Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2014 i Outdoor Photographer

Photographer: Marc Adamus Location: The Tombstone Mountains, Yukon Territory, Canada Equipment: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Situation: Marc Adamus created this extraordinary image of an aurora over the Tombstone Mountains in the Yukon by combining three vertically stacked horizontal images. He also stacked foreground images to create the incredible depth of field. The Tombstone Mountains are located in a particularly remote part of the Yukon, and to get there, with winter closing in, Adamus chartered a helicopter. Once in the area, he spent some weeks backpacking and photographing, and on just about every clear night he got an aurora borealis show. The photos that Adamus captured to create this final image were taken over a five-hour period on a single night in October of 2011. At the time, he knew he…

POCKET-SIZED MIRRORLESS The Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GM1 is a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera squeezed down to a pocket-sized profile. With a high-quality, 16-megapixel Digital Live MOS sensor, the GM1 shoots both still photos and 1080 HD video at 60i/30p. The metal-alloy frame, with aluminum dials and brushed metal, feels comfortable in your hand and has a stylish retro look. The 3-inch, 1036K-dot LCD screen allows you to set focus and trigger the shutter via touch sensitivity. Silent Shutter mode reduces shutter noise while in the field during sensitive moments. Built-in WiFi connects to your smartphone and tablet for asset transfer, as well as remote triggering using the Panasonic Image App. The GM1 also has integrated creative filters, as well as time-lapse and stop-motion features. List Price: $749. Contact: Panasonic, www.shop.panasonic.com. WIDE-MEDIUM TELEPHOTO…

Photo Hoarding Editing your photography and deciding what you should keep or what gets sent to the trash is something we photographers do all the time. If you don’t edit your work up front, it can quickly accumulate, and the megabytes will overflow your hard drives and worse. I recently discovered worse when relocating my office/studio to my new home in Tucson, Arizona. When preparing for the move, I discovered thousands of photo slides I had committed to limbo years ago. These slides were the remains from editing dozens of assignments; all the slides were still in yellow or white slide boxes and are sharp and well lit, but just didn’t get pulled in the initial edits. Instead, these rejects were stored away. Apparently, I did this for years because…

Six years ago, I began exploring the challenge of making the invisible visible—photographing unusual places using a digital camera and the unusual, haunting light of infrared. I’m now a devotee of invisible light! Our visual world is limited to the colors of visible light. Beyond what our eyes can see is the iridescent world of the infrared (IR) spectrum. Infrared light has a shorter wavelength than visible light, and is just beyond the range that we humans can detect with our eyesight. IR rests just to the right of visible light on the electromagnetic spectrum chart. For infrared photography, the camera, whether film or digital, needs to be made sensitive to near-infrared wavelengths (700 to 1200 nanometers); far-infrared is the province of thermal imaging, with wavelengths closer to microwave. Robert…

Self-taught photographer Chris Burkard calls the ocean his muse. As a senior staff photographer for Surfer Magazine and project photographer for Patagonia, Burkard has traversed the globe photographing waves, wind and water and the people who live to work and play with those elements. In May 2013, Burkard had the chance to visit Alaska, traveling with a small group of surfers by boat as they explored the Kenai Peninsula for interesting and unfamiliar surf areas. We caught up with Burkard, who filled us in on that experience, his technique and how he kept his gear ready to go while working in that remote location. OP: Alaska is hardly the typical location many people think of when they think of surfing. Tell us how you got these photos. Chris Burkard: We…

The original Four Thirds System was introduced in 2003 based around a 17.3x13.0mm image sensor that was smaller than the 23.6x15.6mm APSC sensors used in most DSLRs of the time. The idea was that by designing a system around a smaller sensor, the camera and lenses could be considerably smaller and lighter than the APSC cameras and lenses, while producing excellent image quality through lenses designed specifically for that sensor. That first Four Thirds camera, the Olympus E-1 pro DSLR, wasn’t all that much smaller than contemporary APS-C cameras. More than a dozen Four Thirds models followed, compact, but not so much more so that they dented the APS-C market share. So, in 2008, the Four Thirds consortium introduced Micro Four Thirds. Based around the same 17.3x13.0mm sensor, the MFT…

Visionary Wild Year-Round Visionary Wild continues to exceed expectations with its world-class workshops and photo travel experiences. Featuring such acclaimed photographers as Jack Dykinga, John Shaw, Justin Black, Jeff Foott, Roy Toft and Marc Muench, Visionary Wild instructors are selected for their dedication to sharing their extensive expertise and unique vision, as well as for their ability to deliver an overall experience that’s deeply rewarding and full of fun. Highlights in 2014 include an AfricanWildlife Safari at Masai Mara and Chobe River (long lenses provided!); the landscape of Iceland; the Mayan underworld of the Yucatan; the Oregon Coast at Bandon; the Redwood Coast of California; jaguars of the Pantanal; the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument at Boulder, Utah, and Tucson’s Catalina Mountains. Rich photographic opportunities, personalized mentorship, great amenities and upbeat…

