What inspires your creativity?  Although my day job has really had me tied down as of late, this is something I’ve been thinking a lot about.  A couple of my other colleagues have also been writing on it too (here and here), but I wanted to share a couple of things that help to inspire my creativity.   Maybe its more appropriate to say they inspire my inspiration.

With the little free time I’ve had recently, I’ve been reading David duChemin’s excellent e-books, The Inspired Eye and The Inspired Eye II.  These books have many great qualities.  They’re written for pretty much any photographer–any artist–they can be picked up during your lunch break, they give you a lot to think about, and they only cost $5 USD each.  For the price, I don’t think you can get a better book on inspiring your creativity.

Ian Plant has recently begun a new series of blog posts he calls “Behind the Lens.”  I think this has been a fantastic series so far, where Ian shares his thoughts and some secrets behind the creation of some of his favorite images.  They aren’t step-by-step “create-an- image-just-like-this” tutorials, but rather starting points to see the world differently the next time you go out with your camera.  This is definitely a blog worth subscribing to, and being inspired by.

As for myself, I feel that my own style and vision has become more crystallized over the last few months.  Much of the credit goes to friends and photographers like those above who share what they’ve learned over the years.  My Facebook, Twitter and Blogroll are full of photographers who continue to challenge and inspire me every day.  Turning over rocks and keeping your eyes open all the time are an excellent way to inspire your own creativity.

So, I ask you, what inspires your creativity?  Feel free to share experiences and links in the comments.

I’m looking forward to sharing some of my recent inspiration with you in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned!

Ponderosa Pine and Navajo Sandstone, Zion National Park, Utah

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I’ve been a huge fan of Kinesis Photo Gear for quite some time.  Almost since I began taking photographs, I’ve used their belt system, with several interchangeable bags to carry my camera body, lenses, and binoculars.  However, I find myself facing two problems.  The first is that I am hiking further and further to get photos, and the second is that I simply don’t have room on that belt to fit my ever-growing stash of loot.  In an effort to not have to buy all new bags, I looked to see what Richard Stum had cooked up over at Kinesis.

What I found was the Journeyman Pack.  I ended up getting it as a Christmas present last year, and since I have had 2 months to put it through its paces, I wanted to share some thoughts.

Kinesis Journeyman Pack

Making the transition from the belt system to the backpack was very easy.  First of all, my hip belt became the belt for this backpack.   To use your belt with the pack, you will need an adapter, but they provide this free when you order the backpack.  Inside of the backpack, there are plenty of loops and webbing–and you can purchase elevator adapters–to use existing Kinesis pouches inside of the pack itself.  I went ahead and bought a front-loading module to provide a padded space for all my expensive equipment, saving my less padded pouches for filters, batteries, etc.

Interior of my Journeyman Pack

This pack is very well built, and is ready to take on the most rigorous of backcountry hikes.  It has heavy-duty YKK zippers (things I always blow out on gear) and is made of heavy-duty Cordura nylon.  The harness system is also very comfortable.  The pack rides very well, and it moves with you almost seamlessly.  I tend to hike fairly quickly, so that’s an important feature for me.  I’m also a klutz, so its double important!  Seriously, after having worn countless backpacks over the years, I’d even say this pack is the best fitting one I’ve worn.  It really is that good.

Harness of the Journeyman Pack

I’m not receiving any kickbacks from Kinesis for writing this review, nor did they solicit me to write it, but yeah, this pack really is that good.  Despite my raves, I do have a few small nits.

The first isn’t really a nit of the pack itself, more about the convenience of a backpack in general.  Even though I love the pack, I very much miss the hipbelt when I’m in the field.  This isn’t so much a problem if I’m shooting in one spot, or even in an area, as I can put the pack down and wander around, coming back to get a filter or switch lenses if I need to.  However, there are times when its not convenient to put the pack down, such as shooting on sand dunes, or when you’re standing in 2 inches of water at Badwater Basin.  For those times, I wish I had the hipbelt system.  That said, I came up with a fix for the problem.  I also bought a tripod pouch (which I’ll talk about below) so I can hang my tripod off the back for hiking long distances.  What I did recently was after I set up my tripod, I moved the pouch around to the front of the hipbelt, and hung it from the loops that are still available.  I filled the pouch with another lens and some filters, thus allowing me to change lenses or filters without having to put my backpack down in the sand.  I just had to keep sand out of the tripod pouch!

