The Painted Hills of Eastern Oregon provide an interesting foreground to the mountains in the background.
Once a year we head out to Oregon to visit our sons in Portland. So I always try to schedule in some landscape photography if I can. This year we decided on The Painted Hills . It was a long three hour drive down to Prineville (our Hotel) from Portland. We met up with some friends there and we headed out around 5pm (it’s an hour drive) to get there an hour before sunset even though it was very cloudy. When we arrived the lighting was very flat and was not a very good situation for interesting light on the hills. Plus it was dark as a thunder storm was moving in. But we soldiered on and made images anyway.
The Painted Hills of Eastern Oregon form an interesting abstract design on a cloudy day.
The situation steadily got worse as the thunder storms kept getting closer so the photography was a bit hurried. At the same time I was trying to shoot video as well. Really it was kind of a nightmare. The images are ok but nothing that really gets me excited.
Early morning sun at the Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon.
The next morning we decided to try and get there a bit after sunrise. This time of day is not optimal for the Painted Hills as the light is coming from the wrong direction. Most of the iconic hills are facing west toward sunset. We did find some that looked fairly decent.
The Painted Cove walk through at the Painted Hills in Oregon
Scrub trees along the Painted Cove section of the Painted Hills in Oregon.
On the way out I decided to make a shot of the iconic hill that everyone takes around sunset to just give some contrast to what we were given in the morning light wise. I tried to old patience and persistence that I mention in this blog post but it just did not workout this time.
One of the main hill sections of the Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon.
Overall the trip was worth it, even with the lousy light on the first day. Landscape photography is always weather dependent so we were lucky to be able to go back twice. Take a look at the video below to get a feel for the experience.
This is one of the first things I teach my students. Learn to feel the light. How is it playing on subjects? According to Alfred Eisenstaedt “You sense the light with your eyes and respond with your emotions”. If you are always aware of light and how it reacts to the scene around you your decisions in photographing it are much better. So take the time and look at how light reacts to things around you. Just sitting reading a book, or in your car driving. Once you start really looking at the light you will begin to feel it.
Pre-visualize your subject
This next step is essential in getting consistent results with your photography. If you know what the final result will be you have a better chance of achieving it. I often give my students a 35mm slide mount painted flat black on one side white on the other. This method has been used for many years, mostly with a 4×5 frame card. I have used a larger 3:2 ratio cut out but it is far easier to carry around a small 35mm slide mount. So instead of using your camera use the slide mount to pre-visualize what you are going to shoot.
The critical part is knowing by instinct what you are going after and how you are going to get there. Very seldom do I make decisions while editing. I know before hand as I am shooting what I want. Part of my process is to decide before I shoot how I will crop, and post process the image. At this point it is instinctual. I know my camera and lenses so well that decisions on how the eventual image will look are done before I press the shutter. Now that being said, some tweaking in Lightroom may be required to gain that final vision.
People often ask me about my B&W work and do I shoot everything in color to start. Most of the time I will shoot in color so I don’t lose the option of having both. But I know beforehand what the final result will be. I like to shoot in B&W every once in awhile as it keeps me sharp and making my B&W pre-visualization sharp. With mirrorless cameras it is easier as you are looking at a B&W image in the view finder when set to monochrome.
Early morning light gives everything an incredible look.
Your Process
Once you have a repeatable process of making photographs you will begin to have repeatable results. If you learn one thing from this post its that last quote! I tell my students to develop there own repeatable process to making photographs. Let me explain. Do the same thing every time in the same order. Once you have this process down everything else becomes much easier. Here is my process which for you folks might be different.
Find your composition using slide mount or camera
Set your tripod up and mount the camera
Set your focus point
If using filters mount them and figure exposure
Check your composition and focus point
Make your first image
Check preview for exposure and focus
More exposures with different shutter speeds using live view
When I free form shoot, just walking about, my process is different when not using a tripod. I will try to make things easy by shooting in aperture priority and setting the ISO myself keeping in mind what my lowest allowable shutter speed is.
Leading lines – one of my favorite composition rules
Only use two or three composition rules
This may seem obvious to some but to others trying to use to many composition rules messes them up. I am hyper aware of only two. The Rule of Thirds and Leading Lines. My third go to is uneven numbers in a composition usually one or three. Simple and effective. There are tons of others which as far as I’m concerned are all just some form of my first two. So don’t get wrapped up in trying to find weird compositions just pick two or three and things will become a lot easier.
Practice
Just like anything else the more you do something the better you will become at it. I give my students things to practice on that will help them improve. My favorite is to have them tape their zoom lens on a certain focal length. My favorite is to make them shoot at 50mm only. This is a tough focal length since most people shoot with a 28mm as their main lens. Most zoom lenses are 28 – 70 or longer. Once you practice at one focal length you will start to see differently. Another thing I preach is to always have a camera with you. If you do you will always be ready for an image that just begs to be taken. Plus you will be making more images and therefore practicing more. So practice makes perfect is a great motto for photographers. Now that being said don’t practice the same thing all the time. Shoot different things to challenge yourself. Different focal lengths, different lighting, different subjects.
If you keep these five things in mind you are bound to become a more consistently good photographer. The hardest one of these five things is your process. Once you get this one thing down making great images consistently will become easier.
Fading afternoon light splashes across the autumn colored Essex marsh lighting up the iconic marsh house.
I have never been a big advocate of iPhoneography. But since some of the new photo apps do such a good job of toning and adjustment I am using my phone more and more. My go to app is the Lightroom Mobile app which I use on my phone and my iPad. I’t just like using Lightroom on my computer and gets better with every update. The image above was made as I was shooting images with a long lens and a friend wanted to know what it looked like. I pulled out my phone and made this image which was immediately synced with Lightroom. So when I got home and opened up Lightroom there was my image.
Rockport’s inner harbor lights up with a beautiful sunset.
The image above is one of those times when I was glad to have my phone with me. I was with friends and my camera was not with me. So out came my phone and inside the Lightroom app I was able to shoot in raw and then sync to Lightroom on my computer.
A Rockport Harbor sunset reflects in a window of the Sandy Bay Yacht Club.
After I made the shot in the harbor I started looking around for another shot of it and this is what I was faced with. Again the phone was ready for the task in raw inside the Lightroom Mobile app.
Rockport’s famous Motif #1 sits underneath a beautiful sunset at the end of August.
The only thing wrecking this image is the two ultra modern motor boats tied up in front of the Motif. This sunset was absolutely stunning with it’s different colors changing constantly. Again my phone was the only thing I had so out it came and I used the camera inside the Lightroom Mobile app to shoot in raw which gave me a great chance to get the tones I wanted from this image.
So if you use Lightroom CC Basic or Lightroom CC cloud you have access to the Lightroom Mobile app in the Apple app store. It costs nothing and it syncs up your phone photos to your Lightroom catalog as long as you turn on syncing. The mobile app hooks up to your phone when you activate it and allows you to shoot raw images. Inside the Lightroom Mobile app, when you set the app to Pro mode you are able to control the camera’s white balance, ISO, shutter speed, and exposure compensation. This is a huge deal! Imagine this, if you click on the little padlock it locks your exposure. Pretty impressive.
