Articles in the Category: Articles

Just a touch of Light

Submitted by David Middleton on Mon, 04/26/2010 - 7:55pm

I know I have said and written about this many, many times in the past but it is worth repeating. Not because you all don’t understand it but because just like me we often get distracted and conveniently forget about it. What am I talking about? Light, Baby! It’s all about light. And when you are desperate or fighting bad luck or bad weather we all tend to forget all things important. We are so happy just to be out taking pictures we tend to ignore small things like the quality of the light. We are photographing. At Last!!! Don’t bother me about the light. I’ve got pictures to take!!!

_dsc8516 This is exactly what happened when Brenda and I were out photographing along the Maine coast last month. We were having no luck with the weather or the light but the subjects we found were great. This didn’t stop us from taking lots of really mediocre pictures though. We blasted away all the while trying to turn down that little voice in our heads telling us that the photography was pretty stinky.

_dsc8545 And finally, late in the afternoon at the little harbor town of Corea after a day of heavy overcast and driving rain squalls the sun came out on the horizon and lit up the boats in the harbor. What a difference. We had just enough of our brains left to anticipate the breaking sun and move around to the west side of the harbor to get the best light. And those were the best outside shots we got that trip. Five days on the Maine coast and we got 5 minutes of light. Such is the Lobstering Life.

Back from Bhutan!

Submitted by David Middleton on Fri, 04/23/2010 - 7:05pm

Hello Everyone!

Well, it has been a long time since our last chat but now I am back and ready to go. Where was I for the last 3 weeks? I was on a PAW photography tour to Bhutan and it was great! We toured all across this beautiful, mountainous country, spending most of our time out in the country off the typical tourist route. We never knew exactly what we were going to see or even do each day but we found amazing things everyday and our cameras were smokin!

I will post a number of images and stories here drawn from Bhutan so look forward in the coming days for lots of new posts. For now, I will include two of my favorite images: Prayer flag forest & Window portrait

In Bhutan as across all of the Himalayan region, prayer flags are placed in windy places such as on bridges, poles or mountain passes so that the wind may blow the inscribed prayers and blessings to all parts. This 11,000 ft. pass was thick with flags creating a magical, in motion forest of vibrating color.

There is no better light for portraits than window light. _dsc20921 This image reminds me of the scene in the movie, The Sound of Music, where the Mother Superior is singing “Climb Every Mountain.” Okay, a bit of an obscure reference but I am sticking with it. It was a beautiful situation and the kind woman was a wonderful, dear soul.

Stay tuned for more!!

More Top 10 Lists!!!

Submitted by David Middleton on Thu, 03/25/2010 - 7:47am

The Top 10 Things You Probably Shouldn’t Say

10. “I probably shouldn’t say this but…”

9. “ You’ve gained some weight.”

8. “I just spent a hour reading Top 10 lists.”

7. “Oh, I thought you were a man.”

6. “Wow, my fungus is really spreading!”

5. “Did you just fart or are you cooking something?”

4. “Put that back on, I’m begging you.”

3. “You’d be surprised what you can hide in your body.”

2. “My mom is a better kisser.”

1. “Is that as big as it gets?”

The Top 10 Ways to Waste Your Time

10. Making it bigger

9. Hiding things in your body

8. Reading Top 10 lists

7. Listening to Sarah Palin

6. Waiting to procrastinate

5. Making resolutions

4. Discussing resolutions

3. Arguing about ridiculous resolutions

2. Fighting with that idiot about resolutions

1. Disposing of the bodies of idiots

0. Thinking about new Top 10 lists

The Top 10 New Top 10 Lists

10. Top 10 Ways to Better Spend Time

9. Top 10 Ways to Better Spend Money

8. Top 10 Ways to Better Spend Your Money

7. Top 10 Wives to Spend Your Money

6. 10 Top Guys to Spend Your Money

5. One Sneaky Bastard and One Wife to Spend Your Money

4. One #%&!#@% ex-Wife to Spend Your Money

3. Top 10 Estate Planners to Hide Your Money

2. Top 10 Wonderful Off-shore Banks

1. Top 10 Ways to Live in Paradise with a Top 10 Babe

The Top 10 Things You Shouldn’t Say to Photographers

10. “That’s actually just a decoy.”

