Salt Fork Images

Congratulations Bearcats!

2011-12-19T20:05:00.004-06:00

The Aledo High School Bearcats won the Texas 4A Division 2 State Championship in football last weekend.... for the THIRD time in a row! The game was played at Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington and the final score was Aledo 49 - Manvel 28. Way to go boys!

Chance kicks a PAT.

Todd runs back an interception.

Rachael busts a move.

Matt hands off to Johnathan.

Champions again!

Congratulations, Bearcats!

Night Tracks

2011-12-06T18:12:00.004-06:00

It was not a sound I had ever heard. I lay perfectly still.

In my mind I had already subtracted the sound of the nearby river coursing its way around granite boulders, their rounded surfaces upsetting the intent of the ice cold water. I eliminated the wind in the aspens above. That left something I couldn’t identify. Something dark. Something deeply disturbing.

I lay perfectly still. Scared still. Terrified still.

I counted the seconds as they slipped by and then realized it was my own heartbeat that I was counting. The pounding echoed inside my sleeping bag. I would have slid deeper into the down bag but I dared not move. I feared that the pounding in my chest - if not the sound of it then certainly the vibration - would alert whatever had made that noise.

I would have given anything for one of those fancy rolling camper trailers - the kind you see rolling down the interstate and I suspect never too far from it. Even a tent would have provided some level of protection from this dread creature whatever it was. Not tonight though. Tonight it was nothing but me and a sleeping bag with ten billion stars overhead - twinkling with laughter as I lay paralyzed in fear. The moon disappeared hours earlier and I was now straining with eyes as wide as saucers hoping to gather enough light to learn what made that noise.

My mind raced through the catalog of sounds I’d heard in the mountains over too many years to recall. I knew the grunt of a buck deer tending a willing doe. I knew the sound of an irritated moose raking his antlers on a willow sapling. I even knew the horrible sound of a grizzly gorging himself on an unfortunate member of the elk herd too old or too sick to keep up. Tonight was different, though. Tonight’s sound was deep - dark - emanating from somewhere below reality, somewhere possibly below sanity.

Time crept by as I strained to hear it again, strained to see it. It was out there. It was waiting for my next move - with a patience not found in the human race. No, this had to be something wild. Something horrible. I was sure of it.

After what seemed like hours I decided that my continued existence depended on getting away. I had to make my move. Slowly I tightened the muscles in my legs and arms hoping that the blood would flow and that the fibers of my being wouldn’t fail in my getaway. I had laid so perfectly still for so long that I feared my strength was gone. I feared that I would leap from my sleeping bag only to crumble flat to the ground, easy prey for the taking.

I drew my legs slowly, silently, under me until like a compressed spring I was ready to explode.

Silence.

Then I heard it again. Terror, followed by more silence.

I remembered my flashlight. Gently I slid my hand under the edge of my sleeping bag where I had stored the trusted light. I knew it would kill my night vision. I also knew that it would have the same effect on whatever -- or whoever -- was out there. Whoever. This was the first time I had considered the possibility that the noise - that awful, horrible noise - had come from a person. Another human being intent on causing harm - or worse.

Who could want to hurt me? What had I done to anyone? I wished it was a bear. I prayed it was not a person. I didn’t want to consider the possibility that there could be a reason behind the horrible things that were about to happen. I desperately wanted it to be a wild animal - any animal - because that meant there would be no evil involved. And the thing I feared the most was evil in whatever form this part of mankind had shaped it.

There was no doubt that I had heard a sound. It was too dark to see in front of me and I had not maneuvered to see what was behind - though it was too dark there as well. The only other sense I could call on was my nose. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of this before. Perhaps I had not been breathing but now, suddenly, I became acutely aware of a piercing odor.

The smell of the mountains is distinct. The night air is cool - even in this warmest part of the summer. The pungent aroma of wildflowers had filled the air earlier as I setup camp. I could even smell a bit of freshly cut alfalfa from the valley several thousand feet below me. But now it was different. Again the catalog of memories. Elk musk? No. Moose dung? No. Was this smell human? Possibly. I remembered a train ride many years earlier in Denmark where I discovered that European bathing habits didn’t suit my smelling habits. Again, not the same.

The breeze was coming from behind me as I lay on my right side and I reasoned that whatever it was that made that horrible noise had to be upwind of me - if indeed the noise and the smell belonged together.

Three, two, one. I decided to count down in my mind before springing forward away from what had to be instant death.

Three, two, one. I repeated the words in my mind, too scared to move.

And then it happened....

Sailing through the air, time stood still. I could almost see myself in slow motion - the volume muted. My legs had propelled me with an adrenaline laden force I had never before experienced. I was airborne in a general direction away from where I thought “it” was when my trajectory suddenly changed.

WHACK!

Minutes passed. Hours passed. Or, maybe it was just minutes. I’m not sure.

The next thing I knew was that my eyes were burning and my head was pounding. Whoever was beating on my head with a club needed to stop soon or I was really going to get upset. I tried to lift my head up to look around but collapsed in a pile in the damp grass. Slowly it came back to me. Something had scared me. Something had caused me to rocket out of my sleeping bag in the dark. Something had stopped my flight in midair.

My eyes began to focus as the burning was relieved somewhat by a continuous stream of tears and a lot of rubbing. It was daytime. And judging by the intensity of the sun in my eyes, it was well past midmorning. I had slept for hours - though I don’t really count it as sleep when you are knocked out cold.

The first thing I noticed other than the level of pain in my head was that I had become somewhat wrapped around the base of a small tree. I ran my fingers through my hair only to discover a bulge whose size and shape could only mean blunt force trauma. I could also feel the dried blood encrusted on the side of my face. Had I been attacked? And left for dead? I jerked around quickly to see if my assailant might still be there waiting to finish me off. But there was nothing. Nothing - except a single line of blood staining the trunk of my companion tree.

As sanity displaced the fog in my head, I concluded that the pounding I felt in my brain was from the bump on my head. It was not much in the way of deductive reasoning but it was all I could manage. I also began to realize that the tree must have been the source of my trauma - at least the part on my head. It was starting to come back. Something scared me. Something had caused me to rocket out of my sleeping bag in the dark. The tree had ended my drama.

But what made the noise? What was it that smelled so horrible?

I slowly pulled myself up. First to my knees and then painfully to my feet. I looked around but everything looked like it did the night before. My sleeping bag was still where I’d unrolled it right next to the small tree with the blood stain. My backpack, still zipped with my tripod hanging on the side, lay undisturbed. I looked down my backtrail and could see that my food bag was where I’d left it - high enough to be out of reach of the pesky black bears that hang out in this area.

The pain was beginning to subside but the questions all remained. I began to look around for clues - signs of wild animals or maybe footprints from some unknown evildoer. About 40 yards up the trail from my campsite and a few steps off to the side, hidden under some debris that had probably piled up during the last snowmelt, I started to unravel the mystery. I couldn’t tell for sure what it was but there was no doubt that it was dead. The stench as I moved downwind was unmistakable. It was like a kick in the stomach - I recoiled violently. I quickly moved around to the other side for a better look away from the windblown path of the horrible smell. It was the carcass of a small elk, partially rotten, mostly devoured, almost completely hidden under a tangle of branches and rotting logs.

I stepped back and was immediately aware that I had trespassed into the feeding area of a large carnivore. I remembered the wind being strong the night before - strong in the direction from my campsite toward the horrible cache. I also realized that the wind had died down about midnight and the breeze had started to swirl as the night air cooled and began to sink to lower elevations.

What kind of animal would have hidden its kill? And was that what had made the sound that had ended my restful night after a long day’s hike?

I circled the site a couple more times looking for tracks that would tell me what beast had done this. Twice my heart jumped to its new place in my throat when I saw tracks - tracks that I quickly realized were my own. I decided it was time to get smart and get out of there. No need to press my luck. It didn’t really matter what had killed this elk. If it found me messing with its prize, well, I might just be next.

I rolled up my sleeping bag as quickly as possible. I ran back down the trail and cut the rope - there was no time for untying knots - and lowered my food bag that had been suspended high above. I gathered the rest of my things and quickly moved up the trail past the rotting elk. I had gone about a hundred yards when I slammed on the brakes. Right there in front of me - right in the middle of the trail - was one giant footprint. It was headed to my left, probably having come up the bank from the river below.

It was making sense now. I turned back to look at where I’d been. I had not smelled the carcass the night before because of the wind direction. When the wind shifted during the night, the smell had made its way into my camp. When I awoke to strange noises, the shifting wind had also protected me from the meat eater that had made this track.

The track - a large pad with four giant toes - was definitely not a bear, but that was not a particularly comforting thought. The black bears that frequented that area were almost never aggressive as long as you stayed away from the cubs and they were generally more afraid of people than they needed to be. I guess it was comforting to know that it wasn’t a grizzly bear, though there hadn’t been any confirmed sightings of grizzlies in this mountain range in over fifty years. Of course there were reports from tourists every year down at the gas station about giant grizzlies they’d seen. But all of them turned out to be color-phased black bears, usually cinnamon, sometimes blonde.
Definitely not a bear. No, THIS was a canine track. At first glance I thought mountain lion but this track had claw marks and cats don’t leave claw marks in their tracks. After studying the track for about three milliseconds, I knew this was not a coyote track. This track was wolf. Almost five inches from toe to heel, this was the track of an adult - probably male - wolf.

Wolves were not a part of my experience. They’d been reintroduced ten or more years ago in Yellowstone but that was hundreds of miles away. Was it possible that a pack had made it this far?

My mind and my heart raced together. I looked a little farther ahead and found more tracks - a whole wolf pack had passed through this spot. I had been sleeping less than a hundred yards from a pack of wild beasts - wild killing machines. I had been sleeping only 40 yards from the rotting elk they wanted. Had they killed it and hid it there for later? Was it a mountain lion kill and they stumbled on it just like I did?

Was this what I had been DREAMING about?

Suddenly the fear was gone and my professional instincts kicked into high gear. I pulled out my camera and started documenting the previous presence. Never in the mountains without a camera, I was especially glad that I had packed the entire complement of lenses. I shot every conceivable angle of as many of the tracks as I could find. I noted the dimensions of most of the tracks and took lots of shots of the tracks with a coin or two located nearby for scale. It was exhilarating. Not only was I documenting the presence of a pack of wolves in new territory, but it was now a very real possibility that I could get actual photographs of the pack.

My previous camping plans drifted away with the mountain breeze. I was now on a quest. This was better than the elk rut - better even than the time I stalked the mountain lion with the three kittens. Wolves. Twice before I’d planned trips to Yellowstone to photograph the wolf packs and twice I’d been thwarted by family responsibilities. I’ll never forgive my sister for giving birth that week back in ‘02 - even though she named the kid after me. And then there was the next year when Granddad got sick. He would have loved the photos I was taking. Many times he told me about hunting wolves as a boy. Growing up in sheep country, his perspective was a little different on things like this.

My thoughts turned back to the task at hand. I’d need a plan. I pulled out my topo quad and started work. Quick study of the map showed all the surrounding features - river, saddle, cliffs, meadow. I oriented myself with the compass and the map and began working out the details of an ambush. I knew what it took to bag a trophy - I’d hunted all my life. You had to think like your quarry and you had to anticipate its needs. Food, water, cover, “companionship” - that pretty much summed up the needs of most animals.

This time it would be different, though. I’d given up the rifle and the bow in favor of the camera a few years ago. It wasn’t a change in sensibilities. It was just a change. I’d found the camera more challenging. The way I saw it, I had to do all the things I did before plus make it all happen when the light was just right. It was infinitely more difficult. I had worked on my new craft in the parks. Yellowstone and Grand Teton were great practice. Lots of animals and some of them weren’t bashful. Again, this would be different. This was a wild place. I was on their turf and they did not have to tolerate me. In fact, they could eat me if they had the notion.