Most nature photographers follow a calendar that’s similar to Major League Baseball. We gear up in the early spring, and summertime is prime time. When fall comes, there’s some great action to be had, but a lot of us have packed it in as the temperatures turn colder. And then there’s winter. It’s cold, the activity outdoors has really slowed, and most of the action is indoors as we evaluate and plan for the coming spring. For some, though, winter isn’t the slow time; it’s when solitude and angled light give us a chance to enjoy some of the best photo opportunities of the year. In this issue, I reached out to a number of top pros and asked them for their favorite places to shoot in the winter. In…

What’s In My Bag What’s In Your Bag, George? This is one of the most frequent questions I receive, for this column, at my seminars and workshops, and during chance encounters in the field. I guess we are, in many ways, defined by the tools we depend upon to create our images, although we’d much prefer to be defined by the images themselves. I suppose this is a statement that could be the basis of a long, contentious stream of comments on social media, but for today, we’ll just give the straightforward, current answer to the question at hand. First, a little context. When I began my professional career in the early ’70s, there wasn’t any such thing as a photo backpack. Several friends (Lito Tejada-Flores, Linde Waidhofer, Bill Ellzey)…

5 Steps To More Professional Photographs What separates the photos that clients will purchase as prints or for licensing from the zillions of photos taken daily by everyone with a smartphone? I’ve created a list of what I think are a few important distinctions that separate a professional-quality photograph from a snapshot. I’ve developed this list over years of working with licensing clients and fine-art buyers, and gathering an understanding of what they’re looking for when purchasing images. I also know from teaching photography workshops that many of the items on this list are skills that take time and expertise to be developed. So while everyone these days can take a picture, actually producing professional-quality images that others value takes a certain level of expertise and requires more than being…

Winter is a proving ground for nature photographers. Cold temperatures take a toll on the body, snow and ice are poised to wreak havoc with photography gear, and short days reduce your time to find compelling scenes in the field. It’s not like crab fishing on the Bering Sea, but it’s not like the pastoral, warm days of summer, either. If you can tear yourself away from binge-watching seasons of Deadliest Catch in the comfort of a heated living room, however, winter serves up some of the best photo opportunities of the year. We reached out to a number of pros to get their input on the best places for shooting at this time of year. You could fill a book with the possibilities. We only have a limited number…

Wide-angle zooms have always been popular with nature photographers. When you venture into the ultrawide arena, a new world of opportunities opens up. Ultrawide zooms typically span the 15-35mm range, meaning they can go from very wide to a slightly wide-of-normal perspective. That’s a lot of versatility in one lens. In this article, we’re using the Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC to show some of the compositional options in this range. The Sigma lens is designed for APS-C DSLRs. These cameras have a magnification factor of 1.5x or 1.6x, depending on the manufacturer, which gives the Sigma 10-20mm an apparent field of view that’s similar to a 15-16mm to 30-32mm lens on a fullframe DSLR. That translates to a range that’s ultrawide to slightly wide. When you get wider than…

One of the main reasons why mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras were designed was to provide DSLR image quality without the bulk. From the very start (the first mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera was introduced about five years ago), serious photographers wondered when—even if—there would be full-frame mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras. In 2012, Sony introduced the RX1, a truly compact camera with a fullframe sensor (the same one used in the company’s SLT-A99 DSLR), but with a fixed wide-angle lens. Now, Sony has introduced the first full-frame mirrorless interchangeablelens camera. The two models are almost identical with the following exceptions: The Alpha a7 features a 24.3-megapixel, full-frame Sony Exmor CMOS sensor, and the Alpha a7R has a 36.4-megapixel unit with no OLPF (optical low-pass, or anti-aliasing, filter). The a7’s sensor also provides Sony’s Fast Hybrid…

Photo manipulation has always been employed to enhance details, even out exposure and increase contrast. Local dodging and burning was done in film darkrooms, with Ansel Adams and W. Eugene Smith leading the way. Digital darkrooms, such as Lightroom, Photoshop, Aperture and other processing software, use similar concepts in a different methodology to make similar enhancements and manipulations. In essence, HDR (high dynamic range) photography focuses on more accurately representing the full spectrum of shadows and highlights that the human eye can see at one time instead of, for instance, the higher-contrast (sometimes silhouetted) visuals that are a technicality of the camera’s optics. HDR achieves this eye-like field of vision by merging together several images at bracketed exposures. Similar to a collage, you’re able to capture details from both the…

