Some photography tips I have learned over the last month

   

I got the postcard

   I think I mentioned that over the last month or so I have been watching a bunch of online photography lectures. I've been doing this when I get home for the night. I've done a lot of experimenting and playing with light, aperture, and settings. Some of my experiments have resulted in deleting an entire photoshoot. That is fine with me. The nice thing about digital is I can take and delete all the photos I want. I just have to make sure to recharge my battery!

   That said, about deleting an entire shoot, I still try to take visualize and take good photos. I don't just shoot to shoot. At the end of the day, there just might not be anything interesting enough for me to want to keep. 

   Lately, I have been attempting to put this newfound knowledge to good use.  Taking photos of things I actually want photos of, and wanting them to be good is a little more pressure than just experimenting. It's fine to take plenty of bad photos if you don't care what you are looking at, but when it's a rare bird, a moment with a family member, or a vacation photo, you don't want to screw it up. 

   Here are some of the things I have learned. This isn't a refresher of the forty or so lectures I have watched. Just some good points that may or may not help you out. Keep in mind here, I do not think I am some kind of professional photographer. Just because I am passing out free tips does not mean I am any kind of photography guru. But so far this stuff has helped me, maybe it can help you.

But did you know, the
presidents only take up a 
small part of the mountain

1. If you want to be a better photographer put yourself in front of more interesting stuff.

Seems simple. It is easier to take photos in or at interesting places. I'd probably enjoy your photos of a vacation to Maine much more than seeing portraits of your family. 

2. Go beyond the postcard. 

For most of my life I have chased the postcard. I wanted the clear unobstructed view of Rushmore, Lincoln Memorial, Independence Hall, etc... I always wanted to capture the postcard view. But, if you think about it, we have all seen those views a million times. We have seen them in everything from calendars to car commercials. Instead, go make a photo of a famous place that you've never seen before. Go find a shot the world has never seen. For example, we have all seen the Statue of Liberty with a blue sky behind her, right? But have you ever seen a photo of the back side of the statue? I think not.

I got the shot I wanted. But there 
aren't people to give it scale. There's
no life to this photo at all. Yawn

3. People in the photo make for a better photo.

    I didn't need someone to tell me this. I realized this at Disney. For months, I had thought about getting photos of Cinderella's Castle with a bright blue sky and no one in the photo. I figured it would be impossible. However, when we got to Disney, I could work the camera to get exactly the shot  I wanted. And you know what? It was boring as hell. Without people in the picture, it was no more exciting than a gravestone. The photos with happy Disney guests walking down Main Street with the castle in the backdrop would have been much better. I didn't get much of a chance to do that because the goal of the day was to enjoy Disney, not to waste Laurie's day while I photographed crowds.

4. Not everything needs to be in focus

I took this photo over the weekend. I'm pretty 
proud of it. I used a high shutter to compensate
for the super bright sky and a big Aperture
to blur out the background (that branch in
the back). It didn't hurt the Bobolink is beautiful
didn't move for five minutes

   I knew this one already. If your taking a photo of a particular subject, it is easier to make them pop out in your photo if they are the only thing in focus. This is obviously something I knew from getting photos of birds. The same is true of people, if you are taking a portrait of a friend in their backyard and everything in the background is in focus, it may looked cluttered. There could be too much distractions and people won't see what you want them to look at. 

5. The horizon

The rule of thirds says the horizon should not split the photo in half. Put it a third of the way up or a third of the way down. But you can use the sky as your background if it is nice and have the horizon near the very bottom of the frame. On the other hand, if the sky is blown out, you can show very little of it or even none at all in some landscape shots.

This Blue Grosbeak was in just awful light.
I overexposed it so it would not be a silhouette.
I couldn't have gotten this photo with 
autofocus, and truthfully, I couldn't have made 
this photo a month ago.

6. Learn how to adjust the brightness of your exposure.

   Most cameras have a way to over or underexpose the photo. Learn how to use it. Most of the time in bright light you want to underexpose your photo. Here is why, when you go home, you can always adjust the photo to make it brighter. But if it was over exposed, whatever was too bright will be lost because the sun or light hid it and you can't get that info back. 

   However, underexposing isn't always the right choice. On Friday I got a photo of a Blue Grosbeak on a wire. There was nothing behind it but bright white overcast sky. The bird was nothing but a silhouette in my first photos. Luckily for me, the bird stayed there long enough to play with my settings, I overexposed the bird two full stops to make it brighter. It worked, I got a couple fairly good photos in really terrible light. If the bird wouldn't have flown away, I would have kept trying different things.

7. Try to get the photo right in your camera instead of in post processing.

  If you get the photo you want in your camera by adjusting light, aperture, distance to subject, the photos will be better quality than if you have to adjust them on your computer. More importantly, at least to me, you will be proud of yourself if you get it right without adjustments. No one is perfect, and of course, we are all going to have to adjust some of our photos. However, I am striving to get it right in the camera and not in post. 

Jess's dog Stella in the last natural light of the day 

8.Make use of good light.

What is bad light? Usually it is harsh bright high sun in the middle of the day. You can work with it of course, and sometimes we have no choice. If I'm on a whale watch between 10-2 and I want to get a photo of my friends, I can't wait until sunset to get a photo of the setting sun in the background.

   However, the best light is soft. Usually early or late in the day, even overcast days can be

Jess's cat Buck in the soft light of her living room

 good because you don't have bad shadows. Using natural light to your advantage is nice. Whatever you can do to find good light will make for better photos. I took some photos of my friend Jess's pets in good light. You can see what I mean

9. Be creative.

I found this photography "quick draw" with my
friend Sue much more interesting than if I would
have just asked her to smile.

I spend a lot of time taking photos of birds. But I a working on trying to expand my horizons and make interesting photos of other things. But I do not want to do the same old photos we have all seen and been in. When I go birding with friends, I don't want to just take a grin for the camera photo of someone. I'd rather get a candid shot of them doing something interesting. There is literally an infinite number of things we can door have are subjects do that is more interesting than telling them to say cheese.

10. Be hard on yourself, but also enjoy your photos

   What do I mean? If you want to become a better photographer, learn from your photos. Try to figure out why a photo works or doesn't work. Try to figure out how you could have made it better. Did you see the telephone pole coming out of the back of her head? Did I make the horizon crooked? Is the background cluttered? Should I have blurred it?

Be hard on yourself, but at the same time, just because a photo isn't perfect doesn't mean you can't love it. For example,  you took a photo of your family eating supper, they are all happy and your kid makes a cute face, it is a special moment, right? It's something you want to remember. But you realize that the window on the right is overexposed. So the photo isn't prefect. You're not going/shouldn't throw it away. The photo means something to you. So cherish it. Be happy you caught the moment,

   Another example- My favorite picture I took in New Hampshire is slightly out of focus. I know that. If I had more than a second, I might have snapped a few more frames. But I am okay with what I got. Actually the out-of-focus guy in the canoe sort of enhances the pic to me. Instead of worrying about the detail you get a sense of a guy canoeing a mountain lake in autumn. I like it, and if you don't, that's okay too.

Some Photo Upgrades

Tennessee Warbler

I had been feeling burned out birding for a few weeks. Dipping over and again on the Baird's Sandpiper, Royal Tern, and Dickcissel had made birding not very fun. That is the main reason I went to New Hampshire instead of Block Island last week. I just wasn't enjoying birding. It was the absolute right decision. I enjoyed every minute in New Hampshire, while my friends enjoyed every minute on BI. I would have gone back to New Hampshire this week had it not been for the rain yesterday. So instead I went to Snake Den. Snake Den in Johnston is only about twenty five minutes from my house. I didn't really care what I saw as long as there were birds. I hoped to practice put to use some of the photography techniques I have been practicing.

 

Blue Grosbeak's are not very blue this time of year.

   Luckily for me, the sky was awesome at first light. Just wave after wave of cool clouds. My friends Sue and Tim were already in the back field when I got there. But it took me forever getting to them because I kept shooting the sky. I don't remember the last time the sky was so dramatic. The birds were there too. For me, the prize was a Tennessee Warbler that was close enough for a good photo. I had only seen one other one in my life, it was at the top of a sixty foot tree. So this one was an easy photo upgrade. While watching and shooting it, I was having fun. The most fun I have had birding in a month.

    Later, right before we left, I spotted a Blue Grosbeak. However, before I could figure out what it was, Jan identified it, and asked me why I didn't call it out. Blue Grosbeak is a very rare bird this far north. It is probably more unlikely than the Tennessee Warbler. The Grosbeak was another much improved photo upgrade. My only other Blue Grosbeak photo is a tiny silhouette in a tall tree. 

