I have been a bit sidetracked here lately with excursions far from the subject of photography. It’s good to be home again.

I have four great images for you today from four very different photographers.

I don’t know if it is possible to make a more perfect flight shot than this. A photographer named Nico made this capture and I am happy to say, he/she chose my Earth Images Flickr group to share it. Nico caught this Mute Swan perfectly with a 50/50 division (perhaps a crop) between bird and reflection. The obligatory trailing splash is also excellent.

If I could sidestep for a moment. I rarely write about the technical aspects of photography anymore. That’s partly because it is more fun to deal with the art of photography, but it’s also because I am not presently actively involved with photography, and I’m not sure I currently have the right to deal with those aspects of image making.

When I taught photography the most asked questions were always about exposure. Before my digital workshops,  most of those students who were serious about learning photography, shot transparencies or better said slides. The normal + or – exposure latitude of most slide films was 1/3^rd of a stop of light. In other words, you had to get your exposure within 1/3^rd of a stop, or forever hold your peace. You didn’t know what your image looked like, until you got it back from the lab. Then in most cases, you could not alter it. That’s a pretty hefty incentive to get it right, at the time you click the shutter. There is no such  reason to get it perfect today. A little this way, or a little that way, eh, I’ll see it on my monitor and make a better one, or I’ll fix it when I get home.  Still, things work better when you get most of your exposures right the first time.

Nico’s flight shot is also perfect in its exposure. The bird is white, as it should be, but it is full of detail. It is not washed out, and it is not gray.  Perfect. I do not know Nico, but I am going to pretend that he had worked out his exposure, and knew it was right.

One of the reasons that photography is both fun and challenging, is that you are taxed to bring so many elements together at one time. Exposure, sharpness, light, composition etc. I hope in some way, all aspects of the knowledge of  image making remain essential forever. Push button photographer/artists have tried to own photography since it began…..I just can’t seem to remember their names now.

Back to today’s images.

I love macro photography and Graeme Simpson created this detail rich picture of the “eye of the fly”. Making macro images was a favorite of mine, as there is nothing like being close and genuinely inside the world of your subject. Intimate and powerful.

With today’s cameras, true close-up photography is possible with birds and other animals even if they are some distance away. The cropping possibilities today allow us inside the lives of even more wild animals.

The incomparable Charles Glatzer gave us this intimate look at a Loon.

Landscape artist Ian Plant gave us this incredible abstract of the Nyiragongo Volcano in the Congo, Africa. Ian has been giving us spectacular images from most of the globe for some time now. He is incredibly versatile and that makes him a favorite of mine.

Abstract interpretations of natural phenomenon, allow photographers and their imaginations to run wild…..all while teaching a natural history lesson. Science and art, all in one gorgeous bundle.

God Bless,                                                                                                                                                      Wayne