Nature Photography

“Help!

Maybe six months ago I found someone on TT that had a website of their nature photographs. It was very professional and the pictures were excellent. I can't remember the website or who it was. Does this ring a bell with anyone?”

“Wind Walker? Buck?”

“Buck?

John?
last edited: 2/01/06 1:00:49 PM”

“Thanks Lyra! Ask and I shall recieve I suppose. Wind Walker was the one!”

“That'll be $20.”

“Consider it in the mail.

Wait for it now, wait for it.”

“Advice/Input

Take a look and tell me what you think. As I'm just starting to really take pictures - a lot of these are just memento type of pictures, but a lot of them are an expression of art through photography and I'd like some input. What ones are good, what could I improve on etc. Thank you.

I'd love input whether or not you're a photography buff, anybody can tell me what pictures look nice :) thank you all.

http://community.webshots.com/album/550704825vNrNWu”

“If anybody cares, I added a handful that appear on page 4

http://community.webshots.com/album/550704825vNrNWu/3”

“First bit of advice is this.... dump Webshots and put your photos on a web-page somewhere that doesn't advertise or restrict linking etc.

Second bit of advice.... study and practice using the rule of thirds.

Third and probably as important as anything.... look at lots and lots of photos that others have done. Analyze those that you like to decide what it is that causes you to like them. Try to figure out what techniques were used to capture them..... what time of day it was when they were taken etc. Read lots, then spend a lot of time out shooting on your own trying to make pictures of your own that use those same techniques that you discovered while looking at other people's work.

Happy shooting and good luck with your new hobby. A few of my own can be seen here in case you're interested.”

“Careful Simer....this stuff is very addicting!

You're off to great start!
When I wanted to get serious about photography....I took some night classes
at our local community College.
The cost wasn't overwhelming....and it was a whole lot of fun.



Some of my pix...
www.windwalkerimages.com”

“Simer, You might enjoy...
www.outdooreyes.com
Friendly bunch of folks who love outdoor photography.

I know a couple of the moderators ;)
last edited: 5/26/06 8:06:33 AM”

“Some good stuff there, Simer! Kee p working at it. You seem to have a talent for it!

WW, was checking out your web site. beautiful work! This was the first time I saw those lightning pics. Were those hard to capture?”

“Wind Walker, I had forgotten about that site. Now I remember why I don't post any pictures there.”

“Although any Knowledge that you gain isn’t a waste of time. Most Photography instruction today is just that, this is assuming you plan to work in digital format. The focus so to speak in this area will soon become all about the software and very little about the camera and traditional methods. Working with a raw image software and the imagination will be endless. Art study and instruction in these areas, is I believe time well spent.”

“Where'd you get a shot of a piliated? how close were you? Very Nice! You might want to consider expanding to babe shots also.”

“Nice start, Simer. Definitely dump webshots.

How's Forest the flower pot killer doing?”

“Flower pot killer? He didn't kill your flowers did he? If so, sorry. Forest is living at with my parents and doing well, except when he ate my dad's cake and he was pissed. But I told him that they weren't feeding him enough, he's a big dog, he can't live on 2 cups of food / day.

Anyways, thank you all for the advice. WindWalker, I've always admired your pictures, beautiful. I understand that I should dump webshots - I've been using it for like 5 years now and everybody knows that's where my pictures are, but I should consider changing.

The Piliated Woodpecker, actually there was a pair of them - it's a decent shot except for the stick across the face, I have a few pics of both of them but they're all blurry - through the glass of a window. But they where just chilling in front of my cabin, right outside of the door, that picture is taken in almost the exact spot as the cardinal picture.”

