Keep It Simple

It's easy to let gear choices overwhelm you and confuse you when out in the field. Some of the best advice I can give is to keep it simple. This was the case last week when I photographed these four Bull Elk crossing a meadow in Horseshoe Park in Rocky Mountain National Park. I only had a 70-200mm which is not typically a 'wildlife' focal length. Needless to say it helped me create this 'Elkscape' which was one of my favorite images of the day. Technical Details: Nikon D810, Nikkor 70-200mm F4 ED VR
It’s easy to let gear choices overwhelm you and confuse you when out in the field. Some of the best advice I can give is to keep it simple. This was the case last week when I photographed these four Bull Elk crossing a meadow in Horseshoe Park in Rocky Mountain National Park. I only had a 70-200mm which is not typically a ‘wildlife’ focal length. Needless to say it helped me create this ‘Elkscape’ which was one of my favorite images of the day. Technical Details: Nikon D810, Nikkor 70-200mm F4 ED VR

Most photographers I know love gear and equipment. Theres no doubt about it, shiny new stuff is fun and exciting. Sometimes that shiny new gear’s even useful and dare I say necessary when it comes to photography. Photographers, myself included can sometimes let our gear overpower and interfere with our power to create and make images. When it comes to photography and gear there is certainly times when one can have too much of a good thing.

Those who have been following my blog know that at the end of October I sold off some of my excess Canon equipment and purchased a small Nikon system consisting of a Nikon D810 and a handful of Nikkor lenses. So as not to bore anyone with the reason I did this, essentially I wanted to test out the Exmor sensor in the D810. For my photography I find the additional dynamic range of the sensor useful. I considered the the 36 megapixel sensor to be and additional benefit but not something I felt I required. Needless to say I’ve been very impressed with both the D810, the Exmor sensor as well as the small kit of Nikon lenses I put together. The greatest benefit however, has been minimizing my kit and working with a much more limited group of lenses.

Working with a smaller kit has allowed me to refocus on creating images instead of fumbling with lens choices and focal lengths. It’s been refreshing to say the least to essentially be working with a 3 lens kit of a 16-35mm, 24-120mm and 70-200mm with the D810. My Canon kit consists of 16-35mm,24-70mm,70-300mm,100mm Macro lens and 24mm and 17mm TS-E lenses. Granted I did not always lug all these lenses around but I would still have to make a conscious choice prior to heading out into the field as to what lenses I would keep in the bag. I also keep a Canon 100-400mm in the front seat of my truck in case I stumble along some wildlife while driving around the park. Needless to say, my Canon kit gives me a lot of choice. Perhaps to much choice.

Besides the benefit of more mental focus when working with a smaller kit, the added benefit of creating stronger images has also became apparent when photographing in Rocky Mountain National Park last week. It was a snowy winter day in Rocky. A perfect day as far as I’m concerned for landscape photography. Heavy snow and fog enveloping the tree’s, peaks and valley of Rocky.

After spending a good bit of the morning photographing the conditions in and around Horseshoe Park, I stumbled upon a group of twenty or more Bull Elk that had bedded down to weather the storm out. It was a poignant scene. The large group of Bull’s, covered in snow, large antlers still in tact congregated together with snow falling. For a split second I panicked. The longest lens I had in my Nikon kit was a 200mm. There was no way I was going to be able to make a meaningful image as the Elk were to far off in the distance with that short of a lens.

As I was berating myself for not having a longer lens with me, some of the Bulls got up and moved across the meadow in a line for the cover of the trees. I had my 70-200mm on my D810 and figured I’d make an attempt to photograph the line of Bulls. I figured with the higher resolution of the D810 I could possibly crop the image later to help negate the shorter focal length of my 70-200mm. I framed the four Bull Elk walking across the meadow and a funny thing happened. I realized the shorter focal length was a benefit, not a hinderance. Showing these majestic creatures in their habitat was more powerful than a frame filling head shot of an Elk would be.

The image I captured of the four Bull Elk walking across the meadow in heavy snow turned out to be my favorite image of the day. When I got back to my computer and started sorting through my images it occurred to me that if I had a longer lens with me I would have completely missed the shot. Most likely I would have had a longer focal length lens on my camera and would have likely been making an attempt to photograph one or two of the Elk with a longer focal length, completely missing the wider image of the Elk in their habitat. It was a bit of an epiphany for me. Photographing with less instead of more helped me as opposed to hindered me. Overtime it’s easy to end up with more than is necessary. Try working with less and keep it simple, the results might surprise you.

