Taking Your Camera on the Road

This is the section in which we explore the design elements of nature photography, maximizing our creative nature through the camera. There are no limits to a creative mind behind a camera. It is up to you as to how creative you want to become in your work. Our job is to teach the basics and then release you into the wild on your own. The basic design elements in nature photography that we will cover are patterns in nature, landscapes, and wildlife photography.

Patterns in Nature

Just as a painter uses tools like paint and brushes on canvas, so a photographer uses his or her tools of: a camera, film and light. The basic elements of design, whether in photography or painting are line, shape, texture, color, pattern and rhythm.

Colors

The world is a kaleidoscope of colors – some bright, vivid, neon and dazzling. Some may be soft, subtle and pastel. Colors can capture the attention and hold us with their intensity or move us to tears with their strong emotional qualities. There are seven basic colors (plus black and white) and each affects us differently and represents a variety of symbols. They are often referred to as Roy G Biv in the art world. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This is also the sequence of colors in the rainbow.

Red

Red immediately attracts and demands attention. It is used to represent an emergency: fire, ambulances, red cross, blood. Emotionally, it is an exciting color, vibrant and strong, hot and powerful. It radiates energy and vitality.

Orange

As a mixture of red and yellow, orange has the qualities of both colors. Orange is used to symbolize fire and the sun.

Yellow

A bright and warm color, often representative of vitality, yellow attracts attention in its brightest tones. Yellow represents the sun.

Green

Green is the color of spring, grasses, and leaves. It symbolizes nature, growth, and youth. Emotionally, it is a cool and tranquil color, or it may be seen as a healthy, lush color.

Blue

Blue is a cool color. It represents the sky and the water around us. Emotionally, blue is a quiet and peaceful color, but may also be interpreted as lonely. Photographing in shade or late evening or pre-dawn can add a blue color cast to your images.

Indigo – Violet

These colors are commonly referred to as magenta, purple, and lavender. Purple symbolizes power, royalty and richness, possibly because of its rareness in nature. It is found in flowers and leaves, precious stones and in the setting sun on occasion.

White

Often thought of as the absence of color, white is associated with cleanliness, pureness, freshness and innocence. It symbolizes pure light or snow, or clouds, brightness and hope.

Black

Black is a very strong color. We associate black with the dark, shadows, with the unknown and our fear of the unknown. It represents a sense of lifelessness and is found in coal, burned wood, night, and shadows. It can imply mystery, evil, or a threatening and ominous feeling.

Lines and Shapes

The forces of nature influence our perceptions – what we see and how we see it. We may be consciously or unconsciously aware of the influence of these forces. They are gravity, wind, water and geological forces – like volcanic action, earthquakes, etc. Gravity is one of the most powerful forces which influences our attitudes and perceptions. And nowhere is that more evident than in lines.

Lines

What goes up must come down. We know that whatever goes up – straight up – will eventually fall down. Vertical lines are exciting and dramatic. They rebel against gravity and soar upwards. They imply energy, strength and motion. We are confident in the fact that horizontal lines won’t fall down. They are already lying down, so they feel safe and give us a sense of calm. We often associate straight, smooth, flat lines and shapes with a floor, a calm sea, a flat road. It means safety, stability, yet can also become a bit boring and static – a sensation of going nowhere.

Diagonal lines imply motion, moving uphill or downhill. They provide a sense of direction and perception of distance by leading the viewer’s eye into or away from the subject. Diagonal lines are often caused by earthquakes and geological forces. We are taught that jagged lines and pointed objects are things to be cautious of – even scared of. Jagged lines like mountains or hanging stalactites can create great excitement as they imply a sense of daring and threat.

Rounded lines, shapes and curves project a sense of tranquility and safety. They offer few surprises and flow along smooth curving surfaces. They move the eye through the image slowly as opposed to sliding in a fast motion along a straight line. S-curves are sinuous lines which move the viewer along their sensuous path slowly. They are found in shorelines, trails, rivers and pathways, and are often referred to as meanders and ripples.

Triangles are straight lines outlining a common shape. When placed on a wide flat base, a triangle offers the viewer a sense of stability; it represents strength. We often associate triangles with mountains.

Helix, Archimedes Spiral and the Equiangular Spiral

A spiral is an even circular pattern. The Greek mathematician, Archimedes, first described what is now called the Archimedes spiral. The space between each line of the spiral and the one before and after it is the same. A spider web is a good example of this spiral. A sea shell also follows a spiral but a closer look reveals the spiral widens as it winds around itself. This was called an equiangular spiral by Rene Descartes in 1638 when he found the lines drawn from the center of the spiral intersected with the outer walls at identical angles. It is the only mathematical curve that retains the same shape while growing at only one end. The snail cannot widen the walls of its chamber but must add on to the open end of its protective shell as it grows larger. A corkscrew curve of twisting shapes is called a Helix. In a helix, each loop of the curve is identical to the one below or above. It resembles a phone cord. Helixes are found in grapevines, some cactus, squash, cucumbers and even in DNA.

Circles, Spheres and Explosions

To the ancient Greeks, a circle and its 3-dimensional counterpart, the sphere, were considered perfect symbols of the divine. Circles represent eternity, perpetual motion, a sense of never ending stories. Circles distribute gravity and energy uniformly. There is a balance formed between the inward and outward forces of air in a bubble creating a tremendous amount of surface tension. Touch a bubble and it may pop. The resulting pattern is an explosion as the water radiates out from the center in all directions. An explosion is the attempt of the sphere or circle to maintain its shape against overwhelming odds. A star is an explosion. Many plants, like cactus, feature explosion shapes.

Branching

When you first look at a forest, it may seem to be a random tangle of branches and leaves. Continue looking and you will notice some regularity. Follow the path of the trunk of a single tree as it moves upward. Soon a branch will protrude out from the side, then another and another. From that branch will be smaller branches, then smaller ones, leading to twigs and eventually to leaves. Branching is again nature using the shortest possible line to get the greatest amount of coverage.

Fractals

In the mid 1970’s, Benoit Mandelbrot, a mathematician at IBM, developed a geometry that could analyze and quantify nature’s crags, whorls, billows and branching. He called this new branch of mathematics fractal geometry, taking the name from the Latin adjective fractus, which means “fractured, fragmented or broken”. Since then, scientists have used fractals to define order in natural structures that defy analysis.
To fit into this new category of mathematics, a shape must have what Mandelbrot called self-similarity. The details must look much like the larger picture. A small part of a cloud has the same kind of swirl or texture as the larger part. Look close or look far away and feel no sensation of size. They all look like clouds.

Texture

Textures give depth and “feeling” to a subject. They are accentuated on flat surfaces by the use of side light and shadow. Look for the play of shadows on surfaces. Watch for the direction of the light and how it creates shapes and lines and forms and adds dimension to your subject.

The Elements of Recognition

People viewing an image feel safer when they can recognize shapes, lines and patterns. Abstracts may lead to a sense of confusion. Just as humans are always working to anthropomorphize animals’ behaviors and expressions, so too we always look for familiar symbols and signs in nature. Psychologists use inkblots to test a patient’s psychological response to nonsense images. People would see butterflies, flowers, their father, mother and other symbols which represented their recognition and perception of the image.

We always seem to see the symbols that we know the best, like the letters of the alphabet. We see them in mountains, rivers, streams, and elsewhere. We also look for humans and body parts in nature. Faces, profiles, arms, legs, and other body parts. Phallic and sexual symbols are favorites to find. As we try to put some familiarity in abstract images, all sorts of common objects seem to appear.

Exercises

Colors

Look for subjects of various colors. Look for bright and pastel colors. Does the color of the subject express some emotional quality?