My mind went back to the night before. The noise. Was it the wolf pack I heard? I concentrated hard to remember. It was a deep, mournful sound. Perhaps it was a howl. Maybe it was a signal from the alpha to the rest of the pack, its deep meaning hidden forever from human intelligence. Now that I knew what it was, it was less scary and more exciting. At least that’s what I told myself.

I went back to the elk carcass, careful about where I walked and what I touched. This was now my bait pile and I would need to treat it very carefully. No human scent. I opened my backpack and pulled out the scent killer spray I carried for times like this. I sprayed it on my boots just like those crazy eastern whitetail hunters. They swore by it and I’d had pretty good luck with it last year during the elk rut. My proof was on the cover of Elk Hunter’s Journal - my first cover photo.

By now it was mid day. My objective was to get myself concealed in a place where the wind would not betray me and then wait. Remembering the previous evening, I moved around the carcass to a spot downwind about a hundred yards. I wasn’t worried about the wind shifting after dark. I was hoping for a shot in the daylight - hoping that the pack would return - hoping my Three Stooges imitation from the night before had not spooked them away forever.

I waited.

Minutes turned into hours. Nothing - except a couple of picas, a ground squirrel, and a symphony of songbirds. I was definitely in the right spot - the smell was horrible. I was downwind from the carcass but hopefully far enough away to intersect the path of the wolves.... if they returned.

I checked my watch. 7:30pm. I knew it had to be getting close to dusk. The sun had disappeared below the mountaintops quite a while earlier but the sky remained bright. Official sunset time was about 8:35pm but I knew that wildlife photography would be very challenging long before that hour.

Everything was perfect. The magic hour was here. All I needed was one cooperative pack of wolves. I shifted my weight slightly to look through the viewfinder for the thousandth time. The light was fading so I adjusted the exposure settings. As I eased back away from the camera and tripod I suddenly noticed two important things. It was perfectly silent. And the hair on the back of my neck was standing straight out. The birds had stopped their song. Something had changed. I didn’t dare move.

I strained to use my peripheral vision but it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t stand it. Slowly I turned my head to the left. Nothing. Back to the right. Nothing. Then I heard it. It was almost like the sweet whimper of a child and it had come from my left just beyond the range of my last scan. I eased my head around and saw movement. In a scene filled with vertical lines, I had seen horizontal motion. Now I was looking for more horizontal lines, the kind that run along the back of a deer, the tail of an antler, or the back of a wolf.

I strained into the depths of the forest. If my eyes had voices of their own they’d have been screaming by now. And there they were. As if appearing from vapor, two young wolves emerged, slightly off the path a mere 35 yards upwind from me. One was almost black and the other a mottled gray color. I forgot to breathe.

I leaned forward toward the camera, made the necessary adjustments, and was about to trip the shutter when both of the wolves jerked around to look behind them. I knew this behavior from years of hunting deer and elk, so I waited. Something was coming. The wolves became more uneasy and more vocal. The squeals and whimpers became louder as their excitement built along with mine. Then He appeared.

The alpha male of all alpha males stepped into the open. The other two cowered in his presence almost bowing. He moved forward with a silent ease that reminded me of our old house cat who could walk across the room and jump into your lap without ever giving away her presence. In the fading light of evening the big wolf’s coat almost glowed. He was dark - sinister looking - but the tips of the hair in his coat were silver. His eyes, as he surveyed his domain, glowed like the embers from my fire the night before, with a depth that went far beyond his age into the annals of wolf time.

I was already behind the viewfinder. Aperture: 2.8. Shutterspeed: 1/100th. ISO: 400. Heart rate: 250 at least.

I gradually increased the pressure on the shutter button. The autofocus zipped to the perfect spot and I continued the pressure toward the shot of a lifetime.

Nothing. Crap! What had I done. My mind raced. Was it the memory card? The battery? Had the camera gone into sleep mode?

I pressed it again and this time CLICK!

Suddenly I was surrounded by sound. My world exploded in random motion. My arms were flailing wildly. I was drowning in a sea of unbearable noise.

Then just as quickly - silence.

And then I heard a voice: “Honey, you get the kids going and I’ll start breakfast.........Were you dreaming again? What was it this time? Wildebeest or the World Series?”

And with a lighthearted giggle, she slipped on her robe and left me in my torment.

The End

Note from this author: No photos with this one. This was just a short story I wrote a few years ago. Let me know if you liked it.

Battle on Bear Creek

2011-11-30T17:25:00.004-06:00

When I was a kid I looked forward to those November afternoons when my daddy would plant me on a bucket under a holly tree in the Tulip Creek-bottom near my grandmother's house in South Arkansas. I loved sitting there with him - and by myself as I got older - watching the forest as the day slowed and the darkness advanced. Our objective, of course, was to spot a whitetail deer that we could shoot - and if we were really lucky, perhaps even hang on the wall. I always knew that "the action" would keep getting better right up until we had to call it on account of darkness. If you've ever hunted deer you know that the early morning and the late evening are the best times. The good action in the morning comes at the beginning and then fades off toward the middle of the day. In the evening, however, it just keeps getting better and better. Any second, that buck of a lifetime could step out.... or it could just get too dark to see and it would be time to head in for supper.

A few days ago I took a late afternoon drive near my home in North Texas. I knew the conditions were perfect for spotting deer so I headed down Bear Creek Road as the light began to fade. I staged my camera in the front seat of the truck beside me with the 300mm f/2.8 lens and the ISO cranked up to 3200. I wasn't really looking for a wallhanger photo - just something to illustrate whatever story might get told.

Bear Creek Road is one of those unique places that feels a lot farther from town than it actually is. As the crow flies I was probably no more than a dozen miles from the Interstate 820 Loop around Fort Worth. But the quiet makes you think you're in the middle of nowhere. I saw a few deer out in the fields - but nothing unusual. I turned around after a couple miles and started back knowing that I would re-enter civilization just after dark. I had no idea that it was about to get better and better.

Deer were running everywhere. Several crossed the road in front of me. This first one was running along the road to my left.

I looked farther ahead and saw another nice buck that had been with the group that crossed my path - so I panned along with him and got some nice broadside running shots. Here's a couple of favorites:

One thing I've learned over the years is that if you see a group of deer crossing a road you should look behind them to see why they're crossing. Sure enough, off to my right was another buck pushing the herd - not a huge buck but certainly worth photographing in the waning light.

I was really enjoying all the bucks when something caught my eye far out in the field to my left. I pulled up the binoculars and was stunned to see two bucks going at each other in what looked like the ultimate death-match. According to the EXIF data on the photograph, it was 5:42pm. Here's one of my first shots of the pair....

At ISO 3200 the camera was straining for enough light to see the deer. The lens was wide open and the shutter speed was down to 1/100th of a second. The photo you see above is cropped from a much larger image as the battle raged on about 125 yards from my rolling truck-blind.

The two beasts pushed and shoved each other for at least ten minutes never once letting go. At 5:50pm I took my last photographs with a shutter speed of 1/13th of a second. It was almost dark and the camera was no good any more. I kept watching through the binoculars until I completely lost sight of them in the spreading darkness. In this next shot you see the bluriness that comes from a slow shutterspeed and the graininess that comes from high ISO.

The two bucks were locked together the whole time I was watching. The larger one pushed the other one around an area about half the size of a football field. This was not a friendly encounter. It was clear that the larger one was trying to kill his adversary. By the time I lost them in the darkness I was convinced that their antlers were locked together permanently and that they would both die of exhaustion.

As I watched the bucks fighting, a car approached from the opposite direction and the driver stopped to see if I needed help. (Texans are like that, you know.) I told her there were a couple bucks locked together and she said she'd tell her husband when she got home; she was sure he would be interested. A few minutes later the husband showed up with a spotlight. Over the fence we went - he owned the place - and out through the field we searched for the bucks. I'm guessing it was a happy ending because we didn't find the bucks locked together and we did see a couple of bucks disappear into the darkness beyond the reach of our searchlight.

I've seen video of bucks fighting before but never before in person. It was epic - one of the most awesome things I've ever witnessed and getting to photograph it was a special treat. The only thing that might have made it better is if I could have had a bucket to sit on and a holly tree to sit under - next to my daddy.

Ducks I have known....

2011-11-15T21:35:00.002-06:00

I stopped by the Fort Worth Running Company to get some new running shoes this morning and as I came out I saw a sign pointing me to the Trinity Park Duck Pond. It's been a few years since I've visited the duck pond so I figured I'd stop in and check it out.

I was only there for a few minutes but it was a great reminder that if you want to hone your wildlife photography skills it sometimes helps to have slightly-less-than-wild subjects. The ducks at Trinity duck pond - and probably the ducks at the park in your town - are accustomed to having people around. That means you get lots of opportunities to work on your compositions in a very short period of time.

Here's one of my favorites. Not only does it show a great Mallard drake but it also reflects the local fall color.

Tally-Ho!

2011-11-12T21:56:00.002-06:00

The Brazos Valley Hunt Club opened their 2011 season with a foxhunt between Rocky Creek and Mustang Creek. I was invited to record the festivities and the action again this year and I'm happy to share a few of the shots with you.

The hounds are ready.

Everyone gets fancied up.

A blessing is given.

And the hunt is on!

Here's one of my favorite action shots.

Everyone had a great time. Some even got a reward at the end.

If you'd like to see more, just click on one of the photos and then again when the photo pops up. It will take you to the gallery on my website. Hope you enjoy!

My Favorite Time of Year!

2011-10-30T14:19:00.004-05:00

Fall is definitely my favorite time of year. Football, changing leaves, hunting season: It just doesn't get any better than that.

You've seen plenty football photos from me this year so I thought I might share some of my other adventures. I recently traveled to Denver on business - yes, I do a little work- and then I continued on to Idaho to spend a few days in the mountains. For those of you that have not been to Idaho and Wyoming during October, I can tell you that it's all about the color and the wildlife.

Mid-October is a little late for the aspens but the cottonwoods were really showing off. Also, fall is a time for the big bull elk to gather their harems and do their thing. That is truly a sight to see. One of the coolest things I saw this year in Yellowstone was a red fox. The little fellow was really focused on something in the weeds. My focus was on him and when he turned back toward me to show off that pretty face and the bushy tail, well, he had me at hello! Wow!

I hope you enjoy my photos. If there's something you'd like to know about my photography or the places I visit, please feel free to post a comment or send me an e-mail at james.albritton@att.net.

- James

CHECK THIS OUT!

2011-10-12T22:17:00.008-05:00

My photos appeared on the Sports Illustrated website today! HOW COOL IS THAT?

Johnathan Gray of the Aledo Bearcat football team was profiled by Sports Illustrated staff writer Ben Glicksman and I provided three photos for the story. The first file shown below is the main High School page of their website. I saved it off the website knowing that a link to the page won't last forever. The next three are the original photos I provided.

The one above is from the 2011 season opener against Stephenville and the one below is from the 2010 State Championship game against LaMarque.

Here's another one from last year's State game.

It was pretty cool to see Photo Courtesy of James Albritton / SaltForkImages.com on the Sports Illustrated website. Of course, special thanks goes to Johnathan Gray. Without his extraordinary talent, none of this would have been possible.

- James

Football Again....... and Fall Portraits!

2011-09-16T22:52:00.006-05:00

The Bearcats are underway again after two consecutive state championships. It ought to be another good year!

AND....

