Our Nature Photography 101 course at the Clay Pit Ponds Nature Center went great. Some fantastic people came out and I helped them get past their camera. Teaching the techniques to help them learn light and not just shutter speeds and aperture settings. We all too often get caught up in all the numbers and crazy settings. Chasing that perfect look or effect and by the time the moment arises it is gone. This is an issue that always plagues all photographers at some point in their career/hobby. Whether they are just getting their start and are over whelmed by all the things the camera can do or they have gotten comfortable and hesitate to take a quick snap at something that may not be as appealing at first thought. A point I try to drive home is don’t sit in the chat rooms or forums too much. It’s great to brainstorm or collaborate, but it all means nothing if you don’t get out there and use the dang thing! Believe me I’m not sitting here at my computer just typing to yell or berate you. Its something that I once suffered from. I used to sit in all the popular forums and more often then not my photography wasn’t going anywhere. I was more caught up in special settings then what truly makes a great image. It’s something that goes on like a light bulb. When the moment hits you and you take that shot you get a feeling of knowing the planets aligned. It becomes something more then the mechanical underpinnings of your lenses and bodies. It is about light. How it falls, where it falls and how you are going to use it to tell a story. It’s our paint brush. We need to be more concerned with the environment around you then what we hold in our hands. Believe me when I tell you the best images are those that connect and understand with your subject, not the one that nailed the f-stop.

This was a real quick snapshot I took to demonstrate the dynamics of tilting a lens and what a wide angle can do when within a certain proximity of different subjects (all covered in my class; more dates coming soon!) It was simple, but I took the quick processing time to care enough to see what I was looking at. I try each and every time no matter what I am dealt to find something. I liked this image the way it came out, but I did edit this one in post-production. I used Nik Color eFex Pro combining two filters. I am no photoshop wiz nor do I desire to be one. To me it is all about the photography. Remember that when crap goes in crap comes out. No amount of photoshop can save that. <– do you see that period?

Now this brings me to my title’s point. All too often we get caught up in all the technology and all the big ticket items. We tend to get lost somewhere along the way. The little things no longer matter and we all want that big moose or that powerful bison. I’m not knocking them; I love them all the same. However, every creature has beauty and a story to tell. You as a photographer just have to make it happen. This Virginian Tiger Moth (correct me if I’m off) was not shot in a studio. It was shot hand held and at a very wide open aperture at ISO 400. As I was walking out of the Interpretive Center and stumbled upon these moths. They littered the walls and were in such a steady state I ran to the car for my macro lens and got to work. The light here was incredibly tough as I was under an awning. Usually I would have a tripod and even a flash, but there was no time for that. I leaned against the wall and used the proper hand holding technique (also covered in my classes) to get this shot. You can see how incredibly fine the depth of field is here. Maybe two millimeters? Shooting in continuous high helped me get the keepers I wanted. It was very difficult and there were many bad frames with the few good frames. However the few good keepers was all I needed.

This one made me stop in my tracks. This Potter Wasp (looked it up once I got home in my NWF Field Guide to Insects and Spiders) flew right into my path. At first I dismissed it. I kept walking for a few moments. I noticed it landed and rather then keep walking and calling it a bee I decided to take a closer look. I mean hey you never know. Turns out I got to experience some amazing biology at work! This Potter Wasp actually builds mud nests that are round and jug like with a single chamber. You can find them attached to twigs, branches, and trunks of shrubs. Now this is the cool part. The Female lays a single egg in the nest and then finds and paralyzes these moth caterpillars to fill and then seal the nest with them inside. Providing food for the offspring when it hatches. How cool is that? All from just not passing by.

Raymondskill Falls is the tallest waterfall in all of Pennsylvania. The trickiest part about this waterfall is finding foreground. There is a decent amount of water between where you’re supposed to stand and where the waterfall meets the pool. The flow was much lower then at peak, but that presented broader flows that I think lead to better photos. As long as you brought your tripod and you can use a timer (at the minimum) to reduce shake you’re good to go.

First I started by including a touch of foreground and part of the falls. I was unsure as to how wide was too wide.

When going wide though I think a story needs to be told. Make sure that as you go wide you are only including the elements that help and eliminate those that don’t. To make this all work I chose a very low angle. It helped shorten the visual distance between objects. Next time your out try and change your approach and it might just be a pleasant surprise.