9. “It was really good here last week.”

8. “ Yep, everyone comes out here and gets the same shot.”

7. “This is the first time it’s been closed.”

6. “I won. I said your camera wouldn’t float.”

5. “My 8 year old boy has a picture just like that.”

4. “Well, I’m sure when you come back it’ll be just the same.”

3. “Do you mind if I ask you some questions while you’re shooting?”

2. “No, really, you’re gonna love shooting this wedding.”

1. “Yep, that place is owned by a guy in the mob.”

The Top 10 Worst Photographers

10. Filter Guy

9. Mrs. Talker

8. Dr. I Know Better

7. Mr. Name Dropper

6. Obsessive equipment Guy

5. King Forever Film

4. Mrs. Not Pay Attention

3. Professor Blowhard

2. Been There, Done That Bozo

1. I Made This Much $$ Guy

The Top 10 Things Not to Do on Vacation

10. Call home everyday

9. Look at the weather at home everyday

8. Bring your laptop to the beach

7. Stare at women in bikinis (unless you are over 80 yrs. old)

6. Bring toddlers to restaurants (unless they are on the menu)

5. Admit your name is Muffy, Buffy, Itsy or Bitsy

4. Buy a home there

3. Drive like you drive at home

2. Wear your bathing suit to go grocery shopping

1. Wear a Speedo anywhere (other than under something)

Winter-Arrrggghhh!

Submitted by David Middleton on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 10:08pm

I know that it seems ridiculous to write this but I am having a very hard time getting winter lobstering photographs. Yes I know that you all are thinking that I live in the eastern US and the news has been telling all who listen that the east has been getting nailed with snow. Well, not all the eastern US!

In northern New England we have been having a cold but very dry winter. Here in Vermont we didn’t get any snow from the last two big storms that walloped Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia. In fact, I have more bare ground around my house than snow-covered ground. _dsc8045

What this means for the Lobstering Life book project is that it is very hard to get winter lobstering shots or I should say wintery looking shots. Wintery shots require snow on the ground at the very least and snow in the trees at the very best. Without snow the photographs look like a very dreary day in November or April.

So I sit and wait for storms. A week ago I watched the weather maps and dashed off to the Maine coast ahead of the last storm. Forecasts called for 4 to 6 inches but when I got to the coast there was no snow! No snow on the ground, no snow on the trees, no snow in the air, no snow. Arrrggghhh!

So I went to Sanders Lobsters in Portsmouth, NH for a lobster portrait (I had to do something!) and then played with some gear on a private wharf. Both shots are okay but both can and will be done better. I didn’t really have time to shoot the gear properly (the owner of the wharf was standing there waiting for me to finish-can’t blame him, the wharf was slippery) and besides, the last thing we need is another shot of lobstering gear. The portrait was also okay but the background could be better and I think I need to be off to the side more and not so much in front of the lobster.

_dsc8037 And so now I sit and wait and wait. I came home after just one night. No sense hanging out and spending money when there is nothing to shoot and no weather on the horizon to give me hope. I expect some snow in a week or so. If it comes Brenda and I will go and shoot our collective brains out! Brenda is going to Monhegan Island and photograph that iconic isolated lobstering community and I will go to Vinalhaven (its warmer there) and see what I can get. Wish us luck! I’ll keep you posted.

My New Gear

Submitted by David Middleton on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 7:07pm

I have gotten some new gear lately that I thought you’d like to know about. I am not much of a gear nut. I don’t read reviews, I don’t get into the minutia of specs and I don’t really care what others think about this or that. I care if it works for me and whether it is good enough for me.

The first thing I got was a new tripod. Yes, I already have a great tripod, an everyday tripod but what am I going to do with just one tripod? It doesn’t seem right to have just one tripod. A fella ought to have at least two tripods, right? So I got another Gitzo tripod. I needed one for travel that didn’t have the usual travel tripod problems- thin legs, too short, hard to use, and just not very steady. I had spent a lot of time looking for the perfect travel tripod, that is the perfect travel tripod made by Gitzo. Sorry, but I don’t even look at other tripods. I like Gitzos, the have always been great for me for the 25 years I have been using them and I am myopically loyal. Live with it. I got the 3541LS. It is only 21 inches long when contracted and it is just about 6 feet tall with the ball head on it. I like it so much that I gave it to two of my close photography friends so I wouldn’t be embarrassed when out shooting with them!