A few folks are taking advantage of the slow season to get their Senior Portraits out of the way. Here are a few of my favorites!

Senior Portrait Time

2011-04-24T14:41:00.004-05:00

It's not too late to shoot some portraits of your graduating senior. Send me an e-mail at james.albritton@att.net or call me at 817-875-9640. I usually start my shoots at 6:00 in the evening and we finish up just before dusk. Here are a few samples of this year's photoshoots so far.

Springtime in Texas

2011-03-26T18:53:00.003-05:00

It's springtime in Texas which means that we're on daylight savings time and I get to shoot some sunsets. Here's one from yesterday. Enjoy!

ACE is the PLACE

2011-03-26T17:07:00.003-05:00

Those of you that know me well know that I have a lot of interests and I am involved in a lot of things. I've written here about my love of travel - that's probably obvious from my photography. I also enjoy sports - again, it shows in what I shoot. I love to hunt and shoot guns and I love watching my kids do whatever it is that they happen to be doing. What I've not talked about much is my professional life.

I'm a mechanical engineer by training. Time at Louisiana Tech University and Clemson University back in the 80's yielded Bachelor and Master's degrees. I spent three years in the aerospace industry and then I struck out on my own to do the entrepreneur thing. That was 20 years ago. Some might say I've not had a REAL job in the last 20 years. I've often said that owning your own business means you only have to work half a day - deciding which 12 hours is the hard part.

We've been very blessed in my work. I had the good fortune of meeting good people at opportune moments throughout my career. The result is that I now have 14 U.S. Patents and I've licensed several inventions to some folks that have worked hard to sell my products all over the world. My highway safety inventions can be seen on five of the seven continents.

My success in the engineering world has made it possible to pursue other interests as well. Two years ago, a series of investments led us to full ownership of the local ACE Hardware store. It's been a lot of fun watching the store grow and seeing my very capable staff take it from loss to profit. We are challenged by a less-than-perfect location but we continue to make headway. As the local economy snaps back from recession we are seeing our business pick up significantly. The increased revenue is allowing us to expand our inventory in important areas like our Lawn and Garden Department. I never thought that I would enjoy retail but I've come to appreciate the special challenges it offers.

I'm not sure who said it - maybe my mom or my grandma or maybe I read it in a fortune cookie - but you should "bloom where you are planted."

I've attached a few photos of our store and some of our recent "blooms.". I hope you like them.

Willow Park ACE Hardware - ACE is the PLACE!

National Elk Refuge - Jackson Hole, Wyoming

2010-12-20T22:14:00.003-06:00

We decided to take a day off from skiing today and do a little shopping and goofing off. We checked out some real estate in the north end of Teton Valley and then we had a little lunch at Milk Creek Grill in Driggs. Afterward we headed over Teton Pass to Jackson, Wyoming, where we took a sleigh ride in the National Elk Refuge.

The National Elk Refuge is located just north of the Town of Jackson and consists of almost 25,000 acres of valley floor where migrating elk spend the winter. As Jackson Hole was settled in the late nineteenth century, the traditional migration path of the elk from their summer range on the Yellowstone Plateau to lower valleys below Jackson Hole was cut off. The Refuge was established in 1912 to protect the Jackson herd and to provide a place where the herd could be fed through the toughest winter months.

The number of elk on the Refuge varies from year to year from around 4,000 to around 8,000 depending on weather and range conditions. Our sleigh ride started about 2:30pm with Steve at the reigns and Burt and Ernie in the harness. There were at least two other sleighs loaded with tourists on the Refuge at the same time. Here's a shot of one of the other groups.

Our timing must have been good because a lot of the bulls were up and moving around. It was amazing to be so close to these majestic beasts. In some cases our sleigh passed within 20 feet of the wild animals without spooking them or distressing them in any way. Steve told us that many of these elk had been on the Refuge every winter for their entire lives and that they were very accustomed to the horses and the sleigh. He also assured us that if anyone were to get out of the sleigh then the elk would immediately leave the area. That would be something different (and spooky) for them.

Photographing these elk was a treat for me. First, as many of you know, I love to hunt. I have never hunted elk before and this experience only served to reinforce my desire to do so. Second, I love to photograph any kind of North American game animal. The elk is such a majestic creature and these bulls are the epitome of the species. And third, shooting in the snow is a special kind of challenge. The light meter built into the camera sees a lot of white that it wants to make into gray. It tries to close itself down and in the process it turns these beautiful snowscapes into the dreariest of scenes. Every shot had to be overexposed by at least one and a third stops. If it was a wide shot with mostly snow then it was overexposed by two full stops to make it work.

If you are ever in Jackson Hole in the winter, I highly recommend the National Elk Refuge. I hope you enjoy my photos.

Aledo Bearcats Win State Championship

2010-12-18T22:20:00.010-06:00

The Aledo Bearcats won the Texas 4A Division II State Championship with a 69-34 victory over the LaMarque Cougars at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington. Johnathan Gray rushed for 326 yards and eight touchdowns behind an outstanding offensive line while the defense held LaMarque to only one score in the second half. The win capped an undefeated 16-game season.

I was on the sidelines as usual but the big difference for this game was the number of people down there with me. At times it was frustrating to not be able to even get a view of the action. I did end up with a few good photos and I'll post some here for your enjoyment. Click on any of the photos and it will take you to the complete gallery.

Congratulations Bearcats!

J. Gray breaks one for a touchdown.

Hunter Powell trips up a Cougar

The Cheerleaders and the Band loved being in Cowboy Stadium.

Matt Bishop drops back.

The end of a PERFECT SEASON!

I LOVE Basketball!

2010-12-14T23:48:00.011-06:00

Now that football season is winding down, basketball is my new favorite sport to shoot. I'll be shooting the Aledo Bearcats and Ladycats again this year and I think I may finally be getting the hang of it.

Let me just give you some "how-to" here and then I'll share a few of my recent shots.

Lighting is the biggest technical issue in shooting high school basketball because most gymnasiums are horrible. There is either too little light or the light cycles in a way that makes consistent white balance impossible...or both! I've been in a lot of gyms and you just never really know what to expect.

If you want to stop the action you need a fast shutterspeed. A speed of 1/400th of a second is about the slowest speed I would accept for reasonably sharp action shots. (If you plan to print photos very large you'll want even faster speeds.) For fast shutterspeeds you will need to open up your lens (f/2.8 if possible) and raise your ISO. Of course, large apertures mean shallow depth-of-field and high ISO means digital noise. (If these concepts don't make a lot of sense to you, consider reading my series of postings about TRADEOFFS from early 2008.)

But what do you do if there isn't enough light even when you crank up the ISO and open up your lens? Try some flash!

I use a couple of AlienBee 800's triggered with a hot-shoe-mounted remote transmitter. These are studio flash units capable of lighting an entire gymnasium. I mount them on light stands and plug them in on the top row above the home spectators. I can then set my ISO to 1600 (reasonable digital noise), my f-stop to 5.6 (reasonable depth-of-field), and my shutterspeed to 1/250th of a second (which doesn't really matter because the flash duration is about 1/5000th of a second.) And, by the way, the color from the AB's is very consistent. White balance becomes a lot easier.

So much for the technical stuff. How about technique?

I like to shoot from down low to make the players look taller. I prefer to position myself on the floor along the baseline about halfway between the basket and the corner of the court. This gives me a good view of players coming down the court and of the action under the goal. Watch a college basketball game and look where the photographers are along the baseline. It's a great place to be and occasionally you get taken out by a flying player! Be careful. It's also a great place to witness the "other side" of the game. The refs have a lot more fun out there than you think.

I have two lenses that I like to use: the 70-200mm f/2.8L and the 24-70mm f/2.8L. The 70-200 gives me the ability to zoom in on the players coming up the court as they dribble and pass. I usually shoot part of the game with that lens and then switch to the 24-70 to capture more of the action under the basket. The wider lens allows me to capture the full height of the action from the floor to the basket.

Check out these examples. I LOVE BASKETBALL!

One more thought: If you don't have strobes or high ISO capability or fast lenses, you can still get cool basketball shots. Look for opportunities when the action slows down. Here are some examples.

Let me know if you have any questions. You can reach me at jalbritton@mesh.net.

- James

Football Milestones

2010-12-13T20:51:00.004-06:00

The Aledo High School Bearcat Football team has advanced to the Texas 4A Division II championship game for the second year in a row. They won it last year against Brenham down in Austin at the University of Texas' Darrell K. Royal Stadium. This year the Bearcats will take on LaMarque High School at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. It should be a great game. Good luck Bearcats!

Here are some shots from the last few weeks.

Brazos Valley Foxhunt

2010-11-21T17:16:00.002-06:00

A little over a week ago I got to shoot a foxhunt with the Brazos Valley Hunt. These folks are very nice and they love their horses and hounds. Here are a few of my favorites from that day.

Virginia Fall Color on a Historical Farm

2010-11-21T16:54:00.005-06:00

I did a little traveling this week to Virginia to hunt whitetail deer with an old friend. We didn't have much luck in the forest but I did get to shoot a few photos of the Virginia fall color. The first photo is of my friend's house and the beautiful trees that surround it. The home was rebuilt in 1968 using the 18th century bricks that were left after a fire destroyed the original house. The colonial influence is obvious in this part of Virginia where Thomas Jefferson and several other founders lived.

This second shot is of the original community Post Office located on my friend's place. The building is about the size of a single bedroom.

And this last shot was just a little artsy fun. I just focused on the weather vane stuck in the flowerbed and used the house as a background. I rather like it and I hope you do too.

More Fall Color.... and a bit of ORANGE!

2010-10-28T22:12:00.003-05:00

Sara and I continued our college tour to Georgia Tech and Clemson last weekend. While we were in South Carolina I got to visit one of the places I loved when I was in graduate school: Whitewater Falls. It's just over the border in North Carolina and I hit it about right for some fall color. Click the photo and it will take you to my SaltForkImages gallery with more shots of the falls.

Saturday afternoon we got a little more Clemson color. ORANGE! We joined about 80,000 like-minded individuals in Death Valley to watch the Tigers beat up on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Our vantage point from high in the nose-bleed section gave us a great view of "the most exciting 25 seconds in College Football." Here's a shot of the team running down the hill after rubbing Howard's Rock.

Go Tigers!

Portrait Season

2010-10-11T14:11:00.006-05:00

It's mid-October and the fall portrait season for high school seniors is winding down and the Christmas card portrait season is about to start. E-mail me at jalbritton@mesh.net if you would like to do some Christmas portraits. I can set you up with flat cards, folded cards, and photos suitable for grandma's mantle!

I took some photos of my daughter, Sara, a few nights ago. Her mom likes the one below the best. I blew the highlights out in Photoshop for a little different look.

Here's another one more to my liking. She got her braces off a few weeks ago and she's a lot more willing to smile now!

Sara and I are headed out over the next few weeks for some college visits. Louisiana Tech, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Baylor and Texas A&M are all on her radar. It should be a fun search! Wish us luck!

I had another fun portrait shoot last week with a young man named Sam. You can see from the two photos below that this was not an ordinary portrait session. View the rest of his gallery here.

Christmas will be here before you know it! Give me a shout.....

Southern Hospitality - an Aledo High School Theatre Production

2010-10-04T11:39:00.004-05:00

Those talented kids at Aledo High School were at it again last week!

Their production of Southern Hospitality was outstanding. Once again I was asked to shoot the cast and crew prior to the performance and as always I hung out in the back with the monopod and the big lens.

You can see the entire gallery at this link. The shot below is one of many that made me laugh!

Those kids are SOOOO talented!

