Thursday, December 22, 2011



Around each bend of the road, over each crest of a hill potentially lies a scene that begs to be painted, drawn, photographed or just enjoyed. The country roads surrounding Walla Walla that extend into the Walla Walla Valley of Southeastern Washington and Northeastern Oregon hold so, so many visual treasures. Vistas plead to be enjoyed. Classic barns and farmsteads remind us of our rural roots.

The secret is to not to jump out of the car, snap a quick picture and jump back into the car. The secret is to stop and take in the details, inhale the fresh air and soak up the ambiance. Often, there are wild flowers at your feet and a careful scanning of the vista may reveal a deer, fox, coyote or colorful songbird. Be still for a few minutes and you may hear the songbirds. Also, harvest, cultivation or planting may be in process. Outstanding agricultural practices in The Valley result in complex crop patterns. Even at time of harvest, such as is pictured here, these patterns weave sweeping patterns across the landscape. Take a box lunch and find a place to enjoy a respite from your busy pace.

This scene was captured about ten miles north east of Walla Walla. To capture these patterns it is suggested you employ a digital camera with a wide angle lens. This can be a simple point and shoot, or a complex professional camera. I use both. Also, for such scenes a polarizing filter is very useful to bring out the details in a dramatic sky and take the reflected glare off a tin roof. This scene was captured with an 18 to 200 zoom lens set at the 18 setting. The polarizing filter brought out the sky. I used a medium f-stop of 16 in order to get good depth of field. On a point and shoot camera use the scenic mode setting to gain the depth of field. I tend to use a tri-pod, but good results can be had hand holding.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Capturing Snowy Scenes


The image above was captured in Walla Walla's Pioneer Park. The snow laden trees lie on the east shore of the park's south pond. Walla Walla park is one of my favorite sites because of the great variety of landscapes, structures and sculptures within the park. It is a great spot for artistic shots and people shots. A good number of senior portraits and wedding announcement pictures are taken there.

In general snow scenes, white sand dunes and birch trees against a dark forest can result in just amazing images. I wish I could pass along a hard fast rule for capturing such images. However, I can only pass along some suggestions because each scene can be so different to your camera's eye - light meter and internal software.

In situations such as these the camera's light meter is typically overwhelmed. As a result the camera sets the exposure to bring all that bright white to a nice neutral grey. The camera shuts down the f-stop to limit the light reaching the image capture plane. Thus, often the highlights become grey and what our eye sees as grey becomes black. So what we do in these situations is to open up the f-stop to allow in more light so that the detail is not lost. However, because a bright sunny day and a snow sky day require different corrections there is no hard and fast rule as to how far to open up the f-stop.

As is usual for me, I recommend experimenting. As you experiment you will learn and develop a sense of how to set the +/- setting on your camera given different conditions. First, take a sample set of images. Start with the camera's automatic setting. Then, using the +/- setting, start changing the f-stop a third or half f-stop at a time. Start one under (-). Then move in the positive direction one third or one half f-stop at a time. Take a set of 6 images. Review the images on the little screen on the back of your camera. This will not give you a detailed set of images, but it will give you a firm indication of how much detail you are capturing. The detail in the image is what you are trying to capture. So if you have significant areas that are blown out, white with no detail, the f-stop has been opened up too far. If you have significant areas that are black with no detail, the f-stop has not been opened up far enough. Now you can set the +/- setting to the level that gave the best results. I also suggest, if you camera has the capability, to automatically bracket each scene. I use a +/- bracket of .7. There are two reasons for doing this. First, seemingly slight differences in the lighting of the scene can result in unacceptable results. Automatically bracketing is like buying a little travel insurance policy. Second, you may want to take your images into an HDR, High Definition Resolution, process. HDR combines several images in a way that brings out the details in both the highlights and the shadows. This results in an image more like what your eye saw. There are several good HRD computer programs on the market. I currently use Photomatrix. If you are shooting for HDR processing I suggest using a tri-pod or a mono-pod in order to lessen or eliminate the slight variation in content of the bracketed images. I have achieved acceptable results by tucking my elbows in, holding my breath and, if available, leaning against a tree. Using the in-lens stabilization feature can also be a help. To do this all you do not have to have a $2000+ camera. Many of the new relatively inexpensive point and shoots have the +/- and automatic bracketing features.

If you are shooting in an area where the lighting significantly changes from view to view, I suggest repeating the process for each. The difference, on the same day, from an area in the sunlight to an area in the shade can be enough to undo all your hard work. It only takes a couple of minutes to take the bracketed shots in order to figure out your base +/- setting.

The other challenge in these scenes is where to place the focus point for the camera's auto focus. If there are multiple objects in the scene, focus on an object that is nearer to you. Why? The area in focus typically is shorter coming towards you than it is going away from you. If there is one object that is the subject of the image, focus on that object. If there are no objects that you want to be the point of interest, set your focus point about one third of the way from the bottom of the image. If you want great depth of field I suggest using a tri-pod or mono-pod and an f-stop of 11 to 64. An f-stop of 11 to 16 usually does a very nice job.

One last hint, dress warmly and pay particular attention to feet, hands and head. Water tight high footwear, warm gloves or mittens and a good stocking cap are recommended if you are going to be out in the elements. I carry an emergency kit in my car that contains cold weather survival gear. Never had to use it, and hopefully I never will need it.