Artistry Photography by sueann

I woke up this morning and I was so excited to see the beautiful sunshine coming through my windows. It looked like it would be nice and warm outside….and amazingly enough, when I stepped out the door onto my front porch, I was not disappointed. It is an absolutely amazing day. The birds are singing, and there is no wind. Spring!!! Ahhh! I love it.

From a photographer’s prospective, this is the perfect time to take a hike to those waterfalls that you have been wanting to see and practice your skills at capturing the beauty. It is not too hot to hike, there are no ticks or chiggers to deal with and even though you may not have the benefit of the green leaves for background, you also will not have to try to shoot that half hidden waterfall through the leaves.

When you look at your waterfall, you will want to be able to capture it in different ways. You will want to capture the fast running down flow with the little water drops and sprays and also the slow misty look that is so beautiful. To do this, the novice will need a little help with that. To capture that fast moving down pour in it’s most natural state, you will need to set your camera to manual setting. The key is to keep your shutter speed set fairly high in the 400 range to stop the movement of the water. The challenge is to stop the water movement while keeping enough light to have a good picture. The faster your shutter speed the less time the light will have to get through your lens. If you have a 2.8 aperture lens, that’s awesome. Take advantage of it. If not, try to set your aperture to the lowest setting you can, adjusting your shutter speed and your aperture until you get a setting that will produce the results you are looking for. Remember, the lower the aperture, the more light you will have. I very rarely shot with anything above 5.6, which is normal range of most of your average lenses. one thing you will have to watch and be careful of, is keeping the shot looking natural with no underexposure or over exposure. You do not want your picture to be too dark, or have blue tones.

On the other hand to slow the flow of the waterfall down and accomplish that dewy, misty, etheral look, you will want to slow your exposure. Remember when you do this you will have light coming into your lens for a longer amount of time. You will have to come to that balance between the shutter speed and the aperture to have the final results that you want. It is not enough to just adjust those settings until the line is in the center of your range.

Try a few sittings, starting at a 200 shutter speed and working down to your lower numbers, adjusting your aperture as you go. Focus on the same shot each time, so you can see the difference in each shot. Everything affects this, from the sunshine, to the shadows, to the time of day. Don’t foget to use a tripod. The slower the shutter speed, the more time you will have to make that small movement of the hand that will blur the picture. There is nothing worse than getting home, after a long day of shooting, only to find that when you load that stunning picture that you thought you captured into the computer, you find it is out of focus and blurry from a slight move of the hand because you got excited and thought you were good enough to shoot without a tripod. USE A TRIPOD.

Okay enough about the tripod. Now go out with blessings and have a wonderful day in the woods. Don’t forget safety. Make sure you take someone with you or at least make sure you tell someone where you are going and when you will be back.

Roaming around in the woods or simply looking out your front window, you will find many opportunities to take a few shots at some wildlife pictures. Even though it is one of the most rewarding things that you will ever do, it can also be one of the most challenging. Not only will your subject not stay in one place very long, the lighting is also a big challenge. If you are an amateur photographer and you have been putting off learning to shoot manual, now is the time to start. It is very hard, if not impossible to get a good picture of a bird, just to name one species, while shooting and focusing automatic.

So many times I see a picture that someone has taken, and I can immediately tell that it was shot on an automatic setting with auto focus. The subject will be dark and even though it might be a pretty good shot, it is almost impossible to see.  If you think about it, the sky is usually much lighter than your subject and for that matter, much larger or maybe the ground is covered with snow….white snow.  What is the most easily seen thing in the picture….your subject, the sky, or the snow?  Which one did your eye have to work the hardest to see?   

Don’t be afraid to try your hand at manual settings.  Turn the auto focus off and play around with your camera. Learn to trust your own focus. Yes, you may miss a few shots, but I’ll bet in the long run, you will get more than you miss, with a little practice. Your pictures will actually be in sharper focus and your big buck, eagle, or just that little butterfly that you are trying to capture, will be what is in focus, not so dark you can’t see it.  Happy shooting and check back in for more tips! Talk to me, I welcome your comments.