Young Monks At Sulamani Temple, Bagan, Myanmar Nevada Wier’s infrared photography has an ethereal quality that comes from the combination of the technology and the subject. In 2011, Wier was in Bagan in Myanmar’s Mandalay region. This area is famous for its many ancient temples. Wier photographed these monks with a specially modified camera. You can see her detailed discussion of how she works in infrared in the article “Invisible Light” in this issue of OP. Lake Superior In A Winter Blizzard Greg Kretovic braved the challenging conditions to get this dramatic wintery scene of the coast of Michigan’s Lake Superior during a storm. “Photographing Lake Superior during the winter months is truly a unique experience,” he says. “Throughout the winter, the big lake shows many different personalities—from calm and…

Location Stretching over 150 miles of coastline from Cat Island in Mississippi to Santa Rosa Island in Florida, Gulf Islands National Seashore spans across two island chains from the Florida Panhandle to the coast of Mississippi. In Florida, the barrier islands stretch from Navarre Beach to Pensacola Beach, and the national seashore is flanked by the Gulf of Mexico and the Santa Rosa Sound, an intercostal waterway with sparkling bluegreen water and sugar-white beaches. Just past the western tip of Pensacola Beach is historic Fort Pickens. On the mainland, Naval Live Oaks Reservation is an ideal spot for coastline shots with plenty of driftwood while Fort Barrancas overlooks the entrance to Pensacola Bay from a bluff. There are beautiful coastal landscapes as well as an abundance of shorebirds to be…

Top selections from recent Assignments Winners from outdoorphotographer.com IN THIS ISSUE OF OP, I’M SPOTLIGHTING THE WINNERS OF SEVERAL OF THE RECENT ASSIGNMENTS AT OUTDOORPHOTOGRAPHER.COM. Each weekly Assignment is like a contest. When the entry period ends, the editors look at all of the submissions and choose a winner whose photo is highlighted on our home page and, as you see on these pages, in the magazine. To be in the running, all you have to do is enter. —Christopher Robinson, Editor 1) Deserts Assignment Winner PHOTOGRAPHER: Darren White LOCATION: Death Valley National Park, California EQUIPMENT: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 17-40mm ƒ/4L USM, 2-stop soft grad filter The photo was taken in Death Valley National Park on Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes near Stovepipe Wells, Calif. My buddy…

Want Sharp Photos? Just buy a better lens, right? If it were only that easy. Many photographers have tried this solution with unsatisfactory results. The pros get consistently sharp images. How do they do that, even when they’re not using so-called pro lenses? One thing they do is pay attention to the 12 challenges in this article and work hard to minimize their damage. I guarantee that if you pay attention to them, too, you’ll gain consistently sharper photos and you’ll get the best from whatever gear you own. 1 The Minimum Handholding Speed Rule: 1/Focal Length = Minimum Shutter Speed. The classic rule of thumb for sharp photos is to set a shutter speed equal to 1/focal length as your minimum shutter speed for handheld sharpness. That held true…

Patience, persistence and earwax—three requirements for photographing theworld’s 39 species of birds-of-paradise. (Yes, ear wax—more on this later.) It only took eight years and 18 expeditions to New Guinea and Australia for photographer Tim Laman to pull off this remarkable photographic and scientific achievement. “There’s a reason why no one has ever done a serious job of photographing all of the birds-of-paradise,” says Laman. “It’s virtually impossible to walk around a rain forest carrying a camera and get a picture. The birds are too high up in the trees or too hard to approach closely.” So Laman spent countless hours climbing trees, rigging blinds and hauling gear up as high as 160 feet into the canopy of the rain forest. And then he waited. And waited. And waited. In today’s…

Regular readers of OP will know that we love mirrorless cameras, except for the name “mirrorless” (see “In This Issue” in the November 2013 issue). As a class, mirrorless cameras have everything most of us want—large, high-resolution image sensors, powerful onboard image processors, a compact design that makes them good traveling companions and the ability to shoot RAW files for maximum control over the images. One area where the mirrorless models fall short compared to their DSLR kin is in the breadth of lenses and accessories. That’s only natural. DSLRs and SLRs have been photography mainstays for more than 50 years. Mirrorless digital cameras have been around for just a couple of years, and mirrorless models arrived in an era when photography technology is evolving at an incredibly rapid pace.…

Ice Fishing “In the cold winter, kingfishers look for open stretches of water so they can hunt little fishes,” says photographer Manfred Delpho, who’s based in Hesse, Germany. “If a lucrative source of food is in the garden of a nature photographer, it’s a great stroke of luck—for both. The kingfisher gets enough food to survive the cold winter and the photographer succeeds with wonderful photos directly in front of his door. A few years ago in autumn, a kingfisher came to my plot of land where there are two little ponds. They’re warm springs that don’t freeze up in the coldest winter. Of course, the kingfisher took full advantage of this, and he came the whole winter to the plots to hunt little fishes. To photograph the kingfisher when…