“Late Afternoon, Moraine Hills State Park” by Vivienne Shen
Light and Mood
This week’s photograph was made by Vivienne Shen at Moraine Hills State Park, near Chicago, Illinois.
The light in this image really caught my eye, with the sun peeking through branches, the long tree shadows in the foreground, and the golden, late-afternoon colors. The light, bare trees, and snowy ground combine to create a strong mood—cold and wintry, but with a hint of warmth.
There’s nothing special about the weather here; you could probably capture similar light on any clear winter afternoon. This shows that you don’t need extraordinary conditions to convey a mood—you just need to visually emphasize the conditions you have. Here everything in the frame (snow, bare trees, low-hanging sun) communicates the idea of a cold, clear, winter day.
My next exhibit at The Ansel Adams Gallery, titled “Reflections on Yosemite,” opens on April 18th and runs through May 25th.
The show will feature images of Yosemite, a place I’ve photographed for over 25 years. Since my last exhibit at the Gallery in 2009 I’ve made a lot of new images that I’m excited about, so I’m looking forward to presenting some of this new work, as well as selecting a few of my classic Yosemite photographs to include in the mix.
Join us for the artist’s reception on Saturday, May 7th, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Gallery (next to the Visitor Center in Yosemite Valley). Early May is a great time to photograph dogwoods and waterfalls in the park, so you could combine a weekend of photography with a visit to the reception. Hope to see some of you there!
It’s been a strange winter in California. November and December were exceptionally wet, January and early February were almost completely dry, then we finally got some rain again in late February and the beginning of March. Now the weather has turned warm and dry once more, bringing thoughts of spring, and wildflowers.
Most of the best wildflower areas in Southern California received above average rainfall, as you can see from this NOAA map. But that six-week dry spell at the beginning of the year may have thrown many of the plants off their rhythm, so it’s difficult to predict what kind of wildflower season it might be. It seems likely that somewhere, sometime, we’ll see some great blooms—but where, and when?
The best I can tell you at this point is to look and listen for the wildflower reports as they come in. While Carol Leigh has discontinued her California Wildflower Hotsheet, she still administers the CalPhoto group on Yahoo, which is always a good resource for wildflower reports. Kahlee Brighton has also started listing flower sightings at the Wildflower Conservancy.
These links just scratch the surface of what’s available, so if you know of other good sources please feel free to post them in the comments. And of course I’ll keep you up to date on what’s happening around the Yosemite area on this blog. So far, not much!
Lightroom has grown up. I’ve made 30×40 inch prints from this image using only Lightroom (except for the final print sharpening). Yet Photoshop can still do things that Lightroom can’t.
“Should I get Lightroom or Photoshop?” This is a question I get asked a lot, usually by people who own Photoshop Elements and are thinking of upgrading to either Lightroom or the full version of Photoshop.
Six years ago this was an easy decision, because Lightroom didn’t exist. If you wanted to upgrade from Elements, the full version of Photoshop was the only real choice. But then Apple launched Aperture, Adobe countered with Lightroom, Nikon and Canon upgraded their software, and a host of other companies added even more options.
For now I’m going to keep this simple and just talk about Lightroom and Photoshop—mainly because these are the two most popular choices, but also because they’re the two applications I’m most familiar with, and they’re natural choices for people wishing to graduate from Adobe’s other photo-editing program, Elements.
El Capitan and the Merced River, 8:23 this morning
Rain fell on and off since Tuesday night, but skies finally cleared out this afternoon. This morning, before the rain left completely, I got to photograph a beautiful break between squalls, with swirling mist around El Capitan, and sun illuminating the cliff and clouds. It probably looked great from Tunnel View also, and I’d love to see photos from there, or other spots in the valley. If you were in the park this morning, please post links to your photos in the comments!
Another storm is due Sunday and Monday. This next one might be a little colder, so we could see snow at the tail end of it. And forecasters are expecting more wet weather later in the week. This is the best time of year for evening photographs from Tunnel View, when late-day sunlight strikes both El Capitan on the left and Cathedral Rocks on the right. If we’re lucky one of these storms might clear in the afternoon and add some clouds and mist to that balanced light.
Steve Bumgardner did a great job with this latest edition of Yosemite Nature Notes about Horsetail Fall. And it features an interview with yours truly, as well as Ansel Adams’ son Michael, Tony Rowell, and a number of un-named photographers—maybe some of you!
If you haven’t seen Horsetail Fall in person, watching this video is the next best thing. And if you have seen it, this is a great way to show your friends what it’s like.
The critique is finally here—thanks for your patience!
Light
This week’s photograph was made by Ken Hornbrook at Bandon Beach along the Oregon coast. There’s some wonderful sunset color in the sky, plus blue and orange reflections in the water, creating great color contrasts throughout much of the frame. Any photographer standing at this beach that evening would be excited about the possibilities. But what do you do with that light, that color?
Composition
Ken found a great camera position to take advantage of the colorful sunset and interesting shapes of the rocks. It looks like he moved into a small cove or gap between cliffs or sea stacks. This created a nice window, with dark shapes on the sides framing the view of the stacks beyond. The curving, colorful V-shape of the water in the foreground leads our eyes smoothly from bottom to top. It even has a bit of an S-curve. I’ve pointed out problems with foregrounds in previous critiques, but I think this one really works, and adds a lot to the photograph.
