How I Became a Photographer

Remember reading Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Life is a Journey, not a Destination"? My journey towards becoming a photographer is about that journey. I am chronociling that journey, so that it may inspire others to find that passion that burns within. Many of us have dreams, and many times we allow fear to squash those dreams. As I tell my story from where i was to today, I hope you find inspiration to pursue your dreams, as all things are possible if you just believe.

My story begins with a collection of shorts pre-dating owning a camera:

Saturday, October 16 2010 was a memorable night for many of us in Madison. That evening, the Ohio State Buckeyes came into Camp Randall as the number one ranked football team in the nation. Comparatively, Wisconsin was ranked 18th in the nation. By the time the night was over, the Badgers prevailed 31-18 over the previously unbeaten Buckeyes. 

I had a few people over to our house to watch the game. We watched as the opening kick-off was returned by Wisconsin for a touchdown, giving the Badgers a lead they would not relinquish. At half-time we enjoyed a roasted pesto pork loin with root vegetables. The second half, everything was a blur.

Welcome to the club. In a matter of minutes, my life changed from one of 20/20 corrected vision to a life with myopic macular degeneration (wet form) in my left eye. I’d grown up with poor vision. Glasses have been a life requirement for as long as I can remember, except for a few years when I switched to contacts.

It was a year earlier when we discovered an abnormal vision change. I was wearing contacts, and chalked some unclear vision up to my last pair of very old contact lenses. I wasn’t the best at getting to an eye doctor, or wearing my contacts for 30 days. Heck, if I saw an opportunity to save a few bucks and extend wearing contacts longer, I would. 

This time, the reduced vision was more than old contacts. I bounced around from doctor to doctor for a while. No one was sure why I struggled to see well with my left eye, but no one indicated my vision would decline in the future.

Back to the night of 2010 and the abrupt change in my vision. After half-time, I sat in the same seat I watched the first half. The TV during the second half was out of focus. I recall walking around the house, rubbing my eyes in hopes that the vision would clear up. It didn’t. I chose to keep what was occurring to myself through the balance of the evening. After everyone left, I told my wife the news.

Something I learned over the years is Madison is a great place to be when you need a medical professional. Two days after I recognized my vision had changed, I was able to get into a Dr. of Optometry. I explained what occurred, he did a few tests and looked around my eye. He, like doctors in the past, told me that he didn’t know why I wasn’t seeing well, but he didn’t see anything wrong with my eye. 

Look again I said. He did, and said he couldn’t see anything. Look Again, I said in a respectful yet frustrated tone. He did, then left the room. I sat there with my wife, confused, angry, and admittedly a little scared. After a few minutes the Doctor returned, and this is what he said.

I was able to get a hold of one of the Retina Specialists. You need to get upstairs to see him right now. There is fluid in the back of your eye, specifically in the macula. This doctor needs to see you now and inject a drug. Come on, let’s go, I will show you to his office. 

A couple minutes later, I was meeting a slew of new people. Sign here one said, I did. Suddenly, my chair is tilted back. Tape was applied to the side of my face. Someone covers my eye with iodine, an eye-lid speculum inserted and the then a needle pierces the eyeball.

Welcome to the club. With that shot in my eye, I officially became a member of the macular degeneration club. I was 39.

Camera Settings Explained

Over the past couple of days, I was asked three times about camera settings. These inquiries came from on-line and in person interactions. Since many people seem to be interested in the technical aspect of my pictures, let me provide a brief description of how set the camera.

The first thing to understand is I am a wildlife photographer. Wildlife photography, at its core, means you must be ready for anything to appear at any moment, with perhaps only one chance at the photo. Remember this thought as I describe camera settings.

My photo shoots begin well before I arrive. If you use Apple products, I suggest an app called LightTrac. This app provides you with sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset data. In addition to the daily times, it provides elevation and angles. This information is key. I always walk into a field with a sun over a shoulder. Make the mistake of walking in from the wrong side and your shots will be back light, run away and never reappear.

The next consideration I make is what am I likely to see. I am looking at birds in flight, my shutter speed needs to be fast. I find shutter speed to be the most critical camera setting. I want the shutter speed as slow as possible, while not being so slow the image of my photo blurs.

A great rule of thumb for shutter speed when you aren’t shooting real high shutter speeds is never have a shutter speed lower than the mm of your focal point. What does this mean? If you have shooting something like a Heron that isn’t moving, you might be inclined to reduce your shutter speed because of low light. But, if you have a long telephoto (perhaps 300mm) your shutter speed needs to be higher than 1/300. If you let your shutter speed get to a number smaller than your focal length, I can almost guarantee your photo will be blurred.

OK, so now you have a shutter speed selection.  It is time to decide if you need to adjust your aperture. Aperture addresses the amount of light coming into the camera. The lower the number, the greater amount of light that is coming into your camera. Adjusting this number will have two impacts on your photos.

