I’ve now returned to Ohio from a month living and photographing in Western North Carolina. Over the past few weeks I received many requests for more details on several topics I wrote about in this blog while I was there, and nearly three dozen emails I received asking for more photography tips. To begin working my way through these great requests, today I’ll discuss one new photo tip and technique and show examples of images from North Carolina where they were used. (NOTE: for those readers who like following along on my photo travels, the next trip begins in early February.)

Change Your Point of View

A frequent question I’m asked in public talks, workshops and on this blog deals with how I compose or frame images. When photographs show a subject from a slightly different perspective, I believe it helps create interest and get the viewer more involved in the photograph. And, as the photographer, it can also help you stay in shape! Here are two easy ways to change perspective.

(A) Get closer: When my eye is drawn to a particular subject like a horse, flower or tree I want that subject to be the primary element the viewer sees in the photograph. To do that, I often physically move closer so that the subject becomes larger in the viewfinder. And when I can’t physically move closer, for example, when photographing a large bison or elk, I use a zoom lens to bring the subject closer. Instead of simply making a photograph from where you happen to be standing, walk closer and let it fill more of the frame.

(B) Get Down! Get Up! The photographs most people take are made at eye level, or a height of 5 to 5.5 feet. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it can result in images that look nice but that aren’t too interesting. To change perspective, change the height where you photograph by kneeling or laying on the ground and shooting upward, or climbing a hill or standing on a ladder table or rock and shooting downward. Either way it can sometimes add an interesting perspective to your photographs.

IMAGES MADE WHILE KNEELING (LEFT) AND LAYING ON GROUND (RIGHT)

Let Aristotle Help Your Photography!

Don’t let the word Aristotle turn you off! A concept he came up with can help you create images people find intriguing. Take a few moments to learn more.

In reply to several questions I received that asked how often I crop images, I’d say that I crop or trim roughly 15% of the digital images I make. (I never crop film images because I feel their original size is part of their character.) Since the last blog entry described cropping digital images to create long, wide photographs this time lets discuss cropping images based on the Golden Ratio.

Through the work of Aristotle the Greeks determined that there was a certain ratio of height to width that was most aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Specifically, it’s the ratio of 1 to 1.648. Pyramids were designed based on this ratio. Similarly, Leonardo da Vinci used the Golden Ratio to create the Mona Lisa. And, as I did last month in several images from the mountains of North Carolina, those rules can also be applied to photography.

TWO PHOTOS BASED ON THE GOLDEN RATIO

Most digital cameras create images with a height to width ratio of roughly 1 to 1.5 which produces a photograph with a size of 4×6, 8×12 and so on. On the other hand, photographs whose size is based on the Golden Ratio would be about 4 x 6.5 inches, 8×13 inches and so on. Although I normally let the subject in a photograph guide me in determining how tall and wide to crop an image, occasionally I crop based on the Golden Ratio and quite often find the results hard to resist. (NOTE: See the previous blog entry for more information on cropping a photograph by using a computer program or by using a kiosk at a photo processing store.)

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
~ Henry David Thoreau (American Poet & Philosopher, 1817-1862)

Western North Carolina is home to countless landscape settings filled with sweeping mountain vistas that stretch almost endlessly across the horizon. In this, my 14th and final blog from Buncombe County, it seems the ideal place to discuss a simple technique for adding impact to a photograph which, if you’ve never tried it is far easier than you might think.

Every digital or film camera records images in a rectangular (or sometimes square) shape. It’s the camera itself which determines the relative height and width of the image that’s recorded on the memory card or film. Most often, what captures your attention and what you want to photograph are rarely of the same dimensions as what the camera will record.

Two weeks ago I stood looking across a fog-filled valley preparing to make the photograph shown at the top of this blog. I’d been attracted to the orange color reflected in the fog from a setting sun, and the mountain ranges that rose from within that fog. I had almost no awareness of the sky directly above or valley directly below. With a zoom lens it was easy to focus the “width” of the image so it included that wide span of mountains. Because the camera controls the overall rectangular shape however, it also captured larger sections of the sky and valley than I was looking at and didn’t want included in the image. A photograph printed directly from what the camera recorded would not have matched the extremely wide but somewhat short picture that my eyes had seen and caught my attention.

Cropping is the process of trimming or removing unwanted areas from an image that you don’t want included in the final photograph. Cropping a digital image can easily be done using Photoshop, Picasa or programs that are sometimes included with digital cameras. Many kiosks at photo processing stores also offer a cropping feature in which you can outline on the screen the area of the image you want removed from the photograph. Some people avoid cropping because it takes time. Some others avoid it because the final photograph may not fit into a standard size photo frame or photo book. As you can see in these two examples though, cropping can produce dramatic images by removing unwanted elements in a photograph.

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” ~ Meister Eckhardt (German Philosopher, 1260-1327)

While my work is about photographing the land, it’s often through the help of others that I find the locations to photograph. During the last month I’ve met many kind, generous and open-hearted people who’ve spent much time orienting me, offering suggestions and helping me better adjust to life in the mountains. The photography I created here is better because them and might never have existed without their suggestions. Below are a few of these individuals and for each, one of several images that exist because of their help.

NICHOLAS SEYMOUR: The day after I arrived, I met Nicholas, a local artist, who lived several miles down the road. That day I’d pulled the car off the road to make a photograph when the rear wheel sank in wet soil leaving the car teetering over an embankment. Like the Lone Ranger, Nicholas magically appeared and towed the car to safety. Since then, he shared many hours with me together talking about the mountains, history, art and photography. His love, knowledge and enthusiasm about these are addictive and his many suggestions for photographic locations took me to areas I would have easily missed.

SCOTTY RAWLINGS: I met Scotty the day I arrived and he immediately took my wife and I under his wing helping familiarize us with the area, offering suggestions and checking up on us regularly to see if there was anything we might need. Scotty was born in the area, left in his early adult years to work and live in several cities around the world and now, with an even deeper appreciation for these mountains and its people, returned to stay. With his warm and helpful personality, knowledge of the community and ability to locate any needed service, he is the ideal ambasador of good will and Chamber of Commerce rolled into one.

CHARLIE & TROY BALL: These visionaries have invested years of their lives working to build an eco-friendly green community called Whisper Mountain with a mission that honor the land, its history and the environment. I first met Charlie on a visit here several years ago and knew immediately that we shared a strong passion and love for nature and the land. Charlie spent many hours helping introduce me to the mountains, plants and animals of Western North Carolina, and several times as a hiking partner, pointed out some extraordinary works of nature I might consider photographing.

A FEW OTHERS: There are others who made a difference in my stay and who also make a difference in their community. Charles staffs the county recycling center that I visited each week. Regardless of the weather or his work load, he always found time to greet me with a smile and ask how I was doing. There’s also Elizabeth Jones who runs The Trust General Store & Cafe. Elizabeth, April Phillips and their staff stock essential items needed in a rural community like nuts, bolts, and motor oil as well as food goods like eggs, milk and coffee. By saving people a 20 mile trip into town for these essential goods, they provide a valuable and much appreciated service to the area. And now, with the addition of chef Cliff Phillips, they’ve brought five-star meals and fabulous pastries to this community.

To all of you I extend my most sincere thanks.

“Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.” ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson (French photographer, 1908-2004)

I’ve spent more than half my life living within a mile of one large body of water or another like Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico. And during my career, I’ve photographed in the backcountry and national parks along countless rivers, streams and canals. But never until this past month have I had the incredible experience of living along a mountain creek of constantly flowing water.

Old county maps and early written reports helped me identify a handful of creeks that have been here for centuries, and some long-time residents have told me about several others. There are some like Turkey Creek that date back as far back as folks can remember and others like Longview and Whisper Creeks that are more recent. Running water from these creeks has always been important for helping sustain life and grow crops in rural communities. They also send runoff from rains and melting snow into the water table where wells, sometimes located hundreds of miles away can pump it back to the surface.

I’ve always enjoyed photographing large bodies of water. And now from living only 100 feet from two mountain creeks I’ve come to appreciate the many gifts they offer to anyone willing to spend time with them. I’ve listened to the soothing sound of water flowing over the creek bed, watched the spray created from even the smallest waterfalls, and smelled the cool moist air rising from their surface. I’ve also seen them change character as falling leaves coated painted their surface in brilliant colors, and freezing temperatures changed them into brilliant white sculptures.

Below is an interactive slide show containing four water images. Click on the image below to open the slide show. Once opened, you can either click on a specific photo to view it in a larger size, or easily navigate from one photo to the next.

Click the Image to Start the Slideshow.

WANT TO CREATE A BLURR EFFECT WITH MOVING WATER? HERE’S A TIP. When photographing moving water I often want the photograph to convey to the viewer that sense of movement. By using a long exposure time of 2-10 seconds, moving water can take on a soft, cotton-like appearance. Long exposures like this work best when the camera is mounted on a tripod. Also, if it is a brightly lit setting I place a “neutral density filter” over the lens. A neutral density filter (also called an ND filter and which can be purchased in many camera shops) works like sunglasses to reduce the intensity of bright light.

