Photo Lessons/pix

Hi you guys…
thought Id drop in with some tips and hints on how to shoot landscapes.. particularly associated with water….
heres the deal.. you sitting in your boat, and you see something spectacular you want to photo… maybe its a sunset/sunrise/ maybe its fall color, or a rainbow… anyway… you want to capture the rare beauty of what you see….
one of the problems with sitting in a boat is you usually dont have a foreground.. and normally a landscape shot is composed of a foreground, a middleground and a background… here is a typical landscape shot that includes all of these… the light is nothing special… but the clouds do provide some mood and mood in a shot is a good thing!

ok you say….. sure you werent in a boat in that shot.. thats cheating!.. well.. yeah… it is… but Im just saying that its comon to provide a foreground.. if you DONT do that.. there are some other ways you can provide some interest to your shots….
here is an example of what NOT to do.. this shot includes lots of foreground.. its ALL water!!… just not very interesting is it?

one thing you can do is try and decide whats the most interesting thing in the shot… are you trying to shoot some cool clouds at sunrise? then include them in the bulk of your shot… and just include a minimal amount of “land”… this shot is an example of this idea…

sometimes there isnt a lot you can do with the composition… you have a great middleground… but no good foreground and not much background either… in that case.. take you best shot.. center the horizon…. and then crop your shot to eliminate the boring areas and focus on the good stuff… this is known as a panoramic crop…..

OK.. there you are out in your boat… you got no foreground and you desperatly want one… heck.. use your boat!!… just point your boat right at where your shooting and get the bow in focus and the rest of the shot too.. sometimes this is an interesting effect.. this shot was taken of the front of the Malaspina, one of the ferrys in the Alaskan line….

sometimes you are out there and there are islands or other things there in the foreground… and you can use those as part of your photo… anything that isnt just plain ol dull water is going to help….. in this shot I used that.. but again included mostly sky…… that full moon setting is bright and draws the eye skyward anyway…. this was shot at dawn….

ok… well… another thing you can do is take a shot of YOURSELF and have YOU in the foreground.. every year I make a calendar of shots Ive taken of me and my honey.. this shot of us in Denali will be in it this year… this was taken up on the side of a mountain… no foreground to speak of… lots of background… we ourselves made a good foreground… though the value of the shot is certainly personal in this case… if you want something more general.. you could shoot with someone looking outward… or perhaps fishing, or casting.. then the shot is general… and perhaps artistic.. and could be used for an in-depth-angler calendar…
(at times Ive wondered if we should have a photo contest to pick 12 shots for an IDA calendar… membership could vote for a selection perhaps chosen by a panel of judges?_

Cool Beans River Eyes!

Thanks for sharing the photo tip of the week!

Next weeks lesson…photos of deer or fish??

dont forget that sillouehettes can make an interesting foreground… if you have a backlit situation… here a beam of light lit of the turnagin arm near Homer Alaska.. and I used the treeline as a foreground…

I will leave you with one more example of what NOT to do…. and yeah.. I took this shot… but I take lots of shots and just toss many of them… Id have tossed this one too… but decicded to keep it as an example… notice the 50/50 composition… that 50 percent water is buying me exactly nothing….. its not interesting in anyway… it should either be totally eliminated… or I should have zoomed in more on something interesting on that skyline with the dawn lit coulds and hills…… in photography never fear to make mistakes.. expect to make them… a famous nature photographer (John Shaw) once told me… “I remember every mistake I ever made and I can repeat each one perfectly”…. sadly.. I know exactly what he means….. lol…..

thats awesome rivereyes. i made my girl go on ida just to read it all, whenever we go fishing she usualy has 2 cameras in the boat taking pics.
Thanks again for the info.

Very much appreciated and needed. Thanks d.j.

Thanks for the pics. Personally I like that last one as it gives me a beautiful peacefull feeling with the water. Reminds me of Lake Pepin and that body of water on a calm day or evening is so peacefull and warm. So even your ”NOTS” are great in my mind. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Bill

THANKS for the tips You give out your valuable info Thanks also for sharing ALL your photos with us……GREAT

Nice snaps. You have some real talent there. Magic moments caught on film/sensor.
B

Great timing! I just got a new camera today.

Once again awesome pictures. And you even threw in some good advice. You can’t beat that. Thanks Rivereyes

RiverEyes-

Thank you for sharing your talents with us. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy your pictures. It’s not hard for me to imagine actually being there. Looking at them is a great way to decompress.

IDA – is there any way we can put all of RiverEyes posts into a location we can go to?

Really cool stuff. Thanks again for sharing something that’s really priceless.

Scott