Lines and Shapes

Make a photo that emphasizes each of the following:
___ Lines: Vertical
___ Horizontal
___ Diagonal
___ Circles/spheres
___ Explosions
___ Spirals or Helix
___ Branching
___ Texture
___ Human recognition

Scenic/Landscape Photography

Landscapes are a favorite subject for many photographers. They are among the oldest subjects for a camera, going back to William Henry Jackson and other early photographers who traveled with the explorers on their trips west. Their photos of the Yosemite valley, and other places, along with the eloquent writings and speeches of John Muir, played a major role in the designation of many national parks.

The pictures most photographers take of the places they visit, however, usually don’t measure up to their expectations. So many factors figure into our impressions of a place: the sounds of the birds, the smells of the forest, the chill of the wind. All the things that make a wild place wild, except for the view itself, get left behind when we take a photograph home. The picture must stand on its own.

Most people think that if they could only travel to more exotic locations, or own more expensive equipment, their pictures would improve. If they could only shot enough film, something would turn out. After all, we have all heard the pros brag about how much film they shoot. The truth is that if you master the basic techniques, you can make good photos under almost any conditions. Technical competence is the foundation that frees you to concentrate on your creativity.

The Grand Landscape

Have you ever visited a place so incredible, so awe inspiring, that you pulled out your camera and tried to fit it all in? The mountains, the clouds, this rock, that bunch of flowers, the edge of the forest. When you get your picture back you wondered why you even took it. We need to learn how to decide what is most important to the point we are trying to make, and exclude everything that doesn’t fit. You’ve heard this before: simplify, simplify, simplify.

A favorite lens for big landscapes is the wide angle lens. It’s also probably the hardest to use because it sees so much. Put it on your camera and hold it to your eye. Everything in sight is there, including perhaps your own feet or the tripod legs, or both. How do you simplify with a lens that sees everything?

The trick is to put the lens close to something interesting and hide all the unnecessary things behind it. A wide angle lens has an enormous depth of field. A 20mm will show everything from 11 inches to infinity in sharp focus. It also seems to expand space. Objects close to the lens seem abnormally large, while things far away diminish in size to the point that they disappear.

The wide angle is excellent for showing how a detail relates to the big scene. Find an interesting rock, a bunch of flowers, a pattern in the snow, and physically get close. This will frequently put you on your hands and knees, but the results are worth it. Look through your viewfinder and make sure you are including the mountains or an interesting sky. Adjust your position left or right, up or down to get a balanced composition. With a wide angle, inches can seem like miles. Make sure your car is hidden behind the nearest tree, and you are almost ready to go.

Try different perspectives, like horizontal and vertical, to create different effects of the same subject. Are these photographs of the mountains at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the same or different? Does the feeling change? Different perspectives can capture different emotional qualities in an image.

The last thing to consider is the technical. For most scenics, a good rule of thumb is that everything should be in focus. Use wide angles at apertures from f8 to f22. The closer the subject is to the photographer, the more the need to stop down the aperture to maximize depth of field.

The normal lens is probably the most versatile of any lens in your bag. At 50mm, use it for big scenics when the wide angle shows too much or whenever its angle of view matches your vision. With care, we can exclude the distracting while still giving the feeling of space.

Use S curves to lead your viewer’s eye into the picture and toward your subject. Frame your subject with the branches of a tree. When used every time, these devices can become monotonous, but the idea is to use all the parts of the scene to enhance the visual appeal of your subject.

Optical Extraction

Sometimes the part of the scene that is most interesting to you is the detail in the distance. The way the snow clings to the cliffs and the glaciers resist the inevitable pull of gravity is just a part of the big picture. Grab your telephoto lens and get closer.

The angle of view of a telephoto lens is very narrow. These lenses, with focal lengths from about 100mm on up, allow you to come in close on your subject and exclude everything else. Instead of showing the whole mountain, we can use a 300mm or 500mm and force our viewer to look at just the peak. Take a valley filled with clouds, and extract the best section showing the magical movement of the fog through the trees. With an interesting reflection in the foreground of an Alaskan scene, take a picture of the mountain range and then a closeup of the reflection of the range.

Called optical extraction, it is a great way to make a large number of compositions while standing in one spot. By moving from lens to lens and looking in different directions, we can travel across the countryside in an afternoon without moving, each a unique perspective and vision of the landscape.

Look for Weather

Something to remember about nature photography is that oftentimes, bad weather is good weather. Our mall-shopping, lawn-mowing, snow-skiing friends pray for blue skies on the weekends. But for us, a hint of mist or a medium fog in the air is magic. It can add a romantic feel to the landscape. Dark stormy clouds can be very dramatic, especially when the sun breaks through a hole in the sky. The play of stormy light upon the land can be fascinating to watch and photograph as it totally changes the mood of a scenic. Weather creates great opportunities for the landscape photographer.

Sunsets are a favorite subject, and you get two chances each day to catch the sunrise and sunset. They come in all colors, and every one is different. Because sunsets are so common, look for things to add to your view which make your pictures unique. Silhouette the branches of a tree against the red sky. Or even look the other direction and watch how the light plays across the land.

Exercises

Lens Perspective

Find an interesting scene and photograph it with three different lenses length if you have them.

Wide Angle

Using your widest lens, find a small subject and make it part of your scenic by getting close and including the surroundings in your frame. Set your aperture to f16 or smaller for maximum depth of field.

Reflections

Find water and include a reflection in one of your pictures.

Wet Belly Photography: Down and Dirty with Flowers

Slip. Slosh. Lay right down in the muck. If you’re not getting dirty, you aren’t having fun. This is wet belly photography. It is getting down and dirty and up close with flowers.

Almost no matter where you live, flower season explodes in the spring. Wildflowers and domestics in the lowlands break into full bloom. After an early spring rain, deserts burst into yellows, reds, purples, and pinks. Rhododendrons are making a bright appearance in the some forests. Higher, in the alpine meadows, as the snow releases its hold on the mountains, rainbow colored fields chase its departure.

A great tip for photographing wildlife is to get down to your subject’s eye level. The same applies to flowers. Don’t shoot down, get down. Get low, get your camera level with the flower, or even get under it and shoot up. This is wet belly photography and the results are worth it. Next to sunsets, flowers are one of the most photographed nature subjects. Here are some tips for successful flower photography.

Filtered sun

Overcast skies are favorites for nature photographers. Bright sunlight casts shadows and bright highlights, creating distracting elements in your photograph. Clouds filter the brightness of the sun, eliminating harsh shadows and producing an even light. If an overcast sky isn’t in the plan, you can use a diffusion screen, found at professional photography stores, or make one from white ripstop nylon fabric. Make a frame to hold the fabric in place or have an assistant hold it between your subject and the sun, and instantly you have an overcast sky.

Wind

Wind ruins a lot of flower shots. It requires plenty of patience to wait for a lull between wind gusts. Try creating your own wind block. Using plastic sheeting from a local gardening shop, you can create a “wall” of plastic held in place with wood stakes. Or bring a white or clear umbrella and place it to block the wind. Carry baggy ties or string to carefully tie grasses and other distracting branches out of the way or to tie the flower to a small stake to hold it still. Be careful not to get your wind block or support in your photograph. If you want to experiment with the wind, photograph the blowing flowers at slow shutter speeds and let the colors just pan across your film for colorful and fun pattern shots.

Dew drops

Early morning, just before the sun comes up to warm the earth and the wind begins to blow, you will often find flowers dressed in dewy jewels. Water droplets cling to the petals and sparkle in the early light. You can add your own dew drops by spraying your subject with a fine mist of water.

Depth of Field Magic

Depth of field was chosen to make the flower behind just visible, like a shadow. Always look for patterns and echos.

Depth of field

Some flower images require a lot of depth of field, having every millimeter in focus from front to back. Others become beautiful with only a shallow depth of field, creating a soft romantic look with the background and foreground out of focus. Play with your depth of field on different subjects to create a variety of images of the different flowers you photograph.

