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ambitious_wenchI have to give credit for the title of this report to G. Dan Mitchell, a photographer whose work I admire and aspire to.
Sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake. Last night I was speaking with fuzzybunny about how difficult it is to shoot aspen. His response was "move around too much?"
I thought he was referring to the quaking that they are known for. Duh. My response was that they throw light around in a funny way.
A couple of guys I met at the Bridgeport Inn on Saturday morning warned me that yellow tends to throw off metering, and to underexpose by half a stop. Well, I'm more about EV adjustments than I am about choosing exposure by hand, but I knew what he meant.
He was right. But he left out something important. Aspens are tricksy buggers to photograph because they reflect light in odd ways. Backlighting is tough, especially with my little camera. It tends to flare and to get hazy looking, very contrary to what I find pleasing in an image. Sidelighting seems to work best. Frontlight is best for wide area shots.
Add to that a lack of experience shooting these coy beauties, and a lack of appropriate background. Now add the problem of how the leaves have two very distinct sides; the top side of the leaf has a distinct sheen to it, as well as the color component. The underside tends to show almost a dull white, like the inside of a lemon. The slightest breeze makes the leaves flutter, and this give the whole tree the "quaking" look. Damn tricksy to photograph, no matter what the light angle.
Shooting aspen takes patience, patience, patience. You have to stalk to find a pleasing composition, from the right angle in relation to the angle of the light, and then have to wait until any breezes die down.
Absolutely, without a doubt, a circular polarizer is a must-have item. Don't bother going out without one.
Aspens do reflect well on water. And they are stunning in B&W. Ansel Adams discovered this, and I am begining to appreciate it.
Sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake. Last night I was speaking with fuzzybunny about how difficult it is to shoot aspen. His response was "move around too much?"
I thought he was referring to the quaking that they are known for. Duh. My response was that they throw light around in a funny way.
A couple of guys I met at the Bridgeport Inn on Saturday morning warned me that yellow tends to throw off metering, and to underexpose by half a stop. Well, I'm more about EV adjustments than I am about choosing exposure by hand, but I knew what he meant.
He was right. But he left out something important. Aspens are tricksy buggers to photograph because they reflect light in odd ways. Backlighting is tough, especially with my little camera. It tends to flare and to get hazy looking, very contrary to what I find pleasing in an image. Sidelighting seems to work best. Frontlight is best for wide area shots.
Add to that a lack of experience shooting these coy beauties, and a lack of appropriate background. Now add the problem of how the leaves have two very distinct sides; the top side of the leaf has a distinct sheen to it, as well as the color component. The underside tends to show almost a dull white, like the inside of a lemon. The slightest breeze makes the leaves flutter, and this give the whole tree the "quaking" look. Damn tricksy to photograph, no matter what the light angle.
Shooting aspen takes patience, patience, patience. You have to stalk to find a pleasing composition, from the right angle in relation to the angle of the light, and then have to wait until any breezes die down.
Absolutely, without a doubt, a circular polarizer is a must-have item. Don't bother going out without one.
Aspens do reflect well on water. And they are stunning in B&W. Ansel Adams discovered this, and I am begining to appreciate it.