A FREE SHORT COURSE
50 TIPS
TO GREAT OUTDOOR IMAGES
Nature and Landscape Photography for the Absolute Fun of It!
David Gafney
Whitetail deer in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee (#WF0016)
Introduction
Before there develops a
real interest in outdoor photography, there should exist a love for natural and
wild places. I have been in love with the idea of wilderness for as
long as I can remember. While growing up in small mill towns in heavily
populated Massachusetts, my
daydreams frequently carried me away to Maine’s wild Allagash River or the
granite crags of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains – or at least to these places as I
envisioned them from the photographs I had seen in books and magazines.
It wasn’t until I reached my twenties, after graduating from college and
spending a year working in a paper factory, that I was able to begin my
exploration of the wild reaches of America.
I
made my way across the United States, always veering toward the green places on
the map designating national parks and national forests.
The majestic diversity of this country’s landscapes was far more
awe-inspiring than anything I had conjured up in my fertile childhood
imagination.
It was a life-changing experience.
To paraphrase George M. Cohan, ‘how ya gonna keep em in the mill town
after they’ve seen the High Sierra?’
During the next
two decades I would spend many seasons working as an interpretive naturalist in
eight different national parks and as a wilderness ranger in national forest
wilderness areas in Colorado and Wyoming.
The little instamatic camera that I carried with me on that first
cross-country trip, and the tiny slides that it produced, awoke within me an
understanding of the power and joy that can be derived through an earnest
attempt to capture the natural beauty and diversity of this land on film.
The images that I captured on that journey,
thirty-five years ago,
included snapshots of elk in Yellowstone, mountain goats on Washington’s Olympic
Peninsula, and the flaming yellow aspens of the Colorado Rockies in September.
It was the beginning of a life-long love affair with landscape and nature
photography.
This eBook is an attempt to share with you what I
have learned in thirty-five years of using a camera.
It is not
highly technical because I am not highly technical.
Nor is it the ultimate text covering all knowledge and science regarding
photographic technique.
It is simply a series of
explanations and photographic tips that, when taken together, constitute field
photography as I love to practice it.
It covers the
techniques, which I employ most often - techniques derived from a combination of
experience and study - which produced results that, for me, have been personally
and deeply satisfying.
You'll discover that lots of expensive equipment is
not needed, so long as what you acquire is the right equipment. To prove this
point, nearly all of the images within this book were taken using only two moderately priced zoom lenses
that cover a focal range of 24-300 mm, along with a few accessories such as a
tripod and a handful of filters.
You need not be
fabulously wealthy to achieve great photography!
If you are not presently completely in love with nature and wild land,
then you may never develop the intuitive insights and visions necessary for the
kinds of inspiring images that will “knock-the-socks-off” of fellow human
beings.
If the love is there, then a grasp of the
essentials of photographic technique may be what’s needed.
I truly believe that learning these essentials is not difficult.
We will
start (Part 1) with what may be one of the most effective and awe-inspiring
compositions in landscape photography.
Contents
PART 1 - Landscapes: Look for the Magic, Go for the Depth!
PART 2 - Composing the Image: Some Tricks of the Trade
PART 3 - Equipment, Film and Accessories: Minimum Requirements
PART 4 - Photographing Wildlife
PART 7 -
Lighting and Exposure
Salt Creek Falls in Willamette National Forest, Oregon (#PC0028)
You are welcome to share this eBook with your friends. It may be freely distributed, reposted, reprinted and shared, provided it appears in its entirety, without alteration, and the reader is not charged to access it. Please pass it on!
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©
50
Tips to Great Outdoor Images by David Gafney,
2010