New Year, New Site

I hope everyone had a safe and fun holidays.  Except for spending about ten hours trying to rid my parents' computer of a virus on Xmas, I had a wonderful week off from work.  This year, I headed to the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains between Lone Pine and Bishop before heading over to Death Valley for a few days.

I wanted to mention how I am working on a new website through a company called Photoshelter.  I have been diligently working on my SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and as a result, I have been a slave to the computer while I keyword and caption all my images.

Anyway, here is a sneak peek of my Eastern Sierras Gallery.  Each day I am adding new content to the site with the next project being the underwater portion of my images.  You can view the slide show below larger, jsut click on the four arrows icon in the lower right to enlarge it.  And if you feel so obliged, you can share this with others via either the URL or embed code.  Until next time!

Landscapes of the Eastern Sierras - Images by Jim Patterson

The Importance of Preparation

Winter time in California can often be the best season for dramatic weather and light.  In the summer, however, landscape photographers along the coast such as myself, can often be found wandering around like zombies due to the mundane conditions which define California's warmer months.  Of course, there are always images out there waiting for you, in any weather, if you look hard enough, but you have to admit, there is nothing quite like some dramatic light and storm clouds at the beach!

As the past week has brought a very wet winter storm to California, I have been prepared for almost every sunrise and sunset.  Most of the time, the weather has not cooperated.  Last night looked to have the most potential all week and I rallied a couple friends, including my workshop partner, Josh Cripps, to go out for quick sunset photo session up the coast.

Big problem.

I had inadvertently left my camera bag at home.  There was no time to go back, so I called my friend Diego who hadn't left yet.  He grabbed a spare camera and a mid-range lens.  Once at the beach, I knew the light was something special and I was happily snapping photos and video with the only camera I had, my cell phone, until Diego arrived.

Tripod compatibility was an issue, so I simply fired off bracket bursts with the incoming waves as I tried my best to keep everything stable.  Of course, I would have preferred to be photographing with all my own equipment, but my borrowed gear and a make-shift stability system was ten times better than my cell phone.

My temporary lapse of reason cost me some creative flexibility once on location.  I realize now the importance of always being prepared and that means always having your camera with you.  It is extremely difficult to make images without it!

Happy holidays everyone!

Finding the Time

Taken back in February, this was one of those 'race to make it in time for sunset' shots. It was also one of those times I felt like I was just going through the motions. I was going to the same old spot, photographing the same old subject.

But I am learning something about myself and about creativity and feeling good about photography. It has little to do with "the same old spots" or "the same old subject". What it IS all about, is time. If I have time to wander the beach (or where ever I am), if I have time to watch the conditions change and unfold before me, I become more in tune with my surroundings. The landscape becomes more meaningful because I am not rushed into a formulaic style of photography.

In this day and age, many of us lead busy lives and taking the time to do photography can be challenging. Setting aside ample time to explore your landscapes will undoubtedly improve your photography. Even if the location you visit is one you have spent numerous hours or days at, you will see things you may have missed on all your previous visits. When you are rushed, you tend to see the same things you saw before, the obvious choices.

Growth in photography, and life, comes from the wealth of experience we draw from the past. But don't lose sight of the new experiences to add to that wealth. Take the time to explore and enjoy every minute of those precious moments we strive to capture with our cameras.

Reflections

For years, my inspiration came from diving the kelp forests of the Monterey Bay. But as the years passed, I was diving less and less and as a result, my time spent doing photography also declined.

Seascapes started a new fire inside and my creative energy led me to explore and photograph the beautiful coast near my home. This evolved into a desire to photography all types of landscapes. I found something new to keep me focused, excited, and most importantly, made me happy.

But recently, something inside me longed for a change. I was feeling that unfortunate sting of 'burn out' creep in. I can't really explain it, but I wasn't motivated to photograph the same beaches I have been to dozens of times. Not that new images can't be created at my familiar spots, but I wanted something new. I often was under the misconception that this meant I needed to photograph something different all together. A trip to the mountains or the desert would certainly do the trick. Or do I start diving more? Do I visit some of the iconic National Parks I have yet to visit?

The answer, however, can be much simpler.

Let me explain that part of my 'formula' for shooting seascapes was always to get in to where the action is: the surf zone. Capturing water motion in dynamic and interesting ways was my main approach. I looked for objects, mainly rocks, for this water movement to interact with.

But as a series of storms passed through my neck of the woods, a strong desire came to photograph some beaches further north than I usually visit. Ultimately, I settled on San Gregorio State Beach just south of Half Moon Bay and a few miles north of Pescadero. There were no rocks to fit my formula, but the large creek flowing out to sea was keeping the sand in a highly saturated state. The reflections were intense and captivating.

In my previous post, I focused on the unique ripples formed by the out flow. But the reflections just off to the right of that scene kept drawing me in. As the clouds split open, the arcing curve of the sky's reflection created a worthy lead-in.

I realize using reflections in an image is nothing new, but it was just enough to get me inspired again. And inspiration means spending less time inside and more time seeking new photographic opportunities. May you find your inspiration in whatever form it presents itself!

Math and Photography

Some of the most common questions I get on the flickr photography forum are related to filter use.

I plan on creating multiple filter tutorials over the winter and will blog and post them to my website. In the meantime, I will briefly touch on using the B+W ND 3.0 10 stop neutral density filter.

Using neutral density filters as strong as the B+W 10 stop requires a few steps and a little math.