I may pick up another pouch just for that purpose.

As I mentioned I bought a padded tripod pouch, and I really like it.  By putting the head in the pouch, it keeps my center of gravity low, which for klutzes like me, is absolutely essential.  It works very well, but I notice I get a lot less bounce when I have a jacket or something in the top part of the pack to help fill up the empty space.

I think I’m off for a hike.  If you’re in the market for a new backpack, I hope you found this review helpful.

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March’s Photo of the Month comes from Lost Dutchman State Park near Phoenix, Arizona.  I visited the park in January while my wife was helping her sister plan for the upcoming arrival of our niece.  In addition to the proximity to the greater Phoenix area and huge selection of hiking trails, the main draw of Lost Dutchman has got to be the rugged and beautiful Superstition Mountains rising out of the desert floor abruptly and confidently.

This month’s photograph shows the western flank of the Superstitions bathed in warm late afternoon light.  I chose to use this cholla skeleton as a FG element because it seemed to be pointing me to a fantastic composition!

Western Flank of the Superstitions, January 2010

If you clicked on the link to Lost Dutchman State Park above, you couldn’t miss the red box informing us that the park will be closing indefinitely on June 3, 2010.  Apparently, that part of Arizona’s budget has lost a significant amount of money during restructuring, causing the closure.  I think the restriction of access to any open space is a great loss to us as a community.  It prevents us from enjoying our parks, but more importantly it robs us of a chance to connect with the land, and wild places.  I hope the Arizona government finds a way to keep their state parks open, or at the very least, to reopen them as soon as possible.

You can see all of my photos from the Superstition Mountains here.

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After our poor weather at Badwater on Saturday morning, we recovered, and headed to the extreme southeast corner of Death Valley to visit Ibex Dunes.  I’ve wanted to visit Ibex for nearly a year, and was happy to get the chance to make it down there.  I like Ibex for several reasons: it is secluded so solitude is nearly a guarantee, the dunes are taller than those at Stovepipe Wells, so they give some alternative choices for composition, and they are on the way home, so stopping there to camp makes the drive home a little shorter.

As I said in my last post, bad weather can either make for stubborn or amazing light.   The latter was definitely the case on our visit to Ibex.  When we arrived, the sun was behind a thick cloud bank, and I was afraid that would be telling of our entire visit.  However, in the final 15 minutes before sunset, the sun peeked out and lit the dunes and the mountains behind them brilliantly.  The warm tones of the earth contrasted amazingly well with the stormy skies, thus making it one of the best sunset shoots I’ve had in quite some time…possibly ever.  However, the light only lasted about 15 minutes, and we made the 1 mile walk back to the car.

Ibex Dunes and the Saddle Peak Hills, Death Valley National Park, February 2010

The great thing about Death Valley is that you never know what the day has in store for you!

"Self Portrait", Death Valley National Park, February 2010

To see all of my Death Valley photos, click here.

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This weekend, a friend and I drove to Death Valley National Park.  I had heard there is currently water in Badwater Basin, and wanted to see it, as well as photograph it.  Since Death Valley usually does not get enough rain to allow for standing water in the basin, this is a rare event (since January 1, Furnace Creek has received over 2″ of rain).  On Friday, we arrived at Badwater about 3pm, and immediately headed to the West Side Road in search of photo opportunities.