Tripods

Successful flower photography requires a sturdy tripod. For good wet belly photography, get a tripod that will go all the way down to the ground, allowing you to get down to the flower’s level. Some tripods allow for the center post to invert, which works, but it’s often a challenge to get your eye to the viewfinder through the tripod legs. A Bogen Super Clamp will allow you to put your tripod head on the clamp attached to your tripod leg, getting you lower with ease.

Exercises

Composition and Lighting

Find plants and/or flowers and photograph them from different perspectives, close, far, above, below, in between, and from behind. Experiment with different light sources.

Depth of Field

Photograph your subject with different apertures to change the depth of field. Notice what is in focus and not, including the background and foreground.

Wind and Wet

Experiment photographing the subject still and then with wind, trying slow shutter speeds to accentuate the motion. Choose flowers already wet with dew or mist it with your own water and photograph it concentrating on the water droplets.

Wildlife Photography

A 500mm f4 lens attracts this kind of attention. Brent turned to the woman. “Why? Do you represent them? Are you buying photos for National Geographic?”

The man next to us laughed out loud, shattering the quiet at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. “I’m going to use that line!” exclaimed Andy Long, assistant editor of Nature Photographer magazine.

What if we all photographed UP TO the quality reproduced in National Geographic, Ranger Rick, Audubon, Natural History, and other nature magazines? Think of how far our art would expand and grow. The strive towards perfection in natural imagery would be very exciting.

Getting to know you

How do you get such a high quality natural image, especially with uncontrollable wildlife? Three qualities come together to make a successful wildlife photograph: an understanding of the subject; a good, balanced composition; and good photographic technique. Most important of the three is understanding the natural history of your subject.

“To be a better nature photographer, be a better naturalist. This means understanding the subject, not just in a dry textbook sense, but knowing your subject through constant contact and observation in the field. The more you know about nature, the more you will see to photograph,” explains John Shaw, renowned nature photographer and author.

The relationship of the animal to its environment and how it feeds and survives are important parts of the animal’s natural history. Getting to know your subject not only helps you to know what you’re photographing, but it helps you to anticipate what it will do next.

The Balancing Act: Composition

Lacking the care and sensitivity of an alert photographer, even the best opportunity can produce mediocre results. Good composition is more than just getting the subject out of the center of the frame. You need to pay attention to the background, the balance of colors and shapes, and the direction of light. You must move forward or backward, higher or lower as your artistic eye dictates. You take the pictures when all the elements come together.

Composition is subject to perspective and interpretation. Here are a few of our tips for improving the quality of your nature images:

Frame it

A successful nature image takes into consideration the subject’s position in the frame. Is the animal moving into or out of the frame? Is there room for the animal to move? We follow the eyes of our subject, looking where they look and following their path. Leave enough space in the photo for the animal to look or move into.

Watch the light!

Composition also takes into consideration the balancing act of light. Bright overcast skies are the best for middle of the day wildlife images, including insects and small creatures. Especially with furry creatures, the bright diffused light allows their natural colors to show. Early morning and late afternoon (sunrise and sunset) are wonderful for adding warmth. At this lower angle, the sun is in a good position to provide the catch light in the eye.

Catch the light!

The catch-light in the eye is a compositional element that cannot be stressed enough. Without a glint in the eye, the animal appears dead and lifeless. Watch closely through your viewfinder and click the shutter when the head turns and the light sparkles in the eyes. That little light brings out the life in the creatures, making them glow with vitality.

Good Wildlife Photo Techniques

Just as you must get to know your wildlife subject, you must apply the same discipline to your equipment. When the coyote leaps into the air to plunge through the snow for his dinner is not the time to learn how to put film in the camera or figure out how to focus. No matter what system you choose, understand how it works, how it sees and what it’s capable of in the field. Practice changing lenses, changing film, working with it over and over again until it becomes a part of you. You need to move without thinking, concentrating on the subject and not the equipment. More photographs are lost due to delays with equipment than any other excuse.

The equipment required for nature photography covers a wide spectrum. For large mammals, like grizzly bears, a 500mm or 600mm f4 lens is appropriate to get frame-filling images while staying further back. At other times, a 28mm to 35mm wide angle lens is great for a scenic of the grizzly as an element in the image. There is no “right” equipment for nature photography. It depends upon your interest and versatility. Here are some tips and tools for improving your chances of getting that successful wildlife image.

Autofocus

When subjects move, it’s exceptionally difficult to follow focus or keep the subject in focus, particularly when the animal comes straight at the camera. Autofocus improves the odds of a sharply focused image, allowing you to concentrate on composition.

Tripod

A sturdy tripod is a must. It must be sturdy enough to solidly support the biggest lens you may own. For best results, choose a tripod that weighs twice as much as the largest lens and camera combination you will use.

A fast and long lens

A “fast” lens has a large maximum aperture, allowing high shutter speeds at low light levels. As many animals are out in the early morning or late evening, the challenge is finding enough light to get a decent shutter speed. A long lens is critical to helping get close to the wildlife. From 300mm to 600mm is required – longer is better.

Motor Drive

An automatic film advance or motor drive on your camera is critical. This advances the film quickly, without action by you. A green heron may wait for ages before striking for dinner, but when it does, you can fire off short bursts of photographs with ease. And when the elk start fighting during rutting season, you had better move fast to catch those brief moments of aggressive behavior.

Panning

Panning is the technique of following a moving subject and keeping it in the same place in the viewfinder before, during, and after the exposure. Requiring some timing and precision, when done right, the moving subject will be sharp while the background blurs from the motion. A fairly fast shutter speed is required to stop the action of the moving subject. Since the background and foreground are blurred, depth of field isn’t critical, allowing for a wide aperture to maximize the light and allows a faster shutter speed.

Photographing wildlife is one of the more exciting branches of nature photography. It is exciting as there is always some action and movement, and you never know exactly what an animal will do. We explore specialized techniques for wildlife photography on our web site and in our workshop, Wild Thing, I Think I Love You. Remember, no photograph is worth compromising the safety of the animal, or your own safety.

Exercises

Composition

Choose a wildlife subject and change perspectives and angles to move its placement within the frame.

Light

Experiment photographing wildlife subjects in different lighting conditions, possibly revisiting them through the day. Try back and front lighting as well as diffused and, if the subject is cooperative, use a reflector and diffusion cloth.

Catchlight

Concentrate on capturing the catchlight in the eye of your subjects.

Action

Capture a wildlife subject in action. Experiment with shutter speeds to capture the motion. Anticipate the action to capture it at the peak.

Panning

Follow a moving wildlife subject to practice panning with your camera, following the movement with your camera as you click the shutter. Vary your shutter speed to “stop” the action.

We’ve put together a collection of articles to help you with your photography, whether it be taking it to the next level to start selling your work, or simply expanding your creativity. For more articles and information on nature photography, visit our web site at www.cameraontheroad.com. It hosts more than 500 articles on nature photography, travel, life, and more.

Digital Camera Tips

Digital photography techniques are no different than traditional photography techniques. Just because your camera is a technological whizbang, it is still a camera. Learn the basic fundamentals and then you can play with the gadgetry and technology.

Photography is about capturing the light, and when the picture is important, bracket your exposure to make sure you get the shot, especially when you are not sure of the end result. With no chance to repeat your photograph, why take a chance? Photographers do this with traditional film, and so should you.

The quality of a digital image is based on the resolution and size of the stored image. When space is limited, there are ways to save space. Most digital cameras record image files in JPEG format using a variation called Exif, which includes extra information such as picture-taking conditions, camera settings, color encoding information, sounds recorded when the picture was taken, and even Global Positioning System (GPS) information. Exactly what is saved with the image depends on the model of camera. These extra bits of information, while helpful to the photographer, do not improve the quality of the image but they do add to the file size. Check your manual to determine which bits of the information you can leave out when saving an image.

