Photo of the Week
From the Headlands, San Francisco
The inimitable Golden Gate Bridge shot from the Marin Headlands on a cold Thanksgiving night. What with the weather warming up and baseball in the air, it just felt like we needed something with a little ORANGE. Go Giants!
Tip: The secret to great night shots? Use a solid tripod or beanbag, and use the self-timer to avoid any shake when you depress the shutter.
ISO 100, 92mm, f7.1, 20 second exposure.
Road Closed, Big Island, Hawaii
Off to the “Garden Island” of Kauai tomorrow to celebrate my birthday with the family. Know of any must see spots or photo-ops? I’m all ears! Here’s a shot from the southern tip of the Big Island where some of the most recent lava flows meet the ocean.
ISO 200, 17mm, f11, 1/250 second exposure.
Glacier Point View, Yosemite
Took a mid-week solo trip to Yosemite last summer to soak in the sights, burn some vacation days, and spend some time smelling the roses. Definitely clears the mind to be by yourself for an extended period of time- a rare occurrence for me. For this shot I picked out my spot and spent about 3 hours waiting for the light to fall, munching on snacks and enjoying the beauty of nature. I merged 5 separate shots from the tripod into a single panoramic image.
ISO 100, 17mm, f11, 1/10 second exposure.
After the Hurricane, Florida
I’m mixing up Photo of the Week today… first by using a shot from early in my photography (from all the way back in 2004!)… and second by posing a question back to you:
What photographic challenges do you have that you’d like advice on?
Anything from composition to equipment to post processing…. I’ll explain my thoughts and post a shot illustrating my answer next week… Send me your questions!
This shot is from a beach parking lot that had been almost completely eroded by hurricane-fueled waves earlier in the season. I got up at dawn to see the sunrise, but it was almost completely obscured by another squall at sea.
ISO 400, 18mm, f8, 1/160 second exposure.
Taxi, Buenos Aires
Sometimes it’s the small things… hanging from your taxi cab’s rear view mirror.
ISO 200, 105mm, f4, 1/160 second exposure.
Love and Smiles
Looking forward to 2012, may your year be filled with both love and smiles... Maybe we all need some heart-shaped glasses?
ISO 320, 90mm, f9, 1/250 second exposure.
Pele’s Breath
The Kilauea caldera on the big island of Hawaii. During the day this simply looked like a white plume of steam… but at night the molten lava lit up the smoke with a bright crimson red. When the wind died down you could clearly hear it bubbling and hissing. Amazing to behold! I stayed here for close to 2 hours, and was rewarded with the clouds clearing enough to catch the starry sky as well. Never got to actually see the lava… so that’s still on the bucket list! (Pele refers is the name of the Hawaiian volcano goddess)
ISO 400, 28mm, f4.5, 30 second exposure.
A Moment Alone
I’m always drawn to images of lone figures in a vast environment. This shot is looking across San Francisco’s Ocean Beach from a perch near the Cliff House on a sunny but hazy winter afternoon. Even in a metropolis is nice that you can still sometimes get a way for a brief moment alone.
ISO 100, 105mm, f8, 1/160 second exposure.
Witness
A lone reveler sits atop a friend’s shoulders to watch the climax of Burning Man 2011 in the Nevada desert.
ISO 400, 95mm, f5.6, 1/30 second exposure.
In the Pond
It is now official. Autumn is here. Used a tripod to capture these dead leaves in a calm pool off Mt. Tam in Marin.
Tip: In low light, it’s almost impossible to get sharp details handheld. Set your camera on auto-timer, and rest it on anything you can find for much more detailed shots.
ISO 100, 58mm, f16, 1 second exposure.
Still Standing
Fall and cool weather seems to have finally arrived in Northern California this week. Shot this on the San Francisco coast last autumn on one of those cool afternoons where the sun never quite made it through the clouds.
ISO 320, 28mm, f10, 1/200 second exposure.
Web Master
Happy Halloween! This impressive fellow lives in my backyard, and after a few false starts he was an excellent model for me. Night one I bumped the bush his web was attached to and he retreated for the night. Night two he decided he’d rather monitor his web from the side instead of the middle like he usually does. By night three I was ready, using a macro lens only a few inches away, a tripod sitting on my recycling bin, and a remote flash firing from the side :)
ISO 400, 100mm, f7.1, 1/125 second exposure.
