The Equipment: Tripods

When thinking about the kind of shots you want to take, there are a lot of options to weigh for your equipment.  Digital versus film.  Point-and-shoot versus SLR.  Tripods.

Tripods - if practical to carry with you - can make the difference between a blurry shot and a great shot, particularly if your hands aren't the steadiest.



Thundercloud & moonlight



I like to use a collapsible tripod that can be extended in height and adjusted as needed. It's certainly a boon for nighttime photography when you're using an extended exposure setting to capture low light conditions.

American Alligator

It's also handy for long-distance nature shots - birds and wildlife fidget enough, so this can go a long way towards making your shots more crisp and clear.  Combine your tripod with a zoom to stay safely out of reach of more cantankerous subjects.



Fireworks over Waycross, GA

4th of July is another favorite occasion for using a tripod: the brightness of the fireworks against the night sky make it difficult to capture clear shots without a bit of assistance. 

Portrait work; Chapel Hill, NC

Portrait work can be one of those areas where you go in either direction; some prefer the freedom to move around their subject, whereas others prefer to use a tripod to ensure clearer, more steady shots.  A tripod can also even the playing field for point-and-shoot cameras, as the speed of SLRs traditionally gives them an edge in this area.  For my initial ventures into portraiture, I'm putting my trust in my tripod while I refine my skills in the genre.

Sometimes you get lucky, though: when a shot presents itself, you take a chance to capture when you can.  Sometimes it pays off:

Moonrise over Iowa City

The Shot: Sky on Fire

A couple of weeks ago, a cold front moved through, bringing with it much needed rain.  My commute home coincided with the final leading edge of cloud bands marching overhead.  As I sat at the top of the exit ramp, waiting for the light to turn, I looked west.

Years of living in the Midwest still make me wary when I see such a stark line of such dark clouds topped with such a contrasting white pile of cumulus.  I searched for curtains of rain underneath; not seeing any, I continued home.

Frontal boundary marching east

I grabbed my camera to snap the front moving through.  So often, these things are simply those blue triangles and red half-circles on the television screen, but here one was, marching directly over my neighborhood.

I came for the frontal boundary.  I stayed for the sunset.

As the sun started to peek out from behind the veil of clouds that had encased it for the past three days, it reasserted its position of dominance in the sky with gusto.  Over the next hour, the sky progressed from flashes of orange to a sky on fire:

The Shot: Heron on the Roof

Sometimes you'll find shots in the most unexpected places.

While the deck of my previous residence was a frequent stop for local songbirds, most of the residents of my new neighborhood prefer the pine trees that line the creek behind my home.

I've suspected the creek was home to a Great Blue Heron for some time - I see it flying overhead every few weeks.  But this past weekend, I became substantially more sure that it's a resident rather than merely a frequent visitor.

My cat was out on the deck, as she often is on nice days, but instead of quietly observing her domain, she made quite a commotion.  I stepped outside, looked down along the levee, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.  It was only when I turned to go back indoors that I saw what caught her attention:

Great Blue Heron.  On my roof.  You just don't see that every day.

I stopped and stared for several moments.  This wasn't exactly an everyday occurrence.   

Be ready to be caught off guard.

Advances in cell phone cameras have provided many of us with a quick, at-the-ready way to capture those moments that crop up.  With the increase in mega-pixels, HDR options, and editing software, some of our mobile photos can hold their own with those of point-and-shoot digitals.  Of course, they have their limitations in zoom, filters, and aperture settings, but sometimes you have to make peace with the shot you can get, as waiting for the shot you want may cause you to lose the scene altogether.  I snapped a quick shot on my iPhone, whose zoom wasn't strong enough for the detail those feathers deserved.  The heron seemed comfortable on its perch, so I ventured back inside for my camera.

Get to know your equipment.

Keep your camera in a designated place.  Store it in a carrying case that is both protective and easily emptied.  Have your battery in a designated pouch.  Know the layout of your camera's hardware to install your battery quickly.

I came back outside to find the heron still atop the building, where it stood long enough to capture a few more shots before it took off on its next adventure:

The Collections: New Additions

New pieces have been added to Nature, Flora, Fauna, and People.  Please use the links to the right to explore the collections.

The Shot: Tapas Table

During my time in Madrid, I had great testing grounds for my then-new digital camera.  One night, a few of my colleagues and I ventured out into the city for a tapas crawl.

Tapas has a long history in Spain, with various tales of its origins.  Some credit Spanish liquor laws that required a little bit of food to be served alongside alcoholic drinks.  Others claim the small plates were placed on top of drinks to make it easier for servers to carry without spilling or to keep flies from sampling the local brew.  Somehow the mystique of the tradition's origins adds to its allure.

Essentially, every tapas bar will have its own menu, but will tend to specialize in one or two particular dishes.  We started our journey around 8:30 in the evening, still early by Madrid standards, and made our way through the downtown streets in search of Serrano ham, blood sausages, shrimp, and just about any other local delicacies that we could find.

4am in a Madrid taxi

Along the way, we met up with another colleague also out for the evening; he joined our group, which we realized was perhaps that most eclectic and international blend of cultures and languages we'd each been a part of: representing the US, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina, the Dominican Republic; speaking a few varieties of English, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese; we ended our evening with an invitation-only after-hours gathering in our final watering hole.

Earlier in the evening, we'd sampled the house sausage, house wine, and house bread at our third locale of the night.  The composition of the shot captures the simplicity of the meal, but the visual as a whole evokes a flood of memories that perfectly captures that entire experience:

The Tips: Framing

One of the quickest ways to make your photography more interesting is to shift your viewfinder.  Framing is often the difference between a mediocre photo and a great one.

A rogue branch can ruin a great shot

Let's start with the basics: how often have you taken a picture, only to think, "I wish that random branch wasn't there" or "That person looks odd with the top of their head cropped off"?


When composing your shot, pay attention to the margins.  Be careful not to cut off the tops of trees or branches to make it look like a random leaf is coming out of nowhere.  Watch your zoom, as while going in close may call attention to a particular object or person, it may also give your shot a strange, disembodied look. 


On the next level, think about the overall composition of your shot.  Many digital cameras will have a display setting that divides your display into a nine-box grid. This isn't just to help you line up a perfectly straight horizon (although it is very useful for that!); this is echoing a larger concept: the rule of thirds.  

Old Well; UNC-Chapel Hill

When you think in thirds, you introduce elements of asymmetry into your shots.  By shifting your focus and your subject away from dead center, you take an otherwise static picture and give it spark.  

McCorkle Place & Old Well; UNC-Chapel Hill

Sometimes symmetry works in your favor, particularly when the landscaping is designed to enhance it around a building, a landmark, or other feature.  Of course, you can also introduce some elements of asymmetry into the surrounding areas, just to keep things interesting.

Old Capitol; University of Iowa

Along the same lines, when thinking in thirds, don't give up on halves.  Adjusting the framing of a shot to run diagonally rather than vertically or horizontally can provide that interesting element to the picture.



Shifting your subject can also introduce movement into your picture.  A friend of mine spent a semester conducting research in New Orleans; among great shots of Jackson Square during a rare snow, she captured a great picture of the trolley.  With the car off to the left, the tracks traveled to the right, beckoning your eye to follow their path, as if the trolley would start moving if you looked at it long enough.  You can also take advantage of the various aperture settings on your camera to leverage your surroundings - take the overall composition of Lower Manhattan glowing in the background and add in the cars crossing the Brooklyn Bridge to create a shot that incorporates all of these elements:

Lower Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge