"Animals in Action"

How do you photograph animals in movement? This will be the question that will be answered within this section. We will be covering Knowing your habitats, Be on site before the sun rises, Shoot first, edit later, and Build a stage to capture action.

KNOW YOUR HABITATS: Some of the best places to find natural wildlife would be at your local park or nearby national park. At some of the national parks and refuges you can hop on a guided tour where you will have a better chance of seeing wildlife. Each season has its time for certain animals to be active. Spring is a great time to photograph reproductive behaviors and the growing up of the young ones. Fall is a time to photograph birds and mammals. The winter time is mostly a time of relaxation and photographing migratory birds. Finally, the summer time is when animals are active again so this is a great time to be photographing.

BE ON SITE BEFORE THE SUN RISES: When you are filming birds this is when this rule comes into play. The best time to photograph birds in action in a marsh or woodland area would be right when the sun comes up. The birds tend to fly in when sun is rising and then it will get extremely quite by 9 am. By noon they will have disappeared and come back again in the early morning. So basically, if you are looking to photograph birds in a pond you might want to consider getting up early.

SHOOT FIRST, EDIT LATER: This is one thing to keep in mind when photographing. Some people prefer to edit on the job however, this might cause some problems one of them being you could miss an important pose. Especially when you are waiting all day to get that one pose and you miss it because you are editing the picture before. So, if you just keep taking picture after picture and not even look at them until you are done shooting you will end up getting a lot more better pictures than if you edit on the spot.

BUILD A STAGE TO CAPTURE ACTION: When you are photographing I would imagine that you want to get the best shot possible. In order to do that you should focus accurately on the subject. Next of all, the subject should be framed accordingly with no closed eyes. The last bit of tip would be, the setting or background should be simple with no telephone poles behind the subject.

For more information on "Animal in Action", I would highly suggest reading the book, " Nature Photography" written by, Tim Fitzharris.

"Getting Close"

Within this section we will talk about wildlife rules, keeping your distance, stalking strategies, how vehicles can be good shields, and other blinds for getting that "perfect picture".

WILDLIFE RULES: As a general rule for being a nature photographer you should know that you can only photograph the animal at its forbearance. Because, of yours and the the animals personal safety. So, for safety purposes when you are going out to photograph it would be a good idea to know which animals will let you get close and which ones won't. For example, small animals like marmots, hummingbirds, and raccoons don't have any fear of humans so they are easier to get close to. On the other hand, the second category of animals need to get used to you being there up close. Therefore you should make sure you are around the animal for many hours and in some cases days.

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE: If you want to photograph an animal where you can't get close to them due to the environment like a bear feeding you should stay far away. But in order to get the picture you want, a telephoto lens would work extremely well. A telephoto lens allows you to feel like you are close to your subject but, your actually far away from the subject.

STALKING STRATEGIES: A really useful tool to know even if you aren't a photographer is whenever you are approaching an animal stay calm, low and move slowly. However, when you do have your camera gear with you make sure you are knee-walking with the tripod over you. You should also try to look small harmless so don't make loud noises and run.

VEHICLES MAKE GOOD BLINDS: Did you know that animals are more afraid of a human beings than of huge vehicles? So you can use your car for a shield like protector in order to get the pictures you want. Using a camouflaged blind in you vehicle will allow you to take pictures of birds in their natural habitat without disturbing them.

OTHER BLINDS: Some others blinds that will help you achieve the photographs you want of animals in their natural habitat would be, camouflaging a tree, matching to color of the terrain, bag blinds, and using stationary blinds for bird photographing.

If you want to learn more about "Getting Close" I would highly recommend reading "Nature Photography" written by, Tim Fitzharris.

A Woman Photographer- Annie Griffiths Belt

Annie Griffiths Belt is one of National Geographics best photographers. Annie is origonally from Minnesota were she went to their University and received her B.A. in photojournalism. Than, she went and worked for the Minnesota Daily and later in 1978 ended up working for National Geographic Magazine. Her work includes pictures from Petra, Vancouver, the Middle East, and North America. The photographs cover everything from nature to culture. Annie also has many of her photographs in books like, "Woman in the Material World". Because of all of her hard work and commitment she has received a lot of awards including: National Organization for Women, and National Press Photographers Association. On her spare time Annie also does workshops!

Here is a picture of Annie Griffiths Belt;

For more information about Annie Griffiths Belt I would recommend going to this website: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photographers/photographer-annie-griffins-belt.html.

The picture of Annie Griffiths Belt is located at: www.anniegriffithsbelt.com/images/annie.jpg.

"Designing the picture space" Part4

This is the last section I will be talking about in "Designing the picture space" . Rule of Thirds is the section that most photographers often use. For this concept you divide the picture into three rows and three columns. So as a photographer you would either have your main point of interests in 2/3 of the top or bottom of the photograph. Here is an example of "Rule of Thirds"; This photograph is displaying " The Rule of Thirds", you can find this photograph on blog.webshots.com/?p=75

If you want to find information on " Rule of Thirds" I highly recommend reading the book," Nature Photography" written by, Tim Fitzharris.

"Designing the picture space" Part3

In this section I will talk about "The Center of Interests" which talks about how photographers have areas of interests like a waterfall or a mountain lion. The "Center of Interests" can include portraits of people or wildlife pictures. Here is an example of "Center of Interests" from a photograph that I took; This photograph was taken at Riverfront Park in Billings,MT in late September. I was using a Rebel Xsi Canon camera, as you can see that my main "Center of Interests" was the goose flying.

