Photographing Waterfalls & Other Items in Nature - Course Preview
Layne KennedyDescription
Photographing waterfalls – fun, beautiful, entrancing, but how to do it? In this online video series, professional photographer and instructor, Layne Kennedy, takes you to a spectacular waterfall. He then moves to a nature preserve for tips on shooting flowers, leaves, and trees. Along the way, Layne advises to keep it simple on the gear you carry: camera, flash, head lamp, three lenses, and a tripod.
He begins the series by photographing waterfalls under an overcast sky and shows how working in a slow shutter speed will capture the creamy effect you see in the best waterfall photographs. You will learn how different lenses capture all aspects of the falls and why underexposure and white balance settings are crucial in photographing nature under fickle weather conditions. Do you set your camera on auto, shade, cloudy, tungsten?
Sometimes, you are thrown a curve and get rained out of your original plans, but, with the telephoto zoom lens, Layne will demonstrate how to capture interesting images as alternatives.
What about capturing mood in an image? Layne will show you how to look for geometric shapes and designs found in nature and why depth of field plays a crucial role in making a creative photograph. By way of example, he captures beautiful images under a canopy of oak trees, shoots an innovative portrait of a woman along a flowing stream, and captures striking, close-up images of flowers and leaves using backlighting techniques. You will also learn that in photographing wildflowers, the contrasting colors you choose for the backgrounds add drama to your main subject.
So put your imagination to work as you watch this series of videos about photographing waterfalls and creating photographs in the woods and on the prairie. Pro shooter, Layne Kennedy, provides plenty of landscape photography tips you can incorporate into your own images no matter where your outdoor photographic adventure takes you.
MORE IN THIS COURSE:
Photographing Waterfalls & Other Items in Nature – Course Preview
Waterfall Photography Tips and the Cotton Candy Effect
How to Photograph a Waterfall & Its Surrounding Vegetation
Waterfall Photography Settings for the Best Results
How to Photograph in the Rain
Creating a Moody Photograph with Long Exposure
Depth of Field in Photography
Outdoor Photography in Cloudy Conditions
Creating a Sense of Scale in Outdoor Photography
Using Backlight in Photography
Photographing Wildflowers
You know, you pull up in the parking lot, you're anxious to get out and take some pictures in your local urban park, which oftentimes has great possibilities for photographers. We got lucky today. We've come in on a day that's kind of a bright overcast. There's no rain involved. There's no mist involved.
So that particular challenge is missing. So we don't have to worry about it. But at the same time I always tend to bring the normal gamut of gear when I go out without overloading myself but pretty much it's just a slung over pack that carries my tripod and maybe a flash and a headlamp. Other than that it's just my camera, my long lens, a macro lens and a wide angle. That's all I need in my arsenal to go out and play with my camera in the woods.
And just wrapped it up and I was able to get just about everything I wanted in here. In fact, there were several times where I thought, "Man, I could stay here a lot longer." But I wanted to get as much coverage of the park as I possibly could and were able to do that. So less is more, you know, you start overloading yourself and you start thinking about, "Geez, I can't wait to be done. Geez, I'm carrying way too much stuff." Go go light. You'll find that your brain starts thinking about the ways that you need to work with the equipment that you have on hand.
You know, you think of the great street shooters, Bresson for example, and you know, he carried one camera, one lens and he's one of the most famous photographers on the planet. So, you know, you don't have to have a lot of gear to get great pictures. Just think about what you need, think about your conditions. You know, "Do I need a rain jacket?" "Do I need a headlamp?" "Is it dark?" "Is it light?" And pack up accordingly. You know photographers are always working.
Right? Even when you're standing around waiting to go someplace, you're looking and you're seeing things. I was glancing up ahead. And again, the quality of the light here is so good today that I saw this big branch of maple leaves that were coming down and they were really separated from everything in the background. So immediately you start thinking, "Wow.
That's kind of a cool shot." because they were back lit by this bright overcast sky. But the background was so far away that instantly tells me, "Pull out the long lens. Just focus on the leaves. Shoot wide open." It separates the focus between the front and the background. Man, you can get a really cool portrait of leaves with that kind of light just by standing around.
It's just one of these things. Keep your eyes open and it's amazing what you will find right in front of you.
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