Photography 24/7 » Nature

Photo Critique No. 4 – “At Piha”

Thomas — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:45:14 +0000

This week’s image was submitted by Jonathan Allcock. It’s a picture from New Zealand, but I’m not entirely sure if this is where Jonathan resides, or if the picture was taken during a visit there by Jon.

It looks like the photo was taken with a Canon PowerShot S3 set to an f/4 aperture and a shutter speed of 1/500 sec.

As always I have looked at this image on and off for a few days before getting into writing this critique. One of the main things I like about this image is the composition and then simply the beautiful location and the general sense of wide open space in this image.

I have visited New Zealand on two occassions myself and it’s an incredibly beautiful place to go for landscape photography. I’d love to go back there with at least 4-6 weeks on my hands to really explore the country in more depth. In some ways I find that the landscape in New Zealand is so beautiful that it can be almost overwhelming. Hence the need for more time, so you can slow down and get more connected to the landscape rather than just drive, shoot, drive, shoot, drive shoot…which is what I did quite a lot when I was there because there are just soooooo many opportunities.

While the sense of open space and the many grand vistas in New Zealand are immediately beautiful to the eyes, this doesn’t mean that this is easy to capture on film or sensor. Quite the contrary in my experience. It’s not just a matter of setting up your tripod and shoot and then move on. Grand vistas are a lot more difficult to photograph successfully than one might think.

Grand vistas require careful attention to foreground, middleground and background.

Compositional elements - Image by Jonathan Allcock

Composition and Visual Anchor

I think Jon has managed the concepts of foreground, middleground and background quite successfully here.

In the foreground we have interest in terms of the grass (a beautiful texture) leading down to the beach. The middleground is broken up with a layer of water, then the sandbank and then another layer of water. And in the background we have the small island to the left, the landscape on the horizon to the right and then finally the sky covered by clouds.

There are a couple of things which I think are really noteworthy with regards to Jon’s composition.

The layers of water and the sandbank in the middleground creates some really beautiful visual hooks which takes the viewer deep into to the image and right out to the horizon line while at the same time pointing over towards the small island to the left in the image.

The larger visual hooks in the middleground are repeated in the foreground by smaller and more subtle visual hooks in the way the grass is shaped by the wind on this particular day. To me, these smaller hooks gives the foreground some dynamic interest and rhyme quite well with the bigger visual hooks in the middleground.

If you look carefully you can even find some small visual hooks in the clouds as well, particularly in the right hand side of the image.

The small island in the top left of the image acts as a powerful visual anchor in the image and it is also one of the points of highest contrast in the image. Your eyes are taken out to the horizon by the visual hooks which then take a left turn at the horizon and point over towards the small island where you then end up resting your eyes for a while. After a little rest, then your eyes might come back down to the foreground area and you might make another round trip through the image. This helps keep the viewer within the frame and it retains the viewers attention for longer.

To me, this is quite a successful composition and probably, as mentioned above, what I like best about this image.

Improvements - Original image by Jonathan Allcock

Improvements

While the light in this image is kind of nice and soft, it’s also a little flat and not all that interesting. The light does not really sweep across the scene from one direction which would help accentuate the texture in the grass and perhaps reflect in water between the beach and the sandbank.

But you don’t always get the light you want when you are at a given location, so sometimes you just have to work with what you have. However if Jon had the opportunity to go back to shoot this scene in different light I’d definitely encourage that.

The horizon line does not appear to be entirely straight, but this is an easy fix in Photoshop or most photo editing software programs today. However it’s always best to get it straight in-camera as you will lose some data when you correct it after the fact. The more wonky your horizon is, the more data you will lose.

If you were open to change the content of the image I’d also suggest to do a little bit of cloning to just tidy the image up a little bit.

If the image is viewed large you can see a couple of people walking on the sandbank (one of them wearing a fluorescent yellow top) and in my re-worked version I have taken them out. I have also cloned out what looks like some sort of small structures on the top of the island and along the horizon on the right side of the image.