Working Gray

It's the time of year again. Winter doldrums have set in and it's easy to leave the camera bag in the closet and find other things to do with your time. Gray winter days are the worst and often times its difficult to get inspired on gray days to get out in the field. While things may not be as dramatic, conditions can still be quite favorable for creating unique and compelling images. This particular day was not looking very good when I entered Rocky Mountain National Park. I found the cloud layer, hoar frost and fog just above Nymph Lake. I spent an entire morning shooting more intimate landscapes which were quite rewarding to me. Technical Details: Nikon D810, Nikkor 70-200mm F4 ED VR
It’s the time of year again. Winter doldrums have set in and it’s easy to leave the camera bag in the closet and find other things to do with your time. Gray winter days are the worst and often times its difficult to get inspired on gray days to get out in the field. While things may not be as dramatic, conditions can still be quite favorable for creating unique and compelling images. This particular day was not looking very good when I entered Rocky Mountain National Park. I found the cloud layer, hoar frost and fog just above Nymph Lake. I spent an entire morning shooting more intimate landscapes which were quite rewarding to me. Technical Details: Nikon D810, Nikkor 70-200mm F4 ED VR

For some landscape photographers, cloudy days can be the bane of their existence. Combine cloudy days with your typical winter doldrums and some landscape photographers may avoid heading out to photograph all together. Cold weather, lack of a dramatic sunrise or sunset and subjects like streams and waterfalls frozen over narrows down the amount of options one has in the field to work with. While I cant argue it can be more difficult creating compelling images, cloudy and grey winter days still can produce dramatic, moody and unique images if one keeps and open makes sure to get the camera out of the bag. Here’s some ideas for those less then optimal grey winter days.

Go where the snow is. Cloudy gray days with no fresh snow are very challenging to photograph in. The weather here in Colorado during the winter months can vary greatly over a short distance. Much of our winter weather is determined by both elevation as well as which side of a mountain range your on. Depending on locations of weather systems, one side of a mountain range may be more optimal for producing snow then another. Here on the Front Range we are typically on the leeward side of the mountain range. This means that while it may be snowing very heavily on the windward side of the range only a dozen or so miles away, the leeward side has little in the way of clouds or snow. This is common here in the winter months of Colorado with snow falling heavily on the west side of the Continental Divide while little snow and mainly winds occurs on the east side of the Divide. This scenario will reverse often act in the inverse when ‘upslope’ conditions are occurring on the east side of the Continental Divide. On days like these it’s best to either head over to the west side of the Continental Divide, or head higher up in elevation on the east side of the Continental Divide where blow over from the storm may be causing snow to fall. The downside of staying on the east side or leeward side of these conditions is that it’s likely to be very windy.

Ponderosa Pines on a cloudy gray day near the summit of Flagstaff Mountain west of Boulder. Technical Details: Nikon D810, Nikkor 70-200mm F4 ED VR
Ponderosa Pines on a cloudy gray day near the summit of Flagstaff Mountain west of Boulder. Technical Details: Nikon D810, Nikkor 70-200mm F4 ED VR

Head out on days when inversions or a low lying cloud layer form either during or after a storm. Sure it may be cloudy and gray with little to no snow down along the lower elevations of the Front Range, but you may have fog and snow and higher elevations if conditions are more favorable a little higher up the mountainsides. Typically inversions occur along the Front Range when we have ‘upslope’ conditions or winds that are blowing in a north easterly direction. A couple of positive outcomes may occur if you head out into the cloud layer caused by and inversion. First you may be lucky enough to actually get above the cloud layer and into clear or sunny skies. Obviously the ability to get above the cloud layer creates all sorts of opportunities for dramatic landscape photography. Secondly, even if your unable to get above the inversion layer, you may be able to get at or near the transitional zone where fog, snow, and hoar frost are occurring. Snow, fog and pines coated with ice or hoar frost can lead to limitless possibilities for photography. Personally, this is one of my favorite kinds of weather conditions to photograph in. Familiar landscapes take on a anonymous like quality. Suddenly iconic locations, photographed time and time again are incognito and allow for new viewpoints and photographic interpretations. When conditions are like this, the landscape truly transforms into a winter wonderland.

Lastly on cloudy and grey days I’ll parrot the advice I consistently give to photographers not just on cloudy and grey days, but anytime they are out in the field creating images. Pay attention to the details and look for the little things. Study the bark of a Ponderosa Pine to see if the details, patterns and colors warrant a deeper look?. Look for subtle transitions in color such as the red willows along a creek or stream. Take a look down at your feet and study those ice fractures and patterns on the surface of a frozen lake or stream. Fractures and patterns on the ice will never look the same. Each inch on the surface of a piece of frozen ice will be different and unique. Even the coloration of the ice will vary greatly depending on your locations, the depth of the water and the location of the water which is frozen.

Wnen in doubt, look down and look for interesting patterns in the ice like these at Dream Lake. Technical Details: Nikon D810, Nikkor 105mm Micro AF
Wnen in doubt, look down and look for interesting patterns in the ice like these at Dream Lake. Technical Details: Nikon D810, Nikkor 105mm Micro AF

It’s going to be more difficult making dramatic images on cloudy grey days, especially in winter. Even so, remember that while the lighting is less dramatic on grey days, the soft diffused glow of a cloudy day on the landscape allows photographers the opportunities to explore and revisit compositions that may not be feasible on sunny days when the lighting is more direct and harsh. The longer I photograph the more I desire and appreciate cloudy days and soft diffused grey light which they bring to the landscape. So even if its cloudy and grey, grab your camera bag and head outside to make some images. Your imagery may be more subtle, but its also likely to be more original and unique as well.