Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen: Coping With The Weather

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

Coping With The Weather

"Our cameras have taken us places we would never have dreamed of going otherwise. And we find that the more we shoot, the greater our wanderlust grows" (L.L.Bean 135).

Welcome to my last blog for a while. This time I will be talking about coping and dealing with the weather. If you are planning a trip to an unfamiliar area, make sure you understand the weather before you get there. Bringing the correct equipment and material will be a big factor in your photo taking quality.

What are some problems that emerge from the weather and how can I resolve these problems?
At this time of the year cold weather will be the biggest issue against your photo taking skills. Cold weather causes a huge drain on camera batteries. If you will be out for a long period of time it is recommended that you bring a fresh new pair of batteries. Warm and hot weather is overall the largest issue against photography. Since most people will be out taking photos during the Spring and Summer, you should always be aware that the heat can cause parts of your camera to become weak. It's very important that you keep it away from the sun and in the shade.

Light Shining On The Green River

Other than that, the weather is the most important part of your photograph. Yeah you can always use picture formatting, lighting, or perspective, but what would a photograph be without the warm sun shining down at a calm river or the frost of a cold morning thawing on a bridge? I hope you enjoyed this and learned something valuable in any of my blogs.



Do you see yourself using any of the tips I provided in the future?

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen: Picture Format

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

Picture Format

"Horizontal or vertical? Since most of us photographers shoot at least a proportion of photographs with a 35mm camera, we're generally working with a rectangular format (L.L.Bean 50).


Picture formatting is a great and easy way to enhance your picture taking skills. Not only can it significantly affect the meaning behind the picture but it also can make it look nice overall.

So what is Picture Formatting?
Picture formatting is the way the camera is turned or angled. The two types of picture formatting are identified as horizontal or vertical, horizontal being the longer x-axis while the vertical being the longer y-axis. Not only does this change the way the photo looks but it also gives a whole new tone to the photo. A horizontal format tends to create a more peaceful, harmonizing affect while a vertical format can promote a greater sense of energy (L.L.Bean 50).

Vertical View of a Tukwila Pond

Learning about what picture formatting could do to a picture motivated me even more to go out and take pictