I'm a professional stock photographer living in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is where I share my photography on a daily basis.
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The rapt attention a photographer can elicit from a subject with a single piece of cheese is somewhat amazing. Though, I find this method works best with participants of the four-legged variety.
Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/8, ISO 100
Today's image of a beautiful young woman and her dog is from an outdoor photoshoot I did yesterday afternoon of three siblings and their pet. While the children were excellent subjects, the extremely excited golden retriever added a bit of a challenge. He was so interested in everything going on it was difficult to get him to stay in the frame - let alone look at the camera.
With Michelle's assistance, I used a single silver reflector to light the scene combined with the afternoon sun as a hairlight. In addition to nicely lighting the subject's blonde hair, the sunshine created a great rimlight giving separation between the dog's face and the background.
This shot is one of my favorites from the set. I enjoy the informal feeling created by the retriever looking away from the scene combined with the young lady's wonderful smile.
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/160 second, f/4.5, ISO 100
Labels: animal, children, portrait
Today is one of the rare occasions when the featured image is not one I took.
While reviewing photos from my recent Alaska trip, I came across a series of dog shots that didn't look familiar. That's when I remembered that my 12 year old daughter Elisabeth had borrowed my camera while we were visiting my sister in the town of Healy. It was great to see the different perspective that she took while chasing the many dogs around the yard with a 5D in hand.
Of all the shots she took (read: LOTS!), this shot of Dog (pronounced dee-oh-gee) is my favorite. I love the low vantage point with the narrow depth of field. The tennis ball provides a great finishing touch. Elisabeth has a great natural eye and I look forward to seeing how her photography evolves in the future.
For more examples of her work, visit her frequently rarely updated blog at elisarae.com.
Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/500 second, f/4, ISO 400
Labels: alaska, animal, portrait
One way to photograph potraits with a soft natural light while still maintaining lighting control is to use a reflector. I have used reflectors in my photography for some time but learned how to really put them to use when I attended the Wedding School with Kenneth Linge earlier this month.
On today's image of Tazzy the Papillon I used this method of lighting. To set up the shot, I placed Tazzy with the early evening sunlight over her right shoulder. The sun at this angle provided a nice hair ear light. The main light for the shot was then provided by a reflector being held to the right of and slightly below the camera. This placement gave a natural light focused on the dog's face and brightened up the eyes with large catchlights.
One difficulty in using reflectors is positioning them. My daughter (and sometimes assistant) Elisabeth helped me by holding the reflector. The constant movement of Tazzy provided a bit of a challenge in keeping the light on her face, but Elisabeth kept up nicely.
At a relatively inexpensive price, adding a reflector to your kit is a great way to increase your photographic lighting options.
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/320 second, f/4, ISO 100
Labels: animal, portrait, tutorial
This young bull moose was photographed at the Alaska Conservation Wildlife Center in Girdwood Alaska. It would have been great to make a capture like this in the wild, but this setting made a great alternative.
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens with 1.4x extender - 1/320 second, f/5.6, ISO 100
Alaska, Day 5
Today's photo of a Grizzly Bear and a Brown Bear sparring in the water was shot on Friday during my visit to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. The center is located about an hour south of Anchorage in the extremely small town of Girdwood. Most of the animals there are rescues being prepared for re-introduction into the wild. The opportunity to photograph these bears at such a close range was clearly the highpoint of my visit.
Today, I am off to Denali National Park and Fairbanks on the Alaska Railroad.
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L with 1.4x extender - 1/400 second, f/5.6, ISO 125
This wild snake that I found sunning itself on my front porch last month was actually posing in a perfectly inverted "S" shape. One quick horizontal flip in Photoshop and I've got my "S" is for Snake shot.
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/80 second, f/5.6, ISO 160
On Golden Pond, photographed in Sandy, Utah.
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L with 1.4x extender - 1/200 second, f/5.6, ISO 160
Here are my favorite zoo subjects striking a pose (awful pun intentionally used).
