Weekly Assignment: See Nature with Your Camera Lens

[PWS-Staff]

Find a place where you can spend 45 minutes to one hour working in peace. This location should have interesting subject matter for you to work with. Make 20 distinctly different pictures of the same subject matter. If you’re surrounded by forest, for example, don’t shoot in all directions. Identify and isolate one very specific part of the scene, or one very specific object, and make all your exposures only of that. Pick one tree, one rock outcrop, or one bunch of wildflowers.

As you make your compositions, pay close attention to how you first see it with your eyes. Don’t keep your eye in the viewfinder or on the LCD all the time. Notice the changes in how you see it with your eyes versus how the camera sees it. In particular, notice the sequence of seeing items discussed at the beginning of this chapter: bright objects first, then patterns, and then sharpness.

You should begin to understand that any scene or subject matter contains an infinite number of possible compositions. Remember, each of your photos should be distinctly different from one another. Post your first and last photos from the assignment on the Web site.

From "Nature Photography," by Nat Coalson

[InspiringFotos]

My trip to San Diego was my opportunity to take some nature pictures. Here at the resort that I was staying was a pond that had various types of ducks. One of them being the colorful mandarin duck. So, I decided to focus my photography of the duck interacting with nature.

Canon EOS Rebel T1i
Telephoto Lens
f/5.6
1/200s
ISO 1600
Focal Length 250.0 mm
Metering Mode - Spot