APRIL 2010
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Fresh Perspectives Slowing the Pace Things have been slow around here for the past month and a half but that has been by design. Every year in February and March I purposely try to slow down and not shoot too many pictures during this time. First, not too much is going on in the realm in which I photograph. Winters are pretty drab around here and often, in February and March, the winds are often oppressive. The second reason is that taking a break and not touching a camera (in my opinion) does wonders for creativity.
Let me explain... I am a believer that I can get stuck in a rut. Looking at my records, in the three months leading up to my annual, self-imposed hiatus, I shot 17,000 images that I ended up keeping. That doesn’t account for the ones I threw out. Each time I take pictures means I had to get up early in the morning or stay out late, travel (sometimes long distances by car) and get into place before sunrise, brave the cold, and then later, wade through all of the images while staring for hours at a computer. Creatively, it all starts to take its toll on me. And, in my opinion, I fall in a rut and new and creative ideas start to slip.
of creative ways to take pictures that I’ve shot so many times, I could take them in my sleep. When the break is over, I am always more than ready to start again. In my seminars, I talk about stepping away from photography as being one of the keys to maintaining creativity and for about the tenth year in a row I’ve done just that - and I am always thankful that I did. This spring promises to be a good one with lots of new projects coming up that includes some writing for new genres as well as some upcoming motion projects in which I am excited. Things are looking great.
So I put my cameras away. The hiatus always allows me to refocus my efforts, study the work of other photographers, and think
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the as one g in t h ry t lig twist, t ut fron o e b iv t a a e lk r s ta ac at rue, for d article t n a ages th is t s im a k h o o t t o e b s il s hne re . Wh photo ds a ric ake su graphy d I know o m a t , o g n h u in p he s light s of ark k into t . Back tal rule c g n a e in b t e and d m h g ic le g n in li e t k s o c e o a sh d go nd at b . When kgroun n c a a c b your ha r e e h ev at t . hting n ct so th of light je lo b a u h front lig s l coo your ter off u get a e o y m d u n o a y 500 .2, ISO 3 f @ . sec 1/5000 , 8 . 2 f 0mm non 30 a C , a r me 60D ca Canon
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prairies and exposing the topsoil of the Great Plains region to battering winds and Black Blizzards scorching sun. Constant From a historical perspective, farming with no regards to soil conservation was the norm I've always wondered what and when the 1930’s drought the drought refugees of the 1930's felt like when the black fell upon the region, a perfect blizzards would descend upon storm was created. the Panhandle, choke out the Without natural vegetation sun and blow sand so hard to anchor the topsoil, the wind that it hurts to stand outside. dislodged the soil into great clouds of dust that Panhandle Now I know because we residents called “black had one of those days. blizzards.” The prolonged dry In the 1930’s, drought spell cast a name on the refugees from Texas and region that still sticks today Oklahoma found themselves The Dust Bowl. on farms with land that was In all the Dust Bowl rendered unusable. From the affected 100-million acres in early 1900’s farm land was Texas, Oklahoma, New used and misused under the Mexico, Colorado, and misguided ruse that “rain Kansas and disrupted the follows the plow.” Virgin lives of those who lived in the prairie ground was plowed region. The drought, under thus destroying the combined with the Great native Depression, forced many off their
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land where they relocated in California and other parts of the nation. A great emigration that, in many ways, has yet to correct itself eighty years later. The last weekend of February was an epic storm for western Texas. A low pressure system slammed westerly winds across the plains and dislodged dirt from the bare soil and sent it skyward. The winds were a sustained at 40 to 50 miles per hour and dirt blew horizontally. In all, the storm assaulted all of the Panhandle down to Ozona for six or seven hours. Within the melee, devastating fires ravaged the rangelands taking homes and lives in the process. While strange and maybe a little scary, the dust storms in the Panhandle aren’t nearly as threatening as they once were. Modern agricultural practices like minimum tillage, the Conservation Reserve Program that takes highly erodible land from the cropping inventory, and other low impact farming techniques insures that dust storms, while still an occurrence, are much more rare and less severe than they were during the Dust Bowl. From the syndicated newspaper column, “Russell Graves Outdoors” Check out the Black Blizzard video!
Fly Texas Of all the fly angling destinations, Texas is still my favorite.
I love to fish. Luckily, I’ve had the chance to fish in multiple states. However, when it comes to a unique mix of beautiful locations, great fishing, and a cool culture, you just can’t beat Texas. From the Panhandle down to the coast and everything in
between, Texas has fly waters that deliver. Redfish on Matagorda Bay, smallmouth bass on the rugged Devils River, bluegill in a shallow Panhandle prairie river, and largemouth bass on a farm pond all make up the unique tapestry of the Lone Star fly fishing scene.
THE SKINNY: VARIOUS CANON CAMERAS WITH A VARIETY OF LENSES
ON TO I O T PH UC R T INS
Lenses If you are shooting with a DSLR (as opposed to an advanced digital compact or digital pointand-shoot camera that does not allow for interchangeable lenses), there are many different lenses available to you in today's digital photography market. Here are a few suggestions that might help you decide what lenses would make the best additions to your camera outfit. A wide-angle zoom For dynamic landscape images, go wide. Select a lens that covers a nice range of focal lengths. I suggest an 18mm - 55mm zoom.
A telephoto zoom
great head and shoulders shot
A macro lens
If you want to shoot wildlife,
t h a t re a l l y c a p t u re s t h e
For extreme closeup work, I
you definitely want to buy a
animal's characteristics.
like to use a 50mm macro
telephoto lens. Again, I
lens. Although these lenses
suggest a zoom lens that will
A super telephoto lens
come in other focaI lengths, I
work in many different
If you can afford it when you
prefer the 50mm because it
scenarios. Try a 70mm -
are first starting out, get a
serves as a normal focal length
200mm; this lens is extremely
300mm lens. A 300mm lens is
lens with excellent close-up
versatile. On the 70mm end,
a great lens for large wildlife
focal qualities. With this macro
you can frame an animal in its
and will also work well for
lens, you can get great close-
h a b i t a t a n d g e t a g re a t
birds, especially with a 2X
ups of flowers or other small
environmental shot. Then,
teleconverter.
objects.
zoom in to 200mm and get a
“IF YOU ARE SHOOTING WITH A DSLR THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT LENSES AVAILABLE...�
ING D I RR VE O S Y E EN O BU H L T . T N “.. NS IS EO E L N L O T RU CTI ES E B .� L RD SE VERY O F F E NA TH A UC YO
A teleconverter If I had to buy just one, I'd get a 2X converter. Add the 2X to the two telephoto lenses mentioned in this list and you can get close enough to capture most wildlife species. The overriding rule on lens selection is to buy the very best lenses you can afford. With lenses, you get what you pay for; buy good quality lenses and your results will reciprocate.
The best advice I can give you when selecting lenses is to stick
with
lenses
manufactured by your camera maker. These companies have exacting standards and put a great deal of emphasis on quality control. Ultimately, they know that their reputation rides on the quality of their products.
From my book The Kodak Most Basic Book of Digital Nature Photography
Firefox Update For as long as I can recall, Firefox 3 didn’t play well with my website. As a result, there was always an issue with the way that the navigation bar rendered. I also had some reports that the “Add to Lightbox” functionality was spotty.
Check out russellgraves.com often for new photos, articles, and blog entries!
Now it seems that the problems are fixed. With the recent release of the NEW FIREFOX version 4, the problems associated with the old version of Firefox have seemingly disappeared. Therefore, if you use Firefox, you might consider a FREE upgrade at http://www.mozilla.com
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