Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2022 i Outdoor Photographer

If you spend much time looking at nature photography on social media, you have probably seen a common type of post: A photographer, lamenting the poor conditions at the time, explains how they tried to salvage a photo by converting it to black and white. Before you read any further, I’m asking you to dismiss forever this kind of thinking about working in black and white. Instead of seeing black and white as a backup processing option when the conditions you hoped for do not materialize, I encourage you to instead think about black-and-white nature photography as an expressive form that stands on its own and holds the potential to open up many new creative avenues for sharing the connections you make with the natural world. Even though the digital…

As a budding young photographer, I was interested in both color and black-and-white photography. We live in an infinitely colorful world, and I wanted to share the chromatic beauty I experienced, but I grew up during the 1970s, and the world was still rich with black-and-white imagery. I witnessed the expressive potential of the medium through television and cinema, and through the photographs of Ansel Adams. While few photographers have successfully used color photography in a distinct departure from the conventions of the medium, black-and-white photography remains charged with unlimited creative potential, in both visual aesthetics and printing. I wanted to use the medium to alter my own reality and to create new worlds because it is unrestrained by limitations of veracity and rarely considered gaudy or overprocessed—a threshold quickly…

High in the Taurus Mountains in central Turkey lie the ancient burial grounds of the kings and queens of the Commagene Kingdom. Ever since I was a child, I had dreamed of going to these ancient lands and photographing the 2,000-year-old ruins found windswept on Mount Nemrud. More than 40 years ago, after I had finished working for Ansel Adams as his photographic assistant, I began a lifetime adventure of searching out and photographing sacred sites around the globe. I call them “power points,” places that are either natural landscapes or religious spiritual sites where there is a presence of something powerful, something magical, an energy that evokes a life force that connects everything in the universe. However one describes it, I went in search of the sacred from Tibet…

Monochrome Vision Why black and white is the best palette for my photography. By Jason Bradley On Landscape William Neill’s column on the fine art of landscape photography explores thoughtful approaches to composition and creativity. Assignments Share your best shots in our weekly “Assignments” photo challenges. Submit images that fit the week’s theme—you may be our next Assignment winner. Tip Of The Week Available on our website—or delivered directly to your inbox—our “Tip of the Week” provides shooting and processing techniques to sharpen your photography skills. Sign up today. Connect With Us Get the latest news and be inspired by great photos from the Outdoor Photographer community. Newsletter Subscribe today for updates on the latest features, how-to articles and photography news. outdoorphotographer.com/newsletter…

Red-Shouldered Fall By Jessica Nelson “Red-shouldered hawks live in my yard all year long, so I get to see them even when it isn’t nesting time. They tend to live in my woods and raise their babies here, and when they fledge, they often stick around for a few months before moving on. “I happened to see this hawk in my backyard among the leaves one afternoon as I was taking a walk in the yard. I loved how it wasn’t facing me, and I could frame it among the opening of the fall colors.” See more of Jessica Nelson’s work at thegagglephotography.com. ➤ Canon EOS 90D, Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM | C at 600mm. Exposure: 1/800 sec., ƒ/7.1, ISO 1250. Cross Fox By Zita Quentin “We were on a…

The places I find myself making images are those to which I have a strong, positive emotional reaction. More often than not, these are places that, through their stillness, expansiveness or stark simplicity, evoke within me a sense of quiet contemplation. During the 1980s and early 1990s, I photographed almost exclusively on Martha’s Vineyard, a small island off the southeast coast of Massachusetts, where my parents had a summer home. It was there that I developed a passion for photographing the ocean. I try to set out for the beach before dawn. It’s not always easy getting myself up while it’s still dark outside, but I always return home thinking I should do it more often. I leave the house with 60 pounds of equipment, including my old, wooden camera—an…

In our time, photography as a medium of art and communication offers its practitioners a greater degree of creative freedom in the rendering of our images than ever before. Depending on the intended final application or the photographer’s preference, an original RAW image file can be processed to document what was before the lens as closely as possible (given the limitations of the medium); or to enhance contrast and color for high impact; or to convey subtlety, elegance and nuance. And this is just the beginning. With greater creative freedom, however, comes more responsibility on the part of the photographer to take control of developing the image with its final application and purpose in mind. To make the most of the potential of a photograph via processing, the photographer must…