After you have made your digital photographs, you have to transfer the images from the camera’s storage unit and into a computer. Create a master directory for your images, categorized in folders by subject matter. Then create another folder in which to save your manipulated and resized images. DO NOT EDIT YOUR ORIGINAL IMAGES. Always work on copies. Backup the originals for safekeeping in their original format.

Exercises

Hand holding

Experiment on the same subject with the same composition and exposure photographing it by hand holding out away from your body and then against your face, and finally on a tripod. Compare the results by zooming in to check sharpness.

Exposure/Metering

In general, many digital cameras tend to overexpose by a small degree. To check the meter of your camera, find several subjects ranging from extremely dark to very light and photograph them at your meter reading then compensating for the light value. Compare your exposure results to reality. Then photograph a middle-toned subject by bracketing from what the meter suggests and then over- and underexposing. Which results match the reality best? This information will help you determine the accuracy of your meter.

Recomposing in the Camera

A digital camera makes recomposing much easier after you’ve taken the picture. Concentrate on composing before you snap the shutter. You get better picture quality when you crop with the lens than you get with the digital cropping.

Making $$ Doing What Comes Nature-ly?
The Business of Nature Photography

You’ve spent a lot of money on equipment, classes, trips, film and processing. This hobby should start paying you back, right? Thinking about turning your hobby of photography into a business?

A photography business is just like any other business – it’s a real business. You need to get a business license, pay taxes, set up an accounting system, monitor inventory, advertise, solicit, and spend a lot of time in the office (not outdoors).

Reports from professional photographers say from 70% to as much as 95% of their time is spent doing the book work and office work and not out taking pictures, the real reason they got into photography in the first place.

Turning professional, you are entering a highly competitive field. It is a complex and diverse marketplace. Your competition will run the gamut from the occasional seller and hobbyist to huge corporate publishing houses. You have your choice of specializing or not. You can sell your work to anyone who wants it, or specialize in selling only editorial or print work. You can diversify your clients to include the whole commercial advertising market or narrow them down to only the note card and stationery market. There are so many ways photography is used in business. Ever consider having one of your images on a coffee mug? On a watch face? What about on the tail of an airplane?

Income and asking prices vary depending upon the market. A sale to a magazine may not earn you as much as a sale to an ad agency, but 100 sales to a magazine over a year can earn you more. If you make your own note cards, you are responsible for all the costs. People have a hard time understanding why you charge them $5.50 for a note card similar to the one they can buy down the street for only $2.50. The only difference is that it’s your photo on the card. Making money comes from creative marketing, but it also comes from a lot of research and planning.

This is only a warning, not a discouragement. If you choose this business, be prepared to work long hours and to work hard. Taking pictures is the smallest part of it. Study and choose your market(s) carefully. The Photographer’s Market published by Writer’s Digest is the main source for marketplaces. They list everything from stationery houses to galleries. Follow their guidelines and you will get a jump on the uninitiated.

If you want to become more professional about what you are doing and to prepare yourself for the day when you might want to sell your work, the following are some tips and guidelines to get and keep yourself going. Go for it!

Get off your duff!

In order to do anything you must do something. In order to get something done you must do it. Talk is cheap. Get moving. Now. It’s that simple.

Educate yourself!

In order to do the business you’ve got to know the business. Read books, attend educational programs and workshops, talk to the pros, visit stock agencies, and join organizations focused on photography, business and networking. Try everything you learn at least twice. Everyone has their own style in business as well as art. Find what works for you. Trial and error is the best teacher. Do try to learn from those who already made the big mistakes, then go out and make some new ones of your own.

Read Everything!

Everything, everything, everything. Read junk mail, books, newspapers, flyers, posters, magazines, everything. If it comes near you, read it and learn from it. The key word is “read” not just look – absorb. Study how photographs are used in different mediums. Newspapers handle photographic images differently than a slick magazine. One travel magazine may want sweeping scenics and another may want close up details and vignettes. Some only include photos with people in them. How are the photographs used? Do they tell a story, add to the work, or are they just artwork? Is the whole image used or only part? Do they write over the image? Study everything to learn how to photograph your work for use in a variety of ways.

Ready, aim…

What do you want to photograph? Where do you want to photograph? How do you want to photograph? Who will buy your work? Where are they? How much are they willing to pay? Learn what your market place is and who the competition is. Study how they work. What will your market hold? Are you one in ten thousand or one in ten? When looking for your niche, don’t be afraid to be as specific or as versatile as you want. Some photographers will work in every market from high school portraits to wild birds, and others only photograph food and nothing else. Find your place, research its needs and go after it like an arrow to the target, be it travel, scenics, fine art, wildlife, education, cauliflower, or whatever.

Hire yourself.

When you are not working on a project, it’s easy to get lazy, to go with the muse. Set up a schedule and hire yourself to do self-assignments. This keeps the “juices flowing”. These self-assignments can be great additions to your portfolio and the self imposed risks may stretch your abilities. Don’t let yourself get lazy. Go through your work and find what is missing. Where are there holes? Practice becoming an art director, producer and assistant all in one, and then become a photo buyer, editor and critic.

Think Digital.

While digital technology for the nature photographer is still not quite up to snuff, it is here to stay and needs to be considered. While developing your business, carefully watch the marketplace. Talk to other experts in your field to see what they are using. Scanning with a top quality scanner from an original slide is still the best way to go, so keep using traditional slide film. But watch the market and what the buyers are buying. Move slowly into the technology so you aren’t locked into something that will become obsolete or lack the professional quality standard you require.

Get Help!

Help comes from two sources: mentoring and hiring. Study from the best and then get someone to help you get your business together and keep it running. Your job is to take pictures, but when turning your hobby into a business, your job description now includes cataloging, numbering, editing, marketing and sales, promotions, advertising, faxes, computers, answering machines, long distance telephone calls, meetings, presentations…..do you really want to do all that? Get some help. Get your family to pitch in. Get assistants to help with your work. Get a good tax accountant. Get a good copyright/arts-oriented attorney. Get a good business consultant. Hire a secretary/assistant to do the paperwork and make the phone calls. The money is in the images and if your time is spent on paperwork and not images, you have fewer images to market. Getting help could be well worth it in the long run.

Work with, not against.

This is similar to getting help. When you do get a publisher, editor, agent or agency to work with – work WITH them. Find out their needs and work your hardest to help them sell your work. Really communicate with them. Be open to their needs and problems and they will return the favor. Be reliable and dependable. When they ask, deliver. Be firm but flexible. Be honest and up-front about what is going on and they will too. You have to work together. You are both dependent on the other for your livelihood.

Specialize!

If you are the only one with pictures of two-headed llamas, the industry will come to you for two headed llamas. But ask yourself “How many articles and stories and images of two-headed llamas can be sold?” Answer: not many. It is the law of supply and demand, but specialization can hurt you too. One photographer specializes in night photography, specifically stars and constellations in the night sky. The process of photographing these images is complex so there are few images available. The market for star images is vast: patterns, backgrounds, posters, text books, advertising, movie back drops, teaching, the list goes on. As one of the select few to create these images, and considering the time, money and energy that goes into producing them, this photographer can charge a lot of money. One image brought him $500 to $5,000 for single use depending upon the use. In his specialty, he can live off of fewer sales a year. Other photographers must sell hundreds of images a year to get by. It can pay to specialize. Remember, being the best at one thing can put you ahead of the game with a lot of photographers who are good at one hundred things.

Get Vertical.

One of the loudest cries from the marketplace is for more verticals. Magazine covers and pages are vertical, books are vertical, much of the printed work today demands vertical images. Want to sell more work to stock agencies and the printing market? Get vertical.

No FX.

