Fine Art Photography Blog

The Carbon River entrance is an industrial-looking swatch of land; rocks, a low waterline, and occasional clear cuts. Of course, in the end of August, most rivers are flowing pretty low.

Mount Ranier is a giant place; most of it cordoned off from the motorist’s view. There are a small handful of of roads leading into the park, and Carbon River is one of them. It’s probably the most remote - a long, poorly maintained dirt road leading off to Mowich Lake (below).

This is the least known and least trafficked road into a park that sees more than four million yearly visitors. Even on an dark, stormy day parking was overflowing in some places and limited in others; still this is back-country wilderness compared to Sunrise or Paradise.

About two hours from Seattle, this northwestern corner of Mt Ranier is a great weekend getaway.

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A labyrinthine collection of pathways around I-5 through Seattle’s bustling downtown or financial district, is many things to many people. Generally, it’s looked down on, although not exactly in the way this image shows.

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This miniature world is hidden in day-to-day life, giving you access to an unfamiliar world of fine detail. Along with the lost sense of scale, exemplified by MC Escher, this is a key element in a lot of abstract art.

Definition: “Macro” Photography

Macro simply means shooting close-ups; technically it means “life-size” or 1:1 magnification. The size of the image on the film plane can be as large as it is in real life. This strict technical definition is being eroded; zoom lenses that achieve 1:4 - quarter-sized reproduction - call themselves macro, and compact digital cameras measure their macro ability by how close they can get to the target, rather than how many of the chip’s pixels can be devoted to recording a small topic. So, for simplicity’s sake, in this article we’re talking about close-up photography, which doesn’t have to be specifically at a 1:1 ratio.

Obviously, this is far from”life-size;” the leaf was probably two inches across, recorded on a 35 mm digital camera, with a 135 mm f/2 L, a lens offering a sorry (for this purpose) magnification of 1:5. Some cropping was naturally in order to “get closer” to the subject.

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Night photography isn’t that much different from any other type; any landscape photographer will be instantly familiar with everything required here.

The first problem to overcome is darkness, and a tripod is the obvious answer … usually the only answer. Many newer lenses and even cameras include some type of optical image stabilization, which is an invaluable feature, but not suited to quality nightscapes. Night photos require a depth of focus that demands small(ish) apertures, choking off most of the light that would reach the sensor.

You’ll see star-points in outdoor photographs shot in the darkness with point-sources of light. This is a diffraction pattern that intensifies as you close the lens down, particularly visible because of the extreme contrast. As a side note, lenses whose iris contains an even number of aperture blades produce more attractive star patterns, with light rays directly opposite each other. In the sample below, you can see eight rays forming each star, indicating eight blades making up the iris. Bigger apertures ( f/2 to f/5.6 ) will barely show stars, while smaller apertures ( f/8 to f/32 ) will create a more pronounced effect; consider this as you select your exposure.

In short, digestible form, the rules for good night photography are: Read the rest of this entry »

This is admittedly an unfair comparison; we may as well ask whether there’s much difference between a disposable cardboard camera and a high end digital SLR with the best prime lenses. A fair analogy, in that Quantaray’s best tripod comes with the legs and head as one inseparable piece. But the question isn’t whether there’s a difference; it’s how much, and whether it’s worth the difference in price. Nobody should doubt for a second that the Manfrotto is a better tripod.

Some Context

The back story is that a strong gust of wind blew my tripod over with a Canon EOS 5D and Sigma 15-30 EX attached. I was waiting for the fog to blow where I wanted it in the frame, and taking shelter against a cold, damp wind, when a strong gust pushed the system over, bending the petal hood on the wide lens. The old tripod is broken, and in any case, it’s hardly trustworthy after the stress it’s caused.

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