For more information on " The Center of Interests" I would highly recommend reading the book,"Nature Photography" written by, Tim Fitzharris.

"Designing the picture space" Part2

The second part of this section would be about color use and how color is used in photographs. Color is typically used in photographs if the photographer wants to add emotion or moods. In a photograph, color isn't just to make the picture stand out but also uses visual ques. Lines, textures, and shapes are examples. Reds , Greens, and Yellows are considered to be warm colors while the Blues, and Greens are cool colors. Being a photographer you have to be open to different colors and how they are being used. Here is an example of color with a picture of some mountains in Whitefish, MT the photographer is Jim Purdy. In this photograph you can tell that there is a couple of main focuses which are; mountains, rainbow, and the floor ground. In this photograph the mountains are rigid which causes for a more dramatic look and the colorful rainbow adds for a more interesting picture.

For more information I would highly recommend reading "Nature Photography" by Tim Fitzharris. And look at the website for this photograph at; www.hiddenmeadowpreserve.net/

"Designing the picture space"

When being a photographer your shoots should depict these certain elements; Dominance, Color, Rules of Thirds, and Center of interests.

Dominance: Certain elements such as a certain color or how big or small your main topic is and if the photo is blurred or clear will establish the dominance of the picture. For example such a color as red, is more dominant or attractive than yellow. Another example that is used by many photographers is, a light picture is more appealing than a dark picture. Also when thinking of dominance as a photographer you should think of the surrounding area of the depicted photograph. Most ameature photographers don't think about the telephone that is in the way of the picture. However, being a professional photographer you would think about the background of the photograph. Here is an example of dominance through one of my photographs; This photograph was taken in late September at Riverfront Park using a Rebel Xsi Canon camera. This picture is depicting dominance because, the main subject is in focus and is a reddish- brown color. Although there is another image of a flower that is also red in the background it is blurred out and smaller than the key image.

For more information about Dominance in "Designing the Picture Space" I would highly recommend reading the book "Nature Photography" by Tim Fitzharris.

How to Shoot World- Class Swimming Events

Here are some facts and information on shooting swimming events;

1) Photographers who shoot at world- class swimming events should look into the culture where they will be shooting.

2) Because they are swimming photographers they will capture more striking images of athletes compared to other athletes.

3) Make sure to check for weight restrictions before traveling.

4) Expose your lenses to outdoor pool facilities before the event.

5) Anticipate limitations expecially when the event is televised or the Olympics.

6) The average swimming event consists of 3 Canon EOS 1D Mark 3 Canon bodies.

7) Lenses varying from 14 mm- 400 mm.

8) Because this shooting is swimming you would need scuba gear to put your camera underwater.

9) Make sure to arrive early to the shooting event!

10) Being a swimming photographer you need to communicate with photo marshals

11) Because it is a swimming shooting the laptop for photo editing will go somewhere on the pool deck.

All of this information is based on a swimming photographer working with Getty Images. I would highly recommend going to the website: http://imaginginfo.com/print/studio-photography/all-day event/How-to-Shoot-World-Class-Swimming-Events/3$3271.

Amanda Strong

Which Filters To Use With Natural Light

According to the book, "Nature Photography" by, Tim Fitzharris there are times when you as a photographer will need to use polarizing filters, Split neutral density filters, Graduated neutral density filters, and have portable reflectors handy.

If you have a photograph of leaves or water with a lot of glare than, you may want to use a polarizing filter. These filters will help reduce glare from nonmetallic surfaces and can reduce scene brightness by one to two stops. With polarizing filters you may want to buy the more expensive ones to reduce vignetting within the picture.

When your photograph of a landscape turns out with the sky being brighter than the foreground that is when the split neutral density filter (ND) comes to play. This specialized filter allows for one half of the filter to be clear and the other half to be gray. Having a darker half makes the sky darker and the clear half makes the foreground lighter.

A graduated neutral density filter lowers the density of the sky. Basically, the aspect of this filter is, it transitions the clear and dark regions of the photograph naturally.

There are also filters used for certain weather conditions for example, Blue/Gold polarizing filters are used only on sunny days to reduce glare, highlight water colors, and brighten the color density in the sky.

If you don't like carrying a bunch of equipment than you should use portable reflectors which are only 40 inches in diameter (maximum). Portable reflectors are circular and easy to fold up. You can use this reflector two ways because there are two sides. The first side is white which is used for bouncing light into shadows. The other side is silver which is useful when the element is farther away.

For more information on filters and reflectors I would highly recommend reading the book,"Nature Photography" written by, Tim Fitzharris.

"John Pezzenti Jr"

John was an amazing wildlife photographer that lived in Anchorage, Alaska most of his life. He was born in Connecticut than moved out to Alaska and lived there from 1976 until 2007. For those 31 years John enjoyed taking pictures of Alaska's natural beauty. He even published three books called;

1. A Photographic Journey Through the Last Wilderness

2. The American Eagle

3. The Adventures of an Wildlife Photographer

John was very successful with his photographs, getting them published in magazines like National Geographic, Alaska Magazine, and Readers Digest.

Until one day on December 3, 2007 at the age of 55 he died.

For more information you can go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pezzenti