Through the Doorway - Mexico City

Things To Photograph While Your Travel Companion Is Shopping


Our poor, long-suffering travel companions! They don't always understand our compulsion to stop and take photographs. 

In all fairness, waiting for someone to stop - shoot - stop again - shoot something else - can become tedious after a few hundred clicks of the shutter.

But on those occasions when our companions are busy looking for bargains, photographers recognize that we have been granted the ultimate green light - guilt-free shooting time!

Through the Doorway - Mexico City

My suggestion: make the best of it before they finish at the checkout counter.


Camera:    Nikon D810
Lens:        Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G ED

Wishing you great light and meaningful moments!

Copyright 2016 Daniel R. South

www.dansouthphoto.com

All Rights Reserved

Trellis On A Beach - Puerto Vallarta

Wedding At Sunset

Trellis On A Beach - Puerto Vallarta

Camera:    Nikon D810
Lens:        Nikon AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G ED

Wishing you great light and meaningful moments!

Copyright 2016 Daniel R. South

www.dansouthphoto.com

All Rights Reserved

Dolphins on the Malecon

Puerto Vallarta

The Malecon is Puerto Vallarta's boardwalk, famous for its eclectic collection of statues.

Dolphins on the Malecon - Puerto Vallarta

These dolphins, in my recollection, form the only statue that doubles as a mini-fountain. The falling water provides a small zone of "air conditioning" to help offset the power of the Mexican sun.



Camera:    Nikon D810
Lens:        Nikon AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G ED

Wishing you great light and meaningful moments!

Copyright 2016 Daniel R. South

www.dansouthphoto.com

All Rights Reserved

McWay Waterfall in Black and White

Sea Of Tranquility

McWay Waterfall - Pacific Coast

McWay Waterfall in Black and White

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Big Sur, California


Camera:    Nikon D810
Lens:        Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

Wishing you great light and meaningful moments!

Copyright 2016 Daniel R. South

www.dansouthphoto.com

All Rights Reserved

Sunset Over Point Sur

The Race For Peak Light

A friend suggested that the Earth Color Magic blog shouldn't wrap up its year with a black and white photo. I realized that he had a point. So here, for my color appreciating friends, is one last entry for what has been a fulfilling and enjoyable 2015.

People sometimes find this hard to believe, but landscape photography is a fast paced activity. Subjects like mountains and coastlines don't move around, but the light and the atmosphere change constantly. It's not unusual to have to work fast to get the shots that you want.

The best color of a sunset, for instance, rarely lasts for more than a couple of minutes. In order to capture peak moments, the photographer needs to interpret changing conditions, get his gear into position, compose, focus, and execute the exposure quickly and accurately.

Sunset Over the Lighthouse at Point Sur

I was photographing a line of trees about a mile from the lighthouse when I realized that a terrific sunset was about to reveal itself. I grabbed my gear, jumped in the car, and drove up the road for a more promising shooting location - being mindful of traffic, of course!

The Lighthouse at Point Sur is one of my favorite West Coast subjects. It sits atop a massive rock that juts out into the relentless surf of the Pacific Ocean.

I set up the camera again in a spot where I could silhouette the lighthouse against the most colorful part of the sky. I pulled out a couple of my best lenses and raced to get as many shots as I could. 

This was one of my favorites. It reminds me of the great fun that I have had over the years chasing fantastic light along this magical stretch of the California coastline. 



Camera:    Nikon D810
Lens:        Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

Wishing you great light and meaningful moments!

Copyright 2015 Daniel R. South

www.dansouthphoto.com

All Rights Reserved

Pacific Dream

Tales From Monochromatic Oceans

Pacific Dream - Tales from Monochromatic Oceans

Camera:    Nikon D810
Lens:        Nikon AF-S Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR

Wishing you great light and meaningful moments!

Copyright 2015 Daniel R. South

www.dansouthphoto.com

All Rights Reserved

The Color of Night

Grand Church

Grand Church - New York City

Camera:    Nikon D810
Lens:        Nikon PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED

Wishing you great light and meaningful moments!

Copyright 2015 Daniel R. South

www.dansouthphoto.com

All Rights Reserved

Across The Street

Creative Perspectives

Photographers use a variety of terms to describe their lenses, and those terms are sometimes confusing.

Most people understand that a wide-angle lens can be used to "fit" a large space or object into the frame. But wide-angle lenses can have a profound effect on the appearance of small objects as well. 

Move in close to a small object with a wide-angle lens, and its size will be magnified with respect to the objects behind it. This effect is known as perspective distortion. 

Perspective Distortion - Wide-Angle Lens (24mm) - Near Objects Appear Larger

We can use perspective distortion creatively, but it requires the photographer to exercise caution in some cases. If you photograph someone's face with a wide-angle lens, for instance, their nose will look huge. 

Factoid: The mirrors on the side of your car are effectively wide-angle lenses. This is why they come with the disclaimer that "objects may be closer than they appear."


On the other side of the spectrum, we have telephoto lenses. Using a telephoto lens, we can fill the frame with a distant subject, effectively isolating it from neighboring objects that might cause distraction in the composition. 

Some people mistakenly refer to telephoto lenses as "zoom" lenses, i.e. lenses that let them  "zoom in" on the distant subject. Some lenses do feature both "zoom" and telephoto capabilities.

The important distinction is that zoom lenses can vary their focal length continuously. The photographer can zoom from wide-angle to telephoto, or from short telephoto to long telephoto. 

But many telephoto lenses - especially those used by professionals (at sporting events, for instance) - have no zoom capability. They are built to provide a single telephoto perspective. They still magnify and isolate distant subjects, but the magnification is not variable.

Distant Subject Isolated With A Telephoto Lens (183mm)

Between the expansive distortion of wide-angle lenses and the isolating compression of telephoto sits an unassuming and poorly understood lens called the "normal" lens.

Normal lenses are so named because they produce the "normal" perspective of the human eye.

This description confused me when I began to study photography. Human beings see a wide angle of view, much wider than somewhat cropped angle of view of the normal lens. But "normal perspective" doesn't describe angle of view. I describes the relationship of near to far objects.

The flower photo above demonstrates the perspective distortion of wide-angle lenses. Notice how small the next flower pot looks (right side of the photo) compared to the frame-filling size of the flowers that are directly in front of the camera.

When we take a photo with a normal lens, distant objects aren't miniaturized so dramatically. The natural perspective of our eyes is maintained.

Across The Street - The Perspective of the Normal Lens

In the photo of two motor scooters parked across the street from one other, the red scooter is about as far away as the second flower pot in the wide-angle flower photo. Notice that it's size is not reduced to the same degree. 

(The only distortion that we notice is the blurring of the distant cycle, a creative option chosen at the time of exposure. With a different aperture setting or focus stacking, both scooters could easily have been rendered in focus.)

Some photographers avoid the normal lens. They prefer the drama of wide-angle lenses or the isolating compression of telephoto lenses. The normal lens is popular in documentary photography where realistic perspectives are valued, as well as in fine art photography, where shooters look for expressive ways of rendering their subjects. 

Images captured with a normal lens stand out in part because of the LACK of a dramatic perspective. With a normal lens, photographs have the option to frame their subjects in a clear, unadorned way that communicates directly and simply without reliance on special effects.




Cameras:    Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Nikon D810
Lenses:       Various

Wishing you great light and meaningful moments!

Copyright 2015 Daniel R. South

www.dansouthphoto.com

All Rights Reserved