Craft & Vision has just released their latest eBook: The Evocative Image by Andrew S. Gibson. It just came out today, so I haven’t had a chance to read all of it, but I really like what I’ve seen so far.
The subtitle for this new volume is “A Photographer’s Guide to Capturing Mood.” If you’ve attended one of my workshops, read my Digital Landscape Photography book, or looked at some of my critiques, you know that I place a lot of importance on mood in photographs. And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Andrew’s previous eBooks on black-and-white photography, so I was anxious to read what he had to say about mood. So far, I’ve seen lots of interesting ideas, like this:
“One idea I’ve been exploring is that good photography (and moody images) is created on the ‘edges.’ Sunset and sunrise are edges—the border between night and day. Low light (many moody photos are taken in low light) is the edge between light and dark. The beach—one of my favourite places—is the edge between land and sea. A clearing storm is at the edge of rain and sun.
“There are edges in technique too. Try shooting at a shutter speed that is just a little too slow to get a sharp image. You’re at the edge between sharpness and blur, and exciting things can happen here.
“Wherever I look, more edges reveal themselves, and it’s at these edges that moody photographs happen.”
Nicely said. I hadn’t thought about “edges” in that way, but I certainly will now.
I look forward to reading the rest of the book, but I wanted to let you know about it as soon as possible, since for the first five days, until midnight February 28th, you can get this volume for only 4 dollars. Just use the code “EVOCATIVE4” on checkout. Or buy five Craft & Vision titles, including my December release, Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, and get 20 percent off by using the code EVOCATIVE20. Here’s a link to the Craft & Vision site, where you can see excerpts from The Evocative Image, as well as all their eBooks.
I’ll be posting a critique tomorrow. Here’s a sneak peak at the photograph I’ll be reviewing, by Ken Hornbrook. I thought it might be fun to let you look at it now, think about the light, composition, and technique, and form your own opinions before reading what I have to say tomorrow. Until then…
Ansel Adams was born on February 20th, 1902—109 years ago today. For his 100th birthday, in 2002, Outdoor Photographer magazine asked me to interview four photographers who had been influenced by him—William Neill, John Sexton, Galen Rowell, and Chris Rainier—as well as write about his influence on my own work. It was an interesting assignment, and I certainly felt honored to be included in the company of these outstanding photographers.
Bill Neill is an old friend, and I’d met John, Galen, and Chris before, but the assignment was a great excuse to ask them questions. All the interviews were conducted over the phone except Galen’s, which I did in person at his office in Bishop. Without exception they were gracious, open, and generous with their time. In short, it was a lot of fun—although editing the interviews down to 500 word segments later was a lot of work!
Sadly, Galen died in a plane crash soon afterward, in August 2002, so that interview was the last time I saw him. And I never got to meet Ansel: I began working at The Ansel Adams Gallery in 1985, shortly after Ansel passed away in the spring of 1984. But I almost feel as if I knew him because I’ve heard so many stories and read so much of his writing.
I think the article highlights the tremendous impact Ansel had on the way all of us photograph today. Here’s a link to a PDF version of the article, titled Ansel Adams at 100. Hope you enjoy it—and Happy Birthday Ansel!
Did you ever meet Ansel Adams? Has your photography been influenced by him? I’d love to hear about your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
Last Friday I was in Yosemite Valley being interviewed by Steve Bumgardner for a segment of his Yosemite Nature Notes video series. After the interview I decided to head over to the Southside Drive viewpoint for Horsetail Fall. Skies were clear to the west, so the waterfall got that last orange light, but as you can see from this photo there wasn’t a lot of water. It’s a decent flow for this ephemeral fall, better than in some years, but a little below average. Compare the accompanying photo to this one from 2010, or another from 2009. Of course none of these approach the tremendous volume of water in my image from February 1995.
Despite the less-than-spectacular flow, clear skies last weekend allowed many people to capture some nice Horsetail Fall images. You can find links to a few of those photos in the comments of my last post about Horsetail from February 8th.
Meanwhile, a snowstorm deposited about six inches of snow on the valley floor yesterday. Another larger storm is predicted to bring snow tonight through Saturday. We may get a break Sunday or Monday, so Horsetail photos might still be possible again this year. The cold weather has diminished the flow in Horsetail even further, but one warm, sunny day could revive it.
But hey, Horsetail, schmorsetail—we’ve got snow! And clouds, and the chance for clearing storm photos when the next system departs. After six weeks of rather bland skies, it’s nice to see some interesting weather. We could have some great photo opportunities in Yosemite over the next week.
I’ve had a busy workshop schedule, plus a last-minute writing assignment, so I haven’t been able to devote time to the next photo critique, but I should be able to post that next week. I think it will be an interesting one, so stay tuned!
I’ve been using Lightroom since Adobe released the beta version in 2006. Over the years I’ve learned many shortcuts, and in this video I share some of my favorite tips – things I use all the time to streamline my workflow:
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