Fall Color in Wyoming

2010-10-04T00:12:00.002-05:00

If you've visited my galleries before then you know that Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, must be my absolute favorite place in the world to photograph. Last week I was there with a friend chasing the fall colors and we had a great time. The park was pretty quiet except for all THE PHOTOGRAPHERS. It seems that everyone who owns a tripod knows that the last week of September and the first week of October are the best time to catch the aspens as they turn fiery yellow.

We arrived at Schwabacher's Landing about fifteen minutes before sunrise and found 24 cars in the parking lot and at least 30 photographers scattered along this picturesque backwater of the Snake River. Here's a shot of "THE SPOT" right after the sun hit the top of the mountains.

Of course I wanted the same shot they wanted and the sweet pink light on the mountains was not going to last much longer so I got right behind them and raised my tripod as high as it would go. I set my camera to "live-view" and framed the shot and then locked the ballhead of the tripod down tight. I hit the focus button on the back of my camera and cranked off three rapid-fire, bracketed shots. One of the guys on the front line heard my 1DM3 fire off overhead and turned around with a rather stunned look on his face. I just smiled and said, "Sometimes you've just got to improvise."

Here's the result:

We got what we wanted at Schwabacher's and then headed to Oxbow Bend. This is another popular spot with the photogs as there were at least another 20 or so set up here. You can certainly see why:

It was a great trip and the trees did not disappoint. Next year I'm hoping for clouds. And maybe I'll get up a little earlier so that I can be on the frontline. (Nah!)

Context in Photography

2010-09-23T10:33:00.004-05:00

Everyone loves a beautiful scenic photograph. Catch the light just right and it can be magical. Sometimes, however, our goal as photographers is to tell a more complete story with our photos. Not every photo we take is destined for a custom frame in the lobby of the local bank. Sometimes we just want to document our lives. We do this by providing our photos with "context."

There are probably as many ways to show context in a photo as there are photographers. Portrait photographers do it by shooting on-location. Wedding photographers don't shoot a portrait of the bride wearing half her makeup; they shoot into the mirror while she's applying the makeup. Context helps to make a photo make sense.

During the summer of 2010 I took a scenic airplane flight around Teton Valley, Idaho. We took off from the Driggs airport and headed southwest toward Pine Creek Pass. As we climbed through 10,000 feet with the Big Hole Mountains on our right, our pilot gradually turned to the east. We continued to climb above the Snake River Range and then made the big sweeping turn back to the north. This took us directly over the western foothills of the Tetons just barely inside the western edge of Wyoming. Grand Teton tops out at 13,770 feet but our flight never got over about 12,500. That means that we were staring at The Grand (and Middle, South, Owen, and Teewinot) straight out the window.

As we approached the big peaks my pilot announced over the intercom that he would be glad to tilt the little plane whichever way I wanted so that I could get some good shots of the mountains. I thanked him and when the time came he pulled the right wing up a little so I could get the unobstructed view he thought I wanted. I snapped a few shots and was generally pleased with them but as he leveled the plane and I backed out on the zoom lens, I noticed how much more I liked the shots that showed the airplane wing and the wingstrut. The photo below is an example of the kind of context that tells a story.

There is no question, when you look at this photo, that I was riding in a small airplane. Immediately upon knowing that fact, the viewer of this photo becomes engaged in a whole new way:

"What kind of plane was it?" (Cessna 172)

"Was it bumpy?" (Not that day.)

"Did you get sick?" (No)

"Had you ever been up in a small plane before?" (Yes, a long time ago.)

"Did you get to open the window to take the photos?" (Yes)

When I look back at the photo above, I think, "Wow, I love those mountains!," and "This airplane thing is cool..... I've got to GET ME ONE!"

Football Season in Full Swing

2010-09-20T23:02:00.009-05:00

The 2010 campaign has begun!

Aledo High School won the 4A Division II State Championship in 2009 and is off to a great start in 2010. The opening game was another fantastic battle between Aledo and rival Stephenville. Aledo triumphed 20-3. Game two saw Aledo avenge its only loss of 2009 with a 48-13 romp over the Kangaroos of Weatherford.

And then came Game Three: Aledo traveled to Austin to challenge the 2009 4A Division I State Champ, Lake Travis. Bragging rights were on the line and the home team was heavily favored. Lake Travis opened the scoring and led at the half by a count of 10-7. The second half was an epic defensive struggle. Both teams pounded the ball inside but in the end it was the strong running of Aledo's Jonathan Gray behind the talented Bearcat offensive line that won the day. Aledo made believers of the central Texas crowd with a final score of 14-10.

Here's a shot I took of J-Gray taking the ball on one of those up-the-middle rampages. Shutter speed was 1/1000, ISO was 1600 and the f/stop was 2.8. Enjoy!

OLIVER!

2010-02-08T07:26:00.005-06:00

Please, Sir, I want some more!

Check out my galleries from the Aledo High School Theatre presentation of OLIVER!

It was a lot of fun shooting the show and one of the rehearsals. Congratulations, AHS Theatre! Great Job!

Grandma's Middle Name

2010-02-02T23:48:00.008-06:00

I remember when I was young my Momma told me that my Grandma's middle name was "Go." It seems that Grandma loved going places. She always had that old grandma-looking purse hanging from her arm and she always had a list of things she needed from town. If someone was headed out, Grandma was a willing partner.

I think I'm a lot like Grandma. I love to go. Last October I went to Idaho and Wyoming with a friend. At Christmas, I took the family to South Carolina to visit Clemson University, where Jill and I graduated back in 1988. Last month I took my daughter to Ruston, Louisiana, to visit Louisiana Tech where I got my undergrad degree.

One of the things I love about traveling is being able to pack a camera along. Travel photography can be almost anything you want it to be. You can shoot all the old places you've seen before. You can go to all the scenic vistas. You can sit on a bench in a town that is not your own and take photos of people you don't know. (For this I recommend a LONG lens!)

In about a week my son and I are taking another roadtrip. We'll head northwest from Fort Worth on the first day with our sights set on Laramie, Wyoming. It's only a 15 hour drive if you limit your fluid intake! Day two will take us across Wyoming to Jackson Hole where we will mount the Tetons at Teton Pass. Our trek will end just past the stateline in Teton Valley, Idaho, where we plan to spend a week. There will be skiing, possibly some snowmobiling, and of course, a lot of photography.

I've made the trip from Texas to Idaho several times over the last few years and I have to admit that in some ways it's a little frustrating. I'll be driving past 1300 miles of beautiful landscape and I'll be completely focused on getting to the final destination. As a photographer, I hate missing great photo opportunities. Perhaps I should make this a three-day trip and spend a little time along the way capturing the magic. If I did, I might have to change my middle name from "Go," to something like "Slow Down," or "Relax a Little." I hope Grandma won't mind.

How Bright is Dallas Cowboy Stadium?

2010-01-27T23:48:00.009-06:00

On November 20, 2009, the Aledo Bearcats took on the Stephenville Yellowjackets for the second time last season. The first time was at Bearcat Stadium where the boys from Aledo pulled out a 20 to 16 win to open the season. The second time was at Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington and it was "loser go home." It was the second round of the 4A state playoffs and Aledo won it in overtime, 26-20. Wow! What a night!

For me it was a treat to get to shoot a football game on the sidelines at Jerry Jones' mega-playland. The new Dallas Cowboy Stadium is every bit as impressive as it looks on television. The GodzillaTron overhead is a technical marvel and getting to see yourself on it is some kind of amazing. I did notice that it was important not to look up at the screen while walking. It's a good way to run into someone else who shouldn't have been walking and looking up.

In this first photo, I tried to give a sense of scale. A wide angle lens and a low shooting angle with cheerleaders in the foreground make it work.

So, just how bright is Dallas Cowboy Stadium?

In the next photo, my aperture was f/5.6, my shutterspeed was 1/640, and my ISO was 3200.

Back at Bearcat Stadium everything would have been the same except the aperture would have been f/2.8. For those of you keeping score, that means that Cowboy stadium is four times brighter than Bearcat stadium. WOW! What does this mean? Well, for me it meant that I could get greater depth of field without sacrificing the ability to stop the action with a fast shutterspeed. For someone with less ISO capability or with a slower lens it means the difference between getting photos of a great Aledo win or getting complete garbage.

By the way, that photo above is Matthew Bishop scoring the winning touchdown in overtime. Right after that shot - bedlam!

Basketball Season

2010-01-27T22:11:00.014-06:00

The season is in full swing now and I've already shot a few games for the Ladycats and the Bearcats. My favorite shot so far is of my son (surprise), Aaron. He plays on the Freshman B-team as a guard and is one of the team's leading scorers.

I shoot basketball with my Canon 1D Mark III and a 70-200mm f/2.8L lens. Occasionally I substitute a 24-70mm f/2.8L for wide shots below the goal or a 300mm f/2.8L for a different look from up in the rafters. I use a pair of Alien Bees (800s) located on the top row of the gymnasium that I trigger with a radio control from the hotshoe on my camera. It's a great setup. I use apertures of f/6.3 and f/7.1 with the shutterspeed set to 1/250 and the ISO around 1000. The strength of the flash units and the short duration of the flash event help me ensure the sharpness I want.

One thing about shooting with a flash is that you have to understand and anticipate the action. It's not like football where you can just hold the button down in machine gun mode. You get one chance for a shot and then the flash has to recharge. My Alien Bees are fast but they can't handle the 10 frames per second that the 1DM3 can dish out. Not long ago I got a great shot of a player on the baseline right before he went up for a slamdunk. I hadn't seen this kid play before and I wasn't expecting him to explode to the goal that way. Now, whenever I see him with the ball, I try to hold out for the explosion. Of course, I've already got him on the baseline. I don't need another one of those.

I generally sit along the baseline under the home team goal about halfway in from the corner. This allows me to get good views of the ball as it is advanced across midcourt. The shots I like the most are the wide shots looking up at the players as they approach the opposite side of the goal from my position. I always shoot from as low as possible in order to make the players look taller. Many times I've stood up during a timeout only to discover that my butt was completely asleep, but that's okay. The view from down low is the best one.

I think basketball is my favorite sport to shoot. The action is close and it is fast. Unlike football, you get to see the players eyes and the eyes add a lot of emotion to the photographs.

A Few Thoughts to Begin 2010

2010-01-24T21:15:00.011-06:00

I guess if you are reading this and you have ever read any of my posts before then you know that I am not very good at this. Good bloggers post their thoughts every day or at least every week. I don't really think that much. That's the problem. And when I do think, it's not really that interesting outside of my own head - plane geometry, constant acceleration equations, differential calculus - stuff like that.

Last year was a very good year. Jill and I are enjoying life and the kids are doing great. We spent four weeks in Idaho as a family last summer and then I spent three more weeks out west - one in the summer with Jill to Yellowstone, another week in Utah with a friend, and a week in the fall in Idaho with another good friend. We stayed home at Christmas but that's what you do when your kids' high school soccer and basketball take over your life.

I've done a lot of photography in the last year. The travel photography out west was my favorite but I did a lot of other shooting too. I followed the successful run of the Aledo Bearcats all the way to the 4A State Championship in football. Along the way I shot on the sidelines at the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium and at Darrell K. Royal Stadium at the University of Texas. I did a lot of portraits in the spring and and I shot volleyball, soccer, baseball, basketball and church in between.

I'll try to be better about posting in 2010. Think of it as a New Year's Resolution guaranteed to be good for at least a couple of posts anyway. I'll be keeping my posts pretty short this year focusing on a few favorite photos and the stories behind them.