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens with 1.4x extender - 1/400 second, f/7.1, ISO 160
One thing I do to make my daytime captures pop a bit is use a strobe. When I do this, my goal is to add to the presentation of the subject while avoiding an unnatural appearance.
Today's featured photo of a resting swan is an example of this technique. I came across this swan recently while driving to a client's home. It was just after lunch and the sun was directly overhead creating harsh shadows. The bird was relaxing in the shade of a tree with spots of sun peaking through while the pond in the background was in full sunlight.
To get the shot I put on the longest lens I had with me (70-200 w/ 1.4x extender) and attached a strobe (Canon 430EX) to my camera. My purpose in using the strobe was threefold:
1. Fill in the shadows to create more even lighting
2. Create a Catchlight in the bird's eye
3. Add separation between the subject and the background.
To achieve these effects without making the shot seem unnaturally lit, I dialed the strobe's power setting to -1/3 f-stop from the camera's metered exposure. Doing this allowed the natural light to combine with the strobe's artificial light, creating a natural appearance to the subject while accomplishing the three objectives. The setting of -1/3 worked on this scene, but I sometimes use more or less power from the strobe on other scenes depending on the light.
Using a strobe in daylight, especially bright sunny days, can greatly enhance your shots. Play around with your flash's power settings and see what works for you.
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L with 1.4x extender - 1/100 second, f/5.6, ISO 100
Labels: animal, birds, photography, tutorial
One of the quickest ways to ruin a good shot is to use too slow of a shutter speed in relation to your lens' focal length. A fast shutter speed is not only useful in capturing action shots, but it also will eliminate camera shake blur in your photo. We all love a long lens, but with that length comes the potential for blurry shots. When you are using a telephoto lens, every little bit of movement of the camera gets magnified many times over in the viewfinder.
Back in my 35mm film SLR days, I used the simple rule of placing "1/" over my lens' focal length to determine my slowest shutter speed to safely shoot handheld. For example, if I was using a 200mm lens, the slowest I would set my shutter speed to is 1/200 second. But now that we are in the digital age with cameras that have "crop factors" of 1.5 or 1.6, we have to amend this rule a bit. If you are shooting with one of these cameras, simply take your lens' focal length and multiply it by 1.5 and then convert it to a shutter speed. So now that 200mm lens needs a shutter speed of 1/300 of a second or faster to safely shoot handheld.
Over time, many photographers develop a steady hold and can amend their handheld shutter speeds to allow for less shake of the camera. I find now that I can safely handhold a shot at one to two f/ stops longer of a shutter speed than this equation recommends. Today's image of a Red Panda taken at Utah's Hogle Zoo is an example. I handheld this shot with a shutter speed of 1/50 second and a focal length of 280mm. While the image is not as "tack sharp" as I would like, it is definitely usable.
Like most rules in photography, this one is not set in stone. Feel free to experiment with combinations of shutter speed and lens length. I believe that it is better to have a slightly blurry photo (due to camera shake) than to not have taken one at all.
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens with 1.4x extender - 1/50 second, f/5.6, ISO 160
Labels: animal, photography, tutorial
I spent Saturday morning on a sixth grade field trip to Salt Lake City's Hogle Zoo. While it's always great to have the opportunity to photograph interesting subjects, seeing the animals in captivity was a somber experience for me. Many of them appeared to be bored and depressed. The orangutan featured in today's capture is one example of this. He seemed to be very uninterested with the whole zoo scene, spending his time motionlessly staring at nothing in particular.
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens with 1.4x extender - 1/50 second, f/5.6, ISO 160
Labels: animal
Last night as Michelle was exiting our front door she came across an uninvited guest on the front steps. The visitor was an approximately 20" snake. Michelle rapidly re-entered the house and announced her discovery.
The girls and I quickly investigated. The snake was fairly docile and didn't seem to care much about the attention. After an impromptu photo session, I safely escorted the visitor away from our home and into the field directly behind the house.
I am no snake expert (nor do I want to become one), but I did a bit of Googling and this appears to my untrained eye to be a Desert Nightsnake. If any of you snake-wranglers out there know for sure, feel free to chime in and either correct or support my analysis.
Canon 30D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/5.6, ISO 160
Labels: animal
Yesterday afternoon UPS dropped off a new backdrop to the house. When I got home and found it waiting, I was anxious to give it a try. Usually I have a daughter or two around to assist me by sitting in as a model, but this time it was just me and the two dogs.
My first thought was to use the smarter of the pair, our Border Collie Ziggy. As it turned out though, this intelligence told him that sitting on a chair in front of a camera was not worth a nibble of cheese. That left me with Holly, the Shorthaired Pointer. She was more than willing to plant her furry backside on a chair and allow me to take a few shots in hope of receiving a piece of cheese.
The lighting on this image is very simple. I placed a small softbox just to the right of the camera. Fill lighting was provided by the light reflecting off of white blinds to the camera's left. I set the light's power level low enough so that I could shoot wide open at f/4 to minimize the depth of field. I also shot at the lens' full reach of 105mm to further accentuate the shallow focus. In processing, I opted to go with a sepia tone effect because I felt it worked well in creating a uniform tone to the image (here's the color version).
At the end of our short photo shoot, Holly was extremely happy for two reasons. The first was being allowed to get off of the chair. And secondly, she finally got the cheese she had been intently watching.
Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens - 1/30 second, f/4, ISO 50
Labels: animal, portrait, sepia
Frequent blog reader Michelle from the What's Up Michelle blog dropped me an email yesterday with a question. I asker her if she'd mind if I answered publicly and she gave me the go ahead.
"The camera I use is a Canon A540, digital. When I take photos of my dogs, I get the eye shine. How can I take some candid photos in normal lighting / every day setting, without getting the glowing eyes, which is kinda creepy."
Great question, Michelle. Camera's such as yours are designed to do much of the thinking for the photographer. This makes it easy for the novice shooter to simply aim the camera and press the shutter release without having to worry about the various settings. That's why these type of camera's are commonly referred to as "Point and Shoot".
One of the settings that the camera does automatically is the decision of when to use flash. I have noticed with many point-and-shoot models that they use the flash on nearly all shots. Since this flash is located very close to the camera's lens, its light bounces off the back of your dog's retinas to create the "creepy" look. Many advanced photographers avoid this "creepiness" by either bouncing their flash off of the ceiling or moving it away from the camera. Unfortunately, neither of these solutions is available for you. A solution I would use is to avoid using the flash for these types of shots and to manually adjust the camera's settings.
To illustrate this, I borrowed my daughter's Canon A530 which is very similar to your camera. I then called over Holly, our always willing German Shorthaired Pointer, to serve as a model (it did cost me a piece of cheese).
In the shot on the left I used the camera on the fully automatic setting. Notice how it not only created the "Creepy" eyes, but the flash also overexposed the end of Holly's nose and created a large shadow. This did not make for a very flattering photograph.
In the other shot (on the right), I put the camera in manual mode, adjusted the aperture to its widest setting to allow in maximum light and disabled the flash. Note how much more even the lighting is on Holly and how her eyes look normal. I feel that this capture looks much more natural and pleasing.
Keep in mind that this method worked in part because I had a good amount of natural light in the room. If the room had been darker it would have been more difficult to get a good result without the flash. For some more information and tips on photographing without a flash, you might refer to a post a did a few weeks back on low light shooting (here's a link).
I hope this answered your question, Michelle. If any other readers have suggestions as well, I'm sure they'll chime in.
Labels: animal, photography, tutorial
Did you ever stop and truly examine how odd a turkey looks? I came across this guy standing in the middle of a rural road. It wasn't until I viewed the image full size that I truly appreciated the uniqueness of the bird. From the hair on his head and beak to the bluish color to the texture and bulges of his throat - this is one strange looking creature.
Canon 30D, Canon 70-200 f/4L with 1.4 extender - 1/200 second, f/5.6, ISO 100
Doesn't this cow have a great hairstyle? Blend in a bit of gel and he'd be ready to spend Saturday night out on the town.
