Today my husband and I took a drive – we have a cabin in Alta Sierra, and on the way there, at Greenhorn summit, a turn to the south will take you to Rancheria Road and Shirley Meadows. A turn to the north will take you – where? We didn’t know and I wanted to know. I also wanted to see if there were any fall colors to be seen, but we had to do this before the first snow, when the road would close.
This was not a trip for great photography. This was a snapshot trip. The purpose of this blog – or one of the purposes – is to help people take better photographs; in other words, how can you make your snapshots more interesting? So today I took a few snaps and put together some reminders of dos and don’ts and difficulties.
Stay alert, have your camera handy, and take photos from the car
Look what was on the side of the road. We pulled over quickly, I grabbed the camera (I was driving and my husband was keeping the camera in his lap) and took the photo through the windshield. I could see this guy was headed across the street so if I wanted a photo, it had to be fast. I see lots of deer on this road but very few bucks.
Why does the deer cross the road?
To get to Baby Buck, of course. This guy is cute! The photo is a little dark – I could correct it on photoshop – but I couldn’t arrange lighting. Baby Buck was there for a brief flash and I thought I did pretty well, considering.
Be wary of overused subject matter unless you have a reason for it
I hate to inject something akin to snobbery, but the photo up through the Sequoias, or up through the top of the palm tree, is so overdone that it isn’t even interesting to me if I take it. But this tree was interesting and I had a reason to take this picture. It’s a pine tree – but what a strange pine tree! That was it – no lower branches at all. There was a plaque on the tree near the bottom and if SP means sugar pine, that’s what this is. It seemed to be a protected tree of some sort out in the middle of the Sequoia National Forest. Even though I couldn’t get the entire tree in the frame for size, you can tell it’s a pretty tall tree. Which brings us to…
Remember to use something to show scale or perspective
This photo looks fuzzy, doesn’t it? That’s because it’s a fuzzy plant. I think there’s a plant called Lamb’s Ear that is soft and fuzzy but if this is it, didn’t know it grew in the forest. I took this close up to show the fuzziness but took another to show some scale.
It’s just a baby plant, or a small plant at any rate. You can pretty clearly see that those are pine needles around the plant, so we see that it’s a small little fuzzy plant, not a giant cabbage-sized plant.
Why does the tarantula cross the road? I don’t know, but it must have been Tarantula Time because we saw three of four crossing the road. We stopped, but the little buggers didn’t cross at convenient places so I had to be fast fast fast in case a car came.
So fuzzy-wuzzy here is a small sort of spider. He doesn’t look very menacing in this photo, does he? But a close-up gave some good detail. If I’d skipped the long shot I could have made him the Giant Spider from Space or something.
Lighting can be a problem
Beware the forest! Have you ever noticed how impossible it is to take good snapshots where there are dramatic contrasts of light and dark? Look at the Lamb’s Ear photos above – bright bright bright! Although it truly was a very pale green.
After driving for about 6 miles – a very slow, long six miles on a dirt road, sometimes washboard, sometimes with rocks and pits, we got to a place called Tiger Flat. We decided to have lunch here. It was beautiful! I’m in this picture. But the sky was so blue and the sun so bright and the shadows so dominant, that there was too much contrast to take anything representative of the area. In this case, there wasn’t much that could have been done aside from coming back at a different time (yep, we were there early afternoon, harsh light). I can’t really show this to anyone and expect them to say, “Wow, what a neat place.”
This was beautiful and you can tell. There are some fall colors in the background. But there is also giant glare from the sun on the lens. (My hood broke and I haven’t got another yet. I’m waiting b/c I’m getting a new camera.) So lesson: watch out for the contrast between shade and sun, and have a hood for your lens. If you get a really big one it’ll look impressive and people will have lens envy. This is only if you have a 35 mm SLR – with a point-and-shoot you don’t need a hood.
Notice details and take pictures
This log in the meadow was interesting so I took a close-up of the broken part. I didn’t get the texture I had hoped for, but it’s digital, so it doesn’t matter. I can delete it, tinker with it in photoshop, or maybe use it in a collage. The point is, take the picture and then if you don’t like it, delete it.
Look closely at the little things. This thistle still has hints of the purple color it once was.
I use my telephoto as a macro lens sometimes by stepping back from the subject and then focusing in closely. That’s why the background is blurred. But isn’t this pretty? I love the delicate hints of color.
Then the fluff intrigued me.
I think I’m going to print these three thistles and put them in the same frame as a triptych. In a muted frame I think they will be delicate and eye-catching. I’ll put the bottom one on the left because it will draw your eye into the triptych, the delicately-colored one in the center as the focus, and the other on the right to balance out the first one.
Now this is cool. This was like a spruce tree? The really pretty Christmas trees? Maybe they are firs. But it sure didn’t belong here – it’s the only tree like this I’ve ever seen in the forest. The sun was in my favor this time, because it gives the branches a snowy appearance. They were really a delicate green. But I like them like this and I’m keeping it.
Lastly,
Even unlikely subjects can make interesting photos
Road signs anyone? Signs can be interesting. And, um, unusual. Someone added an interesting detail to this beat up, bullet-hole riddled sign. It certainly caught our attention.
It was a fun drive overall. We found out that road came out in Sugarloaf, went down through Posey, and we could take Jack Ranch Rd. over to Glenville and back home from there.