Here's the first one:

This is one of my favorite spots in Grand Teton National Park, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It's the Snake River Overlook and Ansel Adams made it famous back in the 40's in black and white. My version is from June 2009 and was done with multiple exposures. This is an example of High Dyamic Range processing where a range of exposures are combined into one photograph. It's a way of pulling detail out of the shadows without blowing out the highlights. It seems to be more dramatic to me.

The week we spent in Wyoming and Idaho was great but the clouds never quite gave up their hold on the mountaintops. This shot was one of my best from the week. I like the way the clouds pull back to reveal part of the treasure of Grand Teton without completely revealing the tips of the peaks.

I'm Baaaaaaaaack!

2008-10-09T11:11:00.007-05:00

ATTENTION Blog Readers!

I am still alive.

It's been almost six months since my last blog entry. Part of that is because I have been incredibly busy with new jobs and part of it is because I just haven't had much to say. The more I've thought about what photography lesson should come next, the more I have realized that THERE JUST ISN'T THAT MUCH TO IT!

Learn how to use your equipment; learn what shutterspeed, aperture, and ISO do for you; and then get out there and shoot. Think about the suggestions I've given on composition and then go try them. It's really that simple.

Now a little about what's been happening in my world:

We spent seven weeks in Idaho and got back to Texas about the 10th of August. I made a trip to Utah in October to hunt muledeer with my dad and then I took the family back to Idaho for Christmas. Now it's January and we're back in the swing of things with life as normal as it ever gets for us.

Last August I took a job with the local newspaper in Aledo, The Community-News. I became their official sideline photographer for high school football and volleyball season. Things went so well that we've extended our agreement for basketball and soccer seasons. I shoot at least one game per week - but usually five or six if I can make it. I still sell prints to parents while making all my shots available for use by the newspaper. It's been a lot of fun. If you like sports photos, you should probably check out my favorite sports shots on my Smugmug website (www.SaltForkImages.com)

In November, I started another new job as a teacher at Aledo Christian School. I teach Geometry, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus two days per week and I love it. Aledo Christian is a small private school; the kids are great and, well, who wouldn't love getting to teach Calculus!

Besides all the sports photography, I've also started doing some High Dynamic Range Imaging. HDR Imaging is a great way to capture the broadest range of light possible in your photographs. I've attached one below that might look familiar to you. Last July I posted about "getting in a rut," and shooting the same places over and over. I talked about how fruitful that can be when you factor in potential changes in lighting due to time of day and/or weather. It turns out that in that last session at sunset in Grand Teton National Park, I shot several shots with different exposures without moving my tripod. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED FOR HDR! WHAT AMAZING LUCK! I hope you like the result. It now qualifies as my official all-time favorite photograph.

I hope 2009 is off to a good start for you. I'll try to post some more photos and some more photo-thoughts very soon.

-James

It's okay to get in a rut!

2008-07-24T01:02:00.002-05:00

Hmmm. Seems like an odd title doesn't it? I've always thought that it was bad to get in a rut. This week, however, it really paid off.

I'm in the middle of my fifth week in Idaho and I've posted about 250 photos to my website so far. (Click on the link on my main page at www.SaltForkImages.com to check out the fun.) If you were to look through my newest gallery and the other galleries that I've posted in the past from my visits to Idaho and Wyoming, you would notice a lot of the same locations - over and over, again. Some people might think that would get boring. I'm learning to LOVE IT! Every time I visit Grand Teton National Park to shoot the barns on Mormon Row or the reflection at Schwabacher's Landing, I get something different.

The Tetons are an incredible mountain range. Take a shot before 9am and you're almost certain to get something good. The difference between "good" and "spectacular," however, usually depends on the weather. And since the weather changes all the time, it becomes an adventure every time you go back to that same old place.

We have lots of "bluebird" days up here. Some folks even call it "severe clear." Here's Schwabacher's on a day like that:

Then sometimes you get some clouds in the morning:

Mormon row is the same way. Bluebird morning:

Overcast morning:

I shot that last one above in 2005 and I haven't managed to catch a sunrise like that since. However, now that I've failed a few times, I know a little more about what it takes. It takes weather! Nowadays, I check the sky the evening before to see what might be happening the next morning. I even check early in the afternoon to try to anticipate what the sunset will look like. That brings me back to this week.....

This week I decided to mix things up and try some sunset photography in GTNP, expecting the mountains to silhouette against the evening sky. What I got was a great surprise. I watched the afternoon weather in Teton Valley, Idaho, just west of the Tetons and noticed some really interesting clouds headed toward the peaks. I raced across Teton Pass and found myself sitting at Schwabacher's Landing an hour later. Schwabacher's is the perfect "poster shot" with the reflection in the beaver pond and the beautiful trees along the shoreline. I've shot it so many times you might say I've gotten in a rut! But this time the weather cooperated and gave me a gorgeous sky.

I hope you like it. It's one of my new favorites.... all because I went back to the same old place.

Keep shooting the same things over and over and you will begin to discover that it can be different every time. Look up! Check the sky. Let the weather help your landscape photographs.

Happy shooting!

James

Something Different.... for me!

2008-06-15T16:13:00.006-05:00

It's been a while since I last posted. I'm sure all of my fans out there - you both know who you are - have missed me..... right?

This spring has been busy. I've done a few portrait sessions and I've done something new: Architectural Photography. I was hired by a friend who builds custom homes to take photos for his new promotional brochure. It's been a unique challenge that has helped to reinforce all those lessons about good photography - remember shutterspeed, aperture, and ISO? All the tradeoffs come into play just like I taught back in our early lessons together.

Here a few of my favorite shots:

I shot the indoor shots with low ISO to eliminate graininess, small aperture for sharpness and greater depth of field, and long shutterspeed to ensure proper exposure. And of course, with long shutterspeeds I used a tripod to hold the camera steady.

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The other "something different" from the last few weeks is that I did my first Bridal Portrait Shoot. Emily is such a beautiful young lady. Here are a couple of my favorites from her shoot.

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And now for the best news of all...

We're headed back to Teton Valley, Idaho, for a few weeks of cool mountain weather! Watch my galleries at www.SaltForkImages.com for additions to the Travel and Nature section. I'll be getting up close and personal with the very best that our National Parks have to offer. Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and (hopefully) Glacier are all on the agenda for this summer. I'll update the blog a few times and I'll shoot about 10,000 photos while we are out west. Hopefully there will be a few keepers.

As always, feel free to e-mail me if you have any photography questions or just want to keep up with our adventures.

- James (jalbritton@mesh.net)

The Theatre is my Life!

2008-04-17T22:22:00.003-05:00

Okay, maybe the title was an exaggeration but I have discovered that it is a lot of fun to photograph theatrical performances.

I told you about the fun I had back in February shooting the winter musical production at Aledo High School. This time I got to shoot a serious one-act play entitled, "The Diary of Anne Frank" and a series of short, one-act comedies that included, "Variations on the Death of Trotsky." These were two very different kinds of plays but the photographic challenges were the same. High ISO, wide open apertures, and a monopod to hold the camera are the only way to have a chance at sharp photos. Even then, about one-third of the shots I took were blurry. That's why I love digital! Just keep shootin' - you're bound to hit SOMETHING!

Here's a shot from, "The Diary of Anne Frank."

And, here's a shot from "Variations on the Death of Trotsky."

I'll be back soon with another lesson so keep checking in.

James

Cool Desert Shots...

2008-04-10T00:02:00.003-05:00

In early April I made a trip to Las Vegas for a little business with the Nevada Department of Transportation. Those of you that know me well know that a place like Vegas doesn't really interest me. So what did I do? I took the scenic route! We finished with NDOT early and headed for Hoover Dam and the Nevada desert. The tour at Hoover Dam took us down to the generator facility which was very cool. But the real spectacular stuff was the view from the top.

Here's a shot of the generator room.

And this is the view of the back of the dam and an old crane used for transporting men and materials across the canyon.

On the way back to Las Vegas we spotted some cacti blooming in the desert. The sun was high overhead but I think I managed to salvage some pretty good shots.

Thanks for visiting!

- James

I Took My Own Advice!

2008-03-25T21:49:00.005-05:00

In Lesson #7 I said, "Get out there and shoot!" So I did.

On Saturday, March 22nd, Spring Break was winding down for Aaron and Sara. Aaron agreed to go with me for a little evening shoot in Downtown Fort Worth and we had SOME KIND OF FUN! We parked at the base of the bridge on North Main Street just north of downtown and walked up to a vantage point where we could see the Tarrant County Courthouse. Aaron enjoyed this part because he's a big "Walker, Texas Ranger" fan and they often use footage of the courthouse on the show.

There are some spots along the side of the bridge deck that are perfect for photographers: away from the traffic and with a great view. We setup the tripod and camera and dialed in a very small aperture with a very long shutterspeed. We were generally shooting about f/22 with 15 to 30 seconds of exposure time. Check out the results below. The red and white streaks are from the traffic going by on the bridge. Very Cool!!!

It was a little harrowing walking up and down the bridge with traffic whizzing by..... but, you know.... anything for the shot!

We left downtown and headed west for home but along the way we got another surprise: there was a carnival in the parking lot at Ridgmar Mall! I've wanted to do some ferris wheel shots ever since I saw the ones my brother posted on his website at www.MyMochaLady.com.

Here are a couple of my favorites. Two to four seconds at f/22 made for some really cool shots.

I hope you liked them. Now get out there and do some of your own shooting!

Lesson #7 - Get out there and Shoot!

2008-03-07T12:31:00.004-06:00

We've covered a lot on how the camera works and what all the different aperture, shutterspeed, and ISO choices are about.

But the TRUTH is that if you don't PRACTICE what you learn then you won't get any better.

In this lesson I'm going to try to motivate you to get out and shoot some photos. I'm going to give you some quick tips and show you some examples. Along the way perhaps I'll hit on a topic that interests you and then you will run out and use all your new technical knowledge to feed your creativity.

So come along with me and let's shoot some photographs!

Children: We love them and we CAN SHOOT THEM!

Get down on their level. Become a part of their world. Capture them being.....themselves. Big goofy smiles are great but having a photo of a little kid engaged in his world can be priceless.

Annoying Teenagers: They NEED to be SHOT!

I often shoot candid shots of teens just hanging out. Their laughter and expressions can be great but when they start mugging for the camera.... well, it's still okay! Here are three to help motivate you:

When I shoot teenagers, I like to use the longest lens I've got. That helps me peek into their world without getting into their space.

Scenic Landscapes: My all-time favorite subject!

My best tip here is to convince you that the best time of day to shoot is at sunrise and sunset. The quality of the light during those times is so much better than during the harsh direct overhead sunshiny part of the day.

Check these out...

More Landscapes:

Use the rule-of-thirds. That means don't place the dominant elements of the photograph in the center. Move them over or up to the one-third points in the frame. Look for diagonal lines that help draw the eye into the frame.

Flowers and Veggies: Spring is coming and the Botanic Garden could become your favorite place!

Don't just shoot down. Get down on their level. Use what you know about aperture to blur the backgrounds and selective focus on one flower. Remember the rule-of-thirds.

Animals: Shoot the family dog - especially if he barks all night. Capture shots of your kids interacting with their pets. Focus on the animal's eyes - that's where we are drawn when we look at the photo. If you like wild animals, do your homework. Learn what times they are most active. Get into their world.... but be careful. Travel to a National Park or State Park; wild animals are a little less wild there.

I hope you've enjoyed these photos as much as I have. Start a collection of personal favorites. It's great to show them off and it's great to look back and see how your creativity and talent have progressed.

Happy Shooting!

- James

Lesson #6 ..... The Last Tradeoff Lesson!