A beautiful Bobolink

  Today, Sunday, my bird buddies decided to take a day trip to the Block. The wind was perfect and they knew there would be birds. I chose not to go. I wanted to get Nelson's Sparrow and honestly, I just wanted to relax. I got my Nelson's near the West Wall. However, I got three for the price of one. Before I even got near the water a Bobolink popped up. It flew to the top of some brush and just stayed in perfect light. I took photos for ten minutes before I moved on. I got the Nelson's and headed back to the car. Over by my tires, I saw what looked to be a weird sparrow. It turned out to be an adult White Crowned Sparrow. This is a species that can be very rare around here. I had seen some juveniles in the spring, but at any time of year, adults are pretty rare. It turned out that there were two of them. They were very cooperative. They would feed in the dirt of the road or along the edge. They would periodically fly up to a branch or a tree and then back down. I watched them for thirty minutes or more. I had fun

The photo above and below are
White Crowned Sparrows.

There are a bunch of photos below. I started this post saying how dramatic the light was. I was glad to be out there.

Sue and I having a quick draw contest with
our cameras

Jan, right after finding the Tennessee.

Eastern Phoebe

Another photo of the Blue Grosbeak
against a tough sky

Two more photos of the Boboloinks

New Hampshire 2020 Act 1. A Vacation Very Much Needed

 

View from Mt. Tremont

  Many of my bird friends spent the last three days on Block Island birding. I was supposed to go, but I have so badly wanted to go hiking that I went to New Hampshire instead. The temps in NH were going to be around seventy five degrees with no chance of rain. Around home, I have noticed the leaves quietly changing color earlier than normal. I had a feeling that there could be some pretty foliage up north. Warm weather and pretty colors were too good to pass up. The mountains were calling. I drove up Wednesday night and got a campsite at dark. In the middle of the night I got woken up by a Saw Whet Owl singing. I've been woken by Barred Owls many times, and a Screech at least once. Saw Whet was a new one for me,

   I woke up early on Thursday and headed to the Mt. Tremont Trail. My plan was to do Tremont in the morning and then take pics the rest of the day. Though only about 3300 feet, Tremont is pretty tough mountain. The trail is 2.8 miles each way with over 2500 feet of elevation gain. That is more elevation than some of the four thousand footers I have done. None the less, with a nice early start I hoped to be done around 1 pm and still spend a couple hours on top. The trail was tougher than expected and I got to the top over thirty minutes later than expected.

     The sky was hazy so there wasn't much point in taking photos of the view with the sky in the background. Still, it was beautiful. I could look right down on Sawyer and Little Sawyer Ponds. To the left was Church Pond where Laurie and I famously fell asleep on a picnic table sized rock  Most of the view was into the wilderness. The trees had turned color as I hoped. I dare say, they are peak right now. They were just gorgeous.

Green Cliff, Sawyer Pond, and Little Sawyer to the right

   With shaking knees and aching ankles I made it down at 2 pm instead of the 1 pm as I hoped. Still, there was plenty of daylight. I went up to Crawford Notch and got photos. Just as I am attracted to boobs, I am drawn to red leaves. Everywhere that I saw a bright red leaf, clump of leaves, or a red tree, I felt the need to photograph it. This could possibly have lead to my delay getting down the mountain, but my knees would tell you otherwise. I spent the rest of the day taking photos of leaves, ponds, and tree lines. Not so much of mountains because of the hazy sky behind them.  Near dark I went back to camp. Never was I so happy it was dark by 7:30. I was asleep by 8 pm.

  

 

  

   I got up while it was still dark for a thirty minute ride to Pondicherry. This place is a National Wildlife Refuge. It also happens to be the last place I  had seen a moose in NH. I got to the refuge just as it was light enough to walk without a headlamp. I bee lined it to Big Cherry Pond, hoping if a moose were feeding in the water during the night they would still be there. It ended up being foggy so I couldn't see the entire shoreline. However, it was pin-drop quiet and if a moose would have been feeding, I probably would have heard it.

Sunrise over Cherry Pond

Right before sunrise 

  I went to Little Cherry Pond hoping a moose might be there. I stopped for the sunrise as I was walking over the west shoreline of Big Cherry. When I got to Little Cherry, there was a guy there along with a swimming beaver. The guy was cool and he filled me in on what he had seen so far (no moose). After talking to him I went birding. I had already spooked two Ruffed Grouse on my hike toward the ponds. At this point the songbirds had woken up. They were everywhere in the woods. I saw tons of Ruby Crowned Kinglets and White Throated Sparrows. I also saw a Black Throated Green Warbler, Hairy Woodpecker, White Crowned Sparrows, Brown Creeper and a Winter Wren. There were so many birds, all moving very quickly, I'm sure I missed many more species.

