The Key to Seeing

The key to seeing the world’s soul, and in the process wakening one’s own, is to get over the confusion by which we think that fact is real and imagination an illusion. It is the other way around.

Thomas Moore, “Original Self”

Art in Ordinary Things

Photo Tips for Photographing Natural Phenomena

The Following are some tips I have gleaned from various books and personal experience.

Into the Sun
Using ISO 50 1/250 sec at f/22
Using ISO 100 1/500 sec at f/22

Sunrise and Sunset
Take a meter reading with the sun in the shot using a wide or normal lens and underexpose by ½ stop.
If using a telephoto, take the reading off the sky adjacent to the sun, then underexpose by ½ stop.

Rainbows
Underexpose by ½ to 1 stop, try using a polarizing filter.

Seafog and Morning Mist
If sun is behind you and shining on the mist, take reading on the mist and overexpose by 1 stop to lighten the mist.
If mist is pink or gold, adhere to meter reading, if using lens over 100mm, take reading to the side of the sun.

Sunlight through Trees
Using ISO 100 1/250 at f/22, f/16/ f/11
If sunlight is from the side, bracket ½ stop either side.
If 2/3 of the scene is brighter than the rest, over expose by ½ stop. If 2/3 of the scene is darker than the rest, underexpose by ½ stop.

Clouds
Expose for effect
If dark and ominous, underexpose by 1-3 stops. Most sky shots benefits from underexpose, polarize if the scene is 90degrees to the sun.

Lighting
If daytime, be lucky
If at night, use low ISO, tripod, and wide or normal lens. Compose with foreground to express perspective, focus at infinity and f/16. Use time exposure and cable release.

The Moon
If shooting only the moon, use a 300mm or larger telephoto lens, Using 100 ISO 1/250 sec at f/8.

Moonlit landscape
Easiest when snow is on the ground, if facing east 40-60 minutes after sunset, if facing west 20-40 minutes after sunset, using ISO 100 1/250sec at f/8.
At night using ISO 100 30 seconds at f/2. Remember, the moon is larger at rise and set.

Stars
Use landscape to set scale. To show movement of the stars, ISO 100 15 sec to 1hr f/2.8 or f/4. Use widest lens and tripod, point to the North Star.

Aurora Borealis
Tripod, wide or normal lens, ISO 100 15 to 40 sec, use cable release.

Rain
1/8 to 1/30 sec shows best with a dark background and the rain a bit distant.

Water Drops
If strong back lighting, underexpose by 1or2 stops.

Bodies of Water
Time exposure of 30+ seconds at f/22 or f/32 to show water ripples before sunrise or sunset.

Waterfalls
1/8 to ½ seconds for gentle water, 1/500 to show big, fast, powerful water.

Snow
For white snow, overexpose 1 f stop, the more white, the more exposure.

Falling Snow
Use flash with dark background at dusk will make each flake stand-out. To show a snowstorm, 1/15 to 1/60 seconds.

Frost
Expose as for snow. On window use macro lens and f/5.6 – f/11.

Ice
If light, overexpose, If gray, follow meter, If dark, underexpose.

Oh Yes, The Simple Life

As best as I can figure this is my fifteenth weekend camping this summer. My first was April 1st in the Black Hills where I got snowed on, and now it is August 5th I am in the Bighorn Mountains at 8,200 feet and there is the first hint of fall in the air.
This week’s camping spot is a few miles off highway 14 and a few hundred yards off FS Road 31. The established campgrounds I checked were full, so this week is very quiet and isolated. If not for a couple pick-ups kicking up dust on the road, it would be only the sounds of nature, Barley chasing little critters and the XM radio on channel 110, “XM Classics”.
We have already explored the area by hiking a trail for a couple miles then finding an old road and following it back along an open meadow and through the pine forest. I have picked out a spot to return to for the sunset photo of Cloud Peak. There is not water, thus not fishing, so we will call this a photo expedition.
With all this camping, I believe I have found a couple secrets to comfort and simplicity. First, a comfortable chair, not one of those that squish you when you sit in em, but a folding director’s chair; this can make anyplace comfortable. Next a $15 collapsible table, the one I found at K-Wall is about 2 feet square, plenty room for cooking and eating for one. No need for a picnic table. Cooking equipment is simple, a little Coleman stove and a small fry-pan and a 1 litter Jet Boil just for water. When it is cold out it takes a while for water to boil with the Coleman, but the Jet Boil is quick, just what an impatient guy like me needs. There is also a rather pricy stainless French press and a Stanley Thermos, but well worth it for hot coffee. I think you all know what I mean. Meals are simple too, soups, cereal, dried fruit Raman, parboiled rice, Lipton noodles and tortillas with eggs, cheese and/or sausage or lunch meat, ya know stuff like that, nothing fancy for me, just food that is easy to cook and easy to clean up. It all fits nicely in an 18-gallon storage tote with room for fishing gear, a fanny pack, a tarp, and other necessities.
Another requirement is the scotch, the good stuff. Don’t bother with junk like Sheep Dip or Pig’s Nose, or anything that refuses to state its age, instead a Glenfidich or Dimple Pinch or Chivas. Consider it one of the luxuries and use it in moderation or semi-moderation, or drink as much as you wish, its not like anybody is going to drive home tonight, right?