2008-03-06T16:36:00.009-06:00

Lesson #4 was about the tradeoffs involved with choosing an ISO.

Lesson #5 was about the tradeoffs involving aperture choices.

This one is about shutterspeed.

If your shutterspeed is too slow, then your photos might be blurry because your camera was shaking or because your subject moved.

Sometimes blurry is very cool. That's why we need to understand how shutterspeed works!

Shutterspeeds on digital SLR cameras may range from 1/8000th of a second up to 30 seconds. Which speed you choose out of that range depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are trying to photograph a 98 mile-per-hour fastball right as it leaves the pitcher's hand, you better use that 1/8000th of a second shutterspeed and you better hope that no one notices that the ball is still a little blurry. That's because in 1/8000th of a second, the ball traveled 0.21 inches. Bummer!

The good news, though is that you don't have to worry about camera shake when you are shooting 1/8000th of a second shutterspeeds because it is unlikely that you are shaking at 98 mph!

Maybe you want to shoot a nice dreamy waterfall and you want to blur the water. How fast is the water going? Maybe 5mph?

If it's going 5 mph, then it travels 7.33 feet in one second. If your shutter speed is set to one-half second, then the water will travel 3.67 feet while your shutter is open. It will definitely be blurry. And, if you don't use a tripod to hold the camera still, the rocks and trees and everything else around the waterfall will be blurry too!

Here are some good guidelines to remember: If you are shooting sports, 1/500th of a second is good but 1/1000th is much better. If you want a milky-looking waterfall, 1/4th of a second is good but 2 seconds is even better. If you want to avoid camera shake, use a shutterspeed that is roughly equal to the focal length of your lens. For example, if you are shooting with a 200 mm lens, try to keep your shutterspeeds faster than 1/200th of a second to avoid blurriness due to camera shake.

Let's look at some examples:

That's a mountain stream in Teton Canyon in Wyoming in May of 2007. I shot with ISO at 100, f/stop at 8, and shutterspeed at 1/4 of a second. As you can see, the water is nicely blurred all around the log and the rock. And to keep the log and the rock sharp, I rested the camera on the window of my truck after turning off the engine. You don't always have to have a tripod, just something really steady on which to brace your camera.

This shot is from Bennington, Vermont, and was taken during the summer of 2006. I used ISO 200, f/stop 7.1, and a shutterspeed of 1/400th of a second. The fast shutterspeed stopped most of the motion of the waterfall and it made it easy to handhold the camera.

Now a couple of sports examples:

My young friend, Greg, catches the ball and heads straight toward my position on the sideline. What a catch and what a photo! I had the ISO at 3200 (max), the f/stop at 2.8 (max) and my shutterspeed was 1/500th of a second. Any slower than that and the shot would have been blurred.

My daughter, Sara, plays a little soccer at 1/400th of a second. Again, f/2.8 and ISO 3200 - both maxed out - and the best I could get under the lousy stadium lighting was 1/400th of a second. Notice how her foot is slightly blurred as it heads for the soccer ball. Maybe the shutterspeed was too slow or maybe it was her awesome power.... hmmm.

And we'll wrap it up with an appearance of the marching band!

This is a very cool shot that I actually did on purpose. This shot was at ISO 1600, f/20, and 1/15th of a second. I had been shooting with the high ISO and the camera set in Aperture Priority Mode when I saw this cool opportunity develop. With a flick of my index finger, I switched from f/2.8 to f/20 which caused the shutterspeed to drop down to 1/15th of a second. I took a couple of shots and immediately rolled the selector back to f/2.8 to continue. When I got home that night and reviewed my shots, I had a keeper! The blurred motion of the drumline with elements going in all directions really looks cool.... at least to me.

Know how your camera works. Know how to control the shutterspeed and you can get the effects you want.

Keep watching.... there's more to come!

JRA

Lesson #5 More Tradeoffs

2008-03-06T13:05:00.003-06:00

In Lesson #4 I described the tradeoffs involved in your choice of ISO. Increase the ISO and you can shoot at higher shutterspeeds or in low-light conditions. Higher ISO will also get you more digital noise or graininess - that's the tradeoff.

This lesson covers the tradeoffs involved with aperture. You know..... f/stops....... f/numbers!

Remember that the aperture is the hole in the lens through which light travels on its way to the film or sensor. The aperture is adjustable from large f-numbers which correspond to small apertures to small f-numbers which correspond to large apertures.

Confusing? Maybe a definition will help; -- MATH ALERT! -- The f-number (or f/stop) is the ratio of the focal length of the lens to the diameter of the opening in the aperture. An f/stop of 8 means the diameter of the aperture is 1/8th of the focal length of the lens. If you wanted to double the area of the aperture to let in twice as much light, the f/stop would go from 8 to 5.6.

Remember that the area of a circle varies with the SQUARE of the diameter. Go through the math and you'll find that the area of the aperture doubles when you divide the f/stop by 1.414, which of course is the square root of two.

Huh?

Don't worry about it. That last part was for geeks like me that just MUST UNDERSTAND THE MATH!

Here's the important part: Big aperture = small f-number AND small aperture = big f-number.

So when I say "OPEN up the lens," I mean go to a small f/stop or f-number. When I say "stop down the lens" I mean go to a large f/stop or large f-number.

Now for the tradeoffs (finally!)

Stop down the lens to a small aperture (like f/22) and you will increase your depth of field. Open up the lens to a large aperture (like f/2.8) and the depth of field will become shallow.

Depth of field is all about how much of the subject matter in your photograph is in focus. Focus on an object out in front of you and there will be a zone in front of and behind the object that is also in focus. With a small aperture (like f/22) the zone will be large and may extend from a few inches in front of you all the way to infinity. With a wide open aperture (like f/2.8) the zone will be small - perhaps only a few inches in front of and behind your subject. How wide the zone is for a particular lens depends on the size of the aperture you choose.

When is this important?

How about a couple of examples:

In landscape photography it is sometimes interesting to have the foreground and the background in focus. Stop down the lens to a small aperture and compose the shot. Now remember, the small aperture lets in less light than a large aperture so it naturally follows that a good exposure will require a longer shutterspeed. The aperture is small so it will need to be open longer. That could be a problem if you are handholding the camera or if your subject is moving.

The photo above was taken in October of 2007 in Grand Teton National Park. The clouds were obscuring the beautiful mountains in the background so I decided to focus on the leaves in the near foreground and the barn in the background. I shot with my f/stop at f/13 - a fairly small aperture setting. This dictated a shutterspeed of 1/80th of a second. For the lens length I was using, 1/80th was fast enough to handhold so I didn't need my tripod. The shot was done at ISO 400. If I had been concerned about digital noise, I could have shot at ISO 200 or ISO 100 which would have forced the shutterspeed to decrease to 1/40th or 1/20th, respectively. Both of those speeds would have required me to use a tripod to make sure the shot was steady. (See how I slipped in that review of ISO!)

In portrait photography it is sometimes nice to blur the background so that the subject really stands out. Open up the lens to a wide aperture and compose the shot. Again, the wide aperture means the shutter doesn't have to be open very long. The fast shutterspeed could be great if you need to handhold the camera.

In this shot of the young lady, the ISO was 400, the shutterspeed was 1/200th of a second, and the aperture was at f/2.8. I handheld this shot because the shutterspeed was fast enough to compensate for any camera shake that might have occurred and because I didn't want to set up a tripod on the railroad tracks!

The most important thing to understand is that your choice of aperture affects how much of the photo will be in focus - or how much "depth of field" you have.

Small aperture = large f/stop = lots in focus. Large aperture = small f/stop = very small plane of focus.

If you remember back in Lesson #2 I talked about shooting in Aperture Priority. This is how I shoot about 90 percent of the time. I control the aperture and the ISO and I let the camera pick the shutterspeed. I do this because I want creative control over what is in focus and what is blurry. Even though I'm not controlling the shutterspeed directly, I ALWAYS watch the shutterspeed to make sure it is fast enough for my conditions. If it isn't, then I bump my ISO upward to speed up the shutter. It's all about knowing how the camera works!

Go out and try to shoot with different f/stops and see what effect it has on your photographs.

If you have questions you can leave them here as comments or you can e-mail me at jalbritton@mesh.net

Thanks for reading!

Busy, busy, busy!

2008-02-08T11:06:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone!

I've had a busy couple weeks since I posted Lesson #4. I haven't forgotten about you but I also haven't heard from any of you.

HELLO, IS ANYONE OUT THERE? I'd love to hear some feedback - positive or negative - about the first four lessons.

Last week I had the opportunity to shoot a dress rehearsal and one of the performances of the Aledo High School Theatre Winter Musical production. It was a fun exercise in low-light, high ISO photography in which the quality of my work was tied directly to the quality of my best lens. I shot with my Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS and my Canon 40D body using 1600 and 3200 ISO settings. Most of the shots were done in Aperture Priority mode (AV) with the lens opened up to its largest aperture value, f/2.8. This meant that regardless of the amount of light in a particular scene, the camera would choose the fastest possible shutterspeed to stop the action. The faster shutterspeeds (and a good sturdy monopod) ensured sharp photos. Were there any tradeoffs in shooting that way? Unfortunately, yes. The high ISO means more digital noise and the wide aperture means smaller depth of field. The good news is that the tradeoffs weren't costly. But really, you should be the judge....

Here's a link to the gallery in my Smugmug site: How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying

And here's one of the shots taken during a big dance number.

Adios, Amigos!

Lesson #4 - Tradeoffs

2008-01-18T12:45:00.003-06:00

Let's review a little:

Lesson #1 was about which end of the camera the light goes in and where it goes once it's inside.

Lesson #2 was about using a camera's shooting modes to CONTROL aperture or shutterspeed.... or nothing ... or everything.

Lesson #3 was about making your photographs have IMPACT by using good composition.

Now it's time to tie all of it together with some discussion about tradeoffs. Photography - just like life - is full of tradeoffs. This lesson and the next two to follow will be all about photographic tradeoffs......

Remember that there were three important parameters that needed to be chosen for each photograph in order to get a good exposure: ISO, aperture, and shutterspeed. In this lesson, I'm going to show you the tradeoffs that are associated with ISO. I'll start with a brief description, then I'll show some examples of photographs that illustrate the tradeoffs. You'll see how these tradeoffs happen in REAL LIFE!

Let's start with ISO....

Remember that ISO is all about the sensitivity of your sensor - or film, if you've not yet made the switch. An ISO setting of 100 is half as sensitive to light as an ISO setting of 200. Likewise, 400 is twice as sensitive as 200, and 800 is twice as sensitive as 400. Some cameras go all the way up to 3200 and 6400 ISO. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive it is to light.

So when do you need your sensor to be more sensitive to light? There are two answers: (a) when there's NOT much light and (b) when you don't want to use much of the light that is available. Lowlight situations like during a church service are an example of the first. Sports photography when you want to stop the action with a super fast shutterspeed is an example of the second. Indoor sports photography inside poorly lit gymnasiums is a double-whammy. In that case there's not much light available AND you want a fast shutterspeed to stop the action. That's when you'll have to crank the ISO up as high as it will go.

So what is the tradeoff? Why not shoot at a high ISO all the time? Because of digital noise.

Back in the old days with film, the higher the ISO - the grainier the photograph would be. With digital, we have the same problem. High ISO leads to more digital noise. The good news, however, is that in the last few years the camera companies have gotten very good at managing digital noise. The Canon 40D camera that I use now gives me photos at 3200 ISO that have about the same amount of digital noise as my old Canon Digital Rebel had at 800 ISO. That's a huge difference! Yay Technology!

