In my teens and twenties I dabbled in nature photography. This was the era of film photography, where feedback was greatly delayed and information was hard to find. I mentioned in a previous post that there were three shots I was never able to accomplish: the cotton soft water on a small mountain stream, the green flash of the sun’s disk as it passes below the horizon, and the milky way galaxy. I call these my big three. I have no idea how many rolls of film I wasted in this pursuit. I even purchased a motor drive to shoot photo series of the setting sun to try to catch the flash. I set up a darkroom to print black and white versions of my shots to save money on color prints.
The pursuit of photos overwhelmed all of my trips afield. I only went into the wild where and when I could capture the perfect picture. I planned every trip to put me in the right place at the right time for a planned shot that never came. Eventually, my lack of success in getting the shots I wanted, detracted greatly from my enjoyment of just being there. I made a choice, I put my camera gear away. I focused on a career, on my life, and on experiencing the wild.
In 2022 I purchased a Nikon Z6II camera body, a 24-70mm zoom, a 105mm macro lens, a 200-500mm telephoto zoom, and a 400mm telephoto prime.
I’m searching for the happy medium where I first experience the moment and then think about documenting my memories with good photos. So far it’s going real well.
Over the past year I have really enjoyed learning the new technologies. As Sean Tucker says, I’m in the morning of my photography journey, I should enjoy it. No rushing, I have permission to make lots of mistakes. In fact it’s expected.
Transitioning from film to digital photography, I find that some technical portions of the craft are the same, but many are different. UV filters do not enhance your images! Unlike film, digital sensors do a great job ignoring UV light. Those differences combined with some personal bad habits mean there is nearly as much for me to unlearn as there is to learn.
This photo of the Andromeda galaxy taken from the Ochoco Mountains of Oregon is my favorite photograph of 2022. Compositionally there is nothing I can do to change the night sky, so the only space for improvement in the photograph is to play with the color choices.
I took this using a Nikkor Z MC 105mm lens and the techniques described in this video:
As you can see, his process works and, while long, is not difficult. Over the coming years I will apply this technique to other night sky objects. Although if my experience with filming myself reading stories over the campfire is any indication, this will remain my favorite for some time.
Another of my favorites is this dawn photo taken from Spanish Peak in the Blue Mountains of Oregon. I love the pastel colors. The composition is good, but not as good as I would like. Maybe, I should have moved so that the branches of the tree in the lower right framed the scene. But I like the pastel colors in the sky too much. I shot this with a Nikkor 24-70mm zoom lens set at 70mm, f4, 1/250 sec.
I scored well on this trip as another of my favorites is this photo of the setting sun from the same location. The colors of the sunset are brilliant and spread across the horizon by the wildfire smoke off to the west. This was shot with a Nikkor 24-70mm zoom lens set at 24mm, f11, 1/500 sec.
On my trip to Spanish Peak, the temperatures were predicted to hit 105F. So I retreated south to the Maury Mountains where I took this portrait of a dragonfly that landed on one of my tent ropes. This was shot with a Nikkor 200-50mm zoom lens set at 500mm, f5.6, 1/200 sec.
Part of the appeal of this portrait is the simple background, the sharp focus and the perfect exposure. I used my telephoto zoom to get close without intruding on the predator’s space. If I could change one thing, it would be to color the background more green and less white. I was shooting from the shade into a sunny meadow, which turned everything winter white.
To date, my best effort in capturing one of the big three is this photograph of the Milky Way over the Oregon desert. This was shot with a Nikkor Z MC 105mm lens set at f4.5 and 3 sec.
I want a better foreground, and I’m not entirely satisfied with the focus, but I’m pleased with the technique, described in the book Photography: Night Sky by Jennifer Wu and James Martin. However, according to a Nikon article on night sky photography, I made some suboptimal camera adjustments when I shot this exposure. Meaning, this year I get to take an even better photograph. I even get to learn where more of the not so deep sky objects are found, and try to get some photos of them.
I included this picture of a dune in the Great Sandy Desert even though I’ve edited the composition multiple times. This was shot with a Nikkor 24-70mm zoom lens set at 70mm, f8, 1/400 sec.
I still can’t get what I’m looking for. The sky is great. The shrub in the lower left, not so much. In this clip I used the sweeping edge of the dune to define the lower right and the top of the dune to determine the sky exposure. I should have shifted my position forward and reduced the zoom to try to get more sky and more off to the left. I can’t remember if that was possible. And yes, that is a blot on the lens; guess I’ll have to clean the lens, drive back out there, and try again.
I find this photo of a crow on a speed limit sign in the Ridgefield Wildlife refuge, appealing. The photo was shot with a Nikkor 200-500mm zoom lens at 500mm, f6.3, 1/640 sec.
As is this portrait of a young heron I shot it with a Nikkor 400mm lens at f11 and 1/250 sec. The bird came walking past me as I waited to photograph a Columbia white-tailed deer. I zipped the focus close and shot a burst. In hindsight, I should have closed the apperature a bit more to get focus on the entire beak; good crisp eye though.
My list would not be complete without a glowing scorpion. Here is my favorite glowing scorpion photo of 2022:
It was shot with a Nikkor 200-500mm zoom lens set at 500mm, f5.6, and 1/5 sec. Still a bit blurry. It’s hard to focus in the dark.
The scorpion is lit with a black light flashlight. The challenge to photographing these critters is that the low light requires long exposures, and the critters move right when you get them focused. I had a great deal of fun searching for them at night in both the mountains and the desert. I’ll admit that given their rare status, I found many more than I expected; most were in the desert. Too bad ticks don’t seem to glow in the same way; I hate ticks.
This is a wonderful way to remind me of the progress I’m making in the morning of my photography journey. Before scanning through my photographs, I had forgotten about some of them, notably the crow. It’s great to periodically remind yourself of milestones. I’m happy with what I’ve done. And I even happier that I can see the road to improving from here. I’m also very blessed to have the opportunity to spend so much time in the wild.
Since I can find most of the camera controls I use without looking, I can give more attention to composition. Now, I need to figure out a way to remember all of the compositional details on every shot. Then I can work on speed.