Personally I don’t find the bare area in the foreground very interesting. To me, it disrupts the foreground a little bit. and in my re-worked version of the image I’ve dealt with this partly through cropping and partly through cloning.

The cropping of the image also gives it a slightly more panoramic format which I think suits the content of the image better than the original format.

Apart from the changes above I have also made these changes in my re-worked version:

1. Darken sky
2. Lighten foreground grass
3. Saturate the colours of the ocean and sky a bit more

and so here are the before and after comparisons:

Before - Original image by Jonathan Allcock

After - Original image by Jonathan Allcock

Conclusion and Variations

All in all I think Jon has created a fine image, but still with some room for improvements in regards to lighting and perhaps other vantage points could also be explored at this location which appears to have great potential.

In addition to my proposed re-worked version shown above, I have also made two other variations of the image. Because there is not a lot of colour in the original image I think this image is a good candidate for a black and white conversion.

Personally I think I like the black and white version better than the colour version.

Notice how I have cloned out the crashing wave on the small island as well as the bright point in the top middle of the clouds in the black and white version. These areas became points of very high contrast in the black and white version.

However I have also included another version where I have simply toned the colours right back which seems to make the image a little bit moodier perhaps.

See what you think:

Black and white variation - Original image by Jonathan Allcock

Toned back colours variation- Original image by Jonathan Allcock

I’d like to say a big thank you to Jonathan Allcock for submitting this image for the weekly photo critique here at Photography 24/7.

You can view Jon’s orignal image in a somewhat larger version by clicking the square thumbnail image at the very top of this article.

If you’re interested in submitting one of your images for the critique, you can find out more details on the page.

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Photo Critique No. 1 – “Fishing in Paradise”

Thomas — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:50:03 +0000

Welcome to the premiere of the weekly photo critique at Photography 24/7.

Carolyn Fletcher from Eufaula, Oklahoma in the US was quick off the mark submitting this truly beautiful image which she has entitled “Fishing in Paradise”. Thank you very much to Carolyn for offering up her image for the weekly photo critique.

I have been looking at this image on and off for a few days now, and every time I return to it, the first thing that strikes me are the absolutely amazing colours Carolyn has captured here.

It looks like peak fall colour and the only way to get images like this is of course by being there. So good on Carolyn (as they say here in Australia) for getting out there and capturing such a beautiful picture.

Original image by Carolyn Fletcher

The colours are a definite WOW factor in this image. They are so captivating and they are a contributing factor to me wanting to spend more than just the average time looking at this image. I take pleasure in exploring all the different colours and tones in the image.

Eye Movement and Composition

It’s only after a little while (which in reality is probably less than a split second) that I discover the fisherman in his boat. My eyes first go to the beautiful burnt orange colour – and probably more so to the burnt orange colour on the right hand side of the image rather than on the left as this is one of the highest contrast areas in the picture. It’s also in this area that some of the brightest pixel values (highlights) can be found on the bright tree trunks to the right in the picture.

My eyes then continue down to the reflection of this area and then I see the boat and the fishman.

Eye movement

I have tried to illustrate the way my eyes move through image above. As you can see the path almost forms a spiral ending up at one of the main subjects in the image.

In the illustration above part of the path is a dotted line as after viewing the image multiple times, sometimes me eyes start in the area on the left (there is a fairly high contrast area at the bottom of the bright tree trunks on the left where they meet the shoreline) and other times my eyes latch straight on the burnt orange and bright areas in the the right.

In either case Carolyn has succeeded – whether intentional or not – to guide my eyes through the image and down to one of the main subjects and to me this really makes the composition work.

In her comments accompanying the image, Carolyn wrote to me:

“I know this is against the ‘rules’ with the subject being in the center. I just couldn’t bring myself to eliminate anything.”

I say stuff the rules here, because it works!

The way I interpret this image the colour (paradise) is the main subject (which is where my eyes go first) and the other main subject (fishing) is the man in his boat (which is where my eyes go next). Success! It really doesn’t have to me more complicated than that.