Tradeoff #1 - ISO - Higher ISO lets you shoot faster shutterspeeds and with less light but it may result in more digital noise.

Here are some examples:

This first shot is of a young lady playing guitar in a very low-light situation where I had to shoot at 1/100th of a second (fast enough to keep her moving hand from being blurred) with the lens aperture at f/2.8 (wide open) and with the ISO set to 1600 (as high as it would go on that camera.) The result is a very nice photo when you look at it this size.

But if you were to enlarge it very much, you can begin to see the GRAININESS in the photo. That's digital noise.

Another pair of examples: Different young lady, ISO at 100 (1/16th as sensitive as ISO 1600) in a brighter setting.

Enlarge just her face and..... very little GRAININESS ..... very little digital noise.

Now, did I say GRAININESS is bad? No way! There are times when digital noise can add a certain artistic look to a photograph. You also must keep in mind whether or not the photograph will be enlarged. I shoot lots of sports photos at high ISO that would make very grainy posters. But most of my customers buy 4x6 prints! Graininess and digital noise are much less important on the smaller uncropped prints.

My point is NOT to teach you to avoid digital noise or graininess but to KNOW when to expect it and decide for yourself if it's okay in each situation. I personally like the first photo of the young lady playing guitar and I think the digital noise doesn't hurt at all. Why? Because it gives the photo IMPACT and that is something we learned to work toward in our last lesson. A grainy photo taken in a coffeehouse setting under the warm glow of stage lights: very cool!

Now that you understand ISO, you know what to expect when you change it. It's a tool in your camera bag that you can begin to use effectively.

Go shoot some photos. Mess with the ISO settings on your camera and watch what happens to your photos. Good Luck!

Back Home in Texas!

2008-01-10T16:18:00.001-06:00

There is something fundamentally wrong with getting on an airplane and then getting off three hours later to outdoor temperatures 70 degrees warmer. That's what happened between Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Dallas, Texas, on Monday. Uggggh!

Anyway, we're back home and we're trying to catch up from being gone. I'm shooting soccer games this weekend and a retirement ceremony. Maybe I'll find Lesson #4 in there somewhere......

JRA

Look Who Came for Dinner!

2008-01-04T18:42:00.000-06:00

Today was pretty slow..... until about 4:45pm and that's when our dinner guests arrived!

This guy was checking us out through the window of the condo.

It turns out that bird feeders aren't just for birds anymore. Jill was concerned this morning about why her bird feeder had been emptied in one night. Now we know.

I slipped out the front door and discovered that our dinner guest had not come "stag" but had brought a younger friend. I was able to get good shots of both of them before they wandered back across Teton Creek.

FOR THE RECORD: I've hunted muledeer with great success in eight of the last nine years but I've never taken one as large as this big boy. Even with a major fork of his right antler broken, he's a trophy. I'm just as proud to get photos of him.

Lesson #3 - How to make GREAT photos

2008-01-03T18:59:00.000-06:00

Let's get something straight.

I'm glad you like some of the photos I've taken but what really matters to me is that I like them. I shoot for ME FIRST! I've entered a few photo contests with some of my absolute favorite shots and I've come away disappointed. I've posted my favorites on internet photography forums and I've had people tell me why they didn't like my best work. Please understand - I'm not afraid of criticism but I do recognize that opinions are like bellybuttons...... everyone has one: some stick out and some are full of lint. Our goal is to get you making photos that YOU like. I can tell you what I like about a photo and I can give you some ideas about what makes a photo compelling to ME, but the big question for YOU should be whether or not YOU like it.

With all that in mind, many of you have told me that you are disappointed with the photographs that you get and that you wish you could make shots like I make. You should probably know that I get lots of disappointing photographs too. I'm shooting at a rate of 40,000 shots per year these days. LOTS of those shots aren't very good. Many are downright disappointing. The trick for me, however, is that I usually know what to do when I get a lousy photo. I know how to adjust the camera - on the spot - to salvage the moment. That's what Lessons 1 and 2 were all about. Learn to use the camera so that when you are standing in front of that beautiful mountainside..... you can get it...... on the second or third try, at least.

TRANSLATION: Digital media is cheap. Shoot lots of photos. Learn to look at the display on the back of your camera and learn to ADJUST your shooting based on what you see. END OF TRANSLATION!

Now let's talk about COMPOSITION.

What makes great photographic composition? Is it a great subject? Or, is it something more subtle? I believe it is possible to make great photographs with lousy subjects and lousy photographs with great subjects. So what makes the difference?

Good photographs have EMOTIONAL IMPACT. If its a shot of your kid or your dog or your aging grandmother, it's easy to understand the emotional impact. But what about a landscape photograph. How can a beautiful mountain photograph have emotional impact? Simple: It has to make the viewer feel like he is there instead of just looking at a pretty picture.

How can a photograph make you feel like you are there? We'll get there with three simple concepts: Arrangement, Perspective, and, uh..... Arrangement, again.... This should be fun!

Arrangement

For me, a photograph should draw the eye of the viewer into the frame. The most compelling photographs make the viewer feel as though he is part of the scene. Most postcards appeal to us because they remind us of BEING THERE. Of course they are perfectly exposed and the color is captured during the best light of the day, but what really makes them work is that they draw us into the scene and stimulate the emotions that we felt when we were actually there.

The lines and elements of a photograph can draw us in ...... or bore us completely. Let me tell you what I have seen over and over again. As many of you know, I love Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In fact, I was there TODAY. I'm writing this after spending part of my afternoon in what I consider to be one of the most beautiful places in the whole wide world! I always chuckle as I drive up the main highway because I see people pulled off in the National Park Service pullouts photographing the spectacular Teton Range. The mountains along this drive are unbelievable. If you've never been to Grand Teton National Park, you should put it on your list. If you don't have a list..... start one and put GTNP at the top. It's a must-see.

Anyway, I see these folks snapping photos from the highway and I'm sad for them because I know they are going to be disappointed with their photographs BECAUSE THEY ARE FLAT! They'll say things like, "well, those mountains are unbelievable.... my pictures just don't do them justice." The problem is that there is nothing to DRAW the viewer into the photograph.

One of the best known photographs of the Tetons was taken by Ansel Adams in 1942 from a spot known as the Snake River Overlook. After you drive past three or four boring pullouts, you get to the overlook and you can take almost the same photo that Ansel took. Here's the one I took today:

This shot works because the viewer is drawn into the photo by the foreground and middle ground. Grand Teton, the 13,770-foot mountain in the background, anchors the scene but its the foreground of the trees and the middle ground of the river that make it work so well. Without the foreground and middle elements, this would just be a FLAT photo of the side of some really pretty mountains. Granted, you would have recorded what was there if you just shot the mountains with no foreground elements. But if you really want that POSTCARD feel, draw the viewer into the photograph by including foreground and - if possible - middle ground elements.

Here's another shot of the Tetons that I took last summer. It's at a place called Schwabacher's Landing and you have to hike a couple hundred yards from the parking area at the end of a two-mile gravel road off the main highway. Go to the GTNP visitor center and you'll see lots of posters and postcards from this spot....

This shot works because of BEAVERS! Beavers built a dam on this little backwater of the Snake River causing the water to backup into a nice pool that creates a perfect reflection of the mountains. You get foreground with the reflection, middle ground with the trees on the back of the pond, and the Teton Range anchoring the background. The elements of this photograph work together to draw you into the frame. It almost feels like you are there!

Perspective

Diagonal lines that lead away from the foreground are another great way to draw the eye into a photograph. Fences, roads, rivers, arms, legs, you name it..... use it to draw the eye into the photograph. Here's an example....

This is the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Sydney, Australia. I took this shot back in 2000 using film.... and I got very lucky! Everyone notices the spectacular bridge leading your eye across the harbor, but did you notice the railing in the FOREGROUND?

Here's another example that I love...

This is the west endzone at the Aledo High School Stadium. See how the endzone lines draw you into the photo from the foreground and notice how your eyes follow the lines into the frame and end on the impressive home bleachers. Because I'm not facing the home bleachers straight-on, the line of the seating leads away on another diagonal. It doesn't hurt that the sky behind the bleachers is interesting as well! Imagine how boring this would look if I just shot straight across at the home bleachers.

Another example: Anyone hungry for TexMex?

I took this shot looking up at an angle. I took some others looking straight-on at the building and there just wasn't anything that made those shots appealing. The perspective of this shot just makes it work so much better. Or, maybe I'm just craving chicken enchiladas.....

Arrangement, again!

Maybe you are shooting something that doesn't allow any neat perspective and it doesn't afford the luxury of strong foreground elements.....what do you do then?

There is something called, "The Rule of Thirds," that you need to know about and you need to be prepared to break it whenever you feel like it.

The Rule of Thirds says that you should arrange the elements in a photograph so that they are not centered left to right or top to bottom. The most "pleasing" arrangement is for the elements of the photograph to be located one-third of the way across the frame and one-third of the way up or down in the frame.

TRANSLATION: Don't center your subjects. END TRANSLATION.

Don't center the horizon - one-third of the way from the top or bottom is much better. A person in the photo? One-third of the way from the left or right. Person doing something? Let them "do it" toward the open part of the frame. Pitchers pitch better from one edge toward the middle of the frame. Running backs run toward the open field....unless you want to make him look elusive and then you show them running out of the frame with people chasing him. (See Lesson 2.)

REVIEW

Emotional Impact happens when you draw the viewer into the photograph. You want to make them FEEL like they are a part of it. You can do this by including foreground elements. You can draw them in using diagonal lines and different angles and perspectives. You can draw them in by arranging the elements in a pleasing way. This stuff works! When I look back at my best photos I recall exactly what it was like when I stood there. I want you to be able to feel the same thing when you look at your photos.

You also need to understand that shooting photos this way - using these concepts - becomes a part of HOW YOU SEE. After a while you won't have to think about what you are doing. You will just find yourself drawn to the kind of scenes that work. You will even find yourself skipping the roadside pull-out in favor of something much greater.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

Take a look at the photos in my Personal Favorites Galleries. Try to notice all the different ways I use diagonals lines, foreground elements, and the rule-of-thirds in my shots. You might also notice how often I break the rule-of-thirds, too!

NOTE FROM THE TEACHER: I'm a little lonely out here and I'd love to get some feedback on what you've been reading. Is it helpful? Is it a heaping pile of smelly refuse? Send me an email and let me know what you're thinking about these lessons so far. Thanks! JRA

Lesson #2 - Get Your PRIORITIES Right!

2008-01-03T00:50:00.000-06:00

In Lesson #1 you learned how cameras work. Hopefully, you spent a little time with your camera's manual so that you know how to adjust the three important parameters that were covered: shutterspeed, aperture, and ISO. Maybe you discovered that your camera has lots of other settings that are even more confusing. You may have run across words like "shooting mode," or "program mode" or modes that include the word "priority." Trust me on this: the camera makers are trying to make it easier for you - it just might not feel like it.

Most high-end digital cameras have four creative shooting modes: PROGRAM, APERTURE, SHUTTERSPEED, and MANUAL. These are the important ones. Learn about them and you can forget about all the other modes you might have seen: sports, action, portrait, landscape, nighttime, etc...

The creative shooting modes are all about giving YOU part of the control and letting the camera's brain (software) help with the rest. Remember how shutterspeed, ISO, and aperture work together for a good exposure? Your camera has a light meter inside that feeds information to the internal computer. The computer does its job and decides whether or not there is enough light (or too much light) for a good exposure. Then it looks to see what MODE you are shooting in so it can know what settings it needs to make. The best way to understand these SHOOTING MODES is to look at examples. You'll probably learn a lot of other great stuff in these examples because they are REAL LIFE. Here goes....