The term FX is movie industry slang for special effects. Special effects are great and have a place. They can also kill an image quicker than anything. Art directors and photo buyers can spot a filtered image immediately. Rainbow filters, green, red, yellow, cross-star filters, are all noticeable to the pros in the industry. Sometimes special effect filters can work, but anything done too much is too much. Be careful.

Warm Stuff Sells.

Warm colors outsell everything else in advertising and color editorial. Warm reds, oranges, pinks, sunset or morning light, all sell remarkably well. The best images are those which use the light naturally, but warming filters come in handy when nature is not cooperating. The filter most used to warm an image is the 81B. Recently, colder looking images featuring cool pastel tones have become very popular, especially for the market displaying home and food products. Note color tones and quality as you research and know what color tones your market demands.

Slide on in to first base!

Slide Film. Use it. It is as simple as that. People are always asking what kind of film is the best. There is only one answer for most freelance editorial, commercial, and stock photographers: slide film. While digital cameras are slowly making their way into the commercial market, most photo editors and art directors want control over the end product and this means controlling the scanning process as well. Transparencies (slides) give them the best quality material to work from. While the market still requires slides, we will deliver them. If no one is buying apples, the apple grower needs to change to oranges. So will the photography industry shift with the trends.

Dupe-Dupe!

The cost of reproducing your slide images can be expensive. Known as duping, duplicates, reproductions, or simply a “dupe”, many pros have learned to make their duplicates when they take the picture. When working with a still subject, fire off three to ten “copies” in a row – all perfect exposure of course. The estimated cost difference is from $0.25 each in-camera duplication to a starting fee of $1 and going up for a commercial dupe. For protecting precious originals and having more images to market, duping is the safest way to go.

Bigger Sells.

In an industry inundated with 35mm format, larger format (120, 4×5, 8×10…) images are specialty items. They stand out from among the rest. The clients can “see” the image better. If your competition is using 4×5, and you shoot 8×10, your odds of a sale may improve drastically. Bigger sells more, if all other elements are equal. Times are a’changing and with today’s computer technology, scanning a 35mm slide is faster than scanning a medium or large format transparency. Scanning equipment is set up for 35mm and is more readily available and less costly. Chose a format that will work within the publishing industry’s needs – or just stand out from the crowd in your own style.

Go somewhere.

See everything and everywhere. Open your mind up to the possibilities the world can present. Get out and get off your duff! If you are not out there, you are not photographing it.

People, People Who Need People Are Indeed the Luckiest People.

Photographers who include people in their images often have better sales than those who don’t. Images with people in them draw the viewer into the image. It can also open the door for many different markets such as advertising, textbooks, magazines, newspapers and more. Images of people doing things, recreation things, working things; all are needed throughout the industry.

Release Yourself.

Keep yourself safe from lawsuit and keep your images salable – get model releases and property releases for everything, every time, everyone and in every way. As much fuss as this may seem, it will save you time and trouble in the future, present a professional image, and allow your images to be sold to everyone and anyone, everywhere. In one famous case, the photographer was asked to provide model releases for a photograph of a crowd in the stands of a football game, one release for everyone in the audience. He replied no and lost the sale. Even in foreign countries. The United States “Lawsuit Industry” is setting standards throughout the rest of the world on privacy and rights issues.

Protect your work.

Copyright your work. Protect your rights, protect your work. When you sign over images to a stock agency or client, know what your rights are now and in the future. Keep an eye out for illegal usage of your work and take action when you find it. Contact an attorney familiar with copyrights or the U.S. Copyright Office in Washington D.C. Protect your rights and protect your work.

Present only beauty.

When your images are your career, they are your reputation. Present them in a sloppy way and your work is perceived as such. Image and presentation are everything. Have all your slides neatly and correctly captioned, labeled, properly mounted, and clean. All paperwork must look professional and neat. Get professional assistance in logo designs, letterhead and business cards. Look professional, be professional, and be treated as professional. There are no exceptions to this.

Be You.

Don’t try to be Art Wolfe, Pat O’Hara, David Muench, Diane Arbus, John Shaw or Robert Mapplethorpe. Follow their guidelines, learn from them, study their work, but avoid imitation. All it does is flatter them. Create your own style by being you and trusting your natural instincts and abilities. You will only be true to yourself when all is said and done. Don’t be true to the you who is trying to be someone else. Your work will reflect it. No one wants to buy a David Muench done by someone else. Be yourself.

We offer a variety of articles and workshops on the business of nature photography. Check them out on our web site at www.cameraontheroad.com/learn.html#biz.

You Are a Guest in Their Home: Wildlife Ethics

Parachuting Cats into Borneo

In the early 1950’s, the Dayak people in Borneo suffered tragically from malaria and the World Health Organization (WHO) helped them by spraying DDT to kill the mosquitoes which carried the malaria. The mosquitoes died, malaria declined, but there were side effects. Among the first was the fact that the roofs of the houses began to fall down. DDT not only killed the mosquitoes, it killed a parasitic wasp that controlled thatch-eating caterpillars. The DDT poisoned insects were consumed by geckoes, which were eaten by cats. The cats died and the rats flourished and the population was threatened by outbreaks of sylvatica plaque and typhus. To handle this mess, the World Health Organization felt “obliged to parachute live cats into Borneo”. [Research by the Rocky Mountain Institute (Lovins & Lovins, 1990)]

This illustrates how fragile the food chain and the ecology of the world is. We need to protect it for ourselves and from ourselves. From a photographer’s point of view, the more successful we are at preserving the natural world, the more opportunities we will have to photograph it.

We believe that each person must listen to their own moral and social value system to determine the extent they must go to protect nature. To help you establish your own policy, we offer ours.

You are guests in their home

No matter how friendly the wild animals seem, no matter how closely they resemble Disney characters, they are not. You have left the security of your known “human” world of paved streets and boxed-in homes to visit their homes. Remember they are wild. You are not meeting Bambi, Thumper, Mickey Mouse, or Winnie the Poo.

Smell the flowers but don’t smell them to death.

Enjoy the meadows but don’t trample them. How long is too long for a guest to “visit”? Fish and house guests both smell after three days. Know when you’ve overstayed your welcome. Take your trash with you when you go and leave the world a better place than you found it.

Do no harm.

We feel victimized and angry when we have been burglarized or vandalized and fight back through the political, legal and protective (police) services. Animals have no such recourse.

Everyone is watching.

Ethics dictate what you do when you think no one is looking. The attitude that “no one is looking so I can do what I want” is not a license to harass or endanger the animals. Behave as if the world is watching.

Do not disturb.

Migrating birds travel thousands of miles to their Arctic nesting grounds and gather in special places along the way to feed. All of their energy is dedicated to this process. Disturbances harass and weaken the birds by interrupting their precious time feeding and resting. Reports abound of photographers throwing things and chasing the birds just to make them fly for a patterns-in-flight shot. They will do that of their own accord. Just be patient.

Animal harassment is illegal

In most national parks it is a violation of federal law to feed and harass the animals. Check with the state, city and private parks for specific laws and rules. Startling a fawn from its protective hiding place or flushing baby grouse from beneath the scrubs and undergrowth may expose them to a predator. The human scent is easily recognized, and many animals have learned to associate it with food. Don’t touch anything around bird nests and animal dens because your scent may attract a predator. If you do touch anything, put it back as you found it. Cutting or breaking branches around a bird’s nest, for example, can leave the chicks exposed to the elements and predators. Chasing and harassing an animal causes it to use energy which may be needed for feeding, protection, fighting and mating. Keep them wild for your safety and our future.

Return it where you found it

Small animals, especially salamanders, frogs, newts, and other amphibians and insects live in a very small and precarious world. Removal to somewhere else may put them in the path of a predator or separate them from their feeding source and family.