On Friday, another storm moved into the area.  In my experience, bad weather can either lead to amazing light conditions, or to very poor conditions for photography.  Unfortunately, in this case, it was the latter.  There wasn’t much of a sunset on Friday night.  However, after dark, we headed back over to the Badwater parking area and walked out on the salt flat.  Because conditions were poor for star trail photography, my friend and I did some light graffiti–one of his newest hobbies.  I have to disclose that I really did nothing here, except for stand behind the camera, but this one is called ‘Badwater Blooms’.

"Badwater Blooms", Death Valley National Park, February 2010

As we were experimenting with different bloom configurations, the strangest thing happened.  We thought we were alone on the salt flat, but off in the distance, we could make out a figure walking towards us.  Ours was the only car in the parking lot, and no one had arrived, so we tried to say hello, thinking the person may be lost or need help.  The figure didn’t say anything, but as it got closer to us, a bright light appeared behind it, and the figure disappeared, almost as quickly as it had appeared.

I managed to snap this photo before it disappeared.

A strange visitor, Death Valley National Park, February 2010

Was the visitor from another dimension?  Did it exit through a portal that’s only open when Badwater Basin is full of water?  I’m not sure.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have much better light the next morning; in fact, we had really poor light.  However, Saturday night, we had the best light I’ve had in quite some time.  I’ll share those images in my next post.

You can see all my Death Valley images here.

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Sometimes the best-laid plans just don’t come to fruition.  On our recent visit to Phoenix, I planned to get up very early (i.e. ~4am) drive to the Peralta Canyon trailhead and hike ~3 miles to the Weaver’s Needle Overlook to watch the sun come up, and to get that really sweet crepuscular light that happens in the desert.  Easy enough, right?  I ended up having a couple of roadblocks on my journey to ‘the Supes’.

• Roadblock #1.  Two days before I intended to hike, I came down with the worst head cold I’ve had in several years.  I’ll spare you the mucus-y details, but use of my nostrils was completely nonexistent, and my head felt like it was completely detached from my body.  As a result, a 4am departure time didn’t seem feasible.  I settled on getting up at 4:50am, figuring that if everything went smoothly, I’d still make it up to the overlook by 7:15am sunrise.
• Roadblock #2.  Of course everything didn’t go smoothly.  I really like Phoenix–its a great town, and its super easy to navigate as the streets are laid out in a logical grid pattern.  That said, there are exceptions, and a poorly marked detour can throw an out-of-towner like me out of whack.  Driving from my sister-in-law’s house, I wanted to connect from I-10 to US Hwy 60 to drive to the Superstitions.  The connector ramp was closed, and the flashing sign said to take I-10 to McClintock instead.  OK.  After driving nearly 15 miles south (I wanted to go east), I finally stopped and asked for directions.  I got on my way then.  OK, well, that cost me about 15 minutes.  But if I really hoof it, I can make it, right?
• Roadblock #3.  I finally made it to the Peralta Road east of Apache Junction, and as I began driving the 7 miles toward the trailhead I was met by school buses.  Lots of them.  School buses…on a Forest Service road on a Sunday.  What doesn’t compute here?  After I met the school buses, I was met by runners.  Lots of them.  It turns out it was the annual running of the Lost Dutchman Marathon, and I was driving up their course!  After slowly navigating several hundred finish-line-bound runners, I finally made it to the trailhead about 6:50am–25 minutes before sunrise.

I like to say that I’m a pretty fast hiker, but I’m not that fast.  I didn’t make it to my destination by sunrise, but the hike was nice, and in hindsight the chain of events I encountered getting to the trailhead were almost comical.  I even ended up with a nice photo or two out of the deal.  It was definitely a good lesson not to take things so seriously.  Things won’t always come together as you planned, but if you fail to see the forest for the few negative trees, you’ll miss out on some great experiences.

Weaver's Needle from Weaver's Outlook Ridge, February 2010

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A few years ago I had the opportunity to go backpacking for a week in the Superstition Wilderness east of Phoenix.  Two things struck me then about this area: its stunningly beautiful, and it doesn’t matter how you slice it, this is one rugged area.  Although I was “into” photography at the time, I didn’t carry a camera with me, and since then I’ve been itching to get back to those mighty Superstitions.

