PhotoNaturalist » Landscapes

3 Tools To Help Prepare You For the Annular Eclipse This Weekend

Steve Berardi — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:55:09 +0000

This Sunday, May 20th, there will be an annular solar eclipse, visible from parts of Asia and the western United States. I wrote a detailed post about the eclipse last month, which includes some great links to maps, but I forgot to list some tools to help you scout out a location to photograph this rare event. So, if you’re a procrastinator like me and still haven’t planned out your shot, here are some helpful tools:

#1 – Photographer’s Ephemeris

The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an essential tool for any landscape photographer, because it helps show you where the Sun and moon will rise or set, and overlays that on top of a Google map. If you’d like to try and photograph the eclipse as part of a landscape, then this software can help show you where the Sun and moon will be in relation to a particular landscape feature (such as a mountain or lake). There’s a free desktop version, and an inexpensive iPhone/iPad/Android version as well.

#2 – Stellarium

Stellarium is a free tool for visualizing the positions of stars and planets for a specific time and location. So, you can use this software to see what the eclipse will look like at a specific time and see how high in the sky the Sun/moon will be.

#3 – Weather Underground

In order to photograph the eclipse, you’ll need some clear skies, so it’s important to rely on some good weather forecasts. I’ve been using Weather Underground for a few years now, and they seem to be pretty reliable. They also have a great tool that shows cloud cover on top of a Google map.

What did I miss?

Is there another tool that you’ve been using to help prepare for the annular eclipse this weekend? If so, please tell us about it by leaving a comment below! Thanks

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About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, software engineer, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the beautiful mountains and deserts of southern California.

How GPS Can Help Your Photography

Steve Berardi — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:00:07 +0000

I just recently started hiking with a handheld GPS device to log my hikes and so I could have elevation data wherever I go. But, I’ve also started using it as a tool for photography. Here are a few ways it’s helped me:

#1 – Keep track of good spots for landscape images

This probably happens to you a lot: you’ll be hiking on a trail and come to this amazing vista or perfect rock formation and you realize it would make a great landscape image if the weather or lighting conditions were just a tad bit different. Maybe you just want some of that nice sunset light shining on a mountain peak, or maybe you want a nice puffy cloud to hover over a particular rock.

Well, a GPS device can help you keep track of these spots, simply by adding waypoints. Then, once you get home later, you can write some notes about that particular spot (e.g. “come back in April when there’s more flowers in bloom” or “come back at sunset in winter, when the sun will be at the right angle to shine on this mountain peak”).

#2 – Keep track of burrows

Many animals live in underground burrows (especially in the desert), and are only active for a short time each day (usually around sunrise and sunset). So, one of the best ways to get a photo of them is to sit in a blind near their burrow and wait for them to pop out in the morning. And, with a GPS device, it’s really easy to keep track of these burrows you find while hiking, by adding waypoints.

If you end up sitting in a blind near a burrow, please be careful not to disturb the animal. You don’t want to scare them and force them to abandon the burrow, which could put their life in danger. Please be respectful of wildlife!

#3 – Geotagging your photos

Geotagging your photos can help you remember where you shot a particular photo. And, a GPS device can help you do this if your camera’s clock is set accurately (another great reason to always keep your camera’s clock updated). There’s lots of software out there that can then synchronize your photos with the GPS device: it’ll look at the time a photo was taken, and then look at your GPS log to see where you were at that time.

I’ll talk more about geotagging in a future post here on PhotoNaturalist, so make sure you’re signed up for free updates

Do NOT rely on GPS as your primary navigation tool

As a safety reminder, please do not rely on a GPS device as your primary navigation tool. I think it’s okay to do that with your car GPS, but when you’re out hiking in the wilderness, too many things can go wrong (e.g. the batteries run out, or the device falls from your backpack somehow and you lose it). Always carry a printed map too, and be aware of your route beforehand.

What did I miss?

If you’ve found another great way to use a GPS device to help your photography, please tell us about it by leaving a comment below, thanks!

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How To Organize Your Photo Ideas

Steve Berardi — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:34:51 +0000

Last week, I talked about the different phases of developing creativity. I mentioned that in the final phase, you start visualizing images that are not a part of your collection yet.

But, once you start getting all these great ideas for images, how do you keep track of them all? Well, here are a few things that have worked for me:

Carry a pen and notebook everywhere

Once you start visualizing images, you’re likely to think of photo ideas at the most random moments. You might be in the middle of chowing down some tasty fish tacos, and all of a sudden you think of a great idea for photographing your favorite mountain peak.

When these inspirations occur, it’s important to quickly get your ideas down on paper before you forget them. So, it’s helpful to always carry around a pen and some paper (or a small notebook, like a Moleskine). Try to write down every detail you can think of, and it helps to draw a little sketch of the composition too (like the one above). The sketch doesn’t have to be perfect–it just needs to show the general composition with notes or arrows that point out details.