Tide pool creatures are dependent upon a very small ecosystem. Removing them from theirlife blood – the water – risks their life through dehydration. Keep them wet and put them back in the same tide pool where they were found. This is where they have chosen to live and feed, protected from predators.

Don’t feed the wildlife

Teach an animal that an outreached hand means food and they will return time and time again, ignoring their natural food sources. Human food contains salts and chemicals unnatural to their diet and can poison, harm or kill them. That the outstretched hand or feeding the animals brings them close so you can touch them is no excuse. If you haven’t seen a deer before, stand there and watch it. Don’t touch it or feed it just because it’s cute. It’s against the law. Reaching out to feed it or pet it can result in our getting bitten or attacked. The result is that the animal is either captured and killed or relocated and punished in some way. The human is rarely blamed for their actions.

Don’t feed the wildlife Part II

There are almost no bears left in the continental United States. Human invasion into their territory has pushed them out. The fear of confrontation resulted in their eviction from their traditional lands. Yet, bears are being reported entering these long dominated human lands again. Why?

Consciously or unconsciously, we are inviting the bear back. Being careless with our trash, loose lids on our garbage cans, and the increase in park attendance all shout, “Hey, you are invited to the party! Come join us!” We issue the invitation, then resent them when they show up. Studies show a bear can smell food over long distances even inside a tightly closed cooler. Keep your food locked in your car, pack up your garbage, and if you live near wildlife areas, take steps to keep your trash from becoming breakfast for wildlife. Remember, animals invading your garbage learn to associate you with food. Don’t rely upon the animal to have the brains to stay away. Don’t invite them to visit you.

No picture is worth the safety of the subject

Game farms and “rent-an-animal” programs are great opportunities for photographers to get close to the animals. Frequent facilities with high standards of care and humane treatment of the animals. Demand humane treatment and report all abuse cases, even if you are in doubt.

Our intrusion into an animal’s space can result in harassment and damage in many ways. We may disrupt their mating or nesting process. We may interfere with their feeding. Just as you would protect your child from harm, we need to be parents to the wildlife. No photograph is worth the safety of the animals.

Getting close

To get close to wildlife without disturbing them, visit places where the animals are used to humans. The animals are used to people so they won’t shy away, allowing you to get closer without harassing them. Please follow all park rules and regulations concerning approaches to wildlife for your protection and theirs.

Don’t give photographers a bad name

All images of captive animals should be labeled as such, whether or not the editor also decides to do so. Photographs of tame or captive animals are fine only if they don’t convey false information.

Be wildlife aware

We watched with amazement as Olympic Marmots crawled up inside car engines seeking tasty rubber water hoses and the sugary taste of antifreeze at a trail head deep within the Olympic National Park. While help for those who return from hiking to find their cars’ radiators and transmissions bone dry is only 25 miles away, it is also 6,000 feet in the mountains above sea level and help.

If you do spend time in the mountains or areas where wildlife consider your vehicle good eating or investigating, consider investing in a removable cover to protect the underside of your vehicle. At a minimum, bring extra water hoses, antifreeze, and water, along with some tools, to repair any damage the wildlife may inflict.

It is said that famous nature photographers, Eliot Porter and Helen Longest-Slaughter, are extreme examples of protecting nature, of which we might take note. Porter is said to have never even moved a leaf, and Longest-Slaughter will only photograph “wild” animals in wild places, avoiding game farms and captive animal ranches. Well known author and photographer, Bryan Petersen, is a preacher’s son. He tells of learning at his father’s knee that God gave man dominion over the world and it is man’s job to fight the anarchy and evil works of the devil. So if a leaf is in the way – it might be the work of the devil, and moving it will only be putting things right. Set a standard for yourself and keep it, no matter what the extreme is.

A few careless photographers can give us all a bad name, and park service rangers and other caretakers may be unwilling to share information and access if a photographer has stressed the animals in the past. Be conscious of the effects of your actions so others will have the chance to return.

Witness It: Stop It

If you witness people harassing the wildlife, make it your responsibility to stop them. Don’t stand by and wait for someone else to respond. When you visit a national park or any protected nature area, you have an obligation to obey the rules and regulations. You also have a responsibility to stop others from disobeying those rules. It only takes one person to ruin the experience for everyone and to restrict future access to these locations.

Did you ever ask yourself why the shutter speed numbers make sense and the aperture numbers don’t? Did you ever try to get a good answer from the photography experts and they didn’t know either? Well put on your thinking caps, remember back to high school geometry, and get ready.

The standard shutter speed series goes like this: 1 sec, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, etc… These numbers make sense. Each shutter speed is twice as fast as the one before it (OK, a couple of these are fudged to make them easier to use). And each one will let pass half as much light as the one before it. So much for shutter speeds. But the aperture series is strange: 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, etc… They’re all related by a factor of 1.4, not 2. Why?

What does f -stop even mean? Remember that we measure light in units called stops. A change of one stop of light means that we have either twice as much or half as much light. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about apertures or shutter speeds, a stop is a stop.

An f -stop is defined as ratio of the focal length of the lens to the diameter of the lens:

OR

So if we have a lens with a focal length of 200 mm and the diameter of the front element is 50 mm, the maximum aperture or f -stop is:

OR

The actual series of numbers comes from high school geometry. The area of a circle (the aperture is a circle) is related to the numerical constant π (pronounced “pie”, π = 3.14) and its diameter:

Since a stop is twice as much light, each succeeding aperture has to have twice the area in order to let in twice as much light. So a circle with twice the area is:

Taking the factor of 2 inside the square, gives:

The square root of 2 is 1.414, which is plenty close to 1.4. What all this means is that in order to let in twice as much light, each aperture has to have a diameter that is 1.4 times bigger than the previous aperture.

The series starts with 1. The next aperture would be 1 * 1.4, which is 1.4. The next aperture would be 1.4 * 1.4, which is 2, and so on, as shown in chart 2.

The best part of all this is that you don’t have to remember it. The camera designers did all the work so you can simply count stops. If you open the aperture by one stop, just compensate by adjusting the shutter speed one stop faster to get the same exposure. It doesn’t matter where you start, because a stop is a stop. Simple.

The following is a list of support materials, books and guides to assist you in your search and in photographing nature. For a more comprehensive listing, check out our web site bookstore and book recommendations.

Books

Inspiration comes from anywhere. When it comes to inspiring us with natural images, these are the books that leap from our shelves.

John Shaw

• Nature Photography Field Guide (formerly known as The Nature Photographer’s Guide to Professional Field Techniques)
• Close-ups in Nature
• Focus on Nature
• Business of Nature Photography: A Professional’s Guide to Marketing and Managing a
  Successful Nature Photography Business

Fredric Lehrman

• The Sacred Landscape

Freeman Patterson

• Photography for the Joy of It
• Photography of Natural Things
• Photography and the Art of Seeing
• Portraits of Earth
• Shadowlight: A Photographer’s Life
• Photographing the World Around You: A Visual Design Workshop

William Neill

• Landscapes of the Spirit
• By Nature’s Design (An Exploratorium Book)
• The Color of Nature (An Exploratorium Book)
• Yosemite: The Promise of Wildness

Galen Rowell

• Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape

Bryan Peterson

• Learning to See Creatively
• Understanding Exposure
• People in Focus

Art Wolfe

• Light on the Land
• The Kingdom: Wildlife in North America
• Pacific Northwest: Land of Light and Water
• Alaska
• The Art of Photographing Nature, with Martha Hill

National Wildlife Federation

• Patterns in the Wild
• Colors in the Wild

Bruce Heineman

• The Art of Nature: Reflections on the Grand Design

Robert Bateman

• Robert Bateman: Natural Worlds

Laurie Campbell

• Guide to Bird and Nature Photography

Lisl Dennis

• Traveler’s Eye

Gary Braasch

• Photographing the Patterns of Nature
• Entering The Grove
• Secrets of the Old Growth Forest

Joe McDonald

• The New Complete Guide to Wildlife Photography: How to Get Close and Capture Animals on
  Film
• African Wildlife: A Portrait of the Animal World

Nevada Weir

• Adventure Travel Photography

Tim Fitzharris

• Wild Bird Photography: National Audubon Society Guide
• Nature Photography: National Audubon Society Guide
• Nature Photography Hotspots: Where to Find Them, When They’re at Their Best, How to
  Approach Them

Peter Burian

• National Geographic Photography Field Guide: Secrets to Making Great Pictures

Boyd Norton

• The Art of Outdoor Photography

Watchable Wildlife Series

• Produced by Falcon Press, this series covers most of the 50 states highlighting the best places and times to see wildlife

Links and Resources

We have more photography oriented links on our Links and Resources pages to help you improve the quality of your photography and find inspiration and motivation.