The second thing I got was a Nikon 24-120mm lens. I should say that I re-got it. This is the lens that I used 80% of the time on my upcoming dairy farm book. It is wide enough for landscapes and small places and long enough to zoom out for details and nice portraits. I tried other lenses when my original got some nicks in the glass from hard use but none quite matched up with the 24-120. I still like the 18-200 but my go-to lens is the 24-120.

Low light photography

Submitted by David Middleton on Mon, 01/18/2010 - 3:44pm

It is amazing how good cameras are these days with capturing scenes in very low light. I learned this while I was doing my farm book project and I had to get pictures inside dark barns and sheds. But I am still amazed at what I get when I am taking the pictures. The hardest part of taking these pictures is not listening to the loud part of your brain that is screaming at you for being such an idiot for even thinking about photographing in so little light. Once you can ignore all the mental noise you will be shocked at how good the pictures are. _dsc7129

These were taken with my Nikon D300 at ISO 1600. There is a bit of noise in the dark areas but not too much and not enough that can’t be washed out with various noise reduction programs.

The reason I took these pictures at night is because that is when the lobster boats were going out! I was in Stonington, Maine working on the book project a couple of weeks ago in mid-January. _dsc71691 Stonington is one of the few places that actively lobsters in winter but to do so they have to go 30 to 40 miles offshore in 300 to 500 feet of water. This means 2 hours of traveling just to get to their first pot! So they take on fuel and bait at 4:30 am and come back at 6 or 7 pm.

If you want to get pictures of winter lobstering you got to get up when they do and get the pictures you can. Best dress warm because it is very cold. On this morning it was 8 degrees and there was a breeze blowing off the water. My hands got very cold but the pictures were worth it. Besides, what else are you doing at 4:30 in the morning?

No flash photography

Submitted by David Middleton on Sat, 12/12/2009 - 10:46am

I have to admit something to all of you. I don’t have a flash. I haven’t owned one in three years. I haven’t missed one in five years. I don’t expect I will ever own one or miss one again. Why? Because I find the combination of high ISO photography and the tricks and power of Lightroom have made flash unnecessary. It also helps to be wise and clever enough to find situations to photograph that don’t need flash. Let me explain.

Most of my photography these days has been confined to an old dairy farm. (My book on the farm will be coming out in June) This means that I have been photographing inside a lot in pretty dark places. My results have been spectacular and I have never, ever used a flash. The trick is to use the highest viable ISO (the highest without too much noise) and find a situation with nice light. And then just fire away!

hugh This is a photo of Hugh, the 93 year old farmer. Notice the nice light on his face and the lack of shadows. This is because I waited to take his picture in a location where there was light bouncing off the floor of the barn on to his face. This is why there are no shadows under his hat. There is no flash that I know of that will be able to take this shot as easily as I did without flash.

The little calf was lying in the darkest part of the barn. I didn’t have the option of using flash because I didn’t want to disturb the calf or the cows immediately to my side. So I waited for just a touch of light coming from a side window and with my ISO set at 1600 took this picture. I was also hand-holding my camera. How is that for breaking all the rules and still getting a nice shot? calfbarn-m

With Lightroom flash has become unnecessary because the program allows very precise selective lightening of areas. This effect is the same as using the flash in fill mode. Think about it- isn’t fill flash the same as throwing light into a dark area? So if you can selective lighten an area of your photograph in Lightroom why use fill flash? Got me!

Wintery Photography

Submitted by David Middleton on Wed, 12/09/2009 - 8:44pm

snowyapples This is the time of the year when our thoughts turn to the photographic possibilities of winter. For me that meant getting pictures that looked like a winter wonderland, whatever that meant. But it took me awhile to figure out why some of my pictures looked wintery yet others looked dull and, dare I say, depressing. It wasn’t the quality of light or the subject, they were the same in the good winter photos as they were in the not so good winter photos. And it wasn’t how much or how new the snow was in the photo. Piles of snow sometimes looked dreadful and at other times they looked like a winter wonderland. I wanted the wonderland. snowy-heifer-barn

To take a photo that looks like a winter wonderland (in other words, to take a marketable winter photo) there has to be snow on the trees. If there are no trees than there has to be snow on whatever is rising above the ground- grass, bushes, graves, etc. If there is only snow on the ground, no matter how pretty the light, the picture will lack that wonderland feeling.

