With shadows and white balance and changes of white it is even possible to defy the old joke, "a polar bear in a snow storm," here, a polar bear on an iceberg where the differences in white along with minor coloration, blue ice and shadowing and dirty fur and water tell the story behind the photograph titled "Arctic Hi-Five." It does take a skilled photographer to capture the detail in ice. Impressive. I have trouble photographing a cut onion against a white surface.
6 comments:
That's an ice floe flight deck polar bear guiding in a cross wind challenged albatross.
Poor thing, dropped his semaphore flags but carries on without them.
Everybeardy wants to go to the Orthodox Christmas party Wednesday as the Village People.
Ay, Macarena.
Chip Ahoy...you always please me when you emphasize the important of "light" and "lighting" in your posts. So few regular folks understand just how it functions in photographs, film or digital. Though I doubt you are "regular" (hack like me) when it comes to photography. Main point: Light ... It. Is. Everything. And today, with available software one can adjust an image beyond my wildest dreams, short of laborious laboratory work, to open up a photo's range of light that our eyes see when we first look at a subject. I mean without exotic manipulation either...just open shadows like never before by regular folks, like me.
I've been chasing images for 65 years from my first Brownie Reflex through my Nikon F2 DP1 phase (had 3 of them I think...plus an Asian bought Nikkomat, and an EL-1) to today when I have relaxed and accepted what I can get with high end intermediate cameras (all old models now) that function like SLR's...e.g., all manual controls available when desired...that are now far and few to be found. I can sit at my desk and do what once took hours in a stinky lab with with trial and error results. I am an old foggy who if seeking a natural scene will curse a bright shinny direct highly sunlit day ... please given me a bright overcast.
I rarely use on camera flash and not very good with flash off camera either...but slightly better...however, it's not practical to traipse around in the mountains with all that gear. I have a very good friend of many years that is a trained professional and he never ceases to amaze me what he can produce....dude can spend and hour & 1/2 just photographing a Lilly Pad. I've spent many hours, days in fact with him in the wilds, and he has the patience I lack.
I have looked high and low for my original edition of John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide ...and the link is to the 2001 edition. If he stuck to the fundamental information in his first book of that title, oriented to film, it is one I'd recommend for anyone...it explains "light" in simple but precise terms anyone can understand.
You might have a different opinion of John Shaw's stuff (as the TOP lady has...while proving she's a worse hack than me), but no matter, you are dead on the money that "light" is everything.
Thanks for another great post on the subject.
Is there an Amendment that allows just anyone to buy an ultra wide angle or a fish-eye lens? If not, then there should be one preventing it without some training in its use :-))
I've traveled with some great pro's who usually use long range telephoto monsters (that I drool over), get very good images, yet would flunk Wide Angle 101.
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