An Uncertain Pelican “I found this brown pelican waking on a cloudy, cold morning—especially for southern Louisiana—after a shower passed over the area earlier that morning,” explains Dawn Wilson. “There’s a series of pilings along a canal near Lake Pontchartrain where pelicans and other coastal birds rest each evening. The morning can be a great time to catch the birds stirring before they head out to the lake to fish. This particular morning was December 30, 2020, when the world was still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. This bird’s very vigorous shake caused his wings to shrug and made me think he asked, ‘What will 2021 be like?’” See more of Dawn Wilson’s work at dawnwilsonphotography.com. ➤ Nikon D4S, AF-S NIKKOR 500mm F4G ED VR, AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III, NatureScapes…

In her feature story in this issue, Sarah Marino laments a seemingly too-common sentiment that suggests black-and-white photography in the digital age is merely a way to “salvage” images that fall short of satisfying in full color. The idea perhaps has roots in modern entertainment and disposable consumerism; black-and-white televisions, for example, are inferior relics of a primitive era. Technology has advanced, and monochrome is now anachronistic. Marino implores us to discard this way of thinking about black-and-white photography. Though a color photograph records more information than a black-and-white image, more information or greater “realism” doesn’t necessarily result in great art. “I am not trying to show the viewer what these places look like,” says David Fokos of his long-exposure shoreline compositions,” “but what they feel like.” As his work…

Sigma recently announced two wide-angle prime lenses for Sony E-mount and Leica/Panasonic/Sigma L-Mount full-frame mirrorless cameras, the Sigma 20mm F1.4 DG DN Art and the Sigma 24mm F1.4 DG DN Art. The 20mm prime is particularly noteworthy since it’s a somewhat unusual lens. Except for the Sigma 20mm F1.4 DG HSM Art for DSLR cameras, the Sigma 20mm F1.4 DG DN Art for mirrorless is the only 20mm F1.4 lens available for full-frame cameras. Nobody else makes a lens like this, including Canon, Nikon and Sony. There are 20mm F1.8 lenses but no 20mm F1.4 lenses. Design & Usability The Sigma 20mm F1.4 DG DN Art, like many of Sigma’s other Art series lenses, is an attractive lens with its varying black materials, including some flat surfaces and some with…

Location Bean Lake is located along one of the most popular segments of the Superior Hiking Trail, a 310-mile trail in northeastern Minnesota that’s often referred to as one of the best through-hikes in the United States. The trail can be challenging, with a total of 37,821 feet of elevation gain over the full course of the trail, but the rewards are well worth the effort. There are plenty of broad vistas, as well as interesting rock formations, creeks and waterfalls, all within the beautiful boreal forest. The Bean Lake overlook, where this image was captured, is a relatively short hike from the Silver Bay Trailhead in Silver Bay, Minnesota. The approximately 6-mile round trip is moderately challenging, especially if the trail is muddy. Despite constant ups and downs, the…

When I first started in landscape photography, there were many subjects and styles that I wanted to explore. I was particularly drawn to black and white because it was fascinating that photos without color could be so compelling. Black-and-white photography can be challenging at first. It requires a different mindset and approach because you need to observe a subject or scene for its tones rather than its colors. Because of this, black and white sometimes falls outside a photographer’s comfort zone—but working outside our comfort zones is where learning and experimentation happen and the creative process begins. Over time, I learned to develop an eye for black-and-white photography. With patience and practice, I came to appreciate a scene’s contrasts and tonalities. I observed which landscapes, weather conditions, light and subjects…

As a dedicated conservation photographer, Roy Toft often turns his lens toward exotic subjects like jaguars in the Pantanal, pumas in Patagonia and harpy eagles of Brazil. Like many wildlife photographers, he tends to shoot with a long lens. He crafts his compositions, checks his light and waits for moments to happen. But it was an opportunity in his backyard that allowed Toft to tap back into a specialist skill that had grown dusty—camera trapping, a technique often reserved for big-budget projects or seen on the pages of publications like National Geographic. The project, which he dubbed “Wild Ramona,” has allowed him to see a well-practiced profession and his home with fresh eyes and has revealed a story of nature’s resilience in the wake of devastating loss. Toft lost his…