A guy looking for animals at Little Cherry Pond

   As I was coming out of the woods and back onto the railroad track a small black movement caught my eye, it was a bear cub! It was crossing the tracks far in front of me but I had my binoculars. I only saw it for a few seconds as it was crossing the tracks. On the other side of it was a guy wheeling a canoe down to the lake. I asked him if he saw the cub. Not only did he say yes, but he said it swam across the lake and came out on this side. If I would have spent five minutes less birding, I could have watched this adorable little bear swim across the lake and get photos! Rats!

The guy that saw the cub out in his canoe.
My favorite photo of my trip. I like how the
out of focus leaves frame him.

   After seeing the bear, I walked back around the lake and ending up having a pretty cool wildlife encounter of my own. A Northern Harrier was circling the lake looking for songbirds in the bushes. It passed by me at least five times, but it was always in bad light. I was disappointed my photos were going to suck, but after downloading them, they are better than expected. 

Northern Narrier

   I walked out of the ponds and back to my car birding along the way. I saw a Red Squirrel and a Pileated Woodpecker. Despite hearing Nuthatches for hours all morning, I never actually saw one. After I got in my car, I drove back to my tent site where I broke camp. I stopped at the Mountain Wanderer book store where I talked to owner/author Steve Smith. I bought a shirt and headed home. I am far too sore to do any afternoon hiking. 

Wood Duck. 
Cropped a ton.

Out of focus Pileated Woodpecker

   All in all, I needed this trip. It had been far too long since I've done a hike. My legs are burning, both my quads and hamstrings. I'm walking bowlegged and using the hand rail to walk up and (especially) down my four steps at home. And you know what? I'm okay with that. I needed to climb a mountain and look down into a valley. I needed to sweat my ass off and wonder "how much further?" I was happy to sit on top of a peak with no place I'd rather be. 

Red Squirrel

Because of my new-found enjoyment for learning more of my cameras features, here are some more photos of things I saw from my trip below.

Toad

Moose Poop

Pine Cones

Some orange leaves for a change

Washington was in the clouds and the sky was 
hazy anyway, so I shot the motel with the 
mountain as the background but below the skyline

Yellow Rumped Warbler

This is a new fishing platform on Profile Lake at 
Franconia Notch. It is very nice. The problem is 
Profile is a fly fishing only lake. I don't know if it is a good idea for 
three or four guys fly fishing side by side. Also, a non-fisherman can walk up to 
it. They could easily take a hook to the head by a fly fisherman's backcast. 

On the Wrong Side of the light for a State bird

 

   About 2:45 today, my friend Sue Palmer found a  Lark Sparrow at Snake Den in Johnston. For me, this was very convenient. I was ten minutes from being done with work and fifteen minutes away.  Like a lot of birders, after Sue reported it, I went after work. A bunch of people were in the field looking for it. Within a couple minutes of me getting there, Jan saw it on a bush. We all got on the bird. I got some photos of the bird right out in the open. Unfortunately, it was in the sunlight. I took my photos knowing they wouldn't be good. If I would have been on the other side of the sparrow, where half of the people were, I would have gotten some good shots. Still I got to see a state bird, and it was my 280th RI bird so far this year.

Green Heron

I took this photo last week when we were waiting for our tuna to be steaked. The sun was setting and the light was perfect. 

Some photos from a crappy weekend

    I didn't really enjoy my days off this week. I fished hard and birded hard but came up short everywhere. Thursday I got rained out birding and rained on fishing. I didn't catch any albies. Friday I looked for shorebirds that have been eluding me for weeks. Still haven't seen them. Then I went fishing and got skunked again.

   However, I did get a photo upgrade on Spotted Sandpiper. I also saw one of my favorite birds at Napatree, Red Knots. They aren't red this time of year because they are winter plumage. They let me get pretty close while they were feeding and I got some of my best shots ever of them.

The first five photos below are of Red Knots

Ruddy Turnstone

Ruddy Turnstone

Spotted Sandpiper
Photo upgrade

Black Bellied Plovers