Editor’s note: Robert Clark is a master of waterfall photography. He is a graphic designer, architect, landscape photographer and teacher – and works as a media designer, manager and frequent photographer for the National Park Service. This post is loaded with Bob’s great waterfall shots and tips! Waterfall photography is a very popular among landscape photographers. Of all the landscape images I make, I find that shooting waterfalls remains my favorite in terms of subject matter. Capturing the very real …
Same location… close to home… different looks
I love travel photography, but I am equally motivated to shoot at locations just down the road. I am fortunate to live in a beautiful country, Switzerland, but I believe there are great photo subjects all around you, no matter where you are. I took the following three images at a favorite location, not far from my home in Switzerland. Although they were taken not too far apart, I think they illustrate some of the many faces of winter in …
Oregon – Five “Before” and “After” Long Exposure Images
Editor’s note: We’ve been huge fans of Cole’s tremendous black & white work for years – and have often wondered what his images looked like out of the camera, before he applied his unique conversion and processing vision. So we were delighted when Cole sent us this post. I’ve had a number of people ask if I’d do some more “before” and “after” shots. So here are five from my recent Oregon trip. All are long exposures created with my …
Working Through Visual Puzzles
Maple Leaves on Fallen Redwood, Nisene Marks State Park, California Sony a7R, Sony 70-200mm @ 200mm, f/20, 4 seconds, 100 ISO, Singh-Ray Neutral Polarizer It has been my observation in teaching workshops for the past 10 years that there are two types of photographers: There are those whom I call the “trophy hunters,” they have scoured the internet regarding the area they are photographing and are there to shoot the icons. Then there are those who’ll find their own twist …
A Resident Artist
Editor’s note: In our humble opinion, Chuck Kimmerle is one of today’s truly outstanding black & white photography artists. Our thanks for this reflection on the residency he just completed in Joshua Tree National Park, along with some of the extraordinary images he created during that time, with a little help from his Singh-Ray Vari-ND, Galen Rowell grads and LB neutral polarizer. Taken with Singh-Ray LB neutral polarizer I was getting a bit apprehensive. It was my second day of …
My National Geographic Expedition to Iceland, Greenland and the Northwest Passage
Editor’s note: Longtime Singh-Ray shooter and National Geographic and Pultitzer Prize winning photographer, Jay Dickman, takes us through some wonderful images he shot during an expedition he led this past August. You might be surprised to know that these were all taken with the Olympus E-M1 mirrorless four-thirds camera. And, of course, with Jay’s Singh-Ray Galen Rowell neutral density grads, polarizers, Vari-ND and Color Intensifiers, the latter a filter that rarely comes off his lenses. Keeping up with the mirrorless …
Singh-Ray filters: Essential tools for preserving photographic integrity
Editor’s note: Singh-Ray shooter Richard Thompson recently published his first hardcover book, “Visions of Michigan,” featuring his outstanding photography in Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas, accomplished using Singh-Ray filters. To find out more about his book or order a copy, visit Richard’s website. When I’m on the road traveling, I always give special consideration to my surroundings and try to be attentive to circumstances that will best portray the places I’ve come to photograph. With outdoor photography, it’s ephemeral moments …
5 Reasons to Reject an Image
With the age of digital photography now becoming a mainstream part of society, how do you decide what photos are good to keep and what ones should be thrown in the trash? While we need reasons to reject an image, we don’t necessarily want to form a hypothesis of rules. If you ever take a workshop with me you will quickly realize that I choose to disregard rules in almost every aspect of my life and my photography. And I believe …
Filters Still Have an Important Role in High-Quality Photography
I recently returned from a week in South Dakota and it was an exhilarating, wonderful experience. I’d just switched to Singh-Ray 4×6 inch Galen Rowell neutral density grads from the “P” size, so I was looking forward to trying out these larger filters with my usual hand-holding technique. Here is how I approach hand-holding ND grads; it’s quite an easy process, and best of all, it obviously doesn’t require futzing around with a bulky filter holder. I often stack up …
Realizing my vision, with the help of my filters
Editor’s note: Doug is a full-time U.S. Coast Guardsman, which may have something to do with why most of his photos seem to contain water! An avid photographer who spends much of his time at sea serving his country, here he describes his transition from film to digital, with the help of Singh-Ray filters. We’re pleased to feature Doug’s work. My enduring love for creating photographs began at age 13, in a darkroom with my father. To say the least, …
How super-simple it is to create extremely-long exposures with the new 10-Stop Mor-Slo ND filter
There have been so many times when I’ve found myself at an impressive river scene or rocky coast line with the mid-day sun beaming straight down. Very bright light creates a challenge for me since I like to shoot rivers, streams, water falls, and seashore surf at very slow shutter speeds to get that soft-silky look to the moving water. In such situations, I like to expose my image for 10 seconds or longer. But even if I set my …