First, the filter is so dark, it is next to impossible to compose an image with the filter in place. Therefore, it is important to compose your frame, focus, and calculate a proper exposure prior to adding the 10 stop filter. For the image above, I also was using a Singh-Ray Gold-N-Blue polarizer and a Lee .75 Soft GND (graduated neutral density filter). The polarizer helped create the intense gold and blue tones in the image, and the GND helped reduce the light in the sky to better balance the image's dynamic range.

Like I mentioned before, I composed, focused, and fired off some test shots with all my filters attached but without the 10 stop filter. This is where the creative and visual approach I choose for my photography comes in...and a little math.

Depending on the look I am going for, and how fast the clouds are moving, I may choose to expose a scene between 30 seconds and several minutes. On this day I tried shots between 30 seconds and 2.5 minutes, with around a minute being the length of shutter speed giving me the cloud movement I wanted.

Now, onto the math. I typically shoot my landscapes at the base ISO of my camera for quality purposes, in this case ISO 100. I also often start my calculations for shutter speed with my aperture set to give me a good depth of field, typically f16. For this photo, I came up with a shutter speed of 1/4 second.

Adding in 10 stops of light reduction, meant that I needed to increase my shutter speed by 10 stops as well. A halving (or doubling) of a shutter speed is one stop of light. Therefore:

1/4" > 1/2" = 1 stop
1/2" > 1" = 2 stops
1" > 2" = 3 stops
2" > 4" = 4 stops
4" > 8" = 5 stops
8" > 15" = 6 stops
15" > 30" = 7 stops
30" > 1' = 8 stops
1' > 2' = 9 stops
2' > 4' = 10 stops

This would mean a 4 minute exposure would be needed! This is much longer than I wanted to shoot as the clouds would have lost all detail. Not to mention hand holding my GND for that long is tiresome.

So what can I do to need less light, and therefore less time for a shorter exposure? First, I changed my camera's ISO to 200. This gave me a full stop back. Now I could shoot for 2 minutes. I also knew that by changing my aperture to allow more light would help.

Aperture settings (f-stops) in full stops.
1 – 1.4 – 2 – 2.8 – 4 – 5.6 – 8 – 11 – 16 – 22 – 32

From my days of shooting film, my lenses had most of these settings, especially f2.8 - f22. Now, with digital, most cameras can electronically change the aperture in 1/3 stop increments. For example, between f8 and f11, I now have f9 and f10 as options. And between f11 and f16, I now have f13 and f14.

For this image, I opened my aperture to f13, knowing I would retain a good depth of field and gain a 2/3 stop of light (compared to f16) at the same time. Since a full stop (at f11) would have meant shooting at 1 minute even, 2/3 stop (at f13) equates to 40 seconds, or 2/3 of a minute. My calculated shutter speed for ISO 200, f13 and all my filters was 1 minute, 20 seconds by opening my aperture from f16 to f13.

As is often the case, I forgot my stop watch and phone in the car, so I just counted in my head. I was 10 seconds short, but in the end, that is not much of a difference.

By changing both my ISO and aperture to settings within reason for good image quality, I was able to get a long shutter speed, but not too long. Like I mentioned previously, how long is based on variables that I evaluate in the field.

I encourage you to ask any questions here on the blog, and if any of my math is incorrect, please let me know, and I will correct it.

Tahoe in Gold-N-Blue

I can thank the slumping economy for one thing. In eleven years of working at a retail outfitter, I've never had the entire Thanksgiving weekend off. When I found out this year would be different, I immediately started thinking of places close to home that I could get away. The plan was to do the traditional Thanksgiving holiday with the family and then Friday through Sunday shoot in a location I haven't done before.

Well, on Monday, I get a call from Mom that my sister is too busy moving into her new home to do Thanksgiving. I took this as a blessing in disguise to have yet another day off. Three days became four.

My girlfriend and I decided on Lake Tahoe. There were predictions for possible snow and snow showers, wind, and dropping temperatures, and the thought of camping quickly went out the window. Motels for under $50 per night became highly appealing. Ah, hot showers and baths after a long day of shooting. We were living in luxury at a dumpy motel.

I recently picked up a Singh-Ray Gold-B-Blue polarizer and figured the azure blue water of Lake Tahoe could be a perfect location to really see what this unique filter could do.

If you are interested in this filter, or any of Singh-Ray's filters, they have a great blog with a multitude of photographers sharing their craft and how they get the most out of their Singh-Ray filters. Having read up on the capabilities of the Gold-N-Blue, I was excited to give it a try.

The image at the top was shot on Thanksgiving evening at the popular, yet remote Bonsai Rock. The fact that this image was captured on a day normally spent indoors with family was not lost on me. I'll have to thank my sister for that one.

Although Bonsai Rock is not hidden per say, it is not easily located without doing proper research ahead of time. We arrived with at least an hour before sunset and had plenty of time to scout the location. Ample time really does help to get the very best composition.

I immediately was "wow'ed" by the colors I was seeing through the Gold-N-Blue polarizer. Though like any polarizer on a super wide angle lens, you can get uneven polarization if you are not careful.

I used a long exposure to calm the slight ripples from the wind and the polarizer set to a more blue color for the water. The sunset took care of the sky.

Be sure to check in soon, as I plan on writing more in depth details about my initial experience with the Singh-Ray Gold-N-Blue polarizer.