So when is the best time to get snowy trees? Up north it is during the first snowfall when the trees are still warm; warm branches are stickier than the cold branches of mid-winter. Farther south it is during a storm that starts out raining and then finishes snowing; wet branches are stickier than dry ones. If you go out right after the storm has cleared or is clearing there will be lots of snow on all the branches and you will have a winter wonderland to photograph. If you wait, the wind will pick up and knock all the snow off and you’ll be left with a ho-hum scene.

winter-forest-edge

ISO is the Way to Go!

Submitted by David Middleton on Sat, 10/31/2009 - 10:00am

Here is a quick way to tell a former film shooter from an only digital shooter. It doesn’t work all the time but it works much of the time and when it does work it opens a wonderful teachable moment. What is this identifier? It’s the ISO. Lots of former film shooters never change their ISO when they shoot digital and if they do they never go higher than what they were comfortable with in film.

This behavior falls under the old dog/new tricks rubric. It is perfectly understandable. In the good old film days a photographer could change the f-stop and the shutter speed to get the desired result. In order to change the ISO one had to change the roll of film. Film shooters either carried an extra camera body with a different ISO film or learned how to roll the film back into the camera and then reload it back to the correct spot. And we all knew never to use film with an ISO higher than 200. Anything higher was grainy and basically unusable.

fallstream Then along comes digital photography and along with the ability to change the f-stop and aperture on every shot it was now possible to change the ISO as well. Shooting in low light and can’t get enough shutter speed to stop that animal or child you are photographing in the fading light? Just increase your ISO a few stops to 640 or 800 or 1250 and shoot away! Or are you shooting in nice light but want to use a longer shutter speed to slow down the water in the stream to blur it or you want to soften waves as they break against the shore? Just lower your ISO to 200 or 160 or 100 and shoot away.

Being possible and actually doing it are two different things. Many former film shooters still have in their celluloid brains the prohibition of shooting at ISOs higher than 200 no matter what the circumstances. I have learned through my workshops that when I suggest shooting at a higher ISO many digital shooters balk. Part of the problem is also that these shooters have heard that the highest quality ISO is the lowest ISO so they are reluctant to shoot any ISO that is much higher than 200. While this is true, it is also true that higher ISOs are plenty good enough. I shoot at 640 regularly and have no problem shooting at ISOs of 800, 1250 or 1600. All of these images are high quality, good enough to be published in calendars, books, magazines and to be used for prints and in my presentations.

Now you have to know how high you can go with your ISO before the image begins to break down. When I got my D300 I tested the quality of the images at various ISOs. I learned that up to ISO 1250 the images were fine, at ISO 1600 there was some noise (colored graininess) but not bad and easily cleaned up in the computer but at ISO 2000 the images broke down and they looked awful. _dsc6523

Every digital photographer should know where the ISO line in the sand is for his or her camera. Do a test and see at what ISO you get a little noise and at what ISO the noise is unacceptable. And then feel free to use any ISO below this threshold.

ISO is a new third tool in the basic digital photographer’s bag. Use it with f-stop and shutter speed and you will extend your photographic possibilities. And that is a good thing.

Comments

Submitted by Guest on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 6:51pm.

Ever "Pushed" It?

I'm just lovin' this "new" digital ISO thing.

"Back in the day"... Shooting college basketball games for a local newspaper in dark, tungsten lit gyms, we would shoot that T-Max 400 (great stuff during the "stone age") and "push" it a few stops by manually raising the ISO speed on the dial on top of the camera. This "fooled" the camera into thinking it was loaded with ISO 1600. When we got to the darkroom (8 X 8 ft. room in the back upstairs) with the "pushed" film, we just changed the development time and temps to correspond with how many stops we pushed the film. And you'd better make dang sure you were spot on with your calculations and measurements. Of course we always used a "grain microscope" on the enlarger plate to determine the "keepers". Sound like a lot of work?

