ACHIEVING GREAT OUTDOOR IMAGES
By David Gafney
Maple trees line a dirt road in October Mountain State Forest, Massachusetts. A telephoto lens can compress objects within a landscape. Nikon 6006 camera with 75-300 mm Sigma zoom telephoto lens set at approximately 200 mm; f/16 at ½ second; Fuji Velvia (50 ISO) slide film.
PART 2 – Composing the Image – Some Tricks of the Trade
The techniques discussed here are not particularly difficult to understand or master.
It is, therefore, difficult to understand why so few people shooting
photographs follow them.While they are not difficult to learn, they are critical for those who wish to rise above merely “taking pictures.”
Lets plunge into some of the techniques used in composing the kind of photographic images that will have an impact on others and will inspire you to keep shooting.
Forest of yellow poplars, Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina
[Tip #10]
Don’t Just Stand There, Lie Down!
I once attended a lecture by a prize winning news photographer.His black and white images were far above the norm for newspaper “art.” Throughout the lecture he emphasized the fact that he almost never shot from a standing or upright position.
His mantra was lie down, kneel down, squat or bend – do anything to change the perspective and capture the world from a different vantage point than that from which we typically observe it.
It is excellent advice.
Once, while on an extended hike on the Appalachian Trail (I was backpacking from Springer Mountain, Georgia to the village of Damascus, Virginia), I descended into the spectacular Nantahala Gorge of North Carolina.Covering the lower slopes of the gorge where majestic forests in places composed almost exclusively of large yellow poplar trees. I found that it was impossible to capture these forest giants from either a standing or kneeling position.A normal 50 mm lens captured too little of the surrounding forest, while a wide-angle lens captured more, but shrunk the trees to insignificance. By lying down in the middle of the trail and aiming straight up into the forest canopy with a 24 mm lens attached to my camera, something of the magic of this place could be captured. It is too bad that I could not have also captured the melodic songs of the wood thrushes that filled these woods.
Don’t be afraid to reposition yourself. Lie down if you have to.Even if others are present and it is somewhat embarrassing.See if they are still
snickering when you win the Pulitzer Prize!
Maple leaf on rock outcrop in Beartown State Forest,
Massachusetts.
Keep it Simple!
Sometimes the simplest themes can be the most inspiring. A single autumn maple leaf on a rock may hold more magic then a million such leaves spread out over the forest floor.
Capturing the simple subjects is often a function of using a zoom telephoto lens and
conditioning yourself to becoming alert to, or conscious of, the small subjects or subtle compositions that others might pass by.
A zoom telephoto lens allows greater flexibility in composing the image by
allowing you to zoom in on the primary subject while excluding the surrounding clutter. And this is particularly important when the goal is to focus the viewer’s attention on the central theme, while drawing attention away from the visual chaos that surrounds it.In the photograph below of a paper birch growing along the Appalachian Trail in the Green Mountain National Forest of Vermont, a 70-300 mm zoom telephoto lens was used, set at about 100 mm.
The birch stem is framed by bronze-colored beech leaves that tend to hang on the trees through much of the winter, long after leaf fall has stripped the foliagfrom other tree species.
On a day-long hike through a forest of thousands of trees, a single birch stem framed by a few dead beech leaves was more visually interesting than anything else I had seen and I am not sure that I can articulate or even understand why.It is important to understand the concept that “less is more” and avoid the clutter of subjects that can fail to focus the viewer’s attention on that which should be the most important component of the image.
Certain zoom telephoto lenses (see Tip #22, “The Second String of Zoom Telephotos”) have macro capability, which can greatly add to the enjoyment of such a photo exploration and can increase your opportunities in capturing the intimate subjects of a natural area. (See also Tip #38, “Getting Naturally
Intimate with a Telephoto Lens”).
In New England, the post-autumn period of late October and early November can provide more subtle coloration than exists during the foliage peak of mid-October.
After the brilliant fall colors have begun to fade, there is a certain magic in the period of somber “earth tones”that follows.
Birch tree photographed in Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest
Rainbow Lake on the Appalachian Trail, Maine
[Tip # 12] Landscape Composition -The Use of Interchangeable Lenses
Don’t allow yourself to become locked into preconceived ideas that each category of lens is use-specific to a category of nature photography: telephoto lenses for wildlife, wide-angle lenses for landscapes and normal lenses for photographing buildings or portraits. Mix it up! If you have a subject that excites you, go a little crazy – or at least view the subject through your viewfinder from different angles using lenses of different focal lengths.
I tend to carry two zoom lenses covering most of the focal range from 24 to 300 mm (a 24-50 mm zoom lens and a 70-300 mm telephoto zoom). These allow a great deal of flexibility in composing an image, while also providing the convenience of having to carry only two lenses. Being able to minimize the amount of photographic equipment you carry matters greatly on forays deep into the backcountry and can make even a two-hour hike more pleasant when the load in your pack is light.
