Naperville Photographer for Portrait Photography and Sports Photography

Category: Photography

Ansel Adams – Trees

I’ve just finished exploring Trees by Ansel Adams, and found it to be a fascinating read. Prior to getting this book my closest experience with Adams’ work was from a large coffee table book I had been given that had left me uninspired and wondering what the big deal was. After reading Trees however, I have a new found appreciation for Adams’ work, and realize the extent to which depth and range of light can make his images so compelling. I pulled out my old coffee table book to compare with Trees and the difference is night and day. Trees uses an exceptionally high quality tritone printing process that conveys a rich interplay of shadow and light that was little in evidence in my coffee table book. Although the images are much smaller in Trees, their high quality and dynamic range more than makes up for that.

I live in the flat marshlands and prairies around Chicago, and there are no majestic peaks or canyons around to create breathtaking scenery of the type that Adams captured in Yosemite and other natural parks. Travel for me is a chance to shoot new scenic environments, however for most of the year my access to scenery is much more modest. I picked up Trees in order to help inspire me to better appreciate the arboreal features that are in my area, and in that regard I believe it was a success. Although many of Adams’ subject trees are magnificent specimens of redwoods and ancient junipers that cannot be found in my area, the collection features many interesting pictures of more modest subjects and intricate details that are worthy of attention.

I am looking forward to walking the small forests in my area in the coming weeks and months to see whether some of the inspiration provided by trees can rub off and apply to the trees that are accessible to me year round. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in exploring the different looks that trees can offer.

The Grape of Wrath: Fun With Fruit

With apologies, but not remorse, I call this one "The Grape of Wrath".   Shot on Lightbox with Softbox and Reflector providing key and fill lights.I have been having more and more fun experimenting with light box photos. This shot was made with the grapes placed on top of a cheap DIY lightbox with a Canon 580EXii stuck inside shining up through the table surface. Up top I used a 24″x24″ soft box with a 430EXii on one side as the main light, and a circular reflector on the other side to act as fill.

I did several different versions of this shot, both with my Canon 7D and the popup wireless flash controller, and with an evaluation Canon 5D MkII having another 580EX on top to serve as flash controller. I found very little difference in picture quality between the two sets in cases like this where the lighting is good. The 5DMkII really shines best when the light is dim.

Great Book for Learning Canon E-TTL Flash System

There are lots and lots of general flash technique books out there, but Speedliter’s Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites is by far the best I have found for getting the most out of the E-TTL system in the Canon lineup. This book goes well beyond simple rewriting of the material in the Canon manuals however, and gives you plenty of creative and powerful ways to do flash on your Canon using both E-TTL and Manual (e.g. Strobist) settings.

The Kindle version of this book also works very well, with photo examples inserted at the correct points in the text and with Figure Captions where they should be.

My Top Recommended Book for New DSLR Users

Many years ago I got my first DSLR and began my quest to master the medium. I’ve still got a long way to go, but the best book I found to get me started was Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. Before reading this book I thought exposure was just an issue of getting the correct “brightness” for the shot, afterwards I gained a better insight for the critical role that exposure plays in the overall picture. Highly recommended.