Photos and blog from ESPN Outdoors photographer James Overstreet
Hello I”m ESPN Outdoors photographer James Overstreet.
A lot of photographers have blogs and this may or may not result in being any more unique than many of the others.
The thought is to cover a range of topics…travel, gear, ‘day in the life’ kind of stuff. Techniques on how to become a better photographer, a few Photoshop tutorials, workflow discussion, reviews and opinion pieces.
However, I’m a photographer, not a writer, so the emphasis will be ‘Photos of the Day’ and the stories behind the images.
You can view my photo website at www.outdoorshooter.org
Thanks for visiting!
Regards,
James
Become a better photographer without going broke – Part 5
You must get past the camera
To reach your potential you must realize the mass of metal, plastic and glass you hold in your hand, known as a camera, is just a tool. A tool that should be intelligently controlled by you, the user.
How well you make the in-camera decisions will determine how accurate or pleasing the recorded image will be.
Accomplished photographers are not confined by the twisting of dials and curiosities of the camera. After a quick assessment of available light, they make fast/accurate decisions, while spending more of their time considering compositions and being creative.
Amatuer photographers spend too much time confounded by the choices presented by the camera. This waste of mental energy and indecision is THE emphasis while they are shooting. They struggle to get past the camera to place the emphasis on creativity.
When you first began to drive a car, you quickly learned the gas was on the right, brake on the left. One made the car go faster, the other slowed it down. You turn the steering wheel to the left, the tires move left…the car follows left. You quickly learned how an action on your part effected what the car would do.
The camera is no different once you reach a certain familiarity. Once you learn how an action on your part produces a predictable result, you reach the liberating level of ‘taking command of the the camera’. Then you are free to place the emphasis on creativity.
The quickest way to ‘take command of the camera is an understanding of exposure.
There are three things, when combined, determine exposure:
Shutter speed – indicates how long the camera shutter
remains open to let light onto the camera sensor
Aperture (f-stops) – refers to the size of the opening inside the
lens that the light must go through to reach the sensor
ISO - The camera sensors sensitivity to light
Once you begin to learn how a change in any of these three settings effects the other, you will become a better photographer.
Nothing you could ever purchase will surpass in value, an understanding of exposure. Learn about it! Do a search, buy a book and read about it, BEFORE you buy one more piece of camera gear. If you don’t understand it, you don’t fully understand the gear you own now.
Canon and Nikon can’t help you…you are wasting your money.
Photo of the Day – “Last to the Roost”
One of those instances when the sun was huge on the horizon.
When you get this kind of sunset you can only hope you are blessed to have a camera in your hand. This is one in a series of photos taken while ducks flew to a roosting area near Slovak, Arkansas.
Taken with the Canon Mark III, Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS, 1/8000ths
All my images have been ‘Photoshopped’
There it is, it’s out there. I must confess to having ‘Photoshopped’ every photo I’ve taken with a digital camera. Dreadfully guilty since version 5.0
But, I’ve also been guilty of sneaking around in the dark, feeling my way around like a mole, while processing thousands of photos in a darkroom. It may upset the purists and poetic waxers of film, but if we’re talking post-processing preferences, I would walk on my lips through the broken red glass of a darkroom light bulb to get to my laptop and Photoshop program.
There are huge debates raging in the photography community about how much Photoshop, is too much. Editors are trying to decide if and how to pull the reins in on post-processing, photography forums are filled with heated arguements between peers. A few weeks ago I came across a website dedicated to hating on a well-known landscape photographer, saying he was RUINING!.. landscape photography as we know it! He, with his dreadful overuse of this program.
People that don’t know photography know just enough about the word ‘Photoshop’ to assume it is a diabolical tool used by magazines such as ‘National Intruder’ to make some celebrity look like they have gained 80 pounds, or assumed the head of a goat.
Rational thinkers consider Photoshop as just another tool. Take a hammer for instance…you can use it to drive a nail, you could use it to beat the hell out of somebody. The point being, everybody must decide how they will use it.
Most real-world photographers use the program to simply process their images. We use it to crop, add a little saturation, maybe bump up the contrast, sharpen things up a bit…call it good. If you’re shooting JPEG’S, your camera does those same functions in-camera. Photographers that shoot RAW files choose to make those processing choices using Photoshop.
If you peel away the madness, every digital image is taken and then made in one form or another. You have to figure out what your defintion of ‘made’ is.
In the end, I suppose it’s just another choice in ethics. Mine may be different than yours, each of us must live with our finished product.
I can only promise you this, you’ll never view a photo I’ve taken of an animal that isn’t wild, and you’ll never see a UFO in any of my landscapes, unless of course there was a UFO.
Hey! Maybe that would get me the cover of ‘National Intruder’.
become a better photographer without going broke – Part 4
An on-going series on how to become a better photographer without going broke, by learning to use your eyes, your feet, and your brain.
Planning ahead of time and out-working the other guy…
Most of the really good pro shooters I know have one thing in common that makes them better than most. And no, I’m not talking about a bag full of the latest gear. They plan better and work harder. It’s no different than any other profession in that regard.
Great wildlife and landscape photographers…
- Are willing to out-walk the average guy to get to the best shooting locations, arrive earlier and stay later.
- While on-site, they stay until they work a scene to it’s fullest potential.
- Know where the sun will rise and when.
- Get up early, knowing the best light is early light and wildlife movements are at their peak.
- Regardless of the added weight to their packs, they pack in temporary blind material when shooting skittish wildlife.
- Same with their camera gear, they won’t leave the tripod or a lens they may need because of the added burden.
- Have alternate shooting locations in mind to get the most out of a trip.
Well before an event ‘goes live’, sports and event shooters start their day accessing the venue and variables that may inhibit what they need to accomplish.
