Category: seeing

Ludington State Park

December 1, 2018
Aerial PhotographyCanonchanging lightDJI MavicdroneenvironmentEquipmenteveningGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLake MichiganLandscapesnature photographyRichard Mack PhotographyRichard Mack's BlogseeingSunriseThe Sweetwater SeasThe Sweetwater Seaswater

Last September I rolled into Ludington State Park for a one-night stay on my way back from filming in Traverse City. I had never visited this park before, so I spent the evening walking the dunes and looking for images. To my surprise, while the campground was almost full, no one else was out wandering the dunes – much to my pleasure. Having the place to yourself gives you time to wander and take in the place and space you are in. It was interesting to find areas without any footprints in many places. It was a peaceful evening filled with images everywhere.

In the morning, while folks were still not out on the dunes yet, I flew a drone over the area before heading back home. Enjoy.

Cheers,
Richard

Two Friends, their cameras and the Full Moon…

December 11, 2011
Great Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLighthouse BeachLighthouse Beach PierMoonriseRichard Mack Photographyseeing

Last night we had another full moonrise, and in addition there was a total lunar eclipse, which unfortunately wasn’t visible here in Chicago. But I still made my way down to my favorite beach here in Evanston and the old pier at the north end of Lighthouse Beach. This time I was prodded by a friend of mine to make the journey. Jill Buckner is a photographer who has been working in Atlanta for 20 years and is now splitting her time between Atlanta and Chicago. She wanted to visit the beach with me for a moonrise. I thought why not. It’s cold which will help condition me for the upcoming winter shoots around the Great Lakes and I will have the pleasure of shooting with another photographer who I have never shot with.

It is always interesting to me when you shoot with another photographer, because they may bring fresh eyes to something you look at the same way each time. This can be especially true in the case of a location you have shot repeatedly. As luck would have it the moon came up right on time, yet we were not. So we arrived about 15-20 minutes after it had cleared the horizon. We thought we had more time from looking at the cloud layer out over the lake, which magically disappeared at the time of the rise of the moon. Clearly we should have been on time, especially because the moon was positioned far enough north of east in the sky that it came up right down the pier’s path.

Maybe because of our late arrival we both just went to work rather than looking at the scene and talking about what we would be trying to get in our shots. So you had two photographer’s plying away quietly for the next 70+ minutes through to the darkness if night.

Interestingly we never really crossed paths with each other. She went to one view I another. For me the immediate goal was to get the moon rising over the end of the pier with the posts pointing towards the moon. As the evening went on and darkness fell it was the moon’s glow on the water which came to life and became a stronger element than the moon itself. At this point you are shooting in the dark, with a high ASA – in my case 1600 – but then have noise to deal with in the dark areas of the image. My guess is that if I moved up from the Canon 1Ds III to one of the newer Canon’s like the 5D Mark III which has a much higher ASA scale topping our near 128,000 I would solve this problem.

I look forward to seeing what Jill shot – I’m guessing they are different even though we shot the same place at the same time with similar cameras and equipment. Each of us has their own unique perspective and that is what makes art an individual creative form.


To see more from this evening’s shoot use this link: Moonrise

And to see even more full moon images just search the blog for moon

Cheers,

Richard

 

High ISO and Perspective – Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

March 30, 2010
seeingWorkshops

Bluebonnets, Rookwood Ranch

I recently read an article by George Lepp in Outdoor Photographer which reminded me of a few things I talk about in the Quiet Light Workshops. With the advent of the digital world and especially today’s cameras with high ISO settings photographers – and especially landscape photographers – need to remember to think outside of their usual comfort zone. Today’s camera ISO’s, or as film folks think, ASA, can now go to an incredible 25,600! Remember when ASA 800 seemed on the edge? As landscape photographers we are used to working at the best possible ISO of 50-100 for the finest in detail. Yet in digital the loss with higher ISO’s is minimal. Yes, there will be some additional noise but nothing which can’t be overcome with noise reduction software.