“My greatest aim has been to advance the art of photography and to make it what I think I have, a great and truthful medium of history.” ~ Mathew Brady (Father of Photojournalism, 1823-1896)

I’ve spent these four weeks photographing in Buncombe County North Carolina. This is a county steeped in history dating back to 1787 when the first land grant was issued to Revolutionary War officer named William Davidson. Shortly after Davidson arrived, other returning soldiers received land grants, settled here and started families and over the next 50 years the region grew rapidly. SEE END NOTE

Some of the farms and churches still standing here were built before the end of the Civil War. Then, the most well-known photographer in America was Mathew Brady, whose photographs of the war were known to people worldwide. Brady made his photographs using a daguerreotype which recorded images onto a copper plate. Making a photograph was a complicated process because the camera was heavy and required exposures of 1 to 5 minutes. The final images however contained exquisite details.

I visited Buncombe County several times before this trip and each time felt a strong desire to photograph those historic barns and churches, some dating back 150 years. Many were constructed from rough cut timbers now aged with a warm patina and had character from countless repairs. I didn’t photograph those buildings on earlier trips however because I felt the digital cameras I carried would only capture their beauty but not convey their significance in American history. But on this trip, I came prepared.

On occasions when I want to convey a sense of history, I rely on one of two antique cameras. For these buildings in Buncombe County I used a vintage wooden black and white camera called the Graflex 3A made in 1908 by Folmer & Swing. It records a photograph on large (4 by 5 inch) black and white film. Like the daguerreotype, the Graflex is a large, heavy camera which, because of its film and lens (a Zeiss F6.3) often requires long exposures. The lens has also been modified so it creates vignetting (dark edges) similar to Brady’s early daguerreotypes.

Below is an interactive slide show containing images of these historic and rustic structures photographed in black and white. Click on the image below to open the slide show. Once opened, you can either click on a specific photo to view it in a larger size, or easily navigate from one photo to the next.

Click the Image to Start the Slideshow.

WITH HEARTFELT THANKS TO SOME VERY SPECIAL PEOPLE
I’m deeply grateful to Nicholas Seymour, Scotty Rawlings, Charlie and Troy Ball, Melissa Cain Smith and the fine writers at WNC Magazine and also the staff at the Leicester Public Library for sharing with me their knowledge and love of Buncombe County. Many of the above B&W images and other photos in this blog were made possible because of the help, tips and suggestions they so kindly provided. I’ll have more to say about each person in an upcoming entry but for now, I extend my most sincere thanks to each of you.

Last year at Badlands National Park an elderly gentleman named William shared some thoughts with me about park visitors he’s met over his 75 years of living in the area. There’s great wisdom in his words, not just for vacationers but for anyone who spends time in nature. What he said was:

I feel sorry for all those people who come to see this place but only stay for just a few hours. It looks so different from other places here that they spend most of their time finding and talking about those differences. But they don’t ever get to see its real beauty. The land around here is mighty shy and she only shows her beauty to folks who spend time with her and wait, patiently.

I’m grateful to have had the great pleasure of meeting this man and since then, have shared the words he spoke in the public talks I give in our National Parks. I also know from the hundreds of park visitors I’ve met myself that most only have available 1-3 hours to visit one place before needing to head out to the next destination. Remembering this makes me feel fortunate for all the times when I can wait patiently for hours or even days for a place, animal or plant to reveal its beauty and allow me to photograph it.

William’s words ring as true here in Western North Carolina as they did at Badlands National Park. I remembered what he’d said about taking your time and about patience when I returned home to the cabin one night “soaked to the bone” from photographing for three hours in heavy fog and intermittent rain. And I also felt deeply grateful to have had the gift of time to experiment and wait for the right moment to photograph something I saw and felt in the forest that day. Here are a few of the experimental test shots I made with a digital camera and different lenses over a two hour period as the light, rain and fog changed continuously.

“INTERESTING” WEATHER IMAGES CAPTURED OVER 2 HOURS
BUT THEY DON’T QUITE CONVEY WHAT I WAS EXPERIENCING

By previewing the images on the digital camera I could quickly see that none of them were truly conveying the mysterious, almost eerie feeling I was seeing which felt reminiscent of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter stories. So I unpacked and setup a vintage black and white film camera I’d brought along from the early 1900′s (more about this camera in a future blog.) After making four exposures it became too dark to photograph further so I returned to the cabin. Last week I processed those negatives and couldn’t be happier with the results because the image truly conveys the mood I felt that day.