Report on shooting ‘volcano-scapes’ in South Africa’s Pilanberg National Park
Pilanesberg is a ‘super-seven’ park meaning that it has the ‘big-five’ animals (buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion, and rhino) plus cheetah and wild dogs, making up the seven animals most visitors want to see and photograph, but I have found this park to also be a prime spot for shooting landscapes — or what I call volcano-scapes. The park is situated on the remains of an extinct volcano that was active just a few thousand years ago. Unlike the Ngorongoro Crater …
Several recent trips add many new high-resolution images to a website gallery
As a result of all that travel and shooting, I have been able to post over 150 photos in the New Images section on my website. That would include the image above of sunrise through fog with boats at Newport Harbor, Oregon. Here I used my Pentax 645D with a three-stop soft-step Graduated ND filter over the sky. I like the softness and moodiness of the image. I have also posted another 130 images that have been ‘reprocessed.’ These are …
Showing how the right timing, tools and technique can capture the image perfectly
At its very root, photography is a beautifully simple way for us to share our unique vision with the world. It’s an extension of our eyes and creative minds. Yet sometimes we lose sight of all this amidst the incessant buzz of tech talk, one-upsmanship and armchair quarterbacking. Let us never forget that photography is a creative process that can and should open people’s eyes to new locations, new cultures, new experiences, and new ways of seeing this exciting world …
To improve his digital landscapes, all this student needed was a Next Level workshop and two Singh-Ray Filters
Next Level Workshop instructors Darrell Moll and Rod Brown freely admit that landscape photography is a nice escape from the business of running their regular studios. “If the truth be known,” says Darrell, “we would prefer to do nothing else but take pictures of the great American landscape and share our images and knowledge with others, but that may still be a few years down the road.” “There is no place I’d rather be in mid-April than in the Smoky …
It was not a very lucky day for Susan and Neil Silverman to visit the Racetrack in Death Valley
Co-Authored by: Neil Silverman For anyone visiting Death Valley National Park, one of the intriguing attractions is the Racetrack Playa. This is an area in an ancient dry-lake bed where mysteriously moving rocks make tracks in the mud surface of the lakebed. Endless studies have been made, attempting to determine what force is actually moving the rocks. Getting out to the Racetrack is no easy matter — as in 27 miles of tough ‘washboard’ driving on primitive dirt road. We …
Taking Singh-Ray filters along on a crazy road trip
Although most of my stock shooting trips are planned well in advance, this time I discovered that I had an unexpected open week on my schedule that would begin in less than 36 hours. Just enough time to plan my journey. Joined by my friend and fellow photographer, C.W. McGowen, we set out to capture various coastal and inland locations spanning a wide area of Northern California and Oregon. These were locations that were on my ‘bucket list,’ and weather …
An unexpected chance to visit Hawaii proves to be a lifetime experience
The wonderful thing about life is that we never know! We create this crazy illusion that we control our lives, yet when I think about it, I realize how little is planned and how much is serendipity. In my quest to see and photograph in all the National Parks, I find myself still twenty-one parks short. Out of the fifty-eight locations that carry the N.P. designation, I’ve now visited thirty-seven. The Hawaiian Islands is about the last place I expected …
Following up a ten-day visit through Scotland with an adventurous trip to Ireland
After a couple of days in Dublin we rented a car and drove to Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. Our plan was to head straight to the scenic northern coast of the island and then swing back through the Republic of Ireland following its western edge as we made our way back to Dublin and our plane back to the States. In the early afternoon we arrived in the beautiful little town of Ballycastle which was …
Leading two workshops to Utah for a great adventure in fall colors and amazing scenery
Each of the workshops, lasted five days with a two-day private excursion with two friends tagged onto the end. Needless to say, it was a long steady pace with very little sleep. I left California on October 25 with my co-instructor Scott Schilling. We took an early morning flight from San Jose, California to Las Vegas, Nevada, and then drove another 8 hours to Moab, Utah — which would be home base for my Arches/Canyonlands Workshop. I like to time …
Sharing some of my latest long-exposure images from recent trips
Since my last post, I have been on a number of trips and thought I’d share some images from them. Each of these long exposure images has something in common, the Singh-Ray Vari-ND and the Mor-Slo 5-Stop ND Filter. I was in the Sierras to attend the memorial of an old friend and mentor when I created this image. John was on my mind as I spent several days reminiscing about our times together and missing him. He loved the …
Wet weather failed to dampen a well-planned visit to Olympic National Park
