Podcast Episode 8 - Looking Beyond The Subject
The most recent episode of Northwest Nature Photography Podcast is a short story about why it’s not always best to get caught up on the subject of the photo and how it can keep you from enjoying other fine points of a print. I should add that we all can get hung up on this from time to time and this story covers how that can impact us in a negative way. Of course the subject is important, no doubt about it. Is it always the most important element that can make or break an image? No. Can other elements be just as important but not properly digested by the viewer because personal judgments on a subject become a roadblock? Yes. To understand what I mean here you will need to listen to the podcast. Happy listening.
And to give you folks reading some background on the photo I reference in the podcast here is the story behind how it was created. The photo, seen below, is called “Hood’s Early Light” is of the lonely high peak of Mt Hood and created almost 5 years ago. It was one of those moments being in the right place at the right time with little, make that very little, time to act. I was actually on Mt Hood doing field training for a mountain climbing class I was taking. I figured even though I would not have time to wander on my own, that taking my DSLR and one lens would be good in case I got a break or wanted to capture shots of our class. You just never know. We arrived at Timberline around sunrise to make a short trek up in the same area you would go for the climbers trail. Of course the mountain was completely obscured with what seemed to be a death grip of clouds and fog. Sometimes we could not see more than a couple hundred yards let alone the whole mountain. I was attached to the rope for practice routines we were doing but we were taking a break and I happen to notice the mountain peeking out very briefly here and there through large gaps in fast moving clouds. I quickly unclipped my carbineer from the line and ran for my camera about 50 ft away. With my rip rockin’ Canon 10D (back when going to 6mp was an upgrade), the Canon 28-135 IS lens and eBay “special buy” no-name polarizer… I grabbed only a handful of shots in less than a couple minutes and then the mountain was completely covered again for the rest of the outing. This was a handheld shot, no tripod. Who needs a tripod! Ok that is definitely not true. They are usually needed for great landscape images, that is when you have time to act and here that was not an option if I had one which I did not. Fortunately a slight bump to ISO400 and fairly bright conditions I did not need one. This is pretty much as shot. Hardly any processing from the file outside of removing some dust spots and converting to black and white. It was one of those moments I was truly happy to have my camera nearby because as I said, you just never know.
"Hood's Early Light" - The arrow points to climbers on hogs back that can be seen in larger prints.
And to give you folks reading some background on the photo I reference in the podcast here is the story behind how it was created. The photo, seen below, is called “Hood’s Early Light” is of the lonely high peak of Mt Hood and created almost 5 years ago. It was one of those moments being in the right place at the right time with little, make that very little, time to act. I was actually on Mt Hood doing field training for a mountain climbing class I was taking. I figured even though I would not have time to wander on my own, that taking my DSLR and one lens would be good in case I got a break or wanted to capture shots of our class. You just never know. We arrived at Timberline around sunrise to make a short trek up in the same area you would go for the climbers trail. Of course the mountain was completely obscured with what seemed to be a death grip of clouds and fog. Sometimes we could not see more than a couple hundred yards let alone the whole mountain. I was attached to the rope for practice routines we were doing but we were taking a break and I happen to notice the mountain peeking out very briefly here and there through large gaps in fast moving clouds. I quickly unclipped my carbineer from the line and ran for my camera about 50 ft away. With my rip rockin’ Canon 10D (back when going to 6mp was an upgrade), the Canon 28-135 IS lens and eBay “special buy” no-name polarizer… I grabbed only a handful of shots in less than a couple minutes and then the mountain was completely covered again for the rest of the outing. This was a handheld shot, no tripod. Who needs a tripod! Ok that is definitely not true. They are usually needed for great landscape images, that is when you have time to act and here that was not an option if I had one which I did not. Fortunately a slight bump to ISO400 and fairly bright conditions I did not need one. This is pretty much as shot. Hardly any processing from the file outside of removing some dust spots and converting to black and white. It was one of those moments I was truly happy to have my camera nearby because as I said, you just never know.
"Hood's Early Light" - The arrow points to climbers on hogs back that can be seen in larger prints.
posted by Adrian Klein at 6:33 AM
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