The Arizona Wildflowers are here.

• Nature Photography

The flowers are out and while I have only hit this location in western AZ, near the CA border, I am hoping to head to the Superstition Mountain and search for their wildflowers soon.

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Canon 70D 28-70 f/16 set to 28mm

I zoomed in on this landscape a little. rather than go real wide and the reason is that the foreground flowers are not that close together. But standing further back and zooming slightly, I was able to stack teh flowers and make them look more condensed.

For processing, I am now a big fan of Sean Bagshaw’s Luminosity Mask system where I can select individual sections of an image based on tonal values, or colors, and process each of those individually and it works great.

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Outdoor Portrait with Justine

• Portrait Photography

10 days ago or so, I taught outdoor portrait lighting techniques at the Cascade Center of Photography in Bend, Oregon. I demonstrated multiple techniques including reflectors, diffusion panels, and wireless flash.

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We went to a location where there was a field of wildflowers that we could use as a background, or in this case, our entire scene. Our model here is Justine and she was gracious enough to kneel in the flowers on a small trail that goes through the field.

Outdoor Portrait Lighting with Kim

• Portrait Photography

This portrait was taken last week during my Outdoor Lighting Portrait workshop at the Cascade Center of Photography. We chose to shoot at a field of wildflowers for this colorful background. The model is Kim and the purpose of this portrait example for the students was to shoot after sunset and then light the model with flash.

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The reason to wait for the sun to set is to reduce lighting contrast substantially, then reintroduce light by adding flash to increase lighting contrast-but contrast that I am now in control of.

Master Back Lighting in Landscape Photography

• Nature Photography

Back light in nature and landscape photography is very effective lighting technique. When a subject is back lit the sun is in front of you or very close. I like to reference the Lighting Clock as example.

The camera is at 6 o’clock and the subject is in the middle of the clock. If the light is to either side, then it is at approximately 9 or 3 o’clock. I generally think of back light as anywhere between 10:30 and 1:30.

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In this example from the Anza Borrego in CA, the sun is in that zone of 10-12 o’clock. What I love about this photo is that back lighting adds amazing definition to the cactus and especially the Chollas. It looks like fuzz. This approach works on many subjects, even ones that dont look so great side lit.

For processing I added a hint of contrast to make the shadows touch darker, a bit of saturation, and the sky went white which is common in back lit images due to haze and such. So I added a touch of blue back in. Then sharpened a hint as well.

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My new online course: How to Be a Professional Outdoor & Nature Photographer

• Nature Photography, Online Courses

I am so excited! After months and months my new course is ready: How to Be a Professional Outdoor & Nature Photographer. 

This course covers what to shoot, where to shoot, how to market, how to organize your business, how to price and negotiate sales of your images, stock photo agents, photography assignments, and much, much more. 

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Lupine Wildflower Photographed With Flash

• Nature Photography
The large Lupine are out and they look great! I shot this one in a shaded forest using flash in a light box to add shape to it and create separation from the background.
I shot it in the Columbia River Gorge for a magazine assignment which I will announce in the fall when it is published.The exposure was F/4 @ 1/200 with a 580EXII flash and Fotodiox mini box.
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Shooting in Sajuaro National Park

• Nature Photography

Sajuaro National Park is a very cool place to photograph! A very diverse plant population, Native American petroglyphs, and beautiful desert light.

I passed through a few weeks ago and had about 2 afternoons to explore and photograph. The light was perfect and then it wasn’t. You know how it works: you want overcast and the sky is clear. You want clear skies and it’s overcast. No worries, there is no such thing as bad light, right!

In Sajuaro West, I was driving the road and hoping for blooming cactus but I was to early. I believe, at least this year, that mid_April to May will be the best time for blooming cactus. At least that is my guess.

The Ocotillo were doing well however, so I looked hard at those and I did find one blooming Hedgehog Cactus. As you can see it was overcast skies and I worked within the limits of that light. This image still has directional light or that back-lit feel and the image benefits from the softer contrast.

This is the Hedgehog Cactus that I found blooming, the only one. I was very happy to find this one blooming, anything blooming, but I have since found hillsides of them blooming (mtk). I shot it and was happy at the time, but in hindsight I am not that fond of all the clutter; the grasses and such.