The image above and the two images below of Rainbow Lake were shot from the same spot on the Appalachian Trail deep in the wilds of northwestern Maine. All three shots are of the same subject photographed from the same location. The image above was shot with a 70-300 mm telephoto lens set at 200 mm, while the image below (left) was shot with a 24-50 mm lens set at 24 mm. The image below (right) excludes everything except part of the foliage reflected in the lake and was shot with a 70-300 mm telephoto zoom lens set at 300 mm. Three very different compositions shot of the same subject from the same place. It’s great to have a range of options and that is exactly what the two zoom lenses mentioned above provide!
Two more images of Rainbow Lake, Maine. Top: photographed with 24-50 mm zoom lens set at 24 mm (#AT0037). Bottom: photographed with 70-300 mm zoom telephoto set at 300 mm to crop out everything except part of the foliage reflected in the lake (#AT0038).
Berkshire Autumn: Congregational Church in Lee, Massachusetts (#BK0002)
[Tip # 13] Exclude the Clutter!
A zoom telephoto lens can sometimes work miracles. The ability to zoom from one focal length to another adds greatly to a photographer’s versatility in the effort to weave shapes and forms into a striking design. It is possible, for example, with such a lens to exclude unwanted features from the landscape. The image above was shot from the upstairs bedroom window of my mother’s house in Lee, Massachusetts using a 70-300 mm zoom telephoto lens. By “zooming in” to 300 mm, telephone lines that were strung just above the image’s field of view, and the roof of the neighbor’s house that lay just below the framed view could be “cropped out.” The artifacts of suburbia were eliminated allowing for a more countrified New England scene. A telephoto lens also serves to compress features within the landscape. Here, the forested mountain backdrop is “brought closer” to church and steeple.
A friend once observed that when I photograph churches I tend to have them dwarfed by wild nature. He inquired as to what was the deep psychological significance behind this. My answer is that “I’m not really sure.” I do know that a zoom telephoto lens allows for greater creativity in composing an image by allowing you to zero in on the subjects you want included and cropping out those that you don’t.
Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee (#AT0009)
[Tip # 14] Hey, Don’t Center That Subject!
In my home area, the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts, it is possible to stand on a ridge top and see row upon row of mountains spreading out to the horizon. All of them are blanketed in a lush forest of oak, maple, beech, birch and hemlock. The natural inclination is to simply raise your camera and push the shutter release. But such views deserve more thought and more effort. Most books on photographic technique include a segment on the “rule of thirds.” Under this, imagined lines both vertical and horizontal divide the field of view into a tic-tac-toe pattern. In the image above of Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the low lying clouds occupy the upper third of the image; the forested mountains comprise the middle third; and the meadows of the valley floor comprise the lower third. The barn lies within the left third of the “tic-tac-toe” pattern. The premise behind the rule of thirds is that the photograph is more visually interesting if the subject is not centered, but rather placed to one side or the other of the image. I am not sure if I ever consciously followed the rule of thirds. When I compose or frame an image, what I like and don’t like in terms of composition arises out of some internal intuition. However I am including the rule of thirds here, because when you are starting out, it is good to get out of the habit of always centering your subject.
Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a photographer’s paradise – a valley completely surrounded by mountains that are 3500 to 5500 feet in elevation. The floor of the cove is a matrix of woodland and meadow that is rich in deer, bear, wild turkey and other wildlife. As “frosting on the cake” a number of historic structures have been preserved including churches, log cabins, barns and a gristmill. While working for the National Park Service, I spent one summer living in Cades Cove. Frequently, during the evening, I was serenaded by the howls of red wolves that had been reintroduced into the area. A Nikon 8008s camera with 70-300 mm zoom telephoto lens set at 200 mm was used; Fujichrome 50 film used.
View from the summit of Mt. Camerer on the Appalachian Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee (#AT0012)
The Rule of Triangles: Some of the recent writers in photographic magazines have veered slightly away from the rule of 3rds and are suggesting that rather then dividing your image into thirds, you should envision an “x” super-imposed upon the view. Such an image would be divided into four triangles. The subject, whether it is a building, a rock outcrop or a hiker, should be placed within one of these triangles. This is simply another technique to instill the idea that the subject should be placed off center, and in doing this you lend artistic balance between the subject and the surrounding landscape.
In the image above, a 24 mm wide-angle lens was used to capture the sweeping wild scenery from the summit of Mt. Camerer in the northern part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A rock outcrop neatly fitting into the lower “triangle” of the image makes the photograph more interesting and lends a sense of depth to this landscape composition. It was shot with a 24 mm wide-angle lens stopped down to F/22 for maximum depth of field, which required the slow shutter speed of 1/4th second. This, in turn, required the use of a tripod.
On a 460-mile hike that started at the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail and ended in southwestern Virginia, I walked through four national forests and the magnificent Great Smoky Mountains National Park – more than three million acres of wild land in what is supposed to be the settled, populated East. Mt. Camerer is the last mountain the A.T. crosses before it leaves the national park.
A grove of yellow poplars in the Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee (#AT0039)
[Tip # 15] Find Some Order in the Chaos of Nature!
