Your Guide to Nature Photography

Photography is the art of creating a special medium beyond your self-expression. It requires good taste, a good sense of appreciation and technical skills in capturing the subjects. Many believe that they can profit in this chosen field as long as they develop their technical skills and knowledge in becoming a talented professional photographer.

Nature photography has always been inspiring and exciting. It thrills every photographer with its mystery and the beauty of wildlife. One of the most amusing subjects for nature photographers are the birds.

Bird behavior has had great impact on pictures. Birds attract many photographers with their mastery of flight and their distinct diversity in nature. Here are some guides that will help you focus on improving your skill in capturing images on these (and many other) magnificent creatures of nature.

1.     You need to know what interests your mind. You have to know your topics so that you will not be confused. You should learn more about birds (or your chosen interest) by investing on a good birding guide. This will help you know more about their behavior, breeding season, and bird eating habits.

2.     You should always keep your subjects well being in mind. Avoid those instances that create stress on your images. If the bird/animal is not in its natural behavioral characteristic, you should leave it alone and allow it to recover first from its stress. It can also be a sign that the animal might be nesting somewhere near the site and that is why it portrays a “predator luring” behavior.

3.     You should make your vehicle just like your camera: an accessory. In some areas, like some national parks, you may see animals more adapted to vehicles and consider your vehicle less harmless than a person positioned on his tripod trying to take a good shot. You should learn how to be patient in finding the right place where the animal can accept the presence of your vehicle.

4.     You may use fast shutter speed cameras. This device is good in taking great bird images. Most birds are fast and can disappear quickly in the air. You may need a 1/500 second shuttering speed. This can capture sudden movements and flights.

As a nature photographer, you should maximize your surroundings. A good place for you to start your hobby in nature photography especially with birds is in your own backyard. You can then practice the art and techniques of capturing great shots and wonderful images that nature has to offer.

Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, homeschooling mom, business owner, professional writer, blogger, nature photographer and legislative advocate. She is the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of The Wish Place. She is theColorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parentswork from home so they can be home with their children.

How Filters Work

If you are a professional photographer, you must have a set of filters in your camera equipment. Even if you are just an amateur, you probably have one or two filters. What are filters? Why do photographers buy different filters? How do they work?

Camera filters are transparent optical elements that change light properties entering the camera to improve the recorded image. Filters affect the different properties of an image such as sharpness, contrast, color, highlight flare, and light intensity. It can alter one or a combination of these properties, and can also create various special effects.

Camera filters are connected to the front of the lens. Aside from its features, it also protects the lens from elements such as salt air. Some cameras need lens adapters to be able to use filters.

Filters work the same whether you use them on a digital camera or film. There are just a few differences to be considered. Filters that can reduce excess contrast such as polarizers are helpful in a digital camera because digital is more inclined to blow out highlights. Digital cameras are also known to be less sensitive to ultraviolet light, thus, ordinary UV filters may not be needed. Also, infrared filters are easier to use in digital cameras.

Some Filter Types

There are different kinds of filters for a camera and each has its own purpose.

– Ultraviolet filters. As the name implies, this type of filter absorbs ultraviolet light. Cameras, especially ones that use film, have high sensitivity to the invisible light known as ultraviolet light. This is common in making outdoor shots, especially in highly elevated places where there is only a thin layer of atmosphere that absorbs the ultraviolet light.

Without UV filters, viewing far images can be difficult because UV causes a haze that diminishes details with farther distance. UV filters are available in various absorption levels measured by the percentage of transmission at 400 nanometers. A filter that transmits 0% is ideal for long distance and aerial shots. For normal situations, a UV filter with 29% transmission is generally good enough.

– Infra-Red filters. These filters are used to reduce visible light. Filters that can totally absorb visible light and transmit only infrared lights are useful for situations like recording heat effects and aerial haze penetration.

– Natural density (ND) filters. ND filters are used when light intensity is high and proper exposure needs to be attained or when a specific lens opening is required for sharpness purposes. This type of filter evenly absorbs light throughout the visible range which alters the exposure effectively without the need to change lens opening or do color shifts.

– Polarizing filters. Polar filters or polarizers enhance contrast, color and reflection control. It has a different optical principle compared to other filter types. Polarizing filters allows light to pass through in just one vibratory direction. Different alignment can produce different effects to the image. If the filter is aligned perpendicularly to the polarized reflected glare, the result would create stronger colors because true-colored reflection will pass through.

Polarizers are increasingly being used for outdoor shots to improve contrast and color saturation. A blue sky can be darkened by a polarizing filter, but it has to be blue in the first place.

Polarizers can also minimize and control reflections from water or glass surfaces. To get the best results, an angle of 33 degrees incident to the surface is advisable. The effect can be seen by viewing through while the polarizer is rotated. An object in water can appear as an object out of water without having the reflection.

