{"id":4802,"date":"2011-03-28T11:29:01","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T15:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/?p=4802"},"modified":"2011-03-28T11:29:01","modified_gmt":"2011-03-28T15:29:01","slug":"tight-or-wide-my-thoughts-on-photographic-style-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/03\/28\/tight-or-wide-my-thoughts-on-photographic-style-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Tight or Wide? My Thoughts on Photographic Style and More"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Osprey leaving nest. This image was created with the Canon 70-200mm f\/2.8L IS L zoom lens (the older one) with the EOS-1Ds. Hand held at 100mm. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1\/3 stops: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/2.8. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

For years, heck, for decades, my style has been to work clean, tight and graphic. Many of John Shaw’s flowers and the bird photographs of Rod Plank and Tim Fitzharris influenced my early efforts and I quickly fell in love with images that featured backgrounds of pure out-of-focus color. Images like that still float my boat to steal a phrase from my late friend Dr. Hugh P. Smith. (See “In Memoriam” here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong, I do love images that include lots of habitat. And I love environmental-type portraits with small-in-the frame birds and animals. But for me, the the surroundings need to be pleasing, even beautiful. When they are not, or when they are distracting, I do my best to eliminate the distractions usually by using long lenses and trying to work clean, tight, and graphic.<\/p>\n

When folks post an image of a bird perched in a jumble of sticks where you can barely see the subject and defend their work by saying that they were only “photographing what was there,” I do try to make the point that what is there in nature does not always make a good photograph. As John Shaw has written, “The job of the nature photographer is to make order out of chaos.” When I find something in an image that is distracting and draws my eye from the subject, I simply state just that. <\/p>\n

There are different strokes (and different styles) for different folks. Though I have strong opinions and often voice them I try my best to respect the opinions of others even when they are different from mine. I have put a lot of time (18,000 posts) and effort into doing critiques on BPN<\/a> and have tried to lead by example. But I can only call things as I see them If I did otherwise I would not be being true to either myself, or to our mantra, “Honest critiques done gently.” <\/p>\n

I love seeing great images whatever the style. Each of us needs to develop our own style based on our likes, dislikes, our skills and our equipment, our vision, and our personal experiences and preferences. Am I flattered that so many over the decades have emulated my style successfully? Yes, of course. But all that I have ever done is post my favorite images and comment honestly on the images posted by others. <\/p>\n

Please feel free to share your thoughts on any or all of the above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This tight portrait of the head of a just fledged Osprey was created with the Canon EF 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 320: Evaluative metering +2\/3 stop: 1\/400 sec. at f\/11 in Manual mode. From my SUV with the BLUBB<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

I love both of the images in this blog post. Both feature the same subject, Osprey. One very tight, and one wide. Only one of them is in tile behind my kitchen sink. <\/p>\n

Shopper’s Guide<\/h3>\n

Below is a list of the gear (or the current replacement) that I used to create the images above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Canon 70-200mm f\/2.8L IS II lens<\/a>. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2X III teleconverter<\/a>. I also use it a lot–depending on the situation–with the 1.4X III TC<\/a>.
\nCanon 800mm f\/5.L IS lens.<\/a> Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
\nCanon EF 1.4X III TC<\/a>. This new TC is designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
\nCanon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body.<\/a> The very best professional digital camera body that I have ever used.<\/p>\n

And from the BAA On-line Store:<\/p>\n

Gitzo 3530 LS Tripod.<\/a> This one will last you a lifetime.
\nMongoose M3.6 Tripod Head.<\/a> Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds. For heavier lenses, check out the Wimberley V2 head<\/a>.
\nDouble Bubble Leve.l<\/a> You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am on a tripod and not using flash.
\nDelkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card.<\/a> These high capacity cards are fast and dependable.
\nBLUBB<\/a>. The world’s greatest big lens bean bag. Designed by yours truly. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Osprey leaving nest. This image was created with the Canon 70-200mm f\/2.8L IS L zoom lens (the older one) with the EOS-1Ds. Hand held at 100mm. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1\/3 stops: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/2.8. <\/p>\n

For years, heck, for decades, my style has been to work clean, tight and graphic. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-90","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}