PATIENCE AND B&W HELP CONVEY THE MYSTERIOUS MOOD

DON’T HAVE A B&W CAMERA? HERE’S A TIP: Although I used a vintage black and white film camera to capture the image above, there are easy ways using a digital camera to create B&W images. Some digital cameras have a Program or Mode setting that lets you photograph an image in black-and-white or sepia-tone. If that’s not available, or if you choose to photograph in color and later on convert the image to black and white, many cameras come with software like Photoshop Elements, Canon DPP or Nikon NX that have a “convert to black and white” option.

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” ~ Ansel Adams (Landscape photographer, 1902-1984)

Last week I showed an example of how a standard digital camera can be used to condense a one-hour event such as fog building in a valley into a 25-second visual experience. Time-lapse movies like these, made from hundreds of individual photographs displayed quickly one after the other make it possible to show not only to a beautiful moment, but what it is like to experience that moment in person.

During the last few weeks I’ve created several other time-lapse movies at different times of day and in different conditions (sunrise, sunset, moving clouds, approaching storms, etc.). During the next month I’ll use them, along with various still photographs and music to create a music video about this magic place called Western North Carolina.

Several days ago as sunset approached, the sky over the Blue Ridge Mountains was filled with rapidly moving storm clouds that made it appear like a tapestry of magnificant and ever changing colors. While a photograph could convey a moment of that beauty I decided instead to capture a 40 minute time-lapse sequence of images so as to better convey the experience of that almost hypnotizing scene. Yesterday I created a time-lapse move to compress that 40 minute event into a 16 second experience. Click on the image below to watch the movie then return here to read the details of how that movie was made.

HOW THE MOVIE WAS MADE: This time-lapse movie was created from 242 individual photographs taken 6 seconds apart over 40 minutes The series of images were then converted into a movie recorded at 12 frames per second using Apple’s QuickTime Pro software. (EQUIPMENT & SETTINGS USED: a 120mm lens and Canon 50D EOS camera using a manual exposure of f/8 at 1/50 second and an ISO of 200.)

“Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the common- place unusual.” ~ Edward Weston (American Photographer, 1886-1958)

During the public talks I give on photography in the National Parks and from blog readers I’m often asked what a typical day of photography is like for me. Last week I selected one day and recorded my activities for 24-hours in a journal. I’ve included a condensed version of those notes and a few of the resulting photographs in todays blog entry below.

24 Hour Photo Diary

Location: Whisper Mountain, Leicester, North Carolina

2:15 AM to 5 AM Slept great for 5 hours until the alarm went off and noticed the temperature outside is 18 degrees. Burr. Would love to stay in bed but star trails can only be photographed at night in a clear and dark sky. After a quick breakfast I head out and with an LCD flashlight and hike to a clearing in Yellow Mountain that I noticed yesterday. Under a clear sky I have time to make one 90 minute exposure before the sky starts to lighten in the east although sunrise is more than an hour away. Returned to the cabin, charged the camera’s batteries, made coffee and then prepared to photograph the sunrise.

6:20 AM – 11:30 AM In the pre-dawn twilight I notice some low and rapidly moving clouds building in the east and setup the camera to record a time lapse of the sky and morning light on the Blue Ridge Mountains. By making one photograph every 5 seconds over the course of an hour I end up with 720 images I’ll use to create a movie later this week. Around 7:30 while hiking into the mountains to photograph tulip trees I turn the bend in a trail and come face-to-face with the family of deer (a doe with her three fawn) who I’ve encountered the past three days regardless of where I hiked.

Noon – 3 PM I spent early afternoon reviewing this morning’s photos, charging all 9 batteries for the GPS and camera gear, and began writing the next blog entry for later this week. Nicholas Seymour, an artist and up-and-coming digital photographer stopped by and we compared notes on the deer we’ve both seen and photographed this past week. He also tells me there’s a big snow storm headed this way.

3 PM to 4:30 PM Last week I received an ultra wide angle lens (a 12mm fisheye) to review for an article I’m writing on specialty lenses. This afternoon I put it through its paces by making test photographs of plants, shrubs, leaves, signs and an old tobacco barn. At 4:30 I quickly hike back to the cabin for a quick dinner and then prepare to head back out again to photograph the full moon which will rise an hour after sunset tonight.

5 PM to 6:15 PM Last night’s nearly full moon was spectacular. Tonight my hope is to photograph the full moon with its light reflecting in fog. With temperatures dropping rapidly into the low 20′s and fog building quickly in the valley I aim the camera “hopefully” toward where the moon will rise, and then wait. So much of the photography I do involves waiting and I find it a great time to sit quietly and appreciate the beauty of the land. At 5:25 P M a bright full moon rises rapidly in the sky and after a few minutes begins to light up the fog like a spotlight. I make ten different exposures and then headed back to the cabin to work more on the blog and then to bed for some well deserved sleep.

“I didn’t want to tell the tree or weed what it was. I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature.” ~ Wynn Bullock (American Master Photographer, 1902-1975)

During the past several weeks, I’ve been joined on this journey by hundreds of animals. Some I’ve met up-close on hikes in the mountains and forests, some were more comfortable watching from a distance, and a few others lead me into areas I would have otherwise missed. A few have even become my daily companions. And to each one I’m grateful for the honor of being welcomed into their home.

I’ve also found myself surrounded by hundreds of amazing plants, trees, flowers and shrubs. And, as fall ends and winter begins, had the joy of watching their transition from one season into the next. The brilliant explosions of color and the slow and graceful shedding of leaves are all part of Nature’s great cycle which I’ve been allowed to witness first-hand.

Today I’ve looked through images of nearly 100 plants and animals each of whom have given me permission to photograph. I’ve spent most of the day with these images because each one still brings back a strong memory of when the photo was made—the time, temperature, lighting, sounds.

Each image also has a story to tell like the family of deer who greeted me four days in a row, each time on a different hillside. There’s also the hawk that materialized almost every morning and hovered overhead and the horse that galloped directly to me, stopped in the sunlight and posed for its photograph, and then galloped away. The trees have become my constant companions and protectors and the smells of the leaves and plants are now as comforting as the smell of my wife’s apple pie baking in the oven.

There’s also the hawk that would often circle overhead or sit in nearby trees watching me photograph and the horse that suddenly galloped to nearby fence, looked directly at me and posed for its photograph, and then galloped away. Likewise, the ash, maple and immense tuilip trees have become my constant companions and the smells of the leaves and plants are now as comforting as the smell of my wife’s apple pie baking in the oven.

Below is an interactive slide show containing 15 of these plant and animal images. Click on the image below to open the slide show. Once opened, you can either click on a specific photo to view it in a larger size, or easily navigate from one photo to the next.

Click image below to open the slideshow

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” ~ Aaron Siskind

The weather over the past week in Western North Carolina was quite eventful and made for some great photography. It’s also been a good reminder of how rapidly weather conditions can change in the mountains and how it’s important to be prepared for those changes and remain flexible. On Thursday, for example, with the weather clear and crisp, I spend the day photographing in the nearby farms and pasturelands. In several areas like the one shown in the image below which was taken only a few miles down the road, the trees and grasses were vibrant and alive with late fall colors.

Sweet Autumn (Last Day of Fall on Route 63) (C) 2010 Rick Braveheart.

On Friday, the weather changed rapidly and brought with it a heavy rainfall that lasted 30 hours. The rain was followed by a rapid drop in temperature that sent the thermometer plummeting into the low-twenties and brought with it a snow storm that blanketed the mountain for three days. As a landscape photographer, when extreme weather changes like these occur, I’m like a bear drawn to honey and spend almost every waking moment outdoors photographing. During the past few months alone I’ve photographed in lightning storms, a 70+ MPH wind storm, in hail, a blizzard and a tornado.

While venturing out in extreme weather may sound foolhardy I use backcountry wisdom, survival skills and even that trusty Boy Scout training to stay safe. Occasionally though, something completely beyond our control happens and this past Sunday was an example. I’d decided to head out in the car to photograph the beautiful snow and ice that covered the mountain. After slowly turning the car onto a narrow curving road, it began an uncontrolled skid downhill on solid ice for 3/4 of a mile before stopping. Heart pounding? You bet. But the memories of that skid faded quickly when I studied the images captured that day.

Below are some of the winter images made during the past few days. Click on the image below to open the slide show. Once opened, you can either click on a specific photo to view it in a larger size, or easily navigate from one photo to the next.

Change in seasons and changes in weather present opportunities to see subjects and situations in new and different ways. A good motto to remember is that there’s no such thing as ‘bad weather” only different conditions in which to capture Nature’s beauty, grace and power.