The obvious impact is lighting. If you start with a low aperture, you are letting in a lot of light. That means you will most likely need a higher shutter speed to compensate. If you adjust your aperture to a high number, you let in a little light. That means you will need to slow down your shutter speed.

Aperture also controls another key element in your photos. Your aperture setting will impact your depth of field. Generally, this is what I am more concerned with when taking wildlife photos. If you have an aperture that is set to a low number, you will have an image that has a very shallow depth of field. What does this mean? A low aperture number means the image you are focusing on will be in focus, but everything else will be out of focus.

However, if you set your aperture to a high number, your depth of field will will bring virtually everything into focus. Sounds like an easier way to take photos right? If everything is in focus, then you will get better shots. Not true, when everything is in focus the person viewing the photo will get confused. Have some limit to the depth of field is important.

So, you selected your shutter speed, then adjusted your aperture to obtain the right depth of field. You take your first picture and its not good. Either too much light or not enough. What could be wrong? ISO is the third element of setting your camera.

ISO means light sensitivity. The lower your ISO, like 100, the less sensitive your camera is to light. The higher the number, the more sensitive it is to light. So, if you took your first photo and it was dark, but everything else was correct, turn your ISO to a higher number. If your photo was too bright, turn down your ISO.  

One thing to be aware of, the lower your ISO number, the more detail you will have in your photo. A general rule of thumb is to keep your ISO as low as possible. If you ISO goes too high, you will loose detail in your picture.

With that understanding of shutter speed, aperture and ISO, how do you know where to start? Its time for a confession from me. I start with shutter speed. Remember what I said at the start, I primarily shoot wildlife. For me, that means the shutter speed is most important. Then I let the camera do what it wants. Most of the time, that produces good results.

Do I ever adjust aperture and ISO? Yes, when the camera isn’t adjusting to correctly on its own. An example, this weekend I was trying to shoot an image of Blue Heron fishing. The Blue Heron is a darker bird. He was sanding in shallow water below a tree. This eliminated light reflection off the water. On top of that, the sun was in my face. I was in the sun, the subject was in the shade, was a dark subject and wasn’t moving. This was the perfect time to make several adjustments.

I lowered the shutter speed 6 stops, kept aperture the same, and decreased the ISO 2 stops. The result, I captured a perfect image of him showing me his rear as he caught the fish. Even when you get your settings right, the subject matter still needs to cooperate. Always tomorrow to get the image. 

Why photos less than our best deserve to be seen.

Today was an interesting day from a photography perspective. I did not set-off intending to take pictures. I needed to make a trip to Horicon Marsh Federal Visitor Station to pick up photo credentials for Monday. Of course, you never head somewhere that a photo may exist without a camera, so I packed my camera and 500mm lens in the back seat.

As travels began, I knew it wouldn’t be a great picture day. The sky was cloudy, with mist in the air. We were coming off several inches of rain, and the forecast was to be foggy, cloudy and damp all day.

Shortly after departing, a Double Crested Cormorant was spotted, sitting in a lake a hundred yards or so from shore. Every time I see one in the wild, they put on a show. This Cormorant was no exception. Wings stretched out standing on one leg, he looked like he was doing yoga in the fog. I was able to capture a few interesting photos until he flew away.

As I approached Horicon, I quickly realized this day was going to be a fabulous one for seeing nature in its glory. Bald Eagles drying their wings, White Egrets sitting amongst vivid green lily pads just feet from shore, Grey Heron were plentiful, Green Heron jumping out of the tall grass feet away, Mallard and Wood Ducks within feet, coots hanging out in some backwaters and Sand Hill Cranes in every farmers’ field.

The quality of the photos today was average at best. But the scenes captured were some that are few and far between. I was lucky, I was able to be in the Marsh today and see all of this. The fact that the pictures aren’t show worthy doesn’t dampen my spirit. All I had to do was take a few minutes, thinking back to why I take pictures (capture images of natures’ beauty while I can) and it was then I realized that the day was a great success. All this despite lacking crispness, sharpness or color perfect images. Thanks for reading, and more importantly, thanks for enjoying my photos.

The early photographer gets the bird.

Everyone knows that the early birds gets the worm. Well, what happens when the photography is the early one, he gets the bird of course. This morning I headed out of the house shortly after 3:30 am, arriving at Horicon Marsh shortly before sunrise. In hindsight, I should have left a few minutes earlier. 

None the less, it was 5:40 when I arrived at the end of Dike Road. Horicon Marsh is divided by several dikes to control the flow of water. Dike Road is on the southern edge of the federal portion of the land. Many think Dike Road is the dividing line between federal and state control, but actually it is a few feet to the south. So, if you intend to go in early (before sunrise) make sure you communicate with the Refuge Officer before hand. 

With or without a camera, it was a fun morning. Watching the birds fly into their feed zones at the break of dawn is impressive. I've heard others say there aren't any birds in the Horicon. I counter to that thought by saying get there early in the morning and you will find a land full of activity.