Whats Up Everyone! Hope you had a nice week. In this weeks discussion I'd like to talk about photographing vast , large landscapes. Most of my photography is landscape and mostly on the east coast.  When I think of landscapes I think of a waterfall , a tree on a hill side. I used to think these were pretty large landscapes.  I could do just about all of my shooting with a 24-70mm equivalent lens. Depending on how close I was to the subject. If I got closer I would use a 14-24mm equivalent lens.  I really didn't know what shooting vast landscapes was until Robert and I (my photography wingman) went on our trip to Utah. I learned what large , vast landscapes were.  As we drove to our first destination from Las Vegas we started seeing these Landscapes.  We oohed and aahed at them.  But it didn't really hit me until I got out of the car the first time at Valley of Fire State Park .  I was small!  Really Small!  In this vast Landscape and how will I photograph it?  I just can't suck it all in one shot. Like I can a waterfall.  I'm going to have to use everything in my photography tool bag just to come close to conveying the vastness in shots so when people see them they will understand.  And as you know a photograph can never show completely what you  saw with your own eyes.  Here are some tips on shooting large landscapes.

1. Composition. When shooting a large landscape shoot it many ways. Work the scene.  Don't try only one angle. Use all of the composition tricks you have. If you can put something in the foreground. At first you will shoot the Ohh and Ahh shot . Get that out of your system and shoot it then start looking for leading lines , something in the foreground like you would any other landscape shot. Shoot Vertical , shoot wide and shoot details.

2. Use it all! When I went out west I took three lenses for landscape. I used full frame equivalent 14-24mm, 24-70mm and 105-500mm. I used them all.  My main lens started out being my 24-70 but as the trip went on the 14-24 started being my main lens. But I used them all at every sight. We shot a lot of late morning and mid day which gave us some harsh light.  In these situations I shot bracketed so I could merge in Lightroom in post to even out the harsh shadows. Of course my long lens was used the least of the three lenses but some of my best shots came with that lens showing detail and compressing the background into the shot.

3. Show Perspective. Try to shoot the large landscapes with something in the shot that people can identify with. Like a person , a bus, a building . Anything that you can put some size comparison into the shot. When we were in Zion National Park I was looking to always have the Shuttle Bus in the shot to show how large the Rock formations were. This worked well and in some shots the bus is so small that it's like finding Waldo where is the bus? In Valley of Fire State park in Nevada I used Robert as my comparison to the large mountains and a long lens to draw the subject in.

4.Use your Tripod More! I used my tripod some but should have used it more for some of my shots. Even in the brightest time of day. Using the tripod will make your shots sharp and in focus more than handholding. Although you can get great shots handholding you can't focus stack.  I should have done more focus stacking on our trip. I only used this technique a few times.  This is the art of framing your shot (on a tripod) then focus on the foreground, the middle and the back of your shot) You then have three shots with the focus in different spots that you put in photoshop and merge them together and photoshop will make the whole photo tac sharp.  I was too excited and rushed and didn't do focus stacking but just a few times.

5. Take your Time! When coming to a big landscape . Take it all in.  Look at the scene without your camera in your face. Take a deep breath. Enjoy!  Thats why you came here in the first place.  After a few minutes then start composing and shooting. I find myself rushing to get to a spot pull my gear out and start shooting. I tried on this trip but not as successful as I wanted to be to calm down. This is hard for me. We have been planning this trip for 6 months researching , watching video. looking at photographs from the places we were going to and you get excited and you want you're photograph of the mountain.  Take it in! Breath! Then shoot.

The thing to remember is that seeing these vast landscapes is the prize! Taking the photograph is a way to document history in saying you were there once and this is how it looked to me. If you take your time and remember what you know about photography and use it you will come home with great shots to print and put on your wall.  Well that's enough for this week .  Get out and shoot!

Hey Everyone! I hope everyone is doing well this week.  As you know this year I have been concentrating my photography and all of my efforts into travel. Travel can be expensive. Especially now a days with the price of gas going crazy.  Travel can also be scary if you travel alone.  But this year I have taken 4 trips visited 7 national parks 5 new state parks and a few cool towns.  I have done all of this with my Photography "wingman" or travel buddy/photo nut Robert.  Not only are we photography nuts but we love traveling. I'm going to list advantages of having a traveling Wingman!