I absolutely enjoy how I’m taken for a little discovery ride in this image. To me, in terms of composition, it doesn’t feel static at all which can sometimes be the case with very centered (bulls eye) subjects.

And while we are on the topic of composition more often than not with reflection images like this, it works well to have the horizon line running through the middle of the image as it pretty much does here.

Technical Aspect

Technically this image appears to be well executed overall. However I should add that I have sized down the images shown here from the original submission and I have used Bicubic Sharper when down sizing the image in the Image Size dialogue box in Photoshop CS4.

When I view Carolyn’s original image (you can click the thumbnail at the very top to view the original in full size) it appears as if there is a slight degree of softness to the image overall.

This may very well be intentional on Carolyn’s part in an effort to create the feeling of “Fishing in Paradise”. But it could also be a result of the focus being off just a little bit or perhaps a little bit of camera shake (which can also occur on a tripod). The softness also appears in the colours of trees in the background which gives an almost dreamy look which is really quite nice.

Improvements

When I think about ways I can perhaps improve this image aesthetically, the first thing that comes to my mind is the colour of the boat.

But really I’m in two minds about the colour of the boat. Part of me feels it is too colourful and overpowering, and another part feels that the bold colour of the boat separates it from the landscape as the man-made object it is.

So if this was my image I would consider changing the colour of the boat and see what I would like the best, so this is one of the suggestions I have made in the After example below.

In other suggestions to post-processing improvements a little bit of ‘gardening’ and local contrast adjustments. Here is my short-list of post-processing suggestions which I have applied in the After example below:

1. Remove colour from boat
2. Increase local contrast of the man in the boat
3. Clone out the dark corner in the top right
4. A little bit of ‘gardening’ along the right edge, bottom right corner and left bottom part
5. Clone out high contrast area in the background and reflection
6. Tone down brighter spot in the top middle part of the image

These are all quite minor changes in effort to just ‘tidy up’ the image a little bit (note that all adjustments were made with more attention to speed than quality to illustrate the suggestions). One could probably go a little bit further with the post-processing work depending on personal taste and indeed depending on whether you’re open to changing the contents of the image. Some of the changes mentioned above could also have been accomplished through some minor cropping.

Suggestions to improvements

After post-processing

The overhanging leafless branches in the foreground might be a small distraction and in an ideal world I would probably wish they weren’t there, but on the other hand they don’t bother me too much either. They are very much part of the scene and don’t feel too intruding as they are kind of spread out across the top of the image.

Overall I think Carolyn has come away with a really beautiful image of a lovely subject. Some might argue that this type of image can be a little bit cliche, but as for me, I never tire looking at scenes like this.

Once again a big thank you to Carolyn Fletcher for submitting this image for the premiere of the weekly photo critique.

If you’re interested in submitting one of your images for the critique, you can find out more details on the Photo Critiques page.

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Interview with Tony Sweet

Thomas — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:55:38 +0000

Tony Sweet is one of my all time personal favourite photographers and he has been a huge inspiration for me when it comes to image design. When you view his images you will notice that each one of them are meticulously composed with careful attention to detail.

I have been fortunate enough to be able attend two of Tony’s online photography classes a couple of years ago: Image Design: Revealing Your Personal Vision and Fine Art Flower Photography which he still teaches over at BetterPhoto.com and I can highly recommend both of these two courses. Tony’s teaching style is straight to the point, yet very caring and encouraging all while he shares a wealth of knowledge with his students.

I’m very grateful that Tony was kind enough to take the time for this interview in between conducting on location workshops, teaching online photography classes, writing magazine articles and running his general nature photography business!

So, get yourself a good cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy this in depth interview with Master Photographer Tony Sweet.

After 20 years as a professional jazz artist, Tony Sweet changed careers and directed his creative juices towards nature photography. Tony is a ‘Nikon Legend Behind the Lens’, a member of ‘Team Nik’ (NikSoftware) and a ‘Lensbaby Guru’. His fine art prints are exhibited in private and corporate collections throughout the United States, and he is represented by The Getty Picture Agency. Today, Tony’s work is published on greeting cards, calendars, post cards, posters, annual reports, catalogs and various electronic mediums.

