December | 2014 | SteveWa Photos

Fresh Snow and an Itchy Shutter Finger

Posted on December 30, 2014 by stevewa88

Fresh powder on American Fork Creek.

Here in Utah winter was a little late arriving this year. The only people complaining were the hardcore skiers…and me. For the first couple of months I actually enjoy winter. The snow and bare trees completely change the landscape and make seemingly ordinary scenes beautiful.

The day after Christmas my son and I joined my parents for a little photographic expedition into the Wasatch. Santa brought 6-12 inches of new snow on Christmas Day. It was the perfect time to get in some great winter shooting. Plus, it had been almost a week since the Nikon and I spent some quality time together in the mountains. So, I was more than eager to exercise my shutter finger.

Snow photography can be more challenging than it appears. First, the vivid, white snow against dark water, trees or ground make for extreme contrasts. The snow also reflects a lot of light making scenes brighter than our eyes perceive them; lots of risk of over-exposure. Finally, there’s white balance. Our cameras aren’t calibrated to see true white. More on that in a minute.

The drastic contrasts of snow photography can actually work in our favor. For one, snow photos often make good black and white shots. Black and white relies on the contrasts of light vs. dark. Whereas color photography relies of the contrasting of colors. Second, the sharp contrast can really make some subjects stand out beautifully. Blue sky against white snow and dark water can be a really eye-catcher. The gnarled trunk of a tree or twisted, leafless branches stand out nicely against pale snow. It also helps to work a little post processing magic, but that’s for another post.

The splashing of the stream makes for fascinating shapes in ice

Its important to be aware that the snow is bouncing light all over the place. Its easy to get caught up in catching details in a dark stream while letting the surrounding snow “wash out” in a blaze of barren white. Snow has texture and shape. It can be very appealing and interesting to capture the contours of a blanket of snow or to capture the glistening snow crystals.

His name is Olaf and he likes warm hugs.

White Balance; there are a couple of ways to confront this issue. The first is to make adjustments on the camera. On Nikon D-series cameras you can go into Scene mode and select “Beach/Snow”. Yes, beach photography is very similar to snow photography. I’m sure Canon, Sony and other manufacturers have similar settings. These settings tell the camera that you are shooting bright white images and to treat whites as true white; instead of the pale gray they are calibrated for. The other option is to deal with white balance during post processing. Photoshop has an automated White Balance setting. I prefer to manually adjust it as I edit my photos.

It was an excellent day as three generations of photography nuts each recorded the glistening winter wonderland in our own way. I hope y’all had a great Christmas. Happy shooting!

Blurring the Lines

Posted on December 23, 2014 by stevewa88

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have been playing with long exposure shots. Basically, the idea is to hold the shutter open for a longer period of time while focused on a moving object. The movement of the object appears as a blur on the photograph. This conveys a sense of motion in an otherwise still photo. Most hand-held photographs are shot at a shutter speed between 1/60 of a second and 1/1000 of a second. In the case of long exposure they can be 1/8 to longer than a second, depending on the light conditions.

The motion of the swift-moving creek takes a ghostly appearance in this 1/2 second capture.

Of course, shutter speeds this long can’t be done free-hand. They require a decent tripod; or at the very least a very stable rock, table, stump, etc. This is one of the primary reasons that I haven’t done a lot with long exposure until now. The tripod can be an unwieldy and heavy piece of equipment; not very convenient for hiking. Add in the fact that unless I am looking for long-exposure opportunities, the tripod doesn’t get used much and you see why my tripod spends most of its time in the closet or the trunk of the car. Nonetheless, its a tool worth having.

The next long-exposure shots I want to experiment with are night shots of moving cars. Then I’d love to work on really long exposure shots of the stars. I’ve seen some incredible captures of blurred stars that I would love to attempt.

I have also seen some impressive long-exposure shots of small waves on a beach. The water takes on a fog-like appearance resulting in an other-worldly feel to the photo.

One of the lessons I learned is to strike the right balance between blurred objects and stationary objects. Too much blur and the photo becomes an unintelligible mess. Not enough motion and the blur blends into the scene and has minimal, if any effect on the shot.

A smaller amount of water falling from a greater height gives this wispy, bridal veil effect.

Finally, my youngest son and took the short hike to this great, hidden waterfall in Big Cottonwood Canyon. While he climbed everything within reach and marveled at a dead mouse I got immersed in photography.

My little man and the hidden falls.

