I use all the time in my photography. I’ve learned them over many years and through lots of trial and error. Hopefully I’ve shared them with you in such a way that you can take them into the field and use them to create more memorable fall images.

Read Part 1 of This Article

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