Upload your notes to Evernote

Evernote is a useful web app that helps you keep track of all your notes. I’ve been a passionate user of the service for a couple years now. If you start finding yourself buried in a mess of paper notes, then Evernote might be able to help. One of my favorite things to use it for is to take photos of handwritten notes or sketches with my iPhone, and then upload those images to Evernote. This is extremely simple to do with Evernote’s iPhone app (they also have apps for just about any device).

There’s a free and paid version of Evernote, but the free version will work just fine if you’re just going to use it for organizing your photo ideas. The paid version only makes sense if you start uploading a ton of images or start scanning documents and want faster character recognition.

Mark your locations on a Google Map

For landscape images, you can create a custom Google map and mark spots where you think a good image can be made.

For example, let’s say you’re hiking on this trail and you think of a great idea for a photo of a distant mountain peak. But, then when you look up some sunrise/sunset info on the Photographer’s Ephemeris, you realize it’s the wrong time of the year for that wonderful sunset light to illuminate that mountain peak. So, when you get home that evening, you can mark the spot on a Google map and write a note about the best time of year to shoot a photo at that spot.

To create a custom Google map, just create a Google account, sign in, and click on the “Maps” link at the top of the page. Then, click on “my places,” and finally you click on “Create Map” to create a custom map. Now, you can start adding points by clicking that blue bubble in the upper left corner of the map:

Also, be sure to mark your map as “unlisted” on the left, so other people can’t find your map.

What did I miss?

Have you found another great way to keep track of all your ideas for photographs? If so, please tell us about it by leaving a comment below!

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6 Tips For Photographing Sand Dunes

Steve Berardi — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:56:16 +0000

Photo by Steve Berardi

Sand dunes are some of the most visually stunning subjects you’ll find in the desert. In a land that’s dominated by sharp cactus and pointy rocks, dunes provide some relief with their smooth curves and soft sand. So, naturally they make good subjects for photographs. Here are a few tips for photographing them:

#1 – Watch where you walk

Avoid walking through the middle of dunes, since that’ll mess up those nice lines in the sand and ruin any opportunity to photograph the dune. Instead, walk around dunes, or only walk through dunes you know you don’t want to photograph.

#2 – Look for shadows

One of the most simple ways to add strength to a dune photo is to include strong contrast between a sunlit sand dune and the shadow behind it. The easiest way to do this is wait for sunrise or sunset when the sun is low on the horizon and casts long shadows. Then, just look for dunes that run North or South.

#3 – Look for layers

Photo by Steve Berardi

Many dune fields are surrounded by large mountain ranges (which actually help create the dunes), so you can also create some nice images by layering the dunes with mountains in the background. This works especially well when the mountains are much darker or lighter than the dunes (providing some nice contrast).

#4 – Avoid putting down your camera bag

Even on seemingly calm days, a lot of sand tends to move around in dune country. So, if you put down your camera bag on the sand, you’ll likely get sand in all the small crevices of your bag (and if your bag is open, the sand will likely end up on your camera or lenses). This is a real pain to clean, so hold your bag or hang it from your tripod when you’re taking stuff out.

#5 – Avoid the biggest dunes

When you first see a large field of sand dunes, you might think of always heading to the largest dunes in the field, but these don’t always make the best photographs. The biggest dunes are often the most visited, so they’ll likely have human footprints all over them. If you’re looking to photograph some undisturbed dunes, then head out towards the edges of the dune field.

#6 – Switch your lenses before venturing into the dunes

Last week, I talked about the importance of being careful when and where you change your camera lenses. With all the sand that’s constantly blowing around in dune country, it’s a good idea to avoid changing lenses out there. So, before you head out on a hike in the dunes, make your best guess about what lens you’ll be using out there and mount that lens on your camera.

What did I miss?

If you have another tip for photographing sand dunes, please share it with us by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

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About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the beautiful mountains and deserts of Southern California.

Why You Should Keep Your Camera’s Clock Accurate

Steve Berardi — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:58:54 +0000

When I first get a camera, I always set the right date and time, but then I usually completely forget about it. A few daylight savings time changes go by, and of course I forget to update the time, so for half the year, my cameras are an hour off.

But, there’s also a few other problems: when I first set the clock, I’m usually pretty lazy about it (if a nearby clock says 7:34 PM, I’ll just set the camera to 7:30 PM). Also, a lot of digital clocks lose seconds over time, so with a camera that’s a few years old, my clock could be off by 5-10 minutes (plus any adjustments for daylight savings).

Why does this matter?

Well, with nature photography, you probably already know that timing is everything.

