Newsletter No. 66: January 2011
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CONTENTS
- Looking Back at 2010
- 2011 – A New Year. A Renewed Focus. Two New Books in the Making
- Chilcotin Forest Fire: Part III. After the Burn
- Chilcotin Forest Fire: Part III. Let’s Talk Perspective
- Chilcotin Forest Fire: Part III. Pre-visualization
1. Looking Back at 2010The year 2010 was an extraordinary year, filled with creative energy. The Motherstone team worked with images, science, narrative and design, pulling all the threads together to take the project from a conceptual dream to a living reality. I am so grateful for their talents and so proud of all our accomplishments.
The book promotional tour was extensive and the response phenomenal. Most rewarding is meeting and interacting directly with so many of our audience. It’s almost like a giant ‘family’; amazing and almost unheard of in this day and age.
As the photographer and publisher, I could not have had a more rewarding experience. I only wish that all the team members could have felt this emotion in response to their efforts.
2. 2011 – A New Year. A Renewed Focus. Two New Books in the making.Where Will This Year’s Journey Take Us?
© Chris Harris
Photographer’s Notes: Canon EOS-50D.This image was made with settings of ISO 200; f-32; 0.5 sec; with a focal length set at 175mm. Photographs of roads are one of the top selling images in the world for they lead our imagination to the unknown. As this article is about the unknown, about two new books that will take us on journeys to unimaginable places, I thought it was the perfect image to use. I made this on a walk with my dog just down the road from where I live. I used a tripod to get maximum depth of focus (f-32). With a New Year comes new dreams. I feel twice as excited as ever, yet no older; how good is that!
I am using this month as a time for reflection and refocus. I wish to continue in the vein of my last two books; photographing and publishing with the intent of bringing the inherent Beauty of the Cariboo Chilcotin region of British Columbia to the world; and to inspire re-connection and responsible stewardship of the land which is our home through the art of photography. I believe these books will make a difference in how we live sustainably, and with your support they will.
I have had meetings with the two co-authors of my next two books and we are all very excited about the year(s) ahead. We will be fine-tuning the way we communicate with you in the hope that you can better join in on the journeys of discovery. Stay tuned over the next few months as we reveal the secrets of these new projects.
I am also using this month as a time for learning and inspiration. I will be attending three photo seminars and one Master Workshop with Canadian photographer, Freeman Patterson. Freeman has been an inspiration to me ever since I took a workshop with him in 1974. With my largest and most important book project about to begin, I am excited and looking forward to taking my photography to a higher and more creative level.
3. Chilcotin Forest Fire – Part III: After the Burn
Root Skeletons
© Chris Harris
Photographer’s Notes: Canon EOS-1Ds Mk.III. This image was made with settings of ISO 200; f-22; 1/8 sec; with a 14mm lens on a tripod. Normally I would use ISO 100 for minimum digital noise, but because I had a person in the image I raised it to ISO 200 to acquire a faster shutter speed. 1/8th sec. is still not a fast shutter speed so I asked Mike to be as still as possible. A small aperture of f-22 was used for max. depth of focus. Also, because the root channels were of greater importance to the story than the forest beyond, I used a wide angle lens and aimed it right down to my feet. Examine how your eyes move through the image space and decide for yourself whether I was successful in composing this story-telling image. When Mike Duffy and I entered a burned forest soon after it had experienced an extremely hot fire, we had no idea what we would experience or discover. From where I was photographing, I could hear Mike excitedly calling me through the charcoaled forest. I could tell by his voice he had made a significant discovery.
Sure enough, we had never seen anything like what we were looking at. These are the skeletal remains of a Douglas fir tree’s entire root structure. Nothing was spared of this very large and once proud Douglas fir.
Because of the significance of this natural history story (for one of my new upcoming books), I made two images of this landscape; one showing the human interest of Mike’s inquiring mind, studying what had happened, and another as a pure landscape for its artistic merit.
