This weekend for the annual all-church retreat at a lodge in the Rocky Mountains I have volunteered to conduct a seminar on nature photography. Here is the outline of what I plan to say.

If anyone has any comments, ideas, or tips, whether before or after my talk, please let me know.

Nature Photography
Outline

Introduction
My background:
Shooting for 60 years, but with a growing concentration on nature and anything beautiful.

Had 35mm SLR cameras beginning about 1965, and digital SLRs for about 10 years, now on my fifth one.

Photography inspires me to get out in nature for the exercise I need.

I have written photo essays about my hikes, snowshoeing, mountain climbing for years. And recently to inspire others to get the exercise they need I have shared these photo essays on my “Fitness and Photography for Fun” blog at www.mendosa.com/fitnessblog

Ask:
their level of experience
what they want to learn
how much time to take in total

Explain:
Why we can proceed quicker by not showing any photographs, which they can see later on my fitnessblog

First tip
If you fall down while you are hiking, try not to fall on your camera. I made that mistake a few weeks ago and my Canon 50D SLR and telephoto lens had to go back to Canon for repairs. About $600. Fortunately covered by my insurance.

But as a professional photographer friend and mentor says, “Sorry to hear about the camera, but I’m glad it padded your fall. With that move you’ve certainly joined the ranks of professionals. One must at some point crash atop his or her camera to join the club.”

Film v. Digital
Higher initial cost for digital cameras. And for years they were not as good. Now, however, essentially all professionals are converts.

Tremendous freedom of being able to take as many shots of a scene as you wish, knowing that each shot is not costing, as it did with slides.

And for sharing there’s no comparison. For example, when I wanted professional scans of some of my old slides from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, I had to pay $2 a piece. That’s in addition to the cost of the film and developing.

Digital Cameras:
The number of megapixels is no longer important, since anything above 5 megapixels can make great and large enlargements, if you hold the camera steady and get the shot in focus. Or you can go up to 50 megapixels with the Hasselblad H3DII-50 medium format camera for $28,000; and the greatest nature photographer now shooting in Colorado, John Fielder, uses large format cameras so he can make huge enlargements, but he has sherpas and llamas to carry his equipment.

Digital zoom is exactly what you get when you crop a photo in your editing software. It’s useless.

When you step up to a digital SLR basically you are getting 10% better photos for 10 times the money. Besides SLRs, few other cameras offer a choice of lenses — which can be both a blessing and a curse. The problems with having a variety of lens are not only the cost but the weight to carry them.

For digital SLRs the big names are Nikon and Canon. Both companies make a whole line of excellent cameras at various price points.

Start with a small, reasonably inexpensive shirt pocket camera and work up. Don’t jump immediately to a full-frame digital SLR (show my three cameras).

I consider that most digital camera fall into 4 groups. The usual distinction is between SLRs and point-and-shoot cameras. But I think the more important one is between shirt pocket and lugging a heavy load on your shoulder or back.

a. shirt-pocket point and shoot, like my Sony (and newer Sonys rate higher with Consumer Reports: show that article in the December 2008 issue). Big advantage: fast to get at, so you will miss fewer opportunities.

b. point and shoot cameras with long telephoto lenses albeit with inferior sharpness to SLRs, for wildlife, birds, and to make distant objects, like Longs Peak, look close, including:
The Olympus SP-58-YZ is 26x for $450
the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 is 20x optical zom for $450
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 18x optical zoom with Leica lens, $330
Pentax X70 24x optical zoom $400
Kodak EasyShare Z90 24x optical zoom, $400
Casio Exilim EX-FH20 20x opitical zoom, $500
Canon PowerShot SX1 IS 20x optical zoom, $600
Canon PowerShot SX10 Is20x optical zoom, $370
Nikon Coolpix P90 24x optical zoom, $400)

c. Amateur and semi-pro SLRs: have smaller sensors than professional full-frame SLRs, (1.6 ratio) so they aren’t quite as sharp:
Nikon D300 body only $1800
Canon 50D body only $1200

d. Professional SLRs: full frame, i.e. as big a sensor as 35mm film cameras. The standards are:
Nikon D700 body only $3000 (although D3 is $5000 and D3x is $8000)
Canon 5D Mark II body only $2700 (although 1D for $4000 and 1DS for $7300)

Before you shop:
Probably best reviews of cameras and lenses are at dpreview.com; but the December 2008 issue of Consumer Reports has good simple comparisons of shirt pocket point and shoot camera (available in all branch libraries)

Shopping: online B&H photo, also sometimes Amazon, and others; locally Mike’s Camera has much bigger selection and more knowledgeable staff than Wolf’s Camera.

Second tip
When you see something that might be a good shot somewhere off the trail or will need to get your camera ready but aren’t sure if the scene (the bird or animal) will still be there or is worth going for, always make a positive assumption. Most of the time you won’t get the picture anyway, but if you make a negative assumption, you will never get the picture. Likewise for sunsets.

ISO and Noise
Whenever possible use the lowest ISO setting (e.g. 100); but when necessary you can go up, usually with no problem up to 400 or 800 ISO; my Canon 50D camera goes up to 12,800 ISO and with noise reduction software like Noise Ninja, which I sometimes use, we can remove a lot of the noise (or graininess)

Third tip
Whenever possible use your lens at its sharpest point. What is that? Midway between the largest and smallest f stop (with my Canon 50D it is f/8). But blurring the background, which is often really nice, can be better at a different f stop.