And, many times it’s helpful to review old photos and try to learn from them: trying to figure out what went wrong (or right!), and trying to learn more about how light works and changes throughout different conditions. So, knowing the exact time of the photo can be helpful (five minutes after sunrise is a lot different than 15 minutes after sunrise), it can help you recreate the scene and evaluate it.

Keeping your clocks accurate can be helpful in other situations too. For example, when I went out to photograph the Lunar Eclipse this past weekend, I had two cameras set up: one with a long telephoto lens to photograph the moon by itself, and another camera to just photograph the landscape. Later in post-processing, I wanted to combine two images that were taken at the same time (in order to have a big moon in the landscape image), which would have been a lot easier if both cameras were set to the same time.

So, I’ve decided to be more diligent with my camera’s clocks, and remember to keep them updated.

Where to get an accurate time

You’ll get the most accurate time from a GPS receiver, but timeanddate.com should be good enough for our purposes

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Why You Shouldn’t Rely on Auto White Balance

Steve Berardi — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:54:13 +0000

Photo by Steve Berardi

Don’t you love it when something is “automatic”? It’s just one less thing to worry about, right?

Well, as you probably already know, “automatic” doesn’t always work (especially when it comes to cameras). But, that’s what makes photography so fun

One of those automatic features of your camera that doesn’t always work is white balance.

What is white balance?

White balance refers to the “color temperature” of your photo.

Have you ever seen a photo that looks like it’s tinted red (warm) or blue (cold)?

Well, both problems are a result of improper white balance.

Most of the time, your camera is pretty good at determining the right temperature of your photograph, but sometimes it guesses wrong. This usually happens when a large part of your photo is the same color.

Example of improper white balance

Bad (too warm):

Photo by Steve Berardi

Good:

Photo by Steve Berardi

My camera’s auto white balance had trouble with this photo because the scene was mostly red (the warm light of the sunrise made those brown rocks a saturated shade of red).

How to avoid white balance problems

The best way to avoid white balance problems is to shoot in RAW. With RAW images, you can safely change the white balance later in post-processing without ANY loss of image quality.

With JPEGs, you can still adjust the white balance later, but you’ll sacrifice image quality.

If your camera can’t shoot in RAW format, or if you prefer to shoot in JPEG, then you can try using one of the white balance presets on your camera. Most cameras have presets for various lighting conditions such as shade, cloudy, sunrise/sunset, or indoor lighting.

For more on white balance, check out this great tutorial by Sean McHugh.

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Never Give Up On a Sunset

Steve Berardi — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:34:26 +0000

After watching and photographing a lot of sunsets, it’s tempting to start thinking that you can look at the sky and predict how good a sunset will be a few hours before it happens.

You might see a bunch of thick and dark gray clouds up there, and think, “well, the sunset is gonna suck tonight, so I might as well just go home early.”

Or, you might even be in the middle of photographing a sunset and you think the colors just peaked, so you start packing up your stuff and walk towards your car or campsite.

But, then out of nowhere, the sky decides to explode with color again. Of course, you’re half way back to your car by now, so you quickly setup your camera, but before you can press the shutter button, the colors fade away again. And, this time they’re gone for good.

Sound familiar?

Don’t worry, it’s happened to me lots of times But, today I’m making a vow to never give up on a sunset again, and I hope you will too. No matter how dark and gray the sky looks, there’s always hope left in a sunset.

Okay, maybe the one exception here is if it’s pouring rain outside or completely overcast 30 minutes before sunset.. then it’s probably safe to say it’s gonna be a dud

Sometimes there’s that tiny break in the clouds that you just can’t see–and it’s just sitting there waiting to produce some of the most incredible colors. You just have to be patient.

Mojave Desert / Photo by Steve Berardi

For example, after I shot the photo above in the Mojave Desert, the colors in the sky started to fade to a dull gray. So, after the sun finally set and the sky turned completely gray, I thought the show was over.

But, it wasn’t. About five minutes later, a bunch of clouds started to turn purple and pink, so I quickly setup my camera again and was able to capture this shot before the show finally ended:

Mojave Desert / Photo by Steve Berardi

Lesson learned: never give up on a sunset!

“You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn’t waste either.”
–Galen Rowell

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Do You Refactor Your Photographs?

Steve Berardi — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:34:31 +0000

As a software developer, one of the things I do every day is refactor code. I’ll write some code to solve a problem, test it out to make sure it works, and then I’ll take another look at the code and see if there’s a way to make it more clear or more efficient. Then, of course, I’ll test it again

Writers do this too. First, they’ll write a basic draft of their story to cover the main ideas, and then they’ll read it over and over again to make the words flow better and to make their message stand out more.

But, what about photographers? Do you ever take a look at one of your photos and say something like, “wow, I really like this photo of mine, but I wish one thing was different”? It doesn’t have to be something big, it could even be something as simple as moving your camera one step to the left so a tree stands out more from the background.