Bass Harbor Light
Been away for a bit- just got back from a fantastic ten day drive from Boston, Mass to Bar Harbor, Maine to see the glories of a New England autumn for myself. Here’s one of my favorite shots from the trip- the classic view of Bass Harbor lighthouse at dusk. I did end up getting a little wet getting it. :)
ISO 250, 17mm, f18, 6 second exposure.LandscapesNatureNew EnglandOceanSelects1110NewEngland844COMP
Jellies
Jellyfish have to be one of the most gorgeous animals on earth… both the fact that their bodies transmit light, and that they drift with such a subtle ballet-like grace. Shot these Sea Nettles at the Monterey Bay Aquarium… definitely worth a stop if you’re ever in the area.
ISO 800, 28mm, f4, 1/40 second exposure.
Works of Nature, Works of Man
Shot at Black Rock City several years ago with my buddy’s Canon Powershot SD 800 point and shoot as a massive dust storm was blowing in.
ISO AUTO, 17.5mm, f17, 1/200 second exposure.
Above
Visited some friends and their new baby in the city today, and of course the summer fog was in full effect. Some people hate it, but personally I think it’s gorgeous, and a nice trade off from 100+ degree heat inland. This was shot very early in the morning over the Santa Cruz Mountains on approach to SFO. Always ask for a window seat!
ISO 200, 105mm, f8, 1/640 second exposure.
Destination Southern Alps
Took off on a solo road trip for a couple of days this week to get a nature fix and try to get a few great shots…. The jury’s still out on whether I got any, but it was still a blast. Here’s a shot from another long road trip, this time in New Zealand several years ago heading for Mt. Cook.
Tip: If you’re ready to explore your camera a little bit, try adjusting your aperture (or f-stop). The aperture controls how much light enters your lens, and ultimately your depth of field- how much of your shot will be in sharp focus. For this shot I wanted everything from the gravel to the distant mountains to be sharp, so I used f22, the smallest aperture my lens could handle (like a pin-hole camera). To compensate and avoid blur from the camera moving, I rested both my elbows on the ground and turned my ISO up to 400.
ISO 400, 24mm, f22, 1/50 second exposure.
The Fire
If you carry your camera around with you enough of the time, once in a while something really amazing will happen and you’ll be there to capture it. Last summer I stumbled upon a structure fire in Shanghai, always a scary event, and especially so in such a dense megalopolis.
ISO 400, 24mm, f6.38, 1/400 second exposure.
Chasing Sunrise
In the high desert of Bolivia- known as the Altiplano- at dawn. I’m in a 4x4 trying to beat the sunrise before it hits a famous rock formation, and losing. Frost is still sitting on the tire ruts, and the sun starts lighting up clouds formed on an ancient volcano. If this is losing, I’m OK with that.
ISO 320, 22mm, f/8, 1/125 second exposure.
Bon Voyage
Summer in San Francisco is fog season. It’s also very fickle – it can come in fast and disappear just as quickly. Shot this two years ago sitting and waiting for the fog to come in. I still haven’t gotten a perfect sunset fog shot with the bridge and city, but I’ll keep trying. Panorama assembled from three horizontal frames.
ISO 200, 70mm, f/14, 1/160 second exposure.
Surfing the Gate – San Francisco
The guys who surf off San Francisco’s fort point are a rare breed. Freezing waters, boat traffic, and some nasty sharp rocks keep all but the truly committed off this break.
ISO 400, 58mm, f/8, 1/250 second exposure.
Anyone in the San Francisco surfer community know who this is? Would love to get in contact with him and get him a print...
Shot Feb 2008
Late Light in the Valley - Yosemite
When’s the last time you visited Yosemite? You should probably fix that soon. Used a very small aperture (f/22) to keep everything in tight focus, and get some nice motion blur in the water as a bonus. Digitally stitched into a single panorama from seven vertically oriented shots.
Tip: Photoshop can stitch together some pretty amazing panoramas, but you need to keep your exposure and settings the same across all the shots or it can look pretty unnatural… try using “manual” mode to lock your settings in from shot to shot.