Do I like, no...LOVE, this new "push a button and change your ISO, technology?" You bet I do...
Makes handling those chemicals, thermometers, enlargers and other assorted tools in an "analog" darkroom seem like "pushing" a car up a hill compared with the ease in which it is available to us now.

I may be a little "long in the tooth" but it didn't take long after getting my hands on my first digital with adjustable ISO for this old dog to learn a new trick!
Never try anything new and you'll never know anything new.

Enjoyed the post.
P.S... I still got that old XD11.. sigh...

Steven in Virginia

Submitted by Guest on Tue, 05/04/2010 - 4:51pm.

Paul McKormic

Well gosh don't I feel old now…
But seriously, when I first went digital I never went over ISO 400 I never even tested it, I just assumed that would be CRAZY. Now I regularly use ISO 1600 and just clean it up in lightroom. I bought some ISO 800 film last month and had some fun with it but forgot how bad the grain was going to be until I got my negatives back.

These Days

Submitted by David Middleton on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 2:54pm

I had the great pleasure to photograph with my long time friend, Gail, a few days ago. Gail started taking workshops from me in the early ‘90s and despite all my teaching she remains a very good photographer.

What was interesting was comparing how things were back then, in the days of film, and how things are now, in the days of digital. Most of the conversation revolved around how Gail and I shot differently now and how we never would’ve done back then what we routinely do now. Let me explain and give some examples.

Twenty years ago I shot manual exposure, manual focus and spot metered most subjects. I rarely shot above 100 ISO and if I did I never went past ISO 200. I had a number of filters I used regularly- 2 warming, 10CC & 20CC magenta (pink), polarizer- and I always carried a flash. I had big clunky lenses that were magnificent but heavy and I carried them all on my back in an equally big, clunky photo backpack.

Now I shoot aperture priority, autofocus mostly and I use matrix (evaluative) metering. I shoot every ISO below 1600 with my standard being 640 and I change my ISO all the time depending on what I am shooting or the effect I want. I use only a polarizing filter these days and I haven’t owned a flash in three years. And I mostly use a couple of zooms that are neither clunky nor heavy that I carry in a small shoulder bag.

But why the difference? Well, it is called technology and it is something I have embraced. Let’s go through the differences and I’ll explain why I am doing things differently.

Aperture priority and matrix metering work 99% of the time for me. I would say 100% but I am sure there is one time in the last five years when I shot using spot metering but I just can’t think of it. I use autofocus now because I have so many autofocus sensors (21 or 51) to choose from there is always one where I want to focus. And now I can group the sensors to be even more accurate.

On my D300 I can shoot up to ISO 1600 without debilitating noise. That is my ISO ceiling that I won’t go past. But I will glady shoot anything less. For most of the last 5 years I have shooting handheld working on my farm book so higher ISOs allow me to shoot at a faster shutter speed and thus get sharper pictures. Even when I am on a tripod I will often shoot at ISOs of 400 or 640 if I am doing moving subjects to get faster shutter speeds. Conversely, if it is a relatively bright day and I want a slower shutter speed (to soften water in a stream say) then I will go down to ISO 100 (or Low 1.0 on my Nikon). The ability to change your ISO with every shot you take is one of the great advantages of digital photography versus the old days. Take advantage it.

I no longer use colored filters because now if I want to effect a color I do so in my computer during processing. I can vary the color temperature to effect the overall appearance of the image or I can go in and just tweak a particular color. I can do this much more precisely in the computer than I ever could do with a filter. The effect of a polarizer can’t be duplicated in my computer (at least by me) so I still use it on my camera.

I use less expensive, slower zoom lenses because, well, they are plenty good enough for what I do. Sure there are sharper Nikon lenses that are thousands of dollars more (that I would love to own) but the ones I use (12-24, 16-85, 18-200) are fine. They are good enough for me to use in calendars, books, posters, prints and presentations and get paid so by my thinking that is good enough. I could pay more for the top of the line Nikon lenses but I wouldn’t get paid more and there wouldn’t be any new markets suddenly open to me.

You see, I haven’t gotten lazy over the years, I have gotten smarter.