Optical filters can be a good investment for those who want to make a living out of photography. It allows for different kinds of shots with special effects. It also makes an image look more alive by the different features and effects these filters have to offer.

But even when taking pictures just as a hobby, having some of these filters will be necessary to get the image of clarity desired. Taking a shot without a filter is indeed different from a shot with one.

There are just some considerations that need to be thought about before buying filters. Different types of filters are obviously for different purposes. It is best to determine what the main purpose is and what type of situation is commonly encountered.

Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, homeschooling mom, business owner, professional writer, blogger, nature photographer and legislative advocate. She is the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of The Wish Place. She is theColorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parentswork from home so they can be home with their children.

Photography’s History

In addition to being a Nature Photographer, I am a lover of history.  Naturally, the history of photography is something that intrigued me:

Photography got its name from the Greek words “photos” which means light and “graphein” meaning to draw. The first person to use this term was the scientist Sir John Herschel in the year 1839. Thus, photography means the method or process of registering images with the aid of light , related radiation, on a medium that is made of sensitive materials.

The first image

During one summer day in the year 1827, the Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce was able to achieve the creation of the first image that was fixed by working on it for 8 hours. His compatriot, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre on the other hand was able to lower exposure time to a period of less than 30 minutes as well as preventing the captured image from disappearing.

Daguerre and the daguerreotype

Daguerre was the first to invent the most practical process for developing pictures during their time. He was born to a place in close proximity to Paris, France. Before experimenting on photography, he was a professional painter of various scenes in operas. After many years of experimentation with light and its effects on images, Daguerre was able to develop a process to make pictures that were more efficient and effective. He sold the rights to the French government then wrote a book describing his invention.

The pinhole camera

Ibn Al-Haytham, who lived in the middle ages, was a greatly known in the field of optics. The pinhole camera was invented by Al-Haytham with the resulting image viewed upside down. A European named Della Porta was able to re-invent the pinhole camera, this enabled him to publish information regarding the pinhole camera.

The flashbulb

An Austrian named Paul Vierkotter is credited to be the first person to invent the flashbulb. He used a wire coated with magnesium which was placed in a glass globe that was vacuum sealed. This was later replaced with an aluminum foil inside an enclosure filled with oxygen. The flashbulb became commercially available in the year 1930. It was patented by a German national, Johannes Ostermeier. The flashbulbs were called “vacublitz”. General Electric, a company engaging in suh ventures made their own version which was termed “Sashalite”.

Instant photos

You can take instant pictures using a polaroid camera. This type of camera was created by Edwin Land. His work on photography enabled a new age in photography wherein pictures can be obtained instantly. The exposure time was no longer a factor.

These are some fast facts that will help you understand more the history of photography. Having a clear idea of how photography started will help you with your passion for pictures.

Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, homeschooling mom, business owner, professional writer, blogger, nature photographer and legislative advocate. She is the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of The Wish Place. She is theColorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parentswork from home so they can be home with their children.

 

Article by Stmadeveloper.com

Landscape Photography: Living Off The Land

Photography can be one of the most rewarding fields to go into at any time in your life, as a profession or as a delightful hobby. As a photographer you are no less than an artist. The world is your inspiration and your canvas. The different fields of photography are many and vast, offering you scope to find your true photographic passion and run with it. Underwater photography, nature photography, family photography and still life photography are but a few of the numerous avenues to choose from.

You could even go into fashion photography or landscape photography. The job possibilities for a really good photographer in your chosen field are endless. However, there is nothing more rewarding than the beauty of your artistic talent, your work and the message and joy it brings to people around the world. As a passion and a hobby photography can be just as rewarding. It is an artistic expression of yourself, no matter what you are photographing. Landscape photography is a beautiful and inspiring field of photography to look into.

What Is It?

What is landscape photography? The name is quite self-explanatory. Landscape photography is the pictures you take of landscapes as they stretch out before you. Why would you want to try this type of photography? Before you disregard landscape photography completely, spend a normal day in your life looking at all the landscape pictures you come across. They might be in magazines, calendars, on television, on post cards, in books, on posters and much more.

Then you ask yourself again, why do it. The landscapes you see everyday may just be an unknown beauty to someone else who has never seen it before. You have probably seen pictures of landscapes you thought were breathtaking, but that you have never actually seen in reality before in your life.

Those are landscape photography pictures that someone took and look at the effect they had on you. If you are keen on landscape photography as a hobby it is well worth looking around on the internet for some landscape photography tips and tricks. If you are interested in it as a career, you would need to think about studying landscape photography. It may seem like an overwhelming task, trying to find a suitable school of photography, but it is possible. All you need on your side is the internet and a determination to pull through with your landscape photography studies.

Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, homeschooling mom, business owner, professional writer, blogger, nature photographer and legislative advocate. She is the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of The Wish Place. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.

Black and White Photography Tips

If you are a photography student, then you have probably heard a ton of different black and white photography tips already from a bunch of different people.  Tips about black and white wedding photography, portraits and other types of black and white photography, but you have to realize and you probably already have, that some of these black and white photography tips are just not as helpful as you hoped they would be.

In this case you should know that while there are certainly a lot of tips that are not that effective, there are also a few great black and white photography tips that are really going to be of use to you and help you to have the best photography career.

Practice

Okay so this one may seem pretty obvious, but a lot of people just expect to get into photography and have it be the simplest thing and expect that they are going to excel at it. Well you should know, and as you will see once you actually get into photography, there is a lot more to it than that. You are going to need to take photography very seriously if you would like to have a career in this field and ensure that you are great at what you do.

Anyone can just go out and shoot a picture in black and white but only an experienced photographer who knows his craft is going to be able to shoot the world in black and white and really make viewers of his pictures experience emotions when they are looking at them.

Change the Tones

Another of the best black and white photography tips that you will get is to change the tones in your pictures. This is great especially if you want to make something stand out in the picture. You have no color to work with but you can still easily make something be the focus of your picture, for instance by making the background tones lighter and then darkening the tones of the main subject.

This way, this is going to be what draws the viewer’s eye in and what captures them and entices them to focus on it, which is what you want.

These are just a couple of the really intelligent tips for black and white photography, and you are going to learn many more while you are out in the world of photography and getting your career started.

Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, homeschooling mom, business owner, professional writer, blogger, nature photographer and legislative advocate. She is the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of The Wish Place. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.

Black and White Digital Photography: How to Get Started

Maybe you have seen a black and white picture before and this is why you started to get interested in black and white photography.  Whatever the case may be, if black and white digital photography is your passion and this is what you want to do for a living, then there are a few black and white digital photography tips that you should learn about and also you need to make sure that you get yourself prepared to get started in black and white digital photography.

Getting Ready

There are a few things that you are going to need to purchase if you want to get started in black and white digital photography, but of course the main piece of equipment that you are going to need is your digital camera. You are really lucky if you are getting started as a photographer these days, as there are so many new and cool features that are offered on the digital cameras of today.

If you want to be successful and turn out great pictures with your black and white digital photography then you are going to have to make sure that you are careful and choose the right camera here.

One of the first features that you want to check out when considering a camera is the lens. You want to be able to zoom in close to objects, and so the better the zoom, the more interested you should be in the camera. Especially if you are going to be doing black and white portraits, this is a feature that you are really going to need to take seriously.

Also when you are trying to decide on which digital camera to buy, you are going to want to think about the brand name. A lot of people may not see the importance in this, but there certainly is a great importance. When you get a camera for your black and white digital photography that is from a well known company such as Nikon or Canon, you know that you are getting a high quality camera that is going to last.

Sure you may be able to find a cheap version of a digital camera instead, but when it breaks down in a few months then what are you going to do?

Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, homeschooling mom, business owner, professional writer, blogger, nature photographer and legislative advocate. She is the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of The Wish Place. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.

Black and White Portrait Photography

There are definitely more than enough options that you have when it comes to photography, and especially portrait photography, but if you really want your portraits to be something extra special and make sure that they always turn out to be the best that they can be, then you are going to want to use the black and white digital photography techniques.

Black and white portrait photography is especially beautiful, because when you take away the color from a picture, it allows the viewer to have to look more carefully into the detail and really see the picture for what it is because there is no color decorating up the image.

You just have to make sure that you are only using black and white portrait photography when it is appropriate, and not just assume that it is going to look great all the time. Black and white portrait photography is really only going to be the right choice on certain occasions.

How to Decide

There are a few factors that any photographer is going to have to take seriously into consideration when trying to decide whether to go with black and white portrait photography or not. For one thing, you are going to need to think about your subject. Of course this is the main purpose for the picture and so the subject that you are shooting is the main thing that is going to decide how you should shoot.

If you are trying to go for an emotional image for instance, then going with black and white portrait photography is often the best idea, because you are able to portray a lot more emotion in most cases when you take the color out and are just doing a black and white.

Again, this is up to you as a photographer, and this is often a very hard decision to make. The most important thing is that you are only doing black and white photographs some of the time and that you are also interested in color photographs, because you want to be experienced with both.

You never know what photography job is going to pop up next, and at least when you are more experienced and knowledgeable, you know that you are going to get the best results with your pictures.

Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, homeschooling mom, business owner, professional writer, blogger, nature photographer and legislative advocate. She is the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of The Wish Place. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.