My wife’s sister lives in Phoenix, and we’ve found ourselves here visiting a few times this winter.  Its given me an opportunity to revisit these mountains.  In January, I visited the Lost Dutchman State Park*, and hiked around the western flank of this magnificent range.  I had a fantastic sunset, and had the opportunity to get a short hike in–up the Siphon Gulch trail.

Cloud above the western flank of the Superstition Mountains, January 2010

Yesterday morning, I was able to visit the Superstitions again.  This time, I drove to the eastern side of the range and hiked up the (very) popular Peralta trail to photograph Weaver’s Needle.  I wanted the morning light on this spire, so I was on the trail before sunrise.  It was a good thing too: the trail’s proximity to the greater Phoenix area makes it extremely busy.  On my way down, I must have passed 50 people on their way up!  My early start ensured I got good light on my subject, but also that I got the place to myself.  The solitude was very rewarding.

Weaver's Needle, February 2010

After visiting this place again after several years, I can say that its just as beautiful as I remember it.  I can also say that its just as rugged as I remember it!  Man, this is one amazing place.

I’ll be sharing more images from the Superstitions over the next week, but in the meantime, you can view them all here.

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In my last post, I discussed a few techniques that can be used to effectively shoot panoramas.  All of my examples were of grand landscapes, and they were all landscape-oriented panoramas.  I want to use this post to point out another time you can shoot panos to yield great results.

Last November, we visited the Cedar Mesa area near Blanding, Utah.  Since we were limited on time, we chose to visit a familiar and often photographed Ancestral Puebloan ruin that’s been nicknamed the “House on Fire” (also called the Flaming Roof ruin).  I blogged about that visit here, in November.  While at the ruin, I envisioned someday wanting to print it very large, and wished I had a medium format camera with me.  Additionally, I really wanted to emphasize the “flames” exiting the roof of the ruin.

So, I took 3 landscape-oriented images, but rather than putting them next to each other, I stacked them on top of one another,  thus producing a larger image.  If you click on the image, you’ll see a larger version–the detail is amazing!  That said, it would look even better printed on canvas over your couch

"House on Fire" vertical panorama, Utah, November 2009

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As a photographer, or even a nature lover, you’ve probably stood staring at a wide vista wondering how you can possibly do that view justice in your photographs.  Maybe you’ve even wanted to be able to print that picture large to give a room in your home the same feel as actually standing there.  Have you ever thought about taking multiple images of a scene and stitching them together into a panorama?

Shooting “panos” has become more popular in the last few years with the advent of point-and-shoot digital cameras that stitch the image in-camera for you, but if you want to shoot a panorama with your SLR, there are some things to consider.  First, and this should be a no-brainer, pick something interesting to shoot.  It may look impressive as is, but if you pick out something with substance, it will look even better!

So you’ve got your vista picked out.  Now what?  In my experience, the key to producing quality panoramas is making sure your tripod is level.  If this is the case, you will have much better luck at the stitching process.  I have used two different methods to level my gear; the first is via a 2-stop process that’s super cheap.

My tripod does not have a built-in bubble level, so I start by removing the head, and placing a bubble level (~$3 at Ace Hardware) on the tripod.  Tinker with the lengths of your tripod legs until you level the tripod.  Now, put your head back on, and you’ll see that it can rotate on a level base.

By removing the head and using a spirit bubble level, I can make sure my tripod head is rotating on a level base.

The second, and more recent, method I’ve used is by putting a leveling base on my tripod.  I use the Manfrotto 438 leveling base, but other companies like Acratech also make them.  They’re more expensive than my first method, but they’re way faster and you don’t have to fiddle with your tripod legs.  To level your camera on your tripod use a hot shoe level like the Jobu Designs Dubble Bubble level.

My tripod head can be leveled easily and quickly using the Manfrotto 438 leveling base.

After leveling my tripod head, I level my camera on the tripod using a hotshoe level.