1.  The Cost.  Traveling with a photography wingman cuts the cost in half.  If your driving the price of gas is shared. The price of a hotel room is shared. Anything that is shared by the two of you from a case of water or food that you have packed for lunches is shared. This greatly lowers the cost. We got a rental car for a week and split the cost taking it from a crazy 800 dollars to 400.  So traveling with a friend makes it cheaper.

2. Not Going Alone. My photography wingman Robert has traveled the world and the US extensively.  He has years of traveling under his belt. When I travel with him I know that he has the experience traveling say through Airports, Train Stations, or Subways. Things that I have not done much.  It is a great comfort to have someone experienced in this part of the traveling experience. Not to mention that it's just fun to have someone like minded to go out and explore!

3. Decision Making. I am a introvert by nature and Robert (my wingman)  is very much the extrovert. This works well for us. I am a planner and not very spontaneous and he is the more spontaneous. With him being more Spontaneous I do things and go places that I would never go by myself.  He on the other hand is Go, Go, Go without thinking and I slow him down with time to think about all of the consequences that could happen.  So we work well together as a team seeing all of the possibilities. And Then Deciding on the correct course of action.

4. Seeing things from a different point of view.  When I travel with my family I seem to be the main planning person , driver, sherpa , dog walker pretty much everything so its just my point of view.  Traveling with a Photography Wingman sometimes we have different things that we want to see or do and its nice to let that person plan that part of the trip and you don't have to think about it. Its great to see things or an area through other photographer's eyes.

5. Its just fun!  Traveling with another photo nut is like going on a photography workshop but smaller.  Robert ( Wingman) and I are very much alike in the way we think and we have fun and cut up the whole time.  Its like summer camp for old folks. This last trip we took to Utah was epic and we laughed the whole time. We did have some photography shots that were alike but we had a lot that were totally different even though we were only a few feet away from each other at every photo spot.

So start looking for your wingman.  I have friends that are mother/daughter duo that travel all over together and have a ball.  Make sure you find someone that you like being around with because you're going to be with them 24/7. Take time plan your trips together so  you and your photography wingman gets an input.  Hey and it doesn't have to be just 1 wingman you could have 2.  This would cut down the cost even more. Traveling and photographing new and exciting stuff is a blast.  So until next week get outside and shoot!


 

Hey Everyone! How's your week going? This week is an update or a review on my workflow while on the road. I did a blog on my workflow a few weeks before my trip and I wanted to give you and update and what went well and what didn't. Here is a link to that Blog.My Revised Workflow. In the revised workflow blog I went over the way I was going to manage my photo's and edit on the road. Here is what went right and what didn't quite go as planned. 

What went right. Taking only a small iPad with me on my trip and leaving my computer at home was the right choice for me. I had an easy time with packing and luggage and I could always have the iPad with me if I wanted to because of the small size and weight. It was a great way for me to view my photo's of the day's shoot very quickly and if I wanted to to edit one for social media in Lightroom. The RavPower File hub backed up all of my photo's to an external hard drive with only one problem which I'll explain in the what went wrong portion. I did take a little portable folding keyboard which I didn't use at all. (Note to self Leave at home next time). But I do think if I had a normal sized iPad I would have the case that has the keyboard built in.  All SD cards worked fine and my filing system (Turning over when used) worked as it should. What really worked right and was not in my revised workflow was my phone. I used it for shots at every stop so I could share easily with social media. I also used it as my boarding pass for flights and apple iPay for most everything on the trip. So that was an unexpected surprise for me. The other unexpected surprise was the noise canceling earbuds I threw into the bag last minute. They worked like a champ on the plane watching movies on my iPad Mini.

What went Wrong.  Nothing really went wrong but unexpected is the word I would use. The first couple of days I backed up my photo's by just inserting the SD card into the RavPower File hub and the 1TB disc into the other side of the file hub and pushing a button.  After a couple of days I was looking at the drive and freaked out a little because the time date folders were not right. I started digging and all of the photo's were there just under a random time stamp.  I reorganized them and everything was fine.  Don't quite know why this happened (probably something I did) but worked great in test that I had done before the trip. But all the files were there which was the important part. I'll have to figure that one out.  I did edit a few shots on my iPad Mini and it is more difficult than my 27 inch iMac I have at home but doable. I think if my iPad was a full sized one it would have made it easier to edit. But I'm not doing that much editing on the road.

Overall the system worked well and saved room in my bag and on my back. This is the way I will be traveling in the near future until I figure out another way to do it even easier. I do love my gadgets. So until next week. Ge outside and shoot!