ISO 100, 17mm, f/22, 1/10 second exposure.
Times Square Taxi - NYC
Shot this several years ago in New York trying to get a slightly different image of Times Square with a sense of motion and action. I used a small bean bag and rested the camera right on the ground. Got an email out of the blue from IN NY Magazine saying they’d like to use it for their July issue. Sweet!
Tip: Tilting the horizon can sometimes add more energy and interest to a shot, but be careful to make this a deliberate, obvious choice. If a horizon line is askew by only a small amount, it can look unprofessional, or even worse slightly unsettling.
ISO 100, 24mm, f/20, 2 second exposure
Snow Monkey - Japan
Outside Nagano, Japan in the “Japanese Alps” a troop of macaques has discovered the joys of resting and warming themselves up in natural volcanic hot springs. After local inns in the mountain retreat tired of the monkeys invading their baths, their built them their own hot pool several hundred yards further up the river.
ISO 400, 90mm, f/5.6, 1/500 second exposure.
Close to Mom - Botswana
In honor of all mothers out there… Mother elephants (and the entire herd) are extremely protective of their young, and often surround them making it hard to get a good shot. This was shot with a 200m zoom lens with a 1.4x extension tube attached to get as “close” as possible. Happy Mother's Day!
ISO 800, 280mm, f/5.6, 1/200 second exposure.
Happy Easter from Joel Wade photography… Hope everyone has a fantastic day, hopefully involving family, good food, peeps, and chocolate bunnies.
Digital composite illustration from several photographs.
Heaven and Earth
Everyone has goals. Things they want to do before they die. One of mine is to see lava… rock so hot it moves like water and actually glows. This is a volcano… a gorgeous volcano caught near dawn on a flight from San Francisco to Vancouver. But it’s an old, extinct volcano. I actually had to ask a colleague I hardly knew to switch seats with me so I could get a window seat on the “correct” side of the plane. Glad I did. Tomorrow I’m off to try to find me a beautiful baby volcano, still active and spitting lava into the ocean. Wish me luck!
Tip: Shooting good shots through plane windows is difficult… lots of reflections, glare, and vibration. My best advice is to physically clean the window with a napkin and find the best spot on the glass free of dirt and grime. Then press the lens as close to the glass as you can- touching is best- and try to surround the lens with something that won’t reflect through the many layers of glass and plastic in the “window”. A dark sweatshirt is usually my weapon of choice- it helps prevent reflections of you, the seat, your own camera strap, etc.
ISO 200, 65mm, f/16, 1/320 second exposure.
In Deep
Monterey Bay Aquarium. So little light I needed to prop my camera on a nearby bench and use the self-timer to try to reduce camera shake. Usually you don’t want the subject of your shot centered, but in this case the symmetry was worth it.
ISO 400, 24mm, f/4, 1/13 second exposure.
Skipping Stones – Lake Tahoe
Shot this many years ago as a spontaneous candid of a friend after a long hard day of skiing in Lake Tahoe. Looking south from the north, the last rays of sun are illuminating just a smidge of the snowy peaks. Wish I hadn’t cropped off his feet, but I was at the widest FOV on the lens, and didn’t have time to set back and recompose before the moment was gone. Sometimes you get what you get, and it all works out anyway.
ISO 400, 28mm, f/10, 1/250 second exposure.
Meiji Shrine – Tokyo
Seeing the devastation in Japan is heart wrenching- and I’ve been thinking a lot about friends and colleagues over there. If any good can come from this for us observers-from-afar, I think it’s to remember not to sweat the small stuff too much- life is simply too short. Here’s the side of Japan I love the most- quiet, orderly, and beautiful- the Meiji Shrine just after dawn. Jetlagged, I walked through the city very early in the morning, and explored the beautiful landscapes and gardens of the shrine essentially to myself. For this shot I rested my elbows on the concrete, and was rewarded for waiting a few moments by having the monk walk by in the background.
ISO 640, 21mm, f/10, 1/320 second exposure.
Sentosa Sunset – Singapore
An old shot from travels in South East Asia, in honor of Guy’s birthday. Sunsets can be pretty dry on their own, but get something else interesting in the shot and it helps a lot. This working boat in the Singapore harbor obliged me just a few moments before the sun dipped beneath the horizon.
