Safari Books Online is a digital library providing on-demand subscription access to thousands of learning resources.
- Create BookmarkCreate Bookmark
- Create Note or TagCreate Note or Tag
- DownloadDownload
- PrintPrint
Chapter 13. On the road > Questions & Answers
Questions & Answers
| Q | How can you make sure that nothing gets stolen when you travel? |
| A | When I travel by air, I carry all my critical photographic gear with me, and I use TSA locks on all my bags, whether checked or carry-on. At lodges and hotels, if I leave any photo gear in my room, I lock it in a suitcase and cable-lock the suitcase to something solid. I lock all my cases when I leave them in my van or a rental car, and then cable-lock them to something in the vehicle so a thief will have to steal the vehicle to get the stuff. I never leave cameras or camera bags visible in my vehicle when I’m away. I cover the gear in my van with blankets or towels, and my back windows are tinted and covered with curtains. I secure my backpack and soft-sided cases with a wire PacSafe net, and lock that net to something immovable. I always pay attention to my surroundings and practice the same caution when I travel as I do at home relative to security (FIG. 13.15).
FIG 13.15. Some camera bags now come with wire mesh or a cable built into the bag itself. PacSafe makes this wire net; put your soft bags into it and then lock them inside your car or cabin.
|
| Q | How do you back up your pictures when you travel? |
| A | When I’m driving, taking along a computer isn’t a big deal. When I fly, especially to foreign countries, I don’t take a computer unless I have to give a presentation. When I have a computer, I download my cards to a folder on the computer and then back them up a second time to DVD or CD. You could use a small external hard drive rather than the CD. Packing a computer when you travel isn’t difficult. Lots of bags have special pockets for computers, and so many people have computers that many locations have made arrangements for charging and Internet access (FIG. 13.16).
FIG 13.16. Back in camp for lunch, two of my students download and review the morning’s shots. Charging their computers while they drive to locations lets them back up images twice a day. Remember to pack extra card readers and cables.
When I don’t have a computer with me, I copy images to two Epson multimedia hard drives. Once I’ve copied my pictures to each drive, I can reformat my cards and continue shooting. You should have at least two copies of all your pictures before you erase a card. Even if you carry enough cards for the whole trip, back up those cards. |
| Q | Why do you put people into your landscapes? Doesn’t that make the photograph less natural? |
| A | One reason I put people into my landscape images is because they give scale to the photographs. When we stand and look at a scene, we have ourselves as a reference to the size of things, but people who look at our photographs don’t have anything, unless we include something that they can recognize. You don’t have to use people; you can use a car, boat, or cabin, because we all know the approximate sizes of those things (FIG. 13.17).
FIG 13.17. The North Face Lodge and Mt. McKinley, dawn on a frosty morning in early fall. Where we stay is a big part of our nature photography experience. I captured this two-shot panorama from the porch of my cabin at Camp Denali. Denali National Park, Alaska.(Nikon D2X, ISO 200, 28–70 mm lens, tripod, 1 sec. @ f/5.6.)
Another reason for including people in your nature photos is that people generally like seeing other people in pictures. It gives them a connection to the place and allows them to visualize themselves in the picture (FIG. 13.18). FIG 13.18. One of my students, dressed in a red shirt, was walking down this trail to photograph the redwoods across the canyon. Every once in a while, it all comes together. I shot about 20 pictures of her with different lenses as she worked on her own shots. The red shirt made it all happen. Santa Lucia Mountains, Big Sur, California.(Kodak DCSPro 14N, ISO 80, 20–35 mm lens, handheld, 1/250 sec. @ f/5.6.)
When you photograph people in nature, keep in mind how different focal-length lenses will render the scene. Each focal length corresponds to a specific angle of view. You can use this fact to make a better picture, by understanding that a wide lens will show more of the background, and a long lens will show less of the background—even though the subject is exactly the same size. You keep the subject the same size by moving close with the wide lens, backing up with the long lens (FIG. 13.19 and 13.20). FIG 13.19. At 15 mm, a wide-angle lens shows a lot of background, but your subject can be any size you want. In this shot, I’m about five feet from my friend Tracy Trotter. Notice that his head is the same size here as it is in the next shot. Big Sur, California.(Nikon D300, ISO 200, 12–25 mm lens, tripod, 1/1000 sec. @ f/5.6.)
FIG 13.20. In this shot I used a 200 mm focal length. Tracy didn’t move, and the camera was kept at the same height as in Fig. 13.19. I moved back to keep Tracy’s head the same size as in the wide-angle shot. Telephoto lenses show a lot less background. Notice the rock in both shots. The distance from your subject and the choice of lens will have a big effect on showing scale in your images. Big Sur, California.(Nikon D300, ISO 200, 70–200 mm lens, tripod, 1/1000 sec. @ f/4.)
Tip Dressing your “model” in a color that stands out against the greens and browns of nature will really help to focus the viewer’s eye. |
| Q | I’ve heard people talk about ‘painting with light.’ How can I do that? |
| A | In Chapter 3, “It’s all about the light,” I mentioned that the word photography literally means light writing. Painting with light in photography is simple, in theory. While your camera shutter is open, you point the light at different places in the scene and literally “paint” things with the light. Obviously, you have to do this when the scene is pretty dark. Your “paint” can be any light source: flashes, flashlights, even camping lanterns. In my class, students light a tent at night to learn about painting with light. The technique’s the same whether you’re lighting an RV, a tent, or a cabin (FIG. 13.21).
FIG 13.21. Shooting before the sky is totally black gives you a deep blue color. One student was in the tent popping a flash; another was behind the tent flashing up into the trees, while I fired my gelled flash a couple of times to light around the tent. Lodgepole Campground, Sequoia National Park, California.(Nikon D2X, ISO 200, 12–24 mm lens, tripod, flash off camera, 6 sec. @ f/4.)
I like starting about one-half hour after sunset, when there’s still a glow on the horizon. That way, the sky renders dark blue, rather than black. First, I get my exterior, ambient exposure. I use a low ISO, such as 100, and set my shutter at 10–30 seconds to give me time to fire all my flashes. Everything has to stay dark, so I choose an f/stop that will underexpose the ambient by at least three stops. (If you meter that twilight glow in the western sky, you should be good.) Next, use a battery-powered lantern or a flash to light the inside of the tent. My flashes are usually at quarter-power on manual mode. Have someone in the tent fire the flash after you open the shutter. They’ll have to point it at different places to light all the corners of the tent. At the same time, you can fire another flash or use a big flashlight to light trees or things outside the tent. It’ll take a few tries to get everything balanced, but it can look very dramatic. |
