How to Take Great Outdoor Photos with Amanda Ray
Use Your Feet and Getting Good Prints
 Editor’s Note: Summer is here, and for many families that means fun – sunny trips to the beach, long weekends at the lake and lazy days of fishing. Thanks to digital cameras, anybody can capture these treasured moments in literally hundreds of snapshots. However, quantity isn’t quality. This week, Dave Morris of Birmingham, Alabama, an outdoor photographer for over 30 years and Brad Dale of Wolf Camera in Hoover, Ala., who’s been i n the photo business for 25 years, will tell us how to make the most of a point-and-shoot digital camera in the outdoors.
Use Your Feet:
Dale says, “Try moving closer or farther away, or to the left or right of your subject. Kneel, or lie down, or stand on a rock or log to give yourself some extra height. The most-important part of the camera is the part standing behind it. Take the time to think, and consider what may be a better scene, location or angle.
“If you get to an overlook and you see a worn-out place, you know that’s a shot that everybody has. Now, go ahead, and take that picture, because there’s a reason it’s popular. But al so, try to make that photo unique. Incorporate some foliage into the foreground. Maybe back up a little bit, and get that tree branch hanging in the sky. If sunset isn’t too far away, stick around, and capture it.” You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but take the time to experiment to take some unique pictures.
Also, waders are good for more than duck hunting. Take them with you on your fishing trips, and photograph your children, spouse and friends from outside the boat.
Take Your Photos from Camera to Paper:
You’ve returned from your trip. Out of hundreds of photos taken from a multitude of angles, lighting conditions and utilizing every option your camera possesses, you’ve chosen the very best to have made into prints. Rather than dropping them off at the nearest 1-hour photo shop, consider taking them to a quality lab, like Wolf Camera, where its employees will make a good photo great. Dale explains, “Photo chemistry is very important. Our labs have full-time employees with extensive training who keep an eye on the chemistry.”
In certain situations, you may want to have your prints made where your photos were taken. For example, photo labs in Hawaii have experience developing photos of the islands’ exotic green- and black-sand beaches, and they know what they need to do to make those prints look right. Ansel Adams, the internationally-known photographer, once said, “Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.” When you reach the right place at the perfect moment, you want to know all you can about the tools at your disposal.
Tomorrow: Underwater Photography and Four Cameras for Outdoorsman |