One year I drove many miles of roads that meandered through the valleys and coves of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. It was October, and the mountains were incredible with a kaleidoscope of autumn colors. Yet through the miles of travel, it was one woodland that caught my eye and caused me to pull over for a photographic effort. It seemed to be the one place where, rather than a jumbled forested exuberance spreading through ravines and hollows, all the trees were perfectly straight – a place of order in the wild chaos of the seemingly endless Appalachian woods. This particular grove was composed almost entirely of yellow poplars, a tree species that is characterized by straight and branchless stems. The shot was taken with a 24 mm wide-angle lens, set at f/16 and a shutter speed of 1/2 second.
Some writers argue that finding order in chaotic nature leads to photographic images that appear contrived. One photographer, whom I greatly respect, has written that he seldom shoots in the heavily forested areas of the eastern United States because of the chaotic nature of the environment there and the difficulty of capturing the “feel” of a densely forested area. Normal and telephoto lenses don’t capture enough of the majesty of the forest, while wide-angle lenses shrink stately trees to insignificance. These statements, however, always surprise me. I have spent a good portion of my life shooting in the densely forested regions of the eastern United States. I see the eastern deciduous forests as a veritable fountainhead of photographic subjects and opportunities. In fact, in my opinion, one of the most beautifully illustrated coffee table books ever published is simply entitled Forests and features the woodland photography of Tim Fitzharris. In such a chaotic, jumbled place a little order here and there is something not to see as “contrived” but rather as unique and unusual, and therefore, highly interesting as a photographic subject.
Become sensitized to the unusual patterns in nature – a stand of perfectly straight trees in an otherwise chaotic forest or a near perfect circle of fern fronds growing from the otherwise random scattering of plants and leaf litter of a forest floor.
Left: Badwater, on the floor of Death Valley, California (#NP0006); Right: Sunset on Laurel Lake in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts (#BK0009).
[Tip # 16] Keep Yourself Inspired: Never Stop Looking at the Work of Others!
In 1988, while browsing my way through a bookstore in Harvard Square, I came upon Mountain Light, a coffee table book by Galen Rowell published by Sierra Club Press. Such books seldom “blow-me-away” but this one had exactly that effect. Not only were the images spectacular, but up until then, almost all coffee table books were done by photographers shooting with large or medium format cameras. Galen is strictly a 35 mm guy. Yet the large color images were perfectly sharp, and with the lack of “graininess” and the kind of color saturation that was once the exclusive domain of the big format photographers. The message that came through to me was that advances in the technology of printing, combined with the development of new high quality fine-grained films, has allowed 35 mm photography with its accompanying convenience of size and its advantage of greater versatility, to now encroach into what had been the exclusive domain of the large format photographers – calendars, posters and coffee table books.
Additionally, what highly impressed me was that Galen was “spilling the beans” – explaining the techniques that he used to achieve these images! Earlier generations of photographers tended to guard their knowledge of photographic technique as if revealing such information would threaten national security. Despite being a poor graduate student at the time, an irresistible force caused me to reach deep into my pocket for the cash to purchase this book.
This is a simple, yet important, tip. To develop an eye for composing powerful photographic images, take the time to look at the work of others. Spend time at your local bookstore or library. Get on-line and browse the growing number of photography web pages (some photography schools go further and have their students study the works of the great landscape artists, such as the nineteenth century paintings of the Hudson River school). Analyze which images have a real impact on you and which ones don’t. When you see a great photograph, part of the process should be to think about what kind of lens was used, what time of day was the photograph taken, how much depth of field was achieved or not achieved (and whether it matters), and what kind of film did the photographer use. Think about the exposure variables of shutter speed and f-stop. If the photographer provides information on all of these variables, great! If he or she doesn’t – try to figure it out. What would you have done with the same photographic opportunity?
Housatonic River, Stockbridge, Massachusetts (#BK0007)
[Tip # 17] Keep Going Back To a Favorite Subject or Place
Not far from where I live in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, there is an old railroad bridge that spans the Housatonic River. The view from the bridge encompasses the river as it flows beneath the forested slope of Monument Mountain. It is a place and a subject that excites me enough to cause me to keep returning in different seasons and under different lighting and weather conditions. The weathered, rough wood of the bridge combines with the converging of the curving tracks and river to create an image that, for whatever reason, has an impact on me. Maybe it’s the romantic significance of railroad tracks and the movement and travel that they represent or maybe it’s the tracks being the only man-made infringement upon an otherwise wild view of mountain and forest and free-flowing river. I can easily spend an hour in that place composing and re-composing and fiddling with my camera – losing all sense of time. The sound of the flowing river lends further to a peace of mind and a temporary relief from the stresses of the day. Probably, not far from where you live there is a place that holds some magic for you. Visit it frequently in different seasons and under different lighting and weather conditions. Your chances of capturing an exceptional image will increase, and even if you never achieve a photographic masterpiece, it will still be good for your mental and spiritual health.