The next day, I met up with Dustin, a photographer buddy of mine from the Sacramento area. We jumped on the Bainbridge Ferry and headed to the Port Angeles and Olympic National Park area. Driving from the ferry to Second Beach in a heavy downpour, I wasn’t at all confident that I could capture any images. From the parking lot, we hiked about a mile through mud, rain and flimsy wooden bridges to reach Second Beach. What a sight! As …
Capturing a number of well-earned images of the residents of Salisbury Plain
I can not adequately describe how mind-blowing my visit was with these adorable king penguins. After spending a week sailing in horrendous seas with terrible weather, I finally arrived at my dream photography destination. Upon landing, most of the king penguins were somewhat skittish, but these guys walked right up to greet me! Oh, boy. It was cold, too. The fresh snow on the normally rocky beach, however, helped make this already dramatic scene even more photogenic. In order to photograph this spectacle, I …
Adventures in Costa Rica’s rain and cloud forests
What would be different about this particular trip, was that — despite the incredible photographic opportunities presented by Costa Rica’s vast biodiversity of wildlife — my focus would be on capturing landscapes of the rain and cloud forests of Monteverde. Our journey would also include a brief jaunt into the northern tropical dry forest area of Guanacaste and Santa Rosa National Park. Finding strong compositions within the tropical rain and cloud forests is challenging. Simply put, these forests are busy. There …
Iceland’s Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon
As I was packing for my trip to Iceland last winter, I decided at the very last second to include my Singh-Ray Vari-ND. I thought that maybe it would come in handy on some waterfalls. One of the major highlights of any trip to Iceland is visiting the magnificent Glacial Lagoon called Jokulsarlon on the southeastern shores of this island nation. This is an area where Europe’s largest Glacier, Vatnajokul, has an arm that extends toward the North Atlantic and …
How super-simple it is to create extremely-long exposures with the new 10-Stop Mor-Slo ND filter
There have been so many times when I’ve found myself at an impressive river scene or rocky coast line with the mid-day sun beaming straight down. Very bright light creates a challenge for me since I like to shoot rivers, streams, water falls, and seashore surf at very slow shutter speeds to get that soft-silky look to the moving water. In such situations, I like to expose my image for 10 seconds or longer. But even if I set my …
Report on shooting ‘volcano-scapes’ in South Africa’s Pilanberg National Park
Pilanesberg is a ‘super-seven’ park meaning that it has the ‘big-five’ animals (buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion, and rhino) plus cheetah and wild dogs, making up the seven animals most visitors want to see and photograph, but I have found this park to also be a prime spot for shooting landscapes — or what I call volcano-scapes. The park is situated on the remains of an extinct volcano that was active just a few thousand years ago. Unlike the Ngorongoro Crater …
Several recent trips add many new high-resolution images to a website gallery
As a result of all that travel and shooting, I have been able to post over 150 photos in the New Images section on my website. That would include the image above of sunrise through fog with boats at Newport Harbor, Oregon. Here I used my Pentax 645D with a three-stop soft-step Graduated ND filter over the sky. I like the softness and moodiness of the image. I have also posted another 130 images that have been ‘reprocessed.’ These are …
To improve his digital landscapes, all this student needed was a Next Level workshop and two Singh-Ray Filters
Next Level Workshop instructors Darrell Moll and Rod Brown freely admit that landscape photography is a nice escape from the business of running their regular studios. “If the truth be known,” says Darrell, “we would prefer to do nothing else but take pictures of the great American landscape and share our images and knowledge with others, but that may still be a few years down the road.” “There is no place I’d rather be in mid-April than in the Smoky …
It was not a very lucky day for Susan and Neil Silverman to visit the Racetrack in Death Valley
Co-Authored by: Neil Silverman For anyone visiting Death Valley National Park, one of the intriguing attractions is the Racetrack Playa. This is an area in an ancient dry-lake bed where mysteriously moving rocks make tracks in the mud surface of the lakebed. Endless studies have been made, attempting to determine what force is actually moving the rocks. Getting out to the Racetrack is no easy matter — as in 27 miles of tough ‘washboard’ driving on primitive dirt road. We …
Going to Bali with my family and camera — a memorable time was had by all
I figured there would be some great opportunities, though, in such a beautiful tropical setting. Although I spent a lot of time trying to decide what photo gear to take, my Singh-Ray Filters were at the top of every list I made. While we were in Bali, there was a lot of entertainment activity going on. Surf company Rip Curl was there hosting the Rip Curl Cup at Padang Padang Beach; as excited as my kids were to surf, I …
Visiting Navajo Country and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with LB Polarizers