SHUTTERSPEED PRIORITY MODE

Example 1
You are shooting a football game in the middle of the afternoon on a sunny day. You want to stop the action making sure that your shots are not blurry at all. You know from previous experience that a shutterspeed of 1/500th would be perfect to stop the action. You choose an ISO of 400 believing it might be "fast" enough and you set your camera on Tv (Time-value for Canon) or S (Nikon) meaning that you've chosen Shutterspeed Priority. You then set your shutterspeed to 1/500th of a second and begin shooting. As you point your camera toward the running back and half-press the shutter button to activate the meter, the camera measures the light coming in, notices that you are in Shutterspeed Mode and it looks for an aperture value that will give a good exposure for the ISO and shutterspeed that you have chosen. If it is possible to get a good aperture setting with the ISO and shutterspeed that you have chosen then the camera will proceed to make a well exposed photograph for you. That's how Shutterspeed Priority or Shutterspeed Mode works. What if the camera can't get an aperture big enough to get a good exposure? Then the best thing to do would be to increase the ISO. Raise it to 800 and you just made it TWICE as sensitive to light. Now when you meter the scene you find that the aperture setting is good and the camera will take a good photo.

Example 2
You decide to shoot a waterfall and you want the water to look soft and "dreamy." You set your ISO to 100 (slow) and put your camera in shutterspeed priority mode. Choose 1/4th of a second and strap your camera down to your tripod because you know that it will be blurry if you try to hold it in your hands with a shutterspeed that slow. You focus on the waterfall and half-press the shutter release button and let the camera meter the scene. The camera chooses an appropriate aperture and then you snap the picture. Because your shutter was open for a relatively long time (1/4th second) the water appears to be smeared across the frame - perfect. Shutterspeed priority mode lets you choose the shutterspeed for the effect you want while the camera does the rest of the work to make it perfect.

APERTURE PRIORITY MODE

Example 3
Let's say you are shooting a portrait of an annoyed young man standing on a railroad track and you want your subject in focus but your background blurry. You know that you need a wide aperture to make that happen. With the ISO set to 100, you set the camera mode to Av (Aperture value for Canon) or A (Nikon) for Aperture Priority. You then set the f/stop on your lens to f/2.8, the widest aperture your lens can allow. You half-press the shutter button and the meter evaluates the exposure and determines what shutterspeed would be appropriate with this f/stop (aperture value) and ISO setting. If the shutterspeed the camera chooses is fast enough to justify handholding the camera, then you snap the photo and check the LCD to see what you got.

Example 4
Now it's time to shoot a portrait of someone in front of a distant mountain. You want the person in focus and the mountain in focus so you know that you will need a very small aperture. You set your ISO to 100 and your shooting mode to Av (Canon) or A (Nikon) for Aperture Priority. You then select an aperture of f/16 which makes a very small hole for the light to pass through. When you half-press the shutter button to meter the scene the camera determines the shutterspeed that will work with your small aperture and your low ISO. Uh-oh, the shutterspeed chosen is 1/30th second and you know the photo will be blurry because you didn't bring your tripod. Quickly you reset your ISO to 400 (4x faster than before) and see that the shutterspeed has now changed to 1/125th. This will work fine so you snap the photo.

PROGRAM MODE

Example 5
You're outside in the yard and want a photo of your prized rose bushes. You select an ISO of 100, set the camera on P for Program Mode and snap the photo. In this case the camera chose both the aperture and the shutterspeed because neither of them were particularly important to you. That was easy but it allowed you the least amount of creativity. If you wanted one of the roses in focus and all the rest to be blurry, you'd have to override the PROGRAM in order to set your own very wide aperture. In that case, you might as well take control of your aperture and use Aperture Mode.

Example 6
You're outside in the yard and want a photo of your grandmother admiring your prized rose bushes. Point and shoot. The camera takes care of everything and you get a well-exposed photo. Maybe the camera even notices that there isn't enough light for a good exposure and it pops open its built-in flash and zaps granny right between the eyes with enough light to make her look years younger. Perfect!

MANUAL MODE

Example 7
Back in the old days, the meter told you when there was enough light but you had to choose the aperture and the shutterspeed. You can still do this in MANUAL Mode. You point your camera at the group of kids in the snow and decide to set the aperture wide open so that you can let a lot of light through to the sensor. You then select a shutterspeed that makes the internal meter happy. But wait, you know that the meter will be fooled by all the white snow so you bump the shutterspeed down a couple of steps to overexpose the snow and get the kids in the snow looking great.

Example 8
You plan to shoot the fireworks at the picnic so you set your camera to manual, open the aperture wide open and then start adjusting your shutterspeed until you get the fireworks to look the way you want. Somewhere along the way you realize that you've been completely ignoring the light meter and just looking at your LCD to decide whether your shots need to be adjusted or not.

Review

Todays digital cameras offer unbelievable flexibility allowing us to be creative in ways we don't yet understand. One key to successful shooting is understanding what the different PROGRAM or SHOOTING PRIORITY MODES do.

Step 1: Choose the ISO - that tells the camera how sensitive the sensor (or film) is going to be
Step 2: Choose the shooting mode or PRIORITY MODE

PROGRAM - lets the camera choose the aperture and the shutterspeed
APERTURE - you select the aperture and the camera selects the shutterspeed
SHUTTERSPEED - you select the shutterspeed and the camera selects the aperture
MANUAL - you select BOTH the shutterspeed and the aperture

Step 3: Make the choices that need to be made based on the results you want to get (this is the creative part)
Step 4: Half-press the shutter button to see if the choices that have been made will actually work
Step 5: Adjust if necessary
Step 6: Take the photograph

Did you learn anything in this lesson? If you read the examples carefully, you should have learned that the aperture is also known as f-stops and that the larger the number the smaller the aperture. You also learned the kind of choices you would need to make if you were shooting sports, or waterfalls, or even portraits. Oh, and don't forget about grandma. If she needs flashing, the best place to get that to happen is in PROGRAM mode.

In Lesson #3 I'm going to shift gears a little and start talking about creative composition. You know enough now about how your camera works that you should be ready to start exercising those creative impulses.

Questions or comments? Post them here!

New Years Eve - Grand Targhee Style!

2007-12-31T20:28:00.000-06:00

WOW! The torchlight parade and the fireworks at Grand Targhee were great! The only problem was that the temperature had plummeted down to single digits. I scoped out my location about 20 minutes before the parade and managed to take enough test shots so that I was pretty confident when things got going. Jill and the kids joined me - with a welcome cup of hot chocolate - and we ooohed and aaahed together as the skiers came down the mountain.

Tomorrow we hit the slopes....... not sure if I'll take the big camera or not.

Greetings from Idaho

2007-12-31T15:44:00.000-06:00

We left Texas yesterday afternoon and flew to Jackson Hole where it was about 50 degrees colder. Budget rental car stood us up but Thrifty came through just at the right time. We made it across Teton Pass to the Idaho side of paradise and now we're looking forward to a week of skiing and winter photography.

But first, there's work to do! Sara and Aaron earned their hot chocolate by cleaning off about 14 inches of snow from the deck on the back of the condo.

Tonight is the torchlight parade at Grand Targhee Ski Resort and I'm going to attempt to take some photos. We'll see how that goes. Snow pictures are tough; add the increased complication of night photography and motion and it might be interesting.

Keep checking the blog. I'm working on Lesson #2 now.

JRA

LESSON #1 -- How Cameras Work

2007-12-29T23:36:00.001-06:00

READ THE MANUAL!

If you want to know how your camera works, READ THE MANUAL!

That's great advice that each of us should use to learn about our own specific camera model. But, what I want to cover in this lesson is how cameras work, IN GENERAL. If you read the manual but don't really know how a camera works, it might be a little confusing. In fact, it might be a lot confusing.

In plain terms, light passes through a lens and is focused on something that records the effect of the light. That "something" could be traditional photographic film or it could be a high-tech digital sensor. On its way to the sensor, the light will pass through an aperture which is just an adjustable-sized hole in the lens. If the aperture is large, then there will be a lot of light pass through for a given amount of time. If the aperture is small, less light will pass through in the same amount of time. Remember APERTURE. It's the hole that the light passes through. Its size is important in a lot of things we will learn about.

Then there is the SHUTTER. The shutter is the little curtain that opens and closes at a very specific rate of speed to allow the light to get through to the sensor. SHUTTER SPEED is the term we use to indicate how long the shutter is open.

So, let's review: Light travels through a lens to get focused on a sensor material. Along the way it passes through an aperture and a shutter. The size of the aperture is adjustable and the time that the shutter is open can be changed.

When you press the button on top of your camera, the shutter opens and the sensor is EXPOSED to the light. When we talk about EXPOSURE we are talking about the amount of light that reaches the sensor. If there is enough light to make a good photograph then we would say we have a good exposure. If too much light hits the sensor then we have OVEREXPOSED our photo and it will be too light. Likewise if too little light gets through, the photo will be dark and we call it UNDER EXPOSED.

So how much light does it take to get a good exposure? That depends on how sensitive your sensor or film is. Back when we all used film we bought 100 speed, 200 speed, 400, 800 or even 1600 speed film. If we were going to shoot in low light or we wanted to shoot action photos, we selected "fast" film - 400 or above. Digital cameras work the same way. On most of them we select the ISO value just like we used to select our film speed. 100 ISO is less sensitive (slower) than 200 ISO. Some cameras go all the way to 3200 or even 6400 ISO which is very "fast."

A good exposure - one that results in a good photograph - is a combination of sensor sensitivity (ISO), aperture size, and shutter speed. All three components work together in different combinations to give us what we want. But exposure is only one part of the puzzle. Shutterspeed, aperture, and ISO each affect the quality of a photograph in other ways that we will cover in-depth in future lessons. If you can understand the effect of each parameter, then you can consistently make amazing photographs. That's our goal - to get you making amazing photographs.

So now you know how a camera works. Great! The next thing you need to do is learn HOW TO CHANGE the ISO setting, the aperture, and the shutterspeed on YOUR camera. How do you do this....

READ THE MANUAL!

While you're doing that, enjoy another one of my all-time favorites: Tulips in Sweden

Hi Everyone!

2007-12-28T20:49:00.001-06:00

Today is December 28, 2007, and this is my first blog post.

Perhaps I should start with a little information about myself and the purpose of this blog:

A lot of my friends at First Baptist Church of Aledo have asked me to teach a photography class. The problem, of course, has been scheduling. I'm hoping that this online blog will be our solution. My plan is to prepare a few simple lessons that will help you improve your photography while you learn to enjoy your fancy new digital camera. I'll take your questions through the comments you make on the blog and then I'll respond back through the blog so that everyone can benefit from the questions and answers.

I am a Mechanical Engineer by training but the thing that really gets me going is making gorgeous photos. I like to shoot them, process them, print them, frame them, and admire them. But the thing that gets me the most excited is when I SELL them and I do that through my Smugmug-hosted website.

I started my website at www.SaltForkImages.com in April of 2006, using it to post sports, portrait, and nature photos. Through the site, I sell high quality prints to my customers at prices that I set. Smugmug fills my customer's orders and sends me my portion of the markup. It's been a great way for me to make some money off the hobby I love and at the same time provide outstanding prints to my customers. Another cool benefit of my website is that it has become a way to share photos with my church family at FBC Aledo. I regularly shoot events at church and then upload those photos for sharing with the congregation.

Check back soon for our first lesson. I think I'll talk a little about the fundamentals of camera operation. In the meantime, I've posted one of my favorite shots of all time below: Mormon Barn in the Tetons