This discovery set the tone for what was to become one of the most exhilarating days for both of us; from both a natural history and a photographic perspective.
4. Chilcotin Forest Fire – Part III: Let’s Talk Perspective
A Rather Traditional Perspective
© Chris Harris
Photographer’s notes: Canon EOS-1Ds-MKIII. This image was made with settings of ISO 100; f-22; 1/20 sec; with a 14mm lens. Because I used a tripod, I was able to give priority to depth of focus (f-22) and ignore the slow shutter speed of 1/20sec. Hand holding at the above settings could have rendered the trees as unsharp. Due to the book promotional tour and the Christmas holidays, I had not photographed for some time. As I snowshoed into the burnt forest, I felt awkward, stiff and uncreative with my camera. Where to begin? In my mind I had pre-visualized images based on an overcast day, but it was sunny. Now what?
Finally, even though I knew they were nothing special, I just started making images – of anything! I tried different lenses. Gradually I began to see possibilities. I kept shooting.
Eventually I saw design and rhythm in the clouds, so I searched for the best possible arrangement of dead trees to work with the cloud pattern. I made the above image and I began to feel more creative and productive.
Mike drew my attention to a burned tree trunk that seemed ready to topple over with the slightest breeze. I tried different lenses and different perspectives but nothing worked. When this happens, I take a quick look at my “creative techniques” cheat sheet that I always carry in my pocket (you can refer to this in Newsletter #17 ). It was #4 on that sheet that triggered the “lie down – shoot up” perspective.
Chris at Work!Chris at Work 1
Chris at Work 2
© Mike DuffyI took the camera off my tripod and dropped into the snow. With a 14mm lens, I began searching for a composition that spoke to me. Mike, who happened to see me, and found my position amusing, took the above images and sent them to me the next day! I use them here for instructional purposes.
A Less Traditional Perspective
© Chris Harris
Photographer’s notes: Canon EOS-1Ds-MKIII. This image was made with settings of ISO 400; f-13; 1/320 sec; with a 14mm lens. It was too difficult and my hands were too cold to use a tripod for this image. So I compromised by using a higher ISO of 400. This enabled me to shoot at 1/320sec ensuring that the trees were sharp. From experience (or by using the preview button) I knew that f-13 with a 14mm lens provided enough depth of focus for all the trees to remain sharp. Perspective is one of the least talked about elements of composition. We usually think more of line, shape, texture and colour. Perspective, however, enables you to take greater advantage of all those elements by providing an unusual angle of view, and thus drawing more people’s attention to your unique way of seeing and perceiving the landscape.
5. Chilcotin Forest Fire – Part III: Pre-visualization
Creating a Sense of Mood
© Chris Harris
Photographer’s notes: Canon EOS-1Ds-MKIII. This image was made with settings of ISO 100; f-22; 1/500 sec; with a 24-105mm lens set at 58mm. Back in the days of film, I learned to pre-visualize possible image compositions long before I departed for my shooting location. I made notes of these composition ideas and referred to them frequently while photographing.
When I decided to revisit this forest in winter, I began to visualize possible images. The above image was one of them. All I needed was an overcast day to create it, and then I would underexpose the sky to generate this mood. In the days of film I would have used a 2-stop split neutral density filter to accomplish this but, with digital capture, I underexpose the sky during the developing stage in my digital darkroom. The outcome is basically the same.
Although the day started in sunshine, enabling me to capture the two blue sky images above, it later changed to overcast. These were the exact conditions I wanted to create both the image above and below. I was lucky!
The next time you plan a day of photography, try imagining different lighting scenarios and possible images you could create with each. You will get better with practice, and you will find yourself creating a greater variety of images during each and every outing. Good luck! Try it.
Creating a Sense of Mood
© Chris Harris
Photographer’s notes: Canon EOS-1Ds-MKIII. This image was made with settings of ISO 100; f-22; 1/500 sec; with a 24-105mm lens set at 60mm. Get notified when a new newsletter appears on this site