More Pennsylvania Elk

Yesterday I shared the story of how my son, James, and I encounter a cow elk and were able to photograph it close up.

Today I am posting three more photos of this cow. Yesterday’s photos included much of the vegetation that the cow was actually eating. These photos today try to focus on the cow and highlight her without much distraction. Wildlife photography is difficult for many reasons: long, fast glass is needed and it’s expensive, animals are difficult to find and often don’t stay still very long, the best times for wildlife photography is at sunrise and sunset when light is low, and it is often hard to separate the subject from its camouflaged background. This last difficulty is my subject today.

How does the wildlife photographer separate the wild subject from its background? What tools in our camera can we use to assist in this endeavor?

Wide open f-stops are probably one of my most favorite tools to help accomplish this goal. Shooting wide open blurs the background and allows the viewer’s eye to focus completely on the subject. Large f-stops like f/2.8 are extremely helpful. Yes, they are expensive, but I find them irreplaceable in my wildlife photography. Another tool is the placement of the subject. We all know that backgrounds can literally ruin a photograph. So working with a clean background is very helpful. Setting the subject against a clear blue sky is golden! Or how about using the contrast of goldenrod or queen anne’s lace in a field to place your subject? Of course we do not literally place our subjects, but paying attention to the background can make a subject stand out loud and proud!

What tools do you use to separate your wildlife subjects from their habitat?

Ragtime

Lydia, our theatrical daughter, enjoys performing in community theater. Last weekend The Sherman Theater hosted Ragtime. The actors/singers/dancers in this musical were astounding! Their voices, expressions, and stage movement provided wonderful opportunities for photography.

Now don’t think for a minute this was easy. No, the light wreaked havoc on exposure settings and the low-level of light blurred just about any movement whatsoever. Add to this the variant colors of the stage lighting and you begin to get an idea of what I was facing. Fortunately, I was able to capture some of the wonderful facial expressions of the actors and I believe the following photographs show at least some of this expressive drama.

Photographs require light and light is the subject we are after many times. Light can make or completely destroy a photograph. I was shooting without flash, which wasn’t allowed and is a huge distraction for the actors, so available light was the only option. AsĀ  you can see in these photos, the colors of the lights changed from red, to yellow, to blue. I found that darkening the background worked some of the time but it was a struggle to work with the available light and get images in focus. Even with my f/2.8 70-200mm Nikkor Lens, this was not possible much of the time. Facial expressions can also make a photograph successful and certainly help to tell the story and drama of the musical. Facial expressions are great and I believe the facial expressions in these photos make them work. What do you think?

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The Value of Twitter for Photographers

Do you Twitter?

I confess that I really enjoy social media. I enjoy blogging, keeping up to date with Facebook, and Twittering. Admittedly, I am probably slowest to realize the true value of Twitter but I am getting there!

Just today I connected to these great stories entirely thanks to Twitter:

http://www.moosepeterson.com/blog/2011/06/24/magical-ingredient/

http://goingpro2010.com/2011/06/24/step-by-step-building-your-portfolio/

The first link above is a must read article. Read it and I am sure you will see why. The second link has some very good tips for building your photography portfolio.

I also had the opportunity to hear some news, gather some photo tips, and make a few more photo friends all thanks to Twitter!

Twitter can be confusing or even pointless to some people. After all, how much can you actually communicate in 140 characters? Quite a lot, actually! You can share photo tips, links to interesting photo articles, mention favorite blog posts, share tweets you like, and so much more!

Today I was blessed to see my photography colleague, Willard Hill, post a blog entry discussing an equipment issue I brought up in my photo book. The issue was whether fast lenses are necessary for wildlife photography. I obviously enjoyed Willard’s blog entry and his discussion about fast lenses. So, I Tweeted sharing Willard’s blog with everyone who follows me on Twitter. How can you not like that?

Twitter is sometimes chided by those who only think it is used for people to share the tiny, mundane, and boring events of their daily life with others. I believe Twitter has much to offer. You can choose who you follow, so pick the people whose Tweets most interest you. Follow someone for a while. If you don’t enjoy their Tweets, just unfollow them. Twitter is awesome, in my humble opinion.

My Twitter handle is BobShankPhoto. You can follow me but you won’t hear what I had for breakfast. Rather, you will be connected to other interesting photo blogs, hear great photo tips, and see other photographers I enjoy following. Give it a try!

Twitter is fun and valuable for photographers!