We have been inundated with fog these last few days. It has been relentless, morning and evening.
It’s made for eery weather and poor visibility… but cool pix, if you can get ’em.
Deer Families
We sat and watched these two deer families interact. One deer mom had one little one; the other had two little ones. I don’t know what the deal was, but they were none to pleased that the other family was there trying to horn in on their spot.
It seems to me that they should stick together. Goes to show, I have a lot to learn about deer behaviors.
Eagle Perch
Speaking of birds… driving past Morman Lake, I spied this regal guy sitting on a branch watching the world go by. I actually didn’t have my big camera with me. I had my little point and shoot, Panasonic Lumix handy though. That’ll teach me to bring my big camera along, so I don’t miss any such opportunities.
Daylight Owl
I felt very fortunate the other day to have an owl sighting. The owl stayed put long enough for me to go home and get my camera. I think he was just soaking up the sun. Unfortunately, he didn’t stay long, but I was thankful to see him up close and personal. I hear owls occasionally, but this was the first time I got to see one so close… and I got a picture!
Story Telling
I mentioned that I had the fortunate opportunity to have Moose Peterson critique some of my photos. While we was very kind and even called my photos great (woohoo), and suggested that I had good technique an composition, he noted that I needed to work on my story telling. When I think of story telling, I think of portraits… photos of people doing something, action, great expressions, expressing a moment in time. I get that good portraits may use shallow depth of field to blur the background to highlight the subject. But how do you do that in Landscape and Wildlife photographs?
While I am not comfortable taking photos of people, I do understand that they had great depth (sense of size) to a photograph, and tell a story of that place. Here I caught two young adults mid catch at Woods Canyon Lake.
Expressions, if you can capture them, are worth a thousands words. Whether you anticipate and wait for it, or just get lucky. Here you can hear the oohs and ahhs of my friend and husband as they revel over the magnificent fall colors we were fortunate enough to enjoy.
Or the tender moment between a deer mom and her little one.
Thanks, Moose. I’m working on it.
Photographic Style
When I first started this endeavor of throwing myself into my photography and learning, improving, practicing, and publishing, I read a lot about Photographic Style. These books recommend that you choose one. What the heck does that mean? Why can’t I just shoot whatever I want, whenever I want, as it appears to me? I pretty much disregarded the advice.
Now, as I look at my photos, I realize, I didn’t disregard it… I did make a decision,even if it might not have been conscious. I dislike taking photos of people. I am just uncomfortable pointing a photo at a person as I feel it invades their space. That may seem silly, but it’s just not my thing. So I avoid it. (That being said, I am trying to get more into it, as it does add a lot to a photo.)
I naturally find myself taking photos of my environment. Those are the types of photos that inspire me, and make me comfortable. I love capturing the Landscape and Wildlife that surrounds me. I can be at peace with those subjects, take my time, and carefully compose the perfect picture.
So I guess my Photographic Style found me… I’m a Landscape and Wildlife photographer. Hmmm. I’m way ok with that.
Mogollon Rim Sunrise
We did an outing to Mogollon Rim for sunrise yesterday. The sunrise is around 6:30am, so we made our way to the rim hoping for some good cloud cover. I love the layers of color and depth the Rim offer. I found sunrise difficult though, as it was too dark… then too light. Next time I need to scope out a specific area and go back knowing already what I want to shoot… then just wait for the perfect light. And bring my tripod!
Overlooking East Clear Creek
Camera Settings: sRGB vs. Adobe RGB
I was fortunate enough to go to Photoshop World in Vegas this past September. It was a valuable experience on my levels. I signed up for a Portfolio Review, where for $25 you bring 15 – 20 pix and they pair you with a photographer in your same category (Wildlife in my case). I was delighted to find myself sitting next to none other than Moose Peterson himself. Wow! His wildlife and aviation pix are legendary. Let’s just say, I had most certainly heard of him before!
Moose was very kind with his critique, though very humbling. Photos that I thought were, while maybe not world class, at least good… didn’t make the cut as far as Moose was concerned. I went home a little deflated, but encouraged and inspired to do better. He explains his philosophy that no ‘critter’ shot should be tampered with, not even cropped! Just when I’m finally getting better at Photoshop. Well… I reserve the right to consider that approach, as I freely admit to the occasional crop or exposure adjustment. Hmmm.
One very interesting comment he made was relative to my camera settings. He took one look at the picture posted here, and suggested that my camera settings were on sRGB and I should change them to Adobe RGB. He looked at one photo, and by that alone, declared my camera settings. You can see that? Really!? I was stunned. He explained that sRGB is 256K of colors, while Adobe RGB is 14 million colors, hence the ‘monotone’ look of my buck picture. Wow! Of course the first thing I did when I got back to my room was check my camera settings. He was dead on. I was set on sRGB. I instantly re-set my camera to Adobe RGB.
A little research online tells a different story. Adobe RGB is best if you are going to print. sRGB is best if you are emailing. But, then you can find any answer you looking for online, irregardless of what you want it to be. For me, I have it set on Adobe RGB, and I’ll be leaving it there, unless I learn something compelling to change it.
Mogollon Rim
I could do a whole book on Mogollon Rim, and maybe I will.
I am lucky enough to call this magical place my backyard. So it’s no coincidence that you’ll be seeing more photos of this picturesque terrain. We take photographic journeys and lunch outings to ‘the rim’ on a regular basis. Notably some trips are a bust and the photographs are less than inspiring, but they are always good practice, peaceful, and relaxing.
And so it begins….
Welcome.
I started a foodie blog (krittersmenu.blogspot.com) just after watching Julie & Julia in 2009.
I decided to post what we ate for an entire year. It was a fun and sometimes demanding endeavor. But life got in the way, as it often will, and I stopped posting for over a year. Between then and now a lot took place in my life, some good, and some not so good. It seemed a good time to resurrect my blog.
One of the great things that happened, was I retired. In retirement I began to renew my passion for photography and picked up my dusty camera and started taking photos again. I started reading numerous books, watching video, taking classes and practicing my craft. I began to get better and decided to add my photos to my blog. But my foodie blog suffered from an identity crisis so with the help of some other insightful bloggers, I decided to break-up my blog into two blogs to concentrate on each of my passions: food and photography.
Welcome to kritterspix, a blog of my (Kathy Ritter’s) photographs. It’s my hope to share my photographic triumphs as well as my continuous learnings. This blog is an outlet for me to sit down and contemplate what I have learned and write down those new ideas, products, and techniques for my own edification. If my audience finds insight and inspiration in my posts than I have achieved magic. Thanks for joining me in my journey.
kritterspix 