Generally, set the lens at the sharpest point unless you have to open it further in low light and use aperture priority. Only use shutter priority in nature shots for waterfalls.

Fourth tip
Get down and dirty; lie down or crouch down to get a better angle.

As Ansel Adams once wrote,
“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”

Fifth Tip
Take many pictures, save few, show only the best of them.

Once I went hiking with a professional nature photographer mentor and friend. He took a lot of photos of me and sent them to me later. He is a superb photographer, but was was surprised at how many bad shots he took. Everyone takes a lot of bad photos.

As Ansel Adams once wrote,
“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.”

Focus
You can change the exposure, straighten, crop in post-processing software, but you can’t get something out of focus into focus. Check the focus on the camera’s LCD display before leaving the scene.

Focus problems include: Not holding the camera steady, wind blowing on the object, particularly on flowers, a shutter speed too slow for the focal length (rule of thumb: at least equivalent to focal length, e.g. if focal length is 50mm then a shutter speed of less than 1/50 is likely to be out of focus). Exception: image stabilization will give you about two f stops more.

Composition
You can’t change the composition in post-processing software either.

Contrast: for example hard and soft (e.g. flowers and rock); light subject, dark background (especially if out of focus, i.e. “bokeh”).

Background: keep it simple: like dark, out of focus, the sky, rocks.

Rule of thirds. Know the rules, like sky 1/3 of the scene, except for sunsets where 2/3; can break the rule if the sky is dull and use less than 1/3.

Balance asymmetrical elements; try to avoid centering the subject; often better 1/3 off center.

Sometimes we really need to have people in nature photographs to show scale.

When taking photographs of flowers,”improving” them by spraying a few drops of water on them and tearing away weeds around them is accepted practice.

Mature subjects: In his book Galen Rowell’s Vision (Sierra Club Books, 1995), noted outdoor photographer Rowell describes the difference between “immature” or unfamiliar subjects (which demand a direct visual approach like to be found in textbooks) and “mature” or familiar subjects (which require a more subtle visual interpretation). For example, Rowell writes, “A deer is a mature subject for almost everyone. A picture of the entire animal just standing there doesn’t do much for us, but an image of only the deer’s ears and eyes poking out of the grass could be tantalizing. People recognize the subject as a deer, and their mind fills in the missing part of the animal.” Change the animal to a rare snow leopard, he points out, and viewers expect a more straightforward treatment that reveals the entire animal.

Form
Line: diagonals are interesting; also lines of many receding mountain ranges.

Curves: the curves of the landscape can be beautiful.

Simplicity: When a photo has lots going on, our eyes don’t go as easily to the object.

Light
Photography is all about light. It’s key.

But it doesn’t mean more is better.

Shooting into the sun is a no-no. But it sometimes works.

I used to think, for example, that a cloudless day was best. But a cloudless sky is boring (so show none or little of it in my photos now, even to breaking the so-called “rule of thirds”).

Time of day:
1. for landscapes and wildlife: first and last hours of sun.

2. flowers and birds: any time.

3. Morning often better than afternoon because of less wind and less chance of rain, less chance of being out after dark — at the expense of not seeing sunsets.

Cloudy days, when even not at first and last light, can be great for mood.

JPG v. Raw
Raw gives greater post-processing control at the cost of a little time and a lot of hard disk space.

Accessories
1. Filters
Only two are essential:

graduated neutral density
and
polarizing

2. Tripods
Sometimes an essential accessory, but heavy (show mine)

Use for landscapes, but especially sunrises and sunsets, when we have little light to work with; use with self-timer, image stabilization off (maybe), mirror locked up, focus manually

As Ansel Adams once wrote, “The term accessories has come to include a host of photographic gadgets of questionable value…”

Post-processing software
Almost all professionals seem to use one version of Photoshop or another. But it has a steep learning curve.

Other PC Software includes Photoshop Elements, also a bit difficult to learn

Mac Software includes iPhoto, which comes with many Macs and is easy to use and a satisfactory basic program. But a year or two ago I upgraded to Aperture, which wasn’t exceptionally difficult to learn and does everything that I want.

Further resources
Try to get a mentor: I have two: Kevin Mahoney, a staff photographer for the New York Times and a photography instructor at CU, and Doug Goodin, a professional nature photographer.

The Colorado Nature Camera Club meets the third Thursday of every month (excluding July and August) in the Rose Littman Hall (S of the SE corner of Arapahoe and 30th Street, across from the Scott Carpenter Park on 30th street in Boulder) at 7:00 PM; write Calvin E. Whitehall to get on mailing list

Quotes
“Photography has flourished for a century and a half with only two real subjects: Beauty and bad news.” — Larry McMurtry; which one of my mentors, Kevin Mahoney, sent me the other day.

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” — Ansel Adams

“Buying a Nikon doesn’t make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner.” — Author Unknown

Conclusion
Photography is the visual art form analogous to non-fiction as the art form of words. Both of these art forms get their necessary tension from the constraints imposed by having to work with reality. Contrast these art forms with the visual art form of painting and the fiction art form of words, which must have its tension develop internally.

The constraint of having to reflect reality is a strength, not a weakness of photography and non-fiction, just as the constraints of poetry are a heightening of expression compared with free flowing verse.