Today’s post will remain short and sweet with one image each, from four great photographers.

I just had to start with this Joseph Rossbach landscape. Good Golly!!  This image is winning awards all over the place. It is also slated to hang in the Smithsonian Institute. The most amazing part of this picture is that it is just another day at the office for Joseph.  He does this on a regular basis.  As is frequently the case, this is was created in a wilderness setting.

There are two things I have said repeatedly over the past 20 years. It’s about the light, and the careful use of shadows makes for powerful images.

Many years ago a camera club got a hold of one of my landscape pictures, and criticized it because there was a shadow in the scene.  I was told that you cannot have a shadow in your landscape, it will ruin it……..period. This is why I often refused offers to judge camera club competitions.  There were members in those clubs, who were new to photography and might believe that load of crap.  I imagine that those days are gone in most camera clubs.  I hope so.  Can you even conceive of anybody suggesting that the picture below is sub-par, because of the shadows?

Suzanne Mathia is the photographer of this artful super close-up of a Barn Owl.  Suzanne is a fine landscape artist as well. 

Lately I have been seeing some amazing wildlife actions pictures.  Not only extremely sharp, frame filling pictures, but no sign of artificial sharpening, no noise, no artifacts etc.

It is probably not fair to place this dreamy Donald Wither’s b&w landscape in the same issue with our first image. I love it so here it is.  I would classify this as a semi abstract.  Donald is a protégé of Art Wolfe so I imagine there is more to come.

One more time I bring you wildlife photographer Marina Scarr and another of her great baby and parent shots of Sandhill Cranes.   Marina is amazing.

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For those of you who enjoy photo how-to blogs that include information on both the technical and artistic side of photography, along with information on software editing,  John Shaw is your guy. John is a legend in teaching and his blog is one of the most heavily read in the business.  As a bonus you frequently get to see some of John’s latest work.  Oft times those images are made around home just days before he shares them.

The fact that John remains so well-known as a teacher, despite the fact that he completely ignores social media, says a lot for his talents, and what seems to be his general outlook on how to handle “being”  a nature photographer.  His life is his life, and he does not see the need to report every moment of his day to the rest of us. It’s kind of refreshing.

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The one constant I see from the world’s top outdoor photographers is that they make pictures every single chance they get.  Not only does practice make (almost) perfect, but it shows their everlasting love for this craft.  Depending on the year, in the past I have gone from two hours a week dedicated to photography during a time when my day job work week was averaging 70 hours per week, while I was sharing the personal care duties of my elderly father, to every day in better times.  Over one stretch during 2007, I made images for about 95 straight days, give or take a day.  I was a fulltime photographer at the time, but I certainly didn’t have to shoot that often.  I did it because whenever I skipped a day, I got that empty feeling in the pit of my stomach.  In fact from 2005-2009, I am quite sure that I averaged five days a week in the field. I did my office work at night.  I made pictures on sunny days, cloudy days, stormy days, windy days, quiet days and sometimes at night.

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I appreciate you visiting us at Earth Images,                                                                                                                                            Wayne