This section will grow over time to at least several pages. There is so much to write about. Fine Art Nature photography brings you information and insight into landscape, nature and wildlife photography, as well as the business of photography that you won't find anywhere else. And it's all free. I will focus on the locations I'm familiar with and work in, the Pacific Northwest of British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains and foothills of Alberta In these pages you will find all the photographic tools and techniques I use everyday to make a living as an artist and photographer, and to communicate my passion for the Pacific Northwest's wildlife and wild places. A word about digital photography I can honestly say that the switch to digital has radically improved my own photography and made my life so much easier. In addition to not having to purchase and lug around film canisters, digital has released me from the chemicals of the film darkroom and given me new, powerful tools to use to improve each shot I take. Now, a few thoughts about nature photography. I'll write only of first hand experience so this won't cover all types of nature photography of course, but rather my experience with various aspects of it. Landscape photography Successful landscape photography contains many different elements. Foremost is light. Light brings shape, depth and drama to your photographs. The successful landscape photographer takes advantage of light and uses it to add drama to the moment. Your talent and imagination, when coupled with the magic of digital, will carry the viewer along to that place and time that you so beautifully captured. And, believe it or not, a good zoom will make you a better landscape photographer, especially in the Rocky Mountains and foothills where distances are great. A zoom lets you move in to capture and stage a scene, leaving out all the unimportant stuff. While using Filters on your lenses is no longer a requirement by any means, because of what you can do in a good digital darkroom, there are several which can only serve to improve your photographs. A Skylight 1A Filter will bring out the contrast in otherwise flat looking clouds and cut through the haze. This is also a good filter to leave on the lens all the time as protection from scratches and dirt. It's cheaper to replace a $30 filter than a $1,000 lens. A Polarizing Filter does two things: saturate the colors of the image, and reduce or remove glare on reflective surfaces. The one catch with polarizers is that they only work to maximum efficiency at a 180 degree angle to the light source (for instance the sun), so if the sun is in front of you, a polarizer will be useless, but if it's behind you, it will work beautifully. In addition, a circular polarizer will help to cut through surface reflections of water. For instance, if you're shooting a picture of a stream bed or photographing salmon then you need to cut through the reflection of the surface of the water to get a good, clear image. A polarizer filter will accomplish this for you. A Neutral Density filter can also be quite useful. This filter reduces the amount of light that passes through the lens. Putting a Neutral Density filter on your camera allows you to take longer exposures, which is useful when photographing waterfalls and moving water. That's how you can get that silky look to moving water. Wildlife photography When one thinks of nature photography in the Pacific Northwest one naturally thinks of wildlife. And what a wonderful paradise for wildlife photography it is. With the right tools you can shoot pictures that are just as good as the pros and one of the most important tools is a good telephoto zoom lens. One lens I love is the Sigma 80-400mm F4.5-5.6 EX OS APO zoom. In my experience on a digital camera this lens becomes a tack-sharp 128-640mm zoom lens and it's only 7.5" long. As mentioned above the lense I chose for the 350XT was the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM zoom which becomes a 112-480mm zoom and is even shorter at 5.6" when locked up. I remember lugging a 600mm telephoto lens around the Rocky Mountain foothills years ago that had to be at least 14" long. What an improvement the new zoom lenses are on a dSLR. Floral photography In addition to the basic 50mm lens, or thereabouts, flower photography can combine both macro and telephoto techniques. Sometimes you want to get close to a flower and sometimes you may want to sand back and zoom in. Zooming in tends to flatten your photograph somewhat and, depending on your depth of field setting, this can keep more of the flower in focus. On the other hand, sometimes its preferred to get in close and almost smell the fragrance. In any case, you will often find yourself using some of the same lenses that you normally use in landscape photography. Light is important for all subjects and is no different for flowers. Light creates drama and mood that is otherwise impossible to achieve. And I love water drops after a rain. I've even carried a small squirt bottle with me on occasion just to squirt a few drops on a flower every now and then. Sunlight shining through a small drop of water on a leaf or a petal can be exquisite. Why wait for it to rain when you can carry it with you? Macro photography One of the things I've thoroughly enjoyed about digital cameras is their ability to get in close to small subjects and take some stunning photographs. The LCD monitor on the 350XT can not be used as a live image viewfinder so this is another good reason for a long zoom. A set of closeup lenses can come in handy, especially in the case of a long zoom, for getting closer to a subject. I carry two old KitStar lenses +1 and +2 that I've had for 40 years. These can be used individually or stacked to achieve an extremely close view of +3. This lets you keep back a foot or two from, say, an insect, and still fill the screen. Very helpful for subjects that scare easily. And it eliminates any chance of the camera casting a shadow across the subject.
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