One of the things I am often conflicted about is when I read or hear about “the way to shoot” a particular subject. For example, for shorebirds, the way that is often proclaimed as the best way to shoot them is on your belly, as low as you can possibly go. This creates the nice blurred surroundings and really makes the bird pop in the frame. It is the way I shot this Least Sandpiper – flat on my belly in the sand. I don’t disagree that it creates a very appealing portrait. It is much more intimate than one from a standing position.
But quite frankly, as much as I like to play the skeptic at times, and as much as I tried shooting shorebirds ‘another way’ – I ultimately return to this method. And I don’t know if this is partly preconditioning on how an ‘acceptable’ shorebird photograph should look, or simply because it is an equation that works.
I think this is a line we probably all walk once we learn certain techniques. Certainly I think thi s sandpiper image is better this way than if I shot it from standing or even kneeling. However, I don’t think I was all that creative about it. I simply followed a formula and waited for a moment and had the right light. This bird didn’t stick around long enough to really try too many other things. And even if I did have the opportunity, I might have trashed everything else and ended up with the same image as my ‘keepers.’
I don’t think formulas yield particularly creative images, but can be useful in helping someone go beyond where they may have been before. What formulas do you like or dislike using?
Learn More
WooHoo! Google Page 1! 
For the longest time I have been trying to improve my Google rankings for the generic term of “nature photography.” It is a little side quest I have had – working on it a little at a time. I don’t get a huge amount of traffic from this particular search term, but any exposure helps. It seemed like I was stuck on page 5 forever, and bounced into oblivion a couple of times. Then I began moving up to page 2 with slight tweaks here and there to my links and page titles. Today is the first I noticed I have finally made it to the top 10!
For all I know, it may be a short lived celebration. Google can be rather fickle as they continue to update their search algorithms. One day you may be #1, and the next crawl who knows. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) seems to be a few parts know-how with a big dash of black magic. An entire industry has been created around this. I have been steadily updating various pages around my site based upon SEO articles I stumble upon, working at keeping the site up to date, with relevant content, new images, and some of it seems to have helped.
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact changes that made the biggest difference. I suppose if I was a bit more systematic about it, it would be easier to track. If I knew the golden rule – I might be retiring soon. I know for sure that having a blog that is updated on a regular basis helps. Blogs have a lot of text for search engines to pick apart. Many businesses are realizing this and starting blogs of their own.
There are A LOT of nature photography sites. Total 81 pages worth at the time of this posting. Some are updated frequently, others have some cobwebs on them. It can be a complete mystery at times in what the differences are between page 1 and page 5. Nevertheless, it is wise not to get too comfortable. Continue to follow the advice of the search engine owners and you should do OK.
So I think I will open a bottle of wine tonight, well knowing that the time on page 1 may come and go as easily as this bottle. 
Wanna trade links? 
Learn More
These Gallery Canvas Panels are something I have just started doing this year. I created a few ‘prototypes’ and I liked them so much I ended up hanging one over my fireplace (above). They offer a unique alternative to the matted and framed photograph, especially when dealing with the cost to mat and frame a 20×30 or 24×36 print. There is really no limit to the configurations you can place them in.
These are prints on fine art canvas, using pigment inks from my Epson 4800 and mounted on stretcher bars in a gallery wrap style. Gallery wrap meaning that the image wraps around all sides instead of having a white edge. All stapling is also done on the back instead of the edges. Because my compositions can have important details edge to edge, I had to develop a way to not loose that around the sides of the canvas panel.
I finally got around to creating a page that goes into more detail about these panels and established menu items for people to order them from. Please check out the page here and let me know what you think of this different type of presentation.
Learn More
I recently saw Greg Lato’s post where he describes some images that he has had sitting around for a couple of years contemplating what to do with them. Dan Sroka also wrote about this recently. I can relate to this completely. Quite often we capture images because something instinctively tells us to take the shot. Later on, upon reviewing them at home, our conscious inner judge takes over and we are left scratching our head on why we made that image.
Quite often it take awhile to stew certain shots, or when you perhaps learn a new technique to process them, or see something that makes you go – “Ah HA!” Well, similar to Greg, I have had some beach detail shots sitting around for awhile from my trip to Dominica back in Feb 2006. I processed some of them, and I had a bunch sitting around for ‘another day.’ Well, Greg’s post and awesome collection on sand pattern shots gave me the visual cue that these types of shots look very nice with a light sepia toning to them. I previously processed some with a rich, deep, darker tone – but there were some images where it didn’t seem to stick.
So a year and half later, I went back and processed a few of them in light sepia, and I like the look! I think it brings a certain elegant texture to the images. I don’t know why I didn’t do it before – but when you are processing hundreds of shots from a trip, time gets away from you. You are judging with a different part of your brain than the part active at the time of capture. Sometimes it takes some fermentation and perhaps some new inspiration to take another look at what you might have been seeing in the first place.
Learn More
Anyone that prints their own work knows for all the enjoyment it can offer in having the ulimate control, it is plagued by an assortment of frustrations. If my Epson 4800 experiences one more major clog, I may be ready to throw it through the window. One of the hardest aspects to overcome is knowing if the print you made is really the best it can possibly be. Color management and the dozens of options you need to be wary of in working with today’s digital printers are not easy things to understand or concepts to get clear in your head. One miss of a small check box and you may as well position your garbage can right next to your printer’s output tray.
Michael Reichmann and Jeff Schewe have done a tremendous service to the community in filming a tutorial series called From Camera to Print. I am giving them an unsolicited plug because I think it is very well done and offers an enormous amount of information at an incredible value. I personally learn more from watching videos or listening to audio than I do from reading books. It just seems to sink in better with me personally. The way Michael and Jeff present this tutorial in a conversational style discussing everything from capture to final framing and matting really offers a complete picture on the state of the art in digital printing. They clear some of the fog that often surrounds this entire topic and processes to the final stage of a photograph.
The series is lengthy – over 6 hours – and best digested a little bit at a time. If you have any confusion about color management and optimizing your images from capture to sharpening to the final print, the $35 spent is miniscule compared to the troubles and confusion it may save you in the future. And even if you think you know quite a bit already, I think you will pick up a few Lightroom or Photoshop tips that will make it just as worthwhile. But be warned, the $35 is also small compared to some of the tools you might want to pick up after watching this. For you rebels that still like to shoot in JPEG instead of RAW, you might see your rebel side softened a bit.
Both of these guys agree that the process today can get very complicated. We can only hope that this stuff will become simpler in the future. Reichmann makes a statement that will likely come true. We will look back on these processes (and this video series) in the future and refer to it as the “Dark age of Digital Printing.”
Highly recommended!
Learn More
Follow Me on…