OK, now you’re level.  The rest of the pano practically shoots itself.  I usually work from left to right, making sure to overlap my images by anywhere from ~1/3-1/2.  This makes for a lot of images (many of mine are 12-15 images) but you’re almost sure to get a better stitch at the computer.

A couple of other things to consider before we discuss stitching:

• To shoot vertical or horizontal…that is the question.  In stitching, you’re almost guaranteed to lose a little of the top and bottom of your images because the software will correct for barrel distortion.  Because of this, I almost always shoot my panos in a vertical orientation.  That way I’m left with an image that is a little more proportional, instead of something VERY long and skinny!
• Just like with any shot, sharpness matters.  When I shoot panoramas, I almost always use a cable release and set my camera to shoot in mirror lock-up mode.  This reduces any possible vibration, hopefully ensuring a better stitch.
• Do not change your focus or any camera settings while shooting your panorama.  However, consider bracketing your shots.  That way you have more to work with at the computer, and you can even consider making an HDR panorama (let’s save that for another blog post, please).
• I haven’t addressed the problem of parallax yet.  Unless you are rotating on the nodal point of your lens (or using a pano slider), you will have parallax issues if anything in your pano is closer than ~10-15 feet.  The cheap solution is to make sure trees, rocks, etc are further than ~10-15 feet from my camera, and that seems to work to subdue parallax.  The obvious downside to my method is that you’re constrained as to your compositional choices.

So, now you’ve got your image files, and you’re back at the computer.  Can you simply align them in Photoshop manually, then crop the canvas down to its final size?  I think this works for most people ~1% of the time (I’ve managed to do it once, and I’m 99% sure it was dumb luck).  Every other time, the barrel distortion, as well as other factors, will necessitate the use of software to help you stitch your images together.

Dumb luck. I stitched this 4-image pano together manually--I've never gotten it to work since.

For stitching panoramas, I use the software package Panorama Factory.  I like it because it has a fully automatic mode, which should work really well if you leveled your rig properly and provided enough overlap between images.  Alternatively, Panorama Factory allows for various levels of manual stitching, letting you define stitching points, and for the occasional difficult to stitch image, I like that mode a lot as well.  If you are interested in shooing HDR panoramas, Panorama Factory will stitch different sets of exposure identically so they overlay perfectly.  I have to admit that I’ve tried this once, and it didn’t work quite as smoothly as I’d like.  I’ve found that using the auto-align feature in Photoshop CS4 works well before blending images.

So, that’s basically it.  This tutorial was meant to get you taking beautiful panoramas using a minimal amount of equipment.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Feel free to add to the comment section if there’s anything I missed, or needs corrected.  Hope you can find this useful!

An 11-image panorama of the Ritter Range, Sierra Nevada, California

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If you ask my wife, patience is not one of my virtues.  I usually want instant solutions to problems, and you do not even want to be around me at Christmas (little kids have nothing on me!).  However, in photography, I tend to have significantly more patience.  I’m happy to wait several hours for a shot, and lately I find myself sitting on images for days, weeks or even months before processing them.  This potentially has a lot of benefits: it helps us assess their artistic value without the excitement of having fresh images hang over our head, and it also forces us to be patient and thorough in post-processing.

The image I processed tonight benefitted from my waiting, I think.  I took this panorama of Tuolumne Meadows, in Yosemite National Park, last August, but I haven’t processed it until tonight.  Once I got home, I wasn’t really excited about the way it looked.  But, tonight, that golden light on one of my favorite meadows made me wistful for the high country, as well as letting me look forward to summer.  This is a 10-frame panorama of the meadows; I processed each RAW file 3 times, at -2/3, 0, and +1/3 EV then combined them in Photoshop using the blending technique recently described by Younes Bounhar.

I’m pleased with the result; clicking on the image will link you to a larger image file so you can more fully appreciate the detail here!   I love panoramas because they really bring you into the scene.  Enjoy!

Tuolumne Meadows panorama, Yosemite National Park, California, August 2009

Click here to see all of my Yosemite National Park images.

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