1. Tony, first of all thank you very much for taking the time for this interview! For those who might not know you, could you describe your style of photography and perhaps also briefly touch on the moment when you first realised you would make photography a career path?

It’s very difficult for one to describe ones own style of photography. In general, I look for color and graphic interest in most cases, however I’ve recently began looking for more sparse subjects for black and white renderings. We are all in a constant state of flux in any creative endeavor. Despite how people love to pigeon hole photographers styles, there really is only two kinds of photography: good and bad. Initially, I began photographing musicians in night clubs and portraits in my house in Cincinnati. When my first mentor, Tony Gayhart, showed me a nature slide, I decided immediately to pursue this as a career path. I also immediately swapped all of my fast, low light glass for lenses better suited for nature photography (20mm, 35-70mm, 80-200mm, and 105mm macro).

2. You have referred to Pat O’Hara and Tony Gayhart as your mentors and influence, but if you look back in the history of photography what other photographer’s work do you admire and why?

When getting started, I read all the books by John Shaw, Galen Rowell, Rod Planck, Larry West, John Netherton, Jim Zuckerman, Freeman Patterson, and Pat O’hara. I just read everything that I could get my hands on. The styles that appealed to my innate sense of design and photographic viscera were Freeman’s and Pat’s. After years of learning from reading the aforementioned authors to get a firm foundation, I began gravitating to the more impressionist, non representational photography, exemplified by Freeman, Pat and others.

3. A photographer’s day and week can be long! I know that you are often up extremely early, work through the day and often also shoot again around sunset. How do you manage your shooting time, admin work and personal life and get some rest at the same time?

Fortunately, I love every aspect of this business now. Interestingly, digital photography and software expertise has grown together and have inextricably merged to where some software expertise is essential in modern photography. Time management is more a function of how facile one is on the computer and in various software. The faster one can get through image editing and optimization, the better. I know what and where I like to photograph, so I’m not guessing as much and, therefore more effectively managing my shooting time, especially before and after workshops. I also can get by with little sleep, which has it’s drawbacks, but does enable me to get a lot done. Personal life?? Sure, I try to play music once a week with friends when home. I also try to get in a few poker games a year with old friends. Sue and I work and travel together. [Note: Tony's better half Sue aka Susan Milestone is an equally amazing nature photographer with some incredible work as well].

4. As a teacher and instructor you are known to be ‘positive, enthusiastic, generous, encouraging, approachable and energetic’. What motivates you to teach photography as passionately as you do?

Quite simply, I love sharing information and like working with people. As I think back on my life, I’ve always been a teacher, regardless of profession (musician, magician, photographer).

5. Can you talk a little bit about how you challenge yourself creatively and how you choose your subjects (or do they choose you)?

Without getting too abstract, I don’t really challenge myself, per se, but function in the moment, not unlike playing jazz music. I rely on my subconscious to perceive a subject area. Once that happens, I look a bit closer for specific subjects. My challenge is keeping up on creative software use by practicing as often as I can.

6. A great deal of your work is made on the East Coast of the US and is often somewhat more intimate nature and landscape images. However you have recently also been shooting more grand landscapes in areas like the Badlands and I know you have also recently completed another long road trip. How do you feel about photographing in new locations versus much more familiar locations to you like the Smokies for example? And do you approach the grand landscapes differently than the more intimate landscapes?

It takes a while to get past the snap shot stage at new locations and to be able to move to the more personal and more abstract stage. This is why I love revisiting the same locations year after year, not to get the same shots, but to shoot deeper and deeper, getting images that were unattainable on initial visits. When first visiting a new site, I go to the visitor’s center to look at books and post cards to see what’s there and get to locations at pre dawn and/or late afternoon for the after glow, like everyone else. The more we return to an area, the more and deeper we “see.”