Just under five years ago I received an email in my inbox with the title "Anybody need a good dog?. The note was from the president of a shooting club I used to belong to. He had a friend that had a new baby and was giving away a "chocolate lab". Making a long story short, we took the dog (Holly) into our home. It was apparent that she wasn't a purebred lab but her previous owner said she was part chocolate lab (though he wasn't 100% sure since she came from a shelter as a pup). We never really worried about what breed she was. Her personality was much more important to us.
This week it was time for our dogs to take their annual trek to the vet for shots and licensing. Their previous veterinarian's office closed so this year they went to a new doctor. Upon entering the examination room, the doctor glanced down at Holly's records (indicating Labrador) and looked up at her and proclaimed "No part of this dog is lab. She's a liver colored German Shorthaired Pointer. I'm 100% sure."
A bit of googling later and I agree, we have a German Shorthaired Pointer. We can now allow Holly to embrace her German heritage. Does that include trips to Wienerschnitzel and Oktoberfest? I doubt it, but at least now we know.
Labels: animal
(Ziggy celebrates his Scottish heritage with a traditional song this New Year's Eve)
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
Happy New Year!
I photographed this young Swainson's Hawk recently when my work took me to Eagle Mountain (Utah). On this particular day, I spotted seven hawks on a one mile stretch of road entering town. With fall approaching, this bird will soon be on his way to Argentina for the winter.
bal‧ance [bal-uhns]
1. a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.
2. something used to produce equilibrium; counterpoise.
3. mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc.
4. a state of bodily equilibrium: He lost his balance and fell down the stairs.
5. an instrument for determining weight, typically by the equilibrium of a bar with a fulcrum at the center, from each end of which is suspended a scale or pan, one holding an object of known weight, and the other holding the object to be weighed.
6. the remainder or rest: He carried what he could and left the balance for his brother to bring.
7. the power or ability to decide an outcome by throwing one's strength, influence, support, or the like, to one side or the other.
I spotted this serious looking predator perched atop a fencepost in Eagle Mountain (Utah). When I stopped to photograph him, he turned and stared directly into the camera lens with a very determined look. I imagine that this is the type of stare that places fear in the hearts of fieldmice everywhere (or at least in Eagle Mountain).
It was hot recently during a program at my children's school. I spotted this boy in the crowd reclining on his dog. The dog appeared completely comfortable with the boy laying on him. It was cute.
Labels: animal
The two ducks (aptly named Fred & Ethel) who took up residence in our front yard have finally left. They spent the better part of six weeks living in the yard, but recently vanished as abruptly as they arrived.
Featured today is a capture I made of Fred as he was enjoying some seed left out by a neighbor. Fred was (is?) very protective of Ethel and was checking out a nearby child in this photo.
About a month ago these two ducks appeared in my front yard. I suppose they were tired of all the hustle-and-bustle of the duck community down by the canal and opted for something a bit more relaxing. They spend their days hanging out in the grass and watching the neighborhood goings-ons.
Captured here is the pair relaxing in the remnants of the morning sprinkler cycle on the sidewalk in front of the house.
Here's another capture from the trip to the zoo last week. I love the detail in the rhino's skin.
Labels: animal
Featured today is a group (flock?) of 13 penguins that I captured recently at Utah's Hogle Zoo. I particularly like the bird on the left that is staring directly at the camera.
I opted to process this shot in black and white for obvious reasons - penguins are black & white!
Last month this duck, along with his mate, showed up in our frontyard. The pair seems to have taken a liking to an area below a bird feeder, frequently snacking on the seed that has spilled out of the feeder. So far, they appear to be quite content. Even if they are scared away by disruptions such as a lawnmower or children they quickly return.
Will they stay all summer? Stay tuned...
Dixie used to live with us, but has since moved on to my brother-in-law's workshop. She has such a vivacious personality and loves to show off. Here is a capture of her sitting atop an office divider recently as she was visiting a local scout troop.
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