Turkey Day in Southeast Idaho

Posted on December 15, 2014 by stevewa88

For Thanksgiving I loaded up the old four door and visited Rexburg, Idaho. Besides seeing friends, there are two things I love about going to Rexburg. First, they have a Jack-in-the-Box. We have no Jack-in-theBox in Salt Lake. I figure that I only get Jack-in-the-Box two or three times per year and my body can handle such minimal abuse. Besides, who doesn’t love Jack’s tacos? Second, its a great opportunity to photograph stuff that I don’t see everyday at home.

Grain silos along an out-of-use rail line

Railroad tracks are great for depth-of-field shots. The converging lines of the rails draw the eye to the horizon and give a sense of distance. I also love shooting old farm equipment and buildings. Their weathered appearance, faded colors and irregular lines add character to the shot.

My sons and their cousin exploring the Lorenzo Bridge near Rexburg, Idaho.

What’s better than a rail line? A 99-year old, steel, railroad bridge! This bridge over the Snake River has fascinated me for years. The setting is beautiful with tall trees, fast-moving water and unobscured views. But I think what I love most are the lines created by the steel trusses and beams. The old, steel bridges have so much personality, great lines and are far more interesting than the modern, bland, concrete bridges.

Long exposure shot of falls in St. Anthony, Idaho

A few miles up the road is the town of St. Anthony. The Snake River passes through the middle of town and they have a quaint park and war memorial around the falls. Due to the extra bulk and weight, I don’t usually carry a tripod with me. Fortunately for me I had the tripod when we arrived at the falls.

I haven’t done a lot of long exposure shooting so this was a chance to experiment and learn. The first lesson was that I needed to lower the ISO and use a shutter speed of 1/2 second or longer. I also learned the value of balancing the quantities of blurred area and still areas. I got to put those lessons into practice a week or so later, but that’s for another post.

The empty fields where potatoes and grain were thriving a few weeks ago seemed so sleepy. The opportunity to capture that sleepy peace was irresistible.

Solitary grain silos stand watch over vast, empty fields.

As a kid I recall hearing the stories of the devastation caused by the failure of the Teton Dam. The boys and I had to go check out the site where the dam once stood. To see the chasm created as the water broke through the earthen dam was astounding. It was easy to understand how the flood devastated three towns, wiped out miles of prime farmland and killed 11 people.

The Teton Dam site. The canyon wall is on the left and what’s left of the dam to the right. The remnants of the dam’s spillway can be seen on the far side of the canyon.

The light and the wind weren’t very conducive to good photos, but I wanted to show the astonishing amount of earth displaced as the reservoir drained at the rate of 2 million cubic feet per second.

On the drive back to Rexburg we decided to explore some backroads. It paid off nicely when we happened upon this little fixer-upper. The late-day light was a bit harsh, but it couldn’t diminish the weathered glory.

Two room, one outhouse bungalow. Great location. Close to nothing. Could use a little TLC.

I don’t know what kind of plant this is, but caught in the morning light it had an other-worldly appearance.

Welcome to My Memory Card

Posted on December 13, 2014 by stevewa88

I’ve posted my images to Facebook and I’ve connected with some sharp folks via Instagram. Both are nice ways to share pics and ideas. The struggle I’ve always had with both is that I can’t post my pics the way I want to display them. Also, neither site is a good format for describing the location, the scene or the process.

Kodak Instamatic 124

I’ve been toting a camera around since I was about 10 years old. That’s 30+ years, if you’re keeping score. My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic 124. The kind with the single-use flash cubes that practically self-destruct when a bulb flashes.

Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia. This is a scan of a photo I took this with a fixed-focus, 1960s Yashika 35mm that was handed down from my father. I was 14 at the time.

In high school was a photographer and a writer on the school newspaper staff. That’s when I decided that photojournalism was not for me. I hated being told what to photograph.

From there, it was clear that photography would remain a hobby for me. It stayed that way until I entered the world of digital photography. As a young husband and father it was often difficult to justify spending money on film and processing. With digital I could shoot all I wanted; no matter how poor I was at the moment. I was free to experiment and delete the evidence of my errors. That’s when hobby crossed the line into obsession.

This isn’t about becoming a professional. Nor is about trying to impress anyone. This is about my love of photography and my fascination with capturing a great image. The world is lines, colors, contrasts and light. I thrive on the never-ending challenge to bring them all together in the beautifully captured moment.

I’ll be posting shots here as I go along. You can see a lot of my past work on my Instagram account SteveWa88.