“simer, I also have webshots and when my time is up this fall I will be looking at other sites. This is one good www.pbase.com but I want to see what else is out there. Any ideas?
last edited: 5/26/06 6:01:01 PM”

“I can't see your images because Webshots (among many other photo storage sites) is banned from my work, but as far as storing photos, you don't have to "give up" Webshots and go to another place, you can have your images at a number of online sites. I have a couple albums at Webshots (which I haven't even visted in months), and some at Photo.net, and some at PictureTrail, and some at places I've probably forgotten about. I don't delete my previous ones when I try a new site. Right now my favorite site to store photos is Flickr.com. It's very interactive and fun if you want it to be, or you could just use it to store photos and not get involved. Here's a link to my Flickr site (I think, it's banned so I can't see what I'm linking).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/buckforester

What I did (and still do) while learning photography is to look at photos I really like, such as calendars and postcards and photographers like Galen Rowell, and try and figure out how they came away with the image because mine never looked liked theirs when I went backpacking. Composition is one thing (just frame it how you think it'll look pretty), but knowing how film or a digital sensor reads light differently than your eyes is the key to your photo resulting in how you perceived it yourself in the field. Learning this concept, and controlling light through Graduated Neutral Density filters is what helped me a lot. I still have lots to learn, which is part of the fun of photography. Using a tripod will transform your images too because it makes you really work on your composition instead of just a quick handheld snapshot. I have spoken.”

“LOL Buck, that last line reminds me of "The Great and Powerful OZ".

I agree with Buck...I study photography everyday....by looking at photos I really like.

Here is another photog inspired by Galen Rowell... Marc Adamus







Treebeard....actually lightning at night is easy. Just leave the shutter open ....wait for a bolt or two....close the shutter, the
lightning exposes itself.

This site was very helpful...
How to Photograph Lightning”

“Thanks, WW...


I'm going to check that out!”

“Shooting lightning strikes in the daytime is very easily done with the correct tool. Nope, I don't have one, but their gallery is amazing and one of these is on my wish list. Lightning Trigger”

“Hey simer, nice shots - i particularly liked the cardinal - really nice contrast with the bright red, I like the frost shot and the 'frosty morning too', just had a good 'feel' to it, to me at least.

taking pics is a lot of fun and if you can get a few that are nice (like you have) its lots of fun to share them.”

“No, Simer, Forest didn't kill any plants! Remember that plastic flower pot he was throwing around, like it was greatest toy in the world? I think he played with that thing all night!”

“Hey simmer, that flower you labeled as "honeysuckle" that is actually "columbine"

;)”

“
I got this shot by being quick. I can't afford fancy gadgets, lol.”

“I got this shot with a very small aperture, neutral density filters, a long exposure, and lots of luck. With the proper fancy gadget, the trees and wildflowers might have been sharp enough to enlarge this print. As it is; too long, too slow, too soft. The only truly sharp features in the whole image are the lightning strikes.

”

“really nice shot anyway, hobbit. I like the clouds.........”

“Buck, just realized last night your newer pictures have been posted since you hadn't updated in a while. They are incredible. Some were so beautiful I literally felt like I was about to cry. My wife was awestruck as well. Thank God for your talents - thank you for sharing!!”

““Hey simmer, that flower you labeled as "honeysuckle" that is actually "columbine"

;)”
Spirit Coyote
9:20:13 PM
5/27/06

That's what I thought too, our "resident naturalist" as he calls himself told me it's honeysuckle, or either way - he also told me to eat it.”

“Yo Sarge-o! Gracias, senor. God makes it, I point my camera at it.”

“sim....I wouldnt eat it. Honeysuckle is easy to find. They are usually shrubs (here in the midwest) or vines and smell very sweet (and make me sneeze!) the nector is yummy to snack on. did it all the time as a kid. Honeysuckle is blooming right now and has been blooming through May.

Not a very good pic, but here are some early blooming honeysuckle flwwers from early may:
Bush honey suckle. the flowers can be tinted pink, yellow or white.”

“mmmm, i miss honeysuckle - used to have loads of it around my house when i was a kid. pull out the stamens and suck off the nectar - yummy.”

“Me too Roam. I still do it.”

“One day, when I was a child, I woke up early one summer morning and saw a "gaggle" of pileated woodpeckers in our front yard. That was in the 70's.

haven't seen one since.”