7. You have embraced HDR photography and even produced an instructional DVD on the subject. You tend to lean up against the more ‘super real’ images. What captivates you about HDR and do you see a commercial market for it?

HDR is not new, being around since about 1937, but it’s new to the general photographic world. And the world has been flooded with a lot of HDR images, good and bad. I find that HDR is essential to get some scenes to work and can be another way to interpret a scene in a new, fresh way. Commercial market? Many video games have HDR style backdrops, architectural photographers use HDR (paying careful attention to processing the scene to record it as it is), stock photography (although the super real look is not a favorite, yet), and of course for book and article illustrations.

8. We all get stuck in a creative rut sometimes. What advice can you give to someone who is lacking inspiration and needs to get their creative juices flowing again?

Go to a new place
Use a Lensbaby
Try HDR, even on a single image!
Try camera movement / multiple exposures
Use a fisheye lens

9. I think it’s fair to say you have been successful in the stock photography market. How important is stock photography to your business today and what’s your thoughts on the emerging microstock photography market?

For snap shot life style photography, stock will remain viable for a time, but it’s on the way to a whole new paradigm. The younger generation are populating the stock agencies and with that comes the younger approach. The Getty stock agency is trolling for images and may have purchased at least a part of Flickr! So, anyone who adequately key words their images on Flickr has a chance of being approached for an image sale by Getty. However, I wouldn’t get my hopes up as stock prices have plummeted in recent years to the point of no longer being a substantial part of our income, dwindling more each year.

10. How about fine art prints? I know you have recently purchased an Epson 7900 printer, do you produce a lot of fine art prints? Are fine art prints an important part of your business? Are you represented by any art galleries? Do you work with interior designers?

Our business plan is to enter the print market in the coming year. We have a couple of print agents and interior designers we have worked with and will be taking portfolios around to galleries looking for representation during our winter break, in addition to limited web sales.

11. To me some of your stock photography images could as well be fine art prints. How do you make the distinction between a stock image and a fine art image, or do you also offer fine art prints of your stock images? Is any of your fine art prints offered in limited editions?

I’m not sure what fine art is, but I do a little research for stock and noticed the more abstract, movement / blur images and extreme macros / conceptual images are viable. These types of images can be seen as being “fine art.” In general, I just send in what I like and let the agency pick what they like. But, please remember that for a great many photographers, stock is no longer a viable source of income.

12. Finally, what was the most recent photography book you bought for yourself?

I buy photography books all the time, the most recent being, “Badlands of the High Plains” by Chuck Haney.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Tony Sweet teaches several online classes at BetterPhoto.com and conducts his “Visual Artistry” photography and digital printing workshops from March through October throughout the continental United States and Canada.

Tony has also produced several really excellent books and DVDs which can be purchased from the store on his website or at Amazon.com.

I’m also very excited to announce here on Photography 24/7 that Tony Sweet has just released a new DVD titled “Visual Artistry: The Art of Pre-Visualizing in Modern Digital Photography” (it’s literally being pressed as this interview goes live).

Shot in the springtime, Tony works in a variety of locations from historic downtown Charleston and Drayton Hall, to the magical landscapes of Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. Visual Artistry is filled with compositional techniques, tips and tricks from Tony s many years as a professional photographer and workshop leader.

You can purchase the new DVD directly from Tony Sweet’s website or at Amazon.com.

I own all of Tony’s DVDs and have watched them several times and find them a good source of photographic inspiration each time, so check them out if they are not already in your DVD library.

You can watch a small video in clip from Tony’s Visual Literacy DVD in this previous post: Tony Sweet Nature Portfolio.

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August Snaps 21 August

Thomas — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:36:16 +0000

“Agave Layers.”

Admittedly there is not a lot to keep the viewers attention in this image. There is no real focal point, no real place for the eyes to go to for a little rest. It’s probably not the type of image you look at for ages.

Nevertheless I quite like the image and chose it as today’s pick. I find Agave plants outrageously beautiful and I’m always enthralled by their beautiful luminous edges. I have photographed Agave plants before and here is one other such attempt at capturing its alluring beauty.