We were blessed with fantastic clouds, sunrises, and sunsets every morning and night, resulting in some of the best photographic opportunities I have had since moving to Arizona 18 years ago. As leader of the workshop, however, capturing great photographs is secondary to providing individual attention to the students. However, while everyone was busy firing away, I was able to take a number of photographs that I am very happy with. On the first morning, we were guided by our …
10-Day Tour of Scotland fulfilling a life-time dream
While I was anticipating beautiful scenery, I did not expect it to be so overwhelming. There was some rain, but what would the Scottish Highlands be without the rain, fog, and dramatic clouds? After a few days in Edinburgh to get over the jet lag, we rented a car and sped off to the town of St. Andrews. For those of you who are not avid golfers, St. Andrews is the birthplace of the sport and home to the greatest …
Marking my first decade as a nature photographer with eight-day trip to the Canadian Rockies
I was 19 and determined to become a nature photographer as well as a studio artist. Last May, I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts — concentrating in Photography — from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I am now a fine arts graduate student at the University of Texas at Arlington expecting to graduate in 2014. As I have advanced in my studies, I have remained undecided on my future career path to becoming a professional nature photographer. …
Explaining how I create colorful images at twilight with the Gold-N-Blue Polarizer
Once the sun drops below the horizon, many photographers pack up their gear and go home. However, for those of us who have a Gold-N-Blue handy, twilight can present some great opportunities to capture a most magical light. Unfortunately, the color that presents itself during these twilight hours is often not long enough, nor strong enough, to permit us to photograph for very long. For me, this is where the Gold-N-Blue pays off. During twilight, the Gold-N-Blue dramatically increases the …
Running into a scene that’s got everything except good light, Time for Plan B
I often find wonderful compositions that prompt me to set up my camera and then wait for better light. And then wait some more. Sometimes it’s the weather that isn’t quite right, but just as often it’s the color or quality of the light that isn’t working for me. Every serious photographer has experienced the frustration of spending a lot of time and treasure pursuing an exciting image that’s just not happening the way we visualized it. Or maybe we’ve …
Capturing this dreamy image of Allegheny State Park at first light with the Vari-N-Duo
I proposed to my wife there and we have been taking our children there every chance we get. Because I am very busy with my photo business, Allegheny Park is our place to wind down and enjoy life. Do I still bring my camera along? Absolutely! I make sure to pack light. My travel kit includes a Nikon D700 full-frame D-SLR, 24-70mm f/2.8 and my 70-200mm f/2.8 VR, tripod and my Singh-Ray filters. I use a couple of Graduated Neutral …
Visiting Joshua Tree National Park to commune with the ancient boulders
It was the first time I had visited since 1987 when my wife and I went camping there. Coincidentally, our trip occurred right after U2 had introduced their new album “Joshua Tree,” and I remember listening to it non-stop as we sunned ourselves on the large round boulders at the park. The music and that location are positively and indelibly intertwined in my memory. Each time I hear those songs, I am transported back in time. So it was with …
Discovering the pleasures of shooting skyscapes
I have specialized in wildlife photography since 1995 and focused primarily on the ‘big-five’ African animals. Then recently I realized there are so many great landscape photographs yet to be captured everywhere we go. As a result, I bought a polarizer and some ND grads from a popular filter company, but I was never pleased with the results. Seeing some of Darwin Wiggett’s photographs was the turning point for me — I saw that he uses Singh-Ray filters, so I …
To capture the most dramatic lighting effects at sunrise and sunset, aim right for the sun
This area is my home and my part of the natural world, and I never feel a lack of impressive subjects. Perhaps my favorite subject is the sun itself, especially when I’m shooting at sunrise or sunset. I love to shoot directly at the sun to achieve dramatic lighting effects. I’ve found that two kinds of Singh-Ray filters are essential for such photos — my Galen Rowell ND Grads and my LB Neutral Polarizer. Whenever I’m shooting at the sun …
Scott Fisher’s very brief trip to Iceland was nevertheless rewarding
As a professional video producer/editor based in Boston, Scott Fisher has also taken on landscape photography as a serious hobby to help him learn more about framing and exposure. “I realized a few years ago how using filters would step up my game as a landscape photographer. I have always used neutral density filters in my video work so I was a bit embarrassed that it took me so long to start using them in my still photography. “I currently …
Marco Crupi enjoys a quick trip down the Jersey Shore looking for something special to photograph
I like to go on short trips in and around my home in New Jersey. This past Father’s Day, I decided to head down the Jersey Shore for the weekend even though the weather forecast was calling for afternoon thunderstorms and showers. What a great call! My wife and I spent most of the day basking in the sun and enjoying the Spring Lake beach area. After several hours of relaxing on the beach, I decided to take a walk …
Explaining why LB Neutral Polarizer is almost always a good filter!