Black and White Photography Techniques

There are always new and innovative photography techniques that you can use to your advantage, and so no matter who you are and no matter what type of photography you specialize in, the most important thing is going to be that you have the knowledge that you are going to need to excel in your field and to make sure that your work stands out from others.

There are a lot of great black and white photography techniques that you can use and for black and white portrait photography especially. They are really going to help make sure that your pictures all turn out great and that you are going to be that amazing photographer you want to be.

These are a few of the best black and white photography techniques that you are really going to want to learn more about, the black and white photography techniques that are going to help you become the best photographer you possibly can be.

Focus on the Contrast

One of the best black and white photography techniques that you can ever use yourself is to make sure that you are always focusing on the contrast. After all you have to remember that the black and white photography is all about the black and the white and the tones in between. When you are changing the contrast, this is going to make all the difference in your pictures.

There is no color to divert away from the detail, and so what you are taking a picture of is really going to have the whole impact on the viewer. This definitely makes it a bit more challenging as a photographer, but the pictures come out so amazing if you do it right.

Use Color Filters

Another of the best black and white photography techniques that you can try is to use color filters. The reason that you want to make use of color filters is so that you can change the captured tones in your photographs. Just because there is no color in the picture this does not mean that you are not able to focus on something and make it stand out.

For instance if you have a subject in the picture that is black and white but you want to stand out, then you may want to lighten the tones in the rest of the picture and then make this subject darker so that it will stand out to the viewer.

Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, homeschooling mom, business owner, professional writer, blogger, nature photographer and legislative advocate. She is the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of The Wish Place. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.

Black and White Landscape Photography Tips

Even if you are one of the best photographers in the world you can really never get too much advice, because the more that you know about your craft the better off you are going to be and the more likely you are going to be to have success at it. For instance if you are interested in getting into black and white landscape photography then you are going to need to make sure that you are aware of all the best black and white photography techniques that you can use. I took the photo on the left.  It is of Grand Teton taken in August of 2013.

There are some pretty interesting black and white landscape photography tips that are used by the professionals these days, and which you are going to want to learn more about yourself.

Use a Tripod

One of the best black and white landscape photography tips that you will ever learn is to use a tripod. This is really going to help you out more than you realize, and in more ways than one. After all you have to remember that as a result of the long shutter speed you will often need to compensate for a small aperture and you will need to find a way to keep the camera completely still while shooting.

Even if you have been in photography for years now and have a steady hand, it is almost impossible for any person to keep their hand completely still while they are taking a picture, or doing anything for that matter. Especially if you are taking your time and thinking about it too much your hands are probably going to get a bit of the nerves just instinctively, and so using a tripod is one of the best black and white landscape photography tips that you will ever get.

Look for a Focal Point to Guide You

Another of the best black and white landscape photography tips is for you to find a focal point that you can use to guide you. This is going to be really helpful because this is going to make sure that you are going to have a picture that comes out balanced and also one that is beautiful and is going to give the viewer something really interesting to look at.

There are so many great tips that you can use when it comes to your photography, and which are going to really ensure that you have the most success when taking pictures as possible.

Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, homeschooling mom, business owner, professional writer, blogger, nature photographer and legislative advocate. She is the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of The Wish Place. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.

Black and White Photography; Why it is so Beautiful

It is sort of funny to think that black and white photography was the first type of photography to come out, just as with television before there was color.  Even now in today’s day and age where we have such remarkable advancements in the world of photography yet still black and white photography remains as being one of the most special and beautiful types of photography.

There is something really authentic and detailed about black and white photography and perhaps this is why we love it so much. Especially for portraits black and white photography works really great, and this is thought to be because this type of photography allows you to see such detail and so you can really get up close and personal with people and see the detail in their face.

A lot of modeling and other companies will ask that any applicants’ photos be in black and white so that they can see them without makeup and without all that color clouding up their judgment. They really want to make sure that they are going to be choosing the right people and this means getting to see them for who they really are.  This is why headshots are so often in black and white and not in color.

Landscape Photography

There is an area of the black and white realm of photography that is also very beautiful other than portraits, and that is black and white landscape photography. Again, it is the detail of the landscape, the beautiful outdoors, that you are able to see so much better when you take the picture in black and white.

There is something so intriguing about this style of photography that makes it so believable and so beautiful, and this explains why some of the best selling photographs of landscapes are in black and white and not color.

If you are a photographer, no matter what area of photography you prefer, the most important thing is that you have at least a basic understanding of black and white photography. This is going to be more important than you will probably realize, and if you have ever taken a photography course of any kind you will know this. The more that you know about photography in general the better off you are going to be.

Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, homeschooling mom, business owner, professional writer, blogger, nature photographer and legislative advocate. She is the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of The Wish Place. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.