ISO 100, 105mm, f/7.1, 1/125 second exposure.
Skyscraper – New York City
Off to NYC for work next week, so seemed appropriate to post a shot of the Big Apple- specifically the Chrysler Building. I remember reading advice a long time ago from a National Geographic photographer (escapes me who at the moment) that if you have an amazing sky the next step to furiously look for something interesting to “put in front of it”. Good advice that I tried hard to follow here.
ISO 100, 35mm, f/10, 1/200 second exposure.
The Deep Blue Ice – New Zealand
In honor of the Green Bay Packer’s victory- one of the coldest looking shots I could find in my collection… The Franz Joseph glacier in New Zealand. Bubbles inside ice refract light and make it look white. With enough weight over many years, glacial ice can push those bubbles out, allowing the light to reflect blue.
ISO 400, 24mm, f/13, 1/320 second exposure.
Two Skies – Lake Tahoe
One of my early favorite landscape shots, shot almost six years ago. From the north side of the lake looking south, a few minutes before the sun would fall behind the mountains. Looking back on this old shot, I’m aghast that I didn’t use a tripod or increase my depth of field to get all the details sharper, but hey sometimes you get lucky.
ISO 100, 28mm, f/3.5, 1/1600 second exposure.
La Jolla
With the gorgeous weather of the last week still lingering in Northern California, thoughts of summer and even summers past come to mind. Here’s a shot from the gorgeous beaches of La Jolla, near San Diego.
Tip: I rarely use filters (they ultimately introduce distortion), but the most commonly used one in my bag is the neutral gradient. Here it allowed me to slightly darken the sun and sky so that I could retain some detail in the clouds and sun without the beach and surfer turning into just a dark silhouette.
ISO 200, 105mm, f/5.6, 1/250 second exposures.
Ocean Boulevard – Miami
I spent the last week traveling and being too cold, so here’s a spicy night shot with lingering memories of being way too hot.
Tip: Moving vehicles can add more interest and drama to a scenic night shot. Keep experimenting with your shutter speed until you get just the right amount of motion blur, and then just keep shooting.
ISO 100, 28mm, f/4, .8 second exposures.
Happy New Year – New Shanghai
At the beginning of a new year, a big picture of a new city – the Pudong New Area district of Shanghai, which was completely undeveloped until plans were unveiled for a special economic zone in 1990. A gentle visual reminder to stay focused on your own “big picture”, and not let the little trials and tribulations of our lives hold you back or keep you down.
Tip: For those who don’t tune out at the mention of “photoshop”, you can put together some stunning panoramas quite easily by stitching together multiple shots into a single composition. This was assembled from six vertical shots, captured in manual mode on a tripod to keep the exposure consistent from left to right.
ISO 100, 40mm, f/9, six 8-second exposures.
Ho Ho Ho!
Happy Ho-Ho-Holidays and Merry Christmas to all from Joel Wade Photography!
Tip: Small children can be rough to capture well when squirmy... Get them as comfortable as you can, focus on the closest eye, and shoot like crazy! Lauren is lying on a black backdrop, with a hair dryer out of frame keeping her warm and toasty.
San Francisco Christmas
City Hall was fully-bedecked in its holiday finery in 2006. Happy holidays to all!
Tip: Newer digital cameras make getting great shots of holiday lights easy. Turn your ISO to 100 or to NIGHT MODE so you get a long exposure. Use a good tripod or (what I usually do) just rest your camera on something solid. Then just use the auto timer to avoid the camera shaking when you press the shutter.
ISO 100, 32mm, f/20, 8 second exposure.
Sunset Sail
Before I ever got serious about photography, I was a hard-core Photoshop jockey. Though my personal aesthetic preferences are now firmly set in the realm of traditional photography, every once in a while I like to take advantage of the freedom that working digitally offers and create a true digital illustration. This image is one of my favorites and was created using three separate photos of mine- clouds from an airline window at sunset, a sailboat on the San Francisco Bay, and contrails from the Blue Angels to help create the illusion of vapor trails behind the boat.
Digital Illustration – composite of 3 separate images