This is my part of the natural world, and I can feast on all the natural beauty around me for years to come. But there have been many more decisions I have made to assure success as an outdoor photographer — including the decision to use Singh-Ray filters. I’d like to talk a bit about the one filter that, as a landscape photographer, is almost always on my lens. That filter is the Singh-Ray LB Neutral Polarizer. Many photographers only …
Tony Sweet demonstrates the use of three Singh-Ray filters he describes as essential to his art
In a time when many photographers believe that hardware filters are passé, there are still three types of filters that I use as often as I did back when I was a film photographer: the solid neutral density filter, the infrared filter (used on my unconverted cameras), and the always important graduated ‘split’ neutral density filters. Let’s start with the Solid Neutral Density filter I’m now using. It’s the new 10-Stop Mor-Slo ND filter from Singh-Ray. Extremely long exposures cannot …
Explaining how to determine correct exposures for long exposure images
An acknowledged master of long-exposure photography, Cole Thompson shares his techniques for finding his “correct” exposure, and extrapolating that to dramatically longer exposure times. Getting the correct exposure when using one or more neutral density filters can be challenging. I use up to 18 stops of ND with exposures ranging from 30 seconds to 8 minutes. At first finding the correct exposure was very frustrating and my images were often underexposed and I’d have to resort to guessing at the …
Tribute to the 4th of July
I am one of the luckiest people in the world. Many of my friends are artists whether they be painters, writers, poets, musicians, photographers or what have you. What’s the term that is used — starving artists. Every once in a while I tend to complain and moan about the state of the union. Several friends have reminded me if I don’t like the state of the union I can go somewhere else. To be honest, I’ve been lucky enough to …
Capturing landscape images with tilt-shift lenses and ND Grads
As I’ve matured my photographic techniques, I have gravitated to Canon’s line of tilt/shift lenses. These lenses afford me the sharpness and detail that I’m looking for when I’m capturing landscapes that I want enlarged to the fullest extent. Besides tilting these lenses to maximize focus, I also employ the shift to capture three images and then stitch them in Photoshop. This combination allows me the very detailed, large files that I need for my work. Of course, since image …
Going to Olympic National Park and braving the threat of vampires, werewolves and heavy rainfall
From the time I started taking landscape images, there’s been something mysteriously drawing me to Olympic National Park, but it wasn’t the vampires and werewolves described in the Twilight books. The rugged Washington coastline with its craggy sea stacks and rough seas looked like just the place to make dramatic images. The only issue was the weather. When author Stephenie Meyer wrote the Twilight books, she picked the part of the lower 48 states with the highest annual rainfall. She …
Trip to Iceland proved to be a rich and inspiring experience
I have taken photo trips in Europe and the Mediterranean, but the biggest step yet has been my recent trip to Iceland. That had been a “dream” destination for a long time. The dream came true in June 2012. My goal for this trip was to explore the south coast, a part of the highlands and, if possible, the west peninsula. I had ten days there and the program was dependent on the weather. It turned out we were lucky …
Discussing what I’ve learned from previous trips
As I prepare for my fourth trip to Iceland — the third time I will be serving as a guide for other photographers — I’ve given a lot of thought to what I’ve learned to this point. I can also draw upon my previous experience leading workshops to almost every corner of this country. I’ve spent some time considering how I might improve on the way I shot these locations before, and how I’ll guide the other photographers to do …