I used Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 to process the image and convert it to black and white.

In total I made 33 photos today.

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August Snaps 15 August

Thomas — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:09:24 +0000

“Spring is in the Air.”

It was a beautiful warm day here in Sydney today and for those of us living in the southern hemisphere we can now smell spring is in the air after a fairly long, wet and cold winter. I didn’t set out to capture spring today, but I did venture out with my Canon G9 – now replaced by the Canon G10 – in the warm, late afternoon sun.

Throughout this August challenge I have come into the habit of starting to shoot fairly quickly after I set out. It’s not so important what I shoot of if it’s not the perfect subject or lighting conditions, what is more important is to ‘warm up’ as if it was before an important sports match. It gets you into the right frame of mind and helps fine tune your vision.

Today I was shooting some reflections and textures as my ‘warm up’ images:

I kept on walking in search for images of interest and this is when I noticed the backlit plants in the main image (click the square thumbnail above to view the image large). Back lighting is one of my favourite lighting conditions because it almost instantly creates mood in your images. I’m a big advovate for seeking out mood in your images and this is not very easy to do. In fact I’m working on becoming more conscious about looking for mood when I’m photographing, but mood can be very elusive and it’s far from present in all situations. So much of the time when an image moves me, I realise it’s because it evokes a certain mood.

Today’s image reflects the warm day we have experienced today here in Sydey and at the same time it evokes feelings of spring and summer for me, so here is hoping it does the same for you as a more objective viewer.

I took a total 77 pictures today.

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Hear It From the Man Himself

Thomas — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:30:22 +0000

Make yourself a nice cup of tea or coffee, get comfortable in your chair and enjoy watching this short video with one of photography’s most legendary photographers within the landscape genre. It’s a great little interview and includes a mini biography on the great Ansel Adams.

Here are a couple of books with Ansel Adams that live on my bookshelf and which I can warmly recommend:

Ansel Adams – 400 Photographs

Ansel Adams – Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs

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August Snaps 8 August

Thomas — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 10:34:29 +0000

“African Daisy.”

Spending time with your subject is the key to success. It is exceedingly rare that someone can approach a subject, take a picture, move on and then return with a great a great photo. Most great pictures are created which includes an investment of time to get the best possible picture from the best possible viewpoint.

In this example I made a total of 41 different pictures of the African Daisy. I tried different viewpoints, different flowers, different backgrounds, motion during exposure and various compositions.

Now, I’m not saying you have to make 41 pictures every time to get one good one. Sometimes 3 or 4 different images will do, but flowers can be elusive and the wind often plays tricks on you, so I tend to cover myself with lots of exposures in the case of flowers. In total I made 75 pictures today, so more than half of my efforts were spent with this African Daisy.

It’s a pretty straight forward photo, but I like the pristine condition of this flower as well as the extraordinarily beautiful colour combination in this scene.

Click on the thumbnail image above to view large.

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August Snaps 2 August

Thomas — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 07:12:42 +0000

“Life in the Shadows.”

I didn’t have quite as much time for photography today as I had yesterday and I will have even less time tomorrow, but I will worry about that tomorrow! I did manage to shoot a total of 75 images today (although I shot some scenes quite extensively). I made images both indoors at home, some at the coast during a midday walk and again some this afternoon during a walk down the street to a little local creek which is where today’s image is from.

I chose this little shadow on a textured tree trunk as today’s image because I liked the idea of combining two elements in nature into one image (i.e. the shadow of the plant and the tree itself). Again I have opted for a black and white interpretation.

I enjoy being more visually alert since taking on this personal photo challenge and hope I can keep it up throughout the month. I would be pleased to hear any constructive feedback you may have on the images – good or bad.

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More Infrared Black and White

Thomas — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:42:32 +0000

A few days ago I posted one of my first infrared black and white images and I thought I would share another image from the same outing (click the thumbnail on the left to view image in full size) in this little quick post.

