[ used stuff ]

Nature Photography

Dear West Linn/Wilsonville class participant,

This class assumes basic knowledge of photography in general, and of your own 35mm SLR camera in particular.

Each class will begin with a viewing and critique of the previous class assignment. For the first class, please bring four slides -- two that you are especially proud of, and two that you're not quite happy with, but aren't sure what you could have done better. I'd like everyone to shoot Elitechrome 200, so we'll be able to compare exposure data easily.

Also, we'll be reviewing our needs and expectations in the first class. Please think a bit about what you'd like to learn from this class. I don't teach from a fixed syllabus, rather, I like to explore areas that are of particular interest to the class.

Finally, in the first session, we'll be reviewing basic photography: exposure, motion control, depth-of-field, and lighting. (Feel free to look at what the last class did.)

During the other sessions, we will be progressing from there, with a choice of covering any or all of these topics in-depth, or of progressing into other areas. Other topics I'd like to cover are: compositional techniques, macro photography, advanced lighting techniques, and possibly some digital techniques.

There will be a field trip on Saturday, March 10, to Silver Falls State Park. We will be car-pooling from a local parking lot. Please be prepared to pay the driver $20 per carload -- roughly 20 cents per mile for 100 miles. So if there are four people in the car (including driver), that would be $5 each.

Questions? Feel free to email me.

New Stuff Goes Here!

Last week's shooting assignment is now on-line!

Here is some information about our upcoming field trip, on Saturday, March 10!

Digital snapshots of the class are on-line -- stage left, stage right.

6 Mar 2001: Macro: Texture vs Shape

• Bring four close-up slides to class, two exploiting texture, and two exploiting shape. You can take these on your own, or as part of our field trip on Saturday.

Last week's shooting assignment is now on-line!

27 Feb 2001: Depth of Field

• Look at a scene you want to photograph. It may be contrived, or it may be specific to nature photography.
  • What is the range of depth in the scene? Does it contain both foreground and background objects?
  • Are there objects that you prefer to be "soft" or "blurry," and others that you prefer "sharp?"
  • If not, do you want everything in the image to be sharp? Why?
• Building on last week's lesson, what angle of view does your scene require?
  • If it requires a wide angle, does it also require selective focus?
    • If so, consider changing your location and using a telephoto lens or zoom range.
  • If it requires a narrow angle, does it also require large depth-of-field?
    • If so, consider changing your location and using a wide angle lens or zoom range.
• Shoot your roll, exploring extreme changes in depth of field -- some shallow ("selective focus") and others broad.
• Bring four slides to class, two exploiting selective focus, or shallow depth of field, and two exploiting broad depth of field.
• HINT: consider longer telephoto ranges for selective focus, and shorter, wide-angle ranges for broad depth of field.

20 Feb 2001: Exploring Perspective

• Look at a scene you want to photograph. DO NOT put the camera to your eye!
  • What prominent objects are in the scene?
  • Is everything at a uniform distance, or are some far and some close?
  • What is in the background? Anything you don't want in the picture? :-)
• Think about the lens ranges we discussed in class.
  • Do you visualize the scene in telephoto, wide-angle, or in-between?
  • Try to guess what focal length you will need for the scene you picture in your mind. Pre-set your zoom to that length, or select the appropriate fixed-length lens.
  • How close were you in guessing the right focal length?
• Shoot your roll by exploring extreme perspectives.
• Bring four slides to class, two exploiting wide-angle perspective, two exploiting telephoto perspective.