You could say this is being too picky about your photographs, but I think it’s the key to growing as a photographer. Because, if you keep finding little faults in your photographs, then you’ll always be motivated to learn new things.

So, if you find a fault in one of your photos, then do some research to find out why it happened. And then try to make that photo again.

It might take a couple of tries to get that photo you ultimately envisioned, but don’t give up! The important part is that you’re learning something new with each new attempt, and you keep getting closer and closer to that image you want.

An example: the cholla cactus

Cholla Cactus / Photos by Steve Berardi

The cholla is my favorite cactus of the desert, and it happens to be one of the few cacti that I haven’t bumped into yet (which is great news, cause I think they look pretty painful).

But, I wasn’t too satisfied with my first attempt to photograph some cholla, which is pictured above on the left. I felt like the mountains in the background weren’t big enough in relation to the cactus, and I felt like there were too many cacti visible in the image. I wanted to isolate just one cactus against a nice background.

So, I went back to the same location and tried again. This time, I spent more time looking for an isolated cactus that was closer to those mountains (so the mountains would be bigger in the image).

My second attempt is pictured on the right (above). And, I was a lot more satisfied with this image because I think the cactus stands out more and the bigger mountains help add some balance to the image.

Some people still like the first image better, and that’s totally fine! What’s really important here is that you create the image you initially set out to create, even if it means multiple attempts.

Just remember that with every attempt, you’re getting closer and closer to that image you originally envisioned.

Have you already refactored your photos?

If you have a good story about how you refactored one of your photos, then please share it with us by leaving a comment below! Thanks!!

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How Perspective Affects Your Photos

Steve Berardi — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:01:05 +0000

Ansel Adams once said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” But, before you know where to stand, it’s important to understand a few concepts about perspective.

I’ve written about perspective here on PhotoNaturalist a few times, but I’ve also written a couple posts about it over at the Digital Photography School (a great blog that covers all types of photography). And, one of those posts was just published today, so I thought it’d be good to put a list together of all the posts I’ve written about perspective:

Sometimes Close-ups Are Better From Far Away – with an example that shows how you get more control of your background if you move farther away from your subject.

Why You Need a Telephoto Lens for Landscape Photography – with an example that shows how you can manipulate the relative sizes of objects in your image, and how those different sizes communicate different feelings.

Understanding Perspective and Focal Length – a short introduction to perspective, and an overview of what types of lenses are generally used to capture different perspectives.

How to Create Intimate Portraits of Nature – with an example of how the height of your camera affects the feeling of your photos.

3 Reasons to Photograph Wildlife at Eye Level – how perspective affects the feeling and background of your wildlife portraits.

Sometimes the View is Better From Above – how the height of your camera affects the feeling you communicate in landscape photographs.

And, for even more information about how perspective affects your photos, I highly recommend reading the chapter “Basic Image Management” in Ansel Adams’ great book, The Camera.

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How to Photograph Landscapes With the Moon

Steve Berardi — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 03:00:49 +0000

Photo by Steve Berardi

Including the moon in a landscape can sometimes add a nice sense of balance or contrast to an image, like in the photo above (taken in the Colorado Desert of California).

But, photographing a landscape with the moon is a little tricky and requires some patience.

One of the problems is that the moon won’t always be where you want it to be. And, since the moon is so far away, sometimes it’s hard to get both your foreground AND the moon in sharp focus.

So, here are a few tips for dealing with these problems:

#1 – Wait until the moon is nearly full

The best time to photograph a landscape with the moon is when the moon is nearly full. During this time, the sun will rise as the moon is setting (and vice versa). This is perfect because the moon will then be low on the horizon during the golden hours of sunrise and sunset.

To photograph a landscape to the WEST, plan your shot for the day AFTER the full moon at sunrise. The moon will set as the sun rises.

To photograph a landscape to the EAST, plan your shot for the day BEFORE the full moon at sunset. The moon will rise as the sun sets.

You can also plan your shot for the DAY OF the full moon, but you’ll probably need to take two exposures then, since the moon will be a lot brighter than the landscape.

#2 – Concentrate on distant landscapes

The trick to getting a nice big moon in your image is to concentrate on distant landscapes and use a telephoto lens to frame your shot. This way, the moon will be fairly large in relation to the rest of your landscape. If you use a wide-angle lens, the moon will be just a tiny speck in your image!

#3 – Take two shots if you have a near foreground

To ensure both the foreground and the moon are in sharp focus, you may have to take a couple of shots. Focus the first shot on the landscape in front of you, and focus the second shot on the moon. You can combine these two exposures later in post-processing.

For a detailed explanation of why this is important, check out this previous post about a failed sand dune photo.

What did I miss?

If you have another tip for photographing landscapes with the moon, please share it with us by leaving a comment below. Thanks!