I like this image because it has an almost ‘other worldly’ quality even though it is of course just a piece of decayed, weathered wood sticking up through the water in a lake. I really enjoy isolating small scenes in nature like this in an effort to simplify things.

If you are considering upgrading your current DSLR then don’t throw it away or sell it for next-to-nothing on Ebay.

Instead consider having your old DSLR converted to a dedicated infrared camera which can be a lot of fun to shoot with. Life Pixel Infrared Conversion Services is the company that converted my Canon 20D and I have been happy with the results. I had a ‘Standard IR’ conversion done to the camera, but you also have the option of ‘Enhanced Color IR’ or ‘Deep BW IR’ conversions.

I have not been shooting a lot of infrared images yet, but I plan to shoot some infrared coastal scenes soon as well as some landscapes with some foliage included in the scene as foliage can often look amazing in infrared. I will be sure to share some of the results here on Photography 24/7.

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Tony Sweet Nature Portfolio

Thomas — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:11:49 +0000

Tony Sweet is one of my all time favourite photographers and he has been a huge inspiration for me when it comes image design.

When you view his images you will notice that each one of them are meticulously composed with careful attention to detail. In this video Tony Sweet shows images from his portfolio and discusses how he achieved them.

After 20 years as a professional jazz artist, Tony changed careers and directed his creative juices towards nature photography. Today, Tony’s work is published on greeting cards, calendars, post cards, posters, annual reports, catalogs and electronic mediums.

The video in this post is a clip from Tony Sweet’s excellent DVD called Visual Literacy which I can highly recommend to anyone interested in nature and outdoor photography. I have watched it several times and it is virtually impossible not to be inspired each time you watch it. Buy it here!

Tony Sweet also teaches some excellent online photo classes over at BetterPhoto.com which I can highly recommend. When I first started out in photography I attended 8 different classes over at BetterPhoto.com and they all helped propel my photography forward. Check them out.

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Joel Sartore

Thomas — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:55:33 +0000

In this video National Geographic contributing photographer Joel Sartore talks about being on assignment for the world’s greatest magazine.

In his presentation Joel Sartore communicates a strong conservation message along with how we can all help to save the planet, spiced up with his great sense of humour.

If you want to see more of Joel Sartore – and his excellent photography – consider getting this fantastic DVD At Close Range with National Geographic which takes you behind the scenes of what it’s like to work and shoot for the National Geographic magazine. Not only does Joel Sartore take the viewer with him on various assignments in this DVD, he also invites us into his home, his office and introduces us to his family (who has accept him going away for many weeks at a time on assignment which is not easy on family life).

An intimate portrait of National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore, who brings his tolerance for misery, and his wit, to every assignment for one of America’s most venerated magazines.

I own this DVD myself and have watched it several times for inspiration. I can highly recommend it.

Buy it now!

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White Nature

Thomas — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:18:48 +0000

This afternoon I went with the family to visit a local shopping mall which opened just recently (Stockland in Balgowlah). I was excited when the first shop at the entrance was a lovely bookshop (Berkelouw Books). It looked like an interesting bookshop with an inviting entrance and a cosy atmosphere, so I went straight in and of course headed straight for the photography section. My better half turned left and headed straight for the baby book section! I found the photography section very quickly and was pleased to note it was well stocked with many interesting titles.

Among some of the more interesting titles were these ones:

and then of course White Nature with its front cover pictured above. This book really caught my eye. I didn’t buy it there and then since it’s my birthday in just a couple of weeks, so instead I made sure to point it out to my better half!

White Nature is by Vincent Munier who is a three-times winner of the Eric Hosking Award in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition which is arguably the world’s most prestigious wildlife photography competition.

Vincent Munier takes the viewer on a tour of the cold, snow world. From the Far East to the Wild West, via the craggy peaks of the European Alps, beautiful pictures of swans, cranes, eagles, chamois, foxes, and many other animals grace the pages in this book.

If nature photography is your thing then be sure to check out White Nature.