Photo Interests and Resources

• Photography Forum on Compuserve: PhotoTalk on Compuserve or Photography Forum or
  www.PhotoTalk.com
• Outdoor and nature photography information from About.com:
  www.amateurphoto.miningco.com/hobbies/amateurphoto/msubmenu3.htm
• Falcon Press Watching Wildlife series: www.falconbooks.com/press.cfm
• Big Club List: listing of photo clubs and associations from all over the world :
  www.photo-ne.com/biglist
• The PhotoForum’s List of Web Pages: www.rit.edu/~andpph/webpages.html
• Exposure’s Photographic Links: www.indiana.edu/~exposure/links.html
• Photo Resources and Information Links: www.intac.com/~jdeck/Plinks.html

Photography Organizations

• American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP): www2.asmp.org
• North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA): www.nanpa.org
• Pulitzer Prize web site: www.pulitzer.org
• Society of Professional Journalists: www.photo2.si.edu
• Photographic Society of America (PSA): www.psa-photo.org
• American Society of Picture Professionals Web Magazine: www.aspp.com
• International Freelance Photographers Organization: www.aipress.com
• Photo Marketing Association International: www.pmai.org
• The Center for Photographic Projects: www.photoprojects.org
• Women in Photography International: www.womeninphotography.com

Nature Photographers

• Joe and Mary Ann McDonald, nature photographers, tour leaders, and authors:
  www.hoothollow.com
• George Lepp, author, columnist, and tour leader: www.leppphoto.com
• Theresa Husarik, nature photographer, web site features travel information and nature resources:
  www.wildthingsphoto.com
• John Shaw, author, instructor, and tour leader: www.johnshawphoto.com
• Lorelle and Brent VanFossen, VanFossen Productions, www.cameraontheroad.com

Photography Equipment and Supplies

General Photographic and Outdoor Equipment

• B&H Photo, New York, www.bhphotovideo.com
• Cabela’s (outdoor recreational equipment), www.cabelas.com, 800-237-4444/TTD 800-695-5000
• Leonard Lee Rue (nature photography supplies and equipment), 908-362-6616
• Campmor: 800-226-7667 www.campmor.com
• Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI): www.rei.com

Camera Bags

• Billingham Camera Bags: www.billingham.co.uk
• LowePro: www.lowepro.com
• Tamrac: www.tamrac.com
• Domke: www.domkebags.com
• Kinesis Gear: www.kinesisgear.com

Specialized Equipment

• Edmund Scientific: optical equipment: www.edsci.com

Accessories and Tripods

• Bogen Tripods: www.bogenphoto.com
• Kirk Enterprises: www.kirkphoto.com
• Gitzo Tripods: www.gitzo.com
• Manfrotto (Bogen) Tripods: www.manfrotto.com
• Really Right Stuff: Quick release plates: www.ReallyRightStuff.com
• Tamron: www.tamron.com

Film and Filters

• Singh-Ray Filters www.Singh-Ray.com
• Fuji Film: www.fujifilm.com
• Kodak: www.kodak.com

Digital Cameras and Photography

• Digital Cameras World: www.cameras.co.uk/html/digital-cameras-world.cfm
• General photography information, digital and otherwise: www.about-photography.net
• Digital Photo Corner: www.dpcorner.com/index.shtml
• Advice from Cliff Shade for first time digital camera buyers:
  www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw/advice.htm

Photography Media

• Apogee Photo Magazine: www.apogeephoto.com
• Outdoor Photographer magazine: www.outdoorphotographer.com
• Shutterbug magazine: www.shutterbug.net
• National Geographic: www.nationalgeographic.com
• PC Photo Magazine: www.pcphotomag.com
• Photo District News: www.pdn-pix.com or www.pdnonline.com
• Ultimate Photography Online Magazine: www.ultimatephotography.com
• Outdoorphoto.com: www.outdoorphoto.com
• Nature Photographer Magazine: www.naturephotographer.com
• Rangefinder Magazine: www.rangefinder-network.com/magazine.html
• Professional Photographer Magazine: www.ppmag.com
• Popular Photography Magazine: www.popularphotography.com

Nature Photography Tours

• International Wildlife Adventures: www.wildlifeadventures.com
• Great American Photography Weekend: www.gapweb.com
• Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris: www.photosafaris.com
• Boyd Norton Photo Tours: www.nscspro.com/workshops.htm

For more information contact Brent and Lorelle VanFossen at www.cameraontheroad.com or
lorelle@cameraontheroad.com.

The following is a general glossary of photographic terms used in this booklet and common to the photographic industry. For more specific definitions and more detailed information, please see the bibliography.

Ambient Light

The natural light present and not influenced by electronic flash coloration.

Aperture

An adjustable opening centered on the lens axis. It is part of the lens system that admits light.

ASA/ISO

The numerical reference to the speed of the film. Represents the American Standards Association and the International Standards Organization.

Automatic exposure

An exposure mode in which the photographer sets the aperture and the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed for a correct exposure. Often used when depth of field is critical to the composition.

Automatic exposure control

Camera systems where a photoelectric cell measures the light reaching the film plane and is linked to the shutter or lens aperture to adjust the exposure automatically.

Automatic flash

When the camera is set on full automatic mode, the camera’s built-in flash will go off automatically when necessary.

Backlighting

Lighting from behind the subject directed towards the camera position.

Bitmap

For digital cameras, images formed from pixels with each pixel a shade of gray or color. Using 24-bit color, each pixel can be set to any one of 16 million colors.

Bounce flash

The diffusion of light from a flash unit by directing it towards a reflective surface such as a ceiling or wall. This scatters the light, giving a softer illumination.

Bracketing

A method of compensating for uncertainties in exposure by making a series of exposures at different exposure values.

Camera shake

The unintentional movement of the camera during exposure. Often caused by hand holding, wind, or an unstable tripod.

Color balance

For digital cameras, the overall accuracy in which the camera can match the colors in the photograph with those in the original scene.

Color temperature

The temperature to which an inert substance would have to be heated in order for it to glow at a particular color. The scale of color temperature significant for photography ranges from the reddish colors of approximately 2000º K through standard ‘white’ at 5400º K, to the bluish colors above 6000º K.

Color conversion filter

Colored filter that alters the color temperature of light.

Contrast

The difference in tone between adjacent areas of a photograph.

Depth of focus

The distance through which the film plane can be moved and still record an acceptably sharp image.

Depth of field

The distance through which the subject may extend and still form an acceptably sharp image, in front of and beyond the plane of critical focus. Depth of field can be increased by stopping the lens down to a smaller aperture.

Diffusor

Material, often a fabric, that scatters transmitted light.

Diopter

A supplementary lens, shaped like a screw-on filter that allows macro photography with a normal telephoto lens.

Download

For digital cameras, the process of transferring a file from another device, like your digital camera, to your computer.

Emulsion

Light sensitive substance composed of halides suspended in a gelatin, used for photographic film and paper.

Exposure

In photography, the amount of light reaching an emulsion, or the film, being the product of intensity and time. It is controlled in the camera through the interaction between the shutter speed and aperture.

Exposure Latitude

The range of tolerance a film will take. The range is from the darkest dark to the whitest white or tonal equivalency.

Exposure compensation

The ability to adjust exposure by one or two stops to lighten or darken the image. This is controlled manually by adjusting the aperture or shutter appropriately, or through an exposure compensation button on the camera body.

Exposure/focus lock

A button usually found on the body of the camera which gives the photographer the ability to point at one part of the scene and hold the shutter button half-way down to lock in exposure and focus settings, then move the camera to recompose the scene as desired.

Extension

A fixed or adjustable tube placed between the lens and the camera body, allowing the lens to focus closer and resulting in higher magnification.

f -stop

A numerical designation (shown as f/2, f 2.8, or f4) indicating the size of the aperture (lens opening). The notion of relative aperture which is the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the aperture. The light-gathering power of lenses is usually described by the widest f -stop they are capable of, and lens aperture rings are normally calibrated in a standard series, each stop differing from its adjacent stop by a factor of 1.4.

Film speed rating

The sensitivity of a film to light, measured on a standard scale, normally either ASA or ISO.

Filter

Transparent material fitted to a lens which alters the characteristics of light passing through it, most commonly in color.

Fish-eye lens

A very wide-angle lens characterized by extreme barrel distortion.

Flare

Non-image forming light caused by scattering and reflection, that degrades the quality of an image.

Flash

An artificial light source which is either built-in or attached to the camera which provides a bright white light onto your subject.

Flash, fill

A less than full power amount of light from the electronic flash which is used to fill shadows even when there is enough light to otherwise take the photograph.

Focal plane

The plane at which a lens forms a sharp image.

Focal length

The distance between the optical center of a lens and its focal plane.

Focus

The point at which light rays are converged by a lens, creating an image which is clear to the viewer.

GIF

An image file format designed for display of graphics on the Web.

Grain

An individual light-sensitive crystal, normally of silver bromide.

Graininess

The subjective impression when viewing a photograph of granularity under normal viewing conditions. The eye cannot resolve individual grains, only overlapping clumps of grain.

Hot Spots

Areas of unwanted brightness in the image. These can be considered distracting elements.

Hot shoe

A mount on top of the camera to which a flash unit is attached, providing an electrical link to the camera for synchronization of the flash with the camera’s shutter.

Hyperfocal distance

The minimum distance at which a lens records a subject sharply when focused at infinity.

Image sensor

For digital cameras, this is a computerized device containing a photosite for each pixel in the image. Each photosite records the brightness of the light that strikes it during an exposure.

Infinity

The point in the distance beyond which everything is in focus when the lens is focused at its maximum distance.

JPEG

A popular digital camera file format that uses lossy compression to reduce file sizes. Developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. Used extensively for images transferred through the Internet and featured on web pages.

Lens shade

Lens attachment that shades the front element from non-image forming light which causes flare.

Lens coating

A thin deposited surface on a lens, used to reduce flare.

Lens

A transparent device for converging or diverging rays of light by refraction.

LiOn

Technical abbreviation for a Lithium ion battery, found on many modern cameras.

NiCad

Technical abbreviation for the nickel cadmium battery found in some modern cameras.

Megapixel

An image or image sensor with over one million pixels.

Mirror Lens

A lens which uses a pair of circular mirrors to fold the light path, resulting in a high-powered lens of shorter than normal length.

Monopod

A single-legged camera support.

Multiple exposure

An image made up of two or more images superimposed on the same frame of film in the camera.

Negative

Photographic image with reversed tones (and reversed colors if color film), used to make a positive image, normally a print, by projection. Negative film is commonly referred to as print film.

NiMH

Technical abbreviation for the nickel metal hydride battery found in many modern cameras which is considered ecologically safe and very efficient.

Normal lens

Lens with a focal length equal to the diagonal of the film format. It produces an image which appears to have normal perspective and angle of view.

Open Up

To open the aperture or slow the shutter speed to let more light in through the lens.

Overexposure

Exposure which exceeds the ‘average’ exposure.

Panning

A smooth rotation of the camera so as to keep a moving subject continuously in the frame.

Photosite

A small area on the surface of an image sensor that captures the brightness for a single pixel in the image. There is one photosite for every pixel in the image.

Pixelization

An effect seen when a digital image is enlarged too much and the pixels become obvious.

Pixels

The small picture elements that make up a digital photograph.

Polarization

Restriction of the direction of the vibration of light. A polarizing filter helps to eliminate reflections from water and non-metallic surfaces.

Print Film

(see Negative)

Rangefinder

A camera design with a viewfinder separate from the lens. Lines are usually found within the frame to represent the approximate “view” of the lens.

Red-eye reduction mode

An automatic exposure mode which fires a preliminary flash to force the pupil of the eye to shrink before firing the main flash to take the picture.

Red-eye

An effect caused by the flash which causes peoples eyes to look red.

Reflector

Surface used to reflect light. Usually it softens the light at the same time.

Resolution

An indication of the sharpness of images on a printout or the display screen, based on the number and density of the pixels used. The more pixels used in an image, the more detail can be seen and the higher the image’s resolution.

Sensitivity

The ability of an emulsion or film to respond to light.

Shutter-priority mode

An exposure mode in which the photographer controls the shutter speed and the camera automatically adjusts the aperture for the correct exposure.

Shutter

Camera mechanism that controls the period of time that image focusing light is allowed to fall on the film.

Shutter Speed

The length of time the shutter is open.

Silhouette

A subject in the dark with a light background resulting in a profile or shape definition.

Single lens reflex

Camera design that allows the image focused on the film plane to be previewed. A hinged mirror diverts the light path into the viewfinder to simplify framing and focusing. Abbreviated to SLR.

Spot Metering

Exposure based on a meter reading of a small spot within the metering range of the viewfinder, often highlighted with a highlighted marker.

Stop Down

To close the aperture or make the speed of the shutter faster to let less light in through the lens.

Stop/Step

A measurement of light entering the camera, controlled by the speed of the shutter and the opening of the aperture. Shutter speed stops are measured by halves and doubles in seconds and parts of seconds – 1 second then ½, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 and so on. Aperture openings are based on the size of the opening relative to the largest opening. They are preceded by the f symbol and found in halves and doubles of the quantity of light they allow to pass – f 1, f 1.4, f 2, f 2.8, f 4, f 5.6, f 8…

Telephoto lens

Lenses which increase the magnification greater than the human eye sees. They range from moderate focal lengths of 70 – 300mm to long focal lengths of greater than 400mm.

Through the lens (TTL) meter

Exposure meter built into the camera that measures the light that passes through the lens.

Tone

The particular quality of brightness, deepness, or hue of a color.

Transparency

Positive image on a transparent film base, designed to be viewed by transmitted light. Transparency film is commonly referred to as slide film.

Underexposure

Exposure which has less light than the “average” exposure.

Viewfinder

Optical system used for viewing the subject.

Wavelength of light

The distance between peaks in a wave of light. This distance, among other things, determines the color.

Wide angle lens

A lens that sees a wider perspective than the human eye generally sees. Topically, wide angle lenses range from extreme wide angles of 7 – 14mm to more moderate wide angles from 24 – 35mm.

Wide-angle lens

Lens with an angle of view wider than that considered subjectively normal by the human eye, usually wider than 50mm.

Zone System

A method of evaluating exposure, with implications for the photographic approach to a subject, developed by Ansel Adams, Minor White and others. Light measurement is converted to exposure settings by dividing the tonal range into specific numbered zones.

Zoom lens

Lens with a continuously variable focal length over a certain range at any given focus and aperture. It is generated by differential movement of the lens elements.