Elk, Great Smoky Mountains NP

When shooting my last book Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes I had the need to extend the ISO of my camera’s (Canon 1Ds Mark III) highest setting to 3200 when I was shooting the elk in Cataloochee. It was nearly dark when the elk began to actually begin their rut and clash their heads together. Since this is what I had come for I had no choice. I confess, as I was shooting them I was fairly sure I would need to come back, so imagine my surprise when later that night the images looked great in Photoshop!

Indian Paint Brush, Rookwood Ranch

Last week I was in Texas and once again wanted to play with expanded ISO’s. This time not because I was forced to but to see how it would help you be more creative. I was visiting my aunt and uncle’s ranch Rookwood near Brenham. Aunt Char is a great photographer herself and was excited to show me around. The wildflowers were just beginning to come out. I found that by using the higher ISO’s I could handhold when necessary to get a better angle. I also played with the depth of field so I could show workshop participants directly the differences in looks when you step out of the landscape photographer mode and use a shallow depth of field to highlight an area of an image. The Indian Paint Brush and Bluebonnets in their fields became my subjects for this study. The fact is by changing the way we work we open up endless possibilities to how we see.

Sometimes we find ourselves doing things the way we have always done them – low ISO and stop down all the way to make sure that image is sharp all the way through. And sometimes it is best to break that “rule” of landscape photography. This may seem a very simple idea, but sometimes we need to be reminded to step outside our comfort zone and see the world in a different way.

If you would like to see more images from Texas you can use this link: www.mackphoto.com/blog/Texas/

To see the Great Smoky Mountains National Park book go to www.quietlightpublishing.com

If you would like more information on my workshops please visit www.quietlightworkshops.com

Go on and get out of your zone! Experiment!

Peace,

Richard

Remembering at Arlington – Pan Am Flight 103

December 24, 2008
Editorial PhotographyPoliticsseeing

Holding Hands - by Ken Cedeno

On December 21st, about 500 folks gathered at Arlington Cemetery, the site of the National Memorial Cairn, a gift from the people of Scotland to the United States honoring the 270 victims of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland twenty years ago. It was a time to come together and gather as one, even if in several places, as we did simultaneously in Lockerbie and at Syracuse University, where 35 students were lost on that fateful day, along with those of us gathered at Arlington. It was a time to remember our loved ones, locked in time twenty years back and wonder what lives they might have lead if allowed to. It was a time to remember what we did, as a group of ordinary citizens, to change the way this country and the world looks at terrorism. We passed laws to make the skies safer, to allow victims of terrorist actions to bring legal actions against the country which sponsors such actions, we pressed the US and British governments to find the evidence to convict those responsible, and then had to press the United Nations to bring the most severe sanctions in it’s history against Libya, for their responsibility until they turned over those indicted. It turns out we have fought these fights for twenty years, and sadly we are not done, now enduring yet another appeal on behalf of Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, the only Libyan Secret Service Agent convicted under Scottish law. At one point we were told our group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 (www.victimsofpanamflight103.org) was second in power only to the NRA. There was a component to the weekend of coming together to remember all of our work and exchange stories of how we did what we did, and where we all our today. I am no longer actively involved with the group, having left the board and stepping down as President in the mid 90’s. But many have carried on since then and will continue in the future.

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There is no way to tell the story of what we have been through. And yet, a friend of mine, a fellow photographer, now based in Washington and covering the Capital and White House among other things, has captured images from that afternoon at Arlington. They convey the emotions and feelings of that cold afternoon. Ken Cedeno (www.kencedeno.com) worked for me in Chicago at the time of the disaster. He called to say he was bringing a gift over to us when my wife told him it might not be the best time. Over the following year he saw first hand what one goes through after a disaster like this. He volunteered to cover the anniversary event on his own. As I have said, he did a magnificent job. There is a reason he is one of the finest editorial photographer’s working today. I think you can see in his imagery the power of the day, the emotions, the capturing of the moment. Having been there I can also hear the words spoken, the bag pipes and taps being played by the military trumpeter. To me this is editorial photography at its finest. All I can say is a big thank you to Ken for covering the event. You have given us all a wonderful way to remember the spirit of the day.

Peace,

Richard Mack

 

To see a more extensive collection of the images from Arlington use this link:

http://kencedeno.com/PanAm103/index.html All images on this post are copyrighted by Ken Cedeno.

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