Caught in the middle……of the day:  I love working at the edge of light. When I traveled, and the middle of the day came, I either drove to get to my next destination, cruised for wildlife, scouted shots for later on, or on rare occasions created landscape images. Why did I create landscape pictures in mid-day? Because I was at locations that I might not get to at the edge of light. In fact, in many circumstances I would never be here again. As the years rolled on I would actually create scapes in late morning or early afternoon only to get a new perspective on a place that I had already worked early or late in the day. It is all beautiful and it all needs to be told and shown. It is easy to get those photos published but more importantly it is good to show our planet in all kinds of light.

When I shoot an image dripping in color, I admit that I usually maximize the effect of those more colorful areas. By that I mean I employ compositional techniques to feature those colors and that will “deliver” the image to the viewer. I will do that in sunny day landscapes as well. One thing that can make a mid- day image more powerful, is a blue sky. Set that sky off with some white clouds…and it can be pretty, even if it is really an “old school” style of image making. Early and late light landscapes have become so much the norm, that you will never be given applause for blue sky shots. That is okay and the secret to having them accepted is to mix them with the gold and red of dawn/dusk. Suddenly a nice comp and a pretty blue sky can return to their rightful place in the world of landscape photography.

The first image is that of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and the second is the Badlands of South Dakota. I have made images of that Michigan shoreline at the very edge of light before, and I have no shortage of Badlands photos in early/late light, as well as under stormy skies. Variety is good.

Growing up:  We are reaching the time of year when a lot of kit foxes, including Red, Gray, Swift, and Desert, will be reaching that 75% point in their growth.  They are getting big but they still have their beautiful baby fur. Photographically I think that is one of the most interesting fazes in the life of a fox.  The first shot you see below is an adult animal in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  The next fox was photographed in Illinois at the end of June and is getting that rangy look to it.  It is a few months from full growth and still has that tight and curly summer fur that will begin to lengthen in September.  Covering the life cycle of wild animals was always one of my favorite things.

Mammal Tale (tail):  There are always issues with the tails of mammals.  Critters with long tails like this Colorado Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel leave you with some options. Full “tail inclusive” pictures with a very small squirrel, a nice mid-range full body shot like you see below, or really tight close-ups.  I had plenty of time with these people friendly critters, so I easily created all three.  Normally the all-inclusive shot or the tight portrait would be my preference but I enjoy the mid-range images with these guys despite the missing “tail” …….end of the tale……So to speak.

In Flight:  A few years ago I caught this Forster’s Tern sort of pausing in mid-air.  The photographer (me) did his job.  I stopped the action at an interesting moment. I caught the correct part of the bird in sharp focus.  My exposure is right on for a balanced black & white bird.   Still time and equipment move on.  A newer high mega pixel camera with a critical sensor that shows no flaws, and allows the photographer to bump up the ISO when needed, would have been an improvement.  A better (newer) camera body would have allowed me to increase that ISO a little bit, which would have allowed me to catch both wings as sharp as the body.  Despite the fact that I shot this image at 100 ISO it still shows minor noise in the dark but not black areas of the bird. That would not be an issue even at 640 ISO with several of today’s camera bodies. In fact I removed some noise from the sky. A noise free image would have meant that after I got home I could have edited the bird to a little bit lighter tone without fear of seeing more noise. This would mean a slight bit of over exposure but there would be some detail in the black face of the tern.  This image is a slight crop, but even a slight crop magnifies noise and other flaws with these older cameras.

The point I make is for you pros out there to manage your business to purchase new equipment every few years.  In particular camera bodies and software.  Software programs do change and it can help to keep all of those files made with older cameras relevant, via revamping in the editing process.

Excuse Me!!!  When I was at Arches N.P. in Utah I made a lot of shadowy images that were dripping in color.  There’s nothing like early/late light with sandstone and blue sky. Just the same I always felt that this arch was giving me the finger. No matter how many times I passed this spot it was always the same.  You can’t please everybody, even land arches.

I’ve shown this photo before and come on now……you know you’ve thought the same thing.