- Invision how the venue will change with the arrival of masses of people
- Consider rival photographers while scouting shooting positions.
- Take note of where the participants will enter and exit the venue.
- Have a clear understanding of where their credentialed access or permission allows them to roam.
- Meter light and consider an in-camera strategy if the light changes once the event is underway.
- Pre-determine alternate shooting positions and know the route they will use to make the move.
- Enter the venue early, stake their ground while other photographers sit in the bowels of an arena or the media room bumping their gums.
- Pre-determine the lens choices for each shooting location
It doesn’t matter if you’re shooting a wedding, a rodeo, tractor pull, football game, concert, or your kids soccer game…Thinking your way through a shoot, planning ahead and working a bit harder will make you a better photographer.
Photo of the Day – July 27
Hiked ‘Horseshoe Trail’ in the Ouachita Mountains this morning, in never-ending mission to stay in some kind of shape while swelling my left knee to the size of a football. But there must be sacrifices made to bring back the ‘Photo of the Day’.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, hiked the same trial a few days ago and had planned to take photos of a waterfall about halfway along the trail. Problem was, no water. The area received heavy rainfall yesterday so it was rocking pretty good this morning.
There was a young boy back there doing what young boys should be doing on a nice summer day…fishing:
Photo of a smaller cascade along the trail:
Become a better photographer without going broke – Part 3
An on-going series on how to become a better photographer without going broke, by learning to use your eyes, your feet, and your brain.
“From here you would need the Hubble Telescope attached to your camera to get anything close to a full-frame picture of that critter.”
That was the thought crossing my mind when this farmer was showing me where he had been seeing a world class whitetail buck cross the corner of one of his fields every morning. Thing is, this guy is a pretty danged good photographer…and he wanted a close photo of this monarch in the worst way. The jist of his complaint was not owning a lens with enough focal length to take the photographs he wanted to take! The deer was just too far off the ROAD.
I’m telling you, the little devil on my shoulder wanted me to ask him how well the recovery from having his feet amputated was going. The guy owned all the land we were looking at, so he had access…and is in perfectly good health. Add to that, I know this fella owns a 400mm lens. He could have gotten into position to shoot his full frame photo without spending a dime.
But his is a common complaint, “If only I had the money to buy that monster-telephoto cannon”.
If it’s not feasible for you to drop $6000 or more on a lens there’s another option. But you won’t find it by shopping Canon or Nikon…they don’t sell hiking boots. You need to move physically closer to your subjects.
Save some money…use your feet.
Become a better photographer without going broke – Part 2
An on-going series on how to become a better photographer without going broke, by learning to use your eyes, your feet, and your brain.
Spent awhile crusing through some Flicker accounts the other day, reading comments, checking out travel photographs from different users, etc. While there were some very nice photos, there were many more that made one think, “Man what a shame, if only the photographer had chosen their background/foreground a litte more wisely”. Here’s three that come to mind:
- A guy standing near some landmark with a telephone pole running out the top of his head
- Some really great lightning photos, complete with a handrail from the deck the photographer was shooting from
- Family standing together at Disney World with about 1/3 of the Magic Kingdom showing
You would think being aware of the background and foreground would be simple enough, but I think it’s a learned behavior. If it were’nt you wouldn’t see so many photos that demonstrate the photographer was oblivious to one or the other, or both. The problem seems to be, folks get so locked into their subject they forget about the entirety of the scene.
The three photos above are all easy fixes with just a bit of thought before the shutter was plunged…
- The telephone pole running from the top of the guys head would go away if the photographer used his feet to move left or right.
- Lightning guy’s photos would have have went from good to great if he would have raised the tripod or moved forward to eliminate the distracting handrail
- The photographer shooting the family in front of the Magic Kingdom would have had an absolutely great background if they would have shot wider, or moved backwards
The first two things I do while accessing a scene is a quick check of my ISO (a discussion for another day), then the foreground and background.
If the foreground or background is distracting, move left or right, up or down to change the angle. If the background just totally sucks and can’t be used, you may need to move forward or zoom tight. If all else fails and tight isn’t applicable, shoot wide open attempting to blur the background by shallowing the depth of field.
The idea is develop an awareness of the foreground/background…it quickly becomes a good habit. The end result is better photographs.
Never let them hear you shoot
I sat in a flats boat a few months ago in Key West, wedged between R.T. Trossett and Sandy Moret, two of the greatest saltwater anglers of all-time. Trosset holds some 130 IGFA world records, Moret, a legendary Florida Keys guide and owner of Florida Keys Outfitters, has probably caught more bonefish with a fly rod than any man in history.
Trosset poled the boat from an elevated platform near the stern, while Moret stood on the bow, fly rod in hand… both scanning the flats of the Florida Keys for bonefish. It was a fascinating day of listening to stories from great fishing destinations the world over. There were stories of travel and fighting fish in Belize, Christmas Island, and New Zealand, just to name a few.
Bonefishing is a stealth endeavor, so I moved quitely about the boat taking photos, documenting these two legends of fishing doing what they do best. This was one of those shoots where you just shutup and shoot.
The day ended with Trossett reaching into the cooler, offering the photographer an obligatory cold Corona to celebrate a day’s fishing in the Florida Keys. The photographer politely answered in the affirmative.
Coverage of the ESPN Saltwater Series: http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/saltwater/index
Photos of the Day – From a hike along the Ouachita River
Had some time off this month, but it’s hard for me to take a very long break from shooting photos. Luckily I am blessed to live close to some very scenic places, one of them being the upper stretches of the Ouachita River. The area is very popular with the canoe and kayak crowd, and I’ve spent the last three afternoons photographing them exhibiting their craziness in one of the shoals in the river.
Today I stopped to take a few photos of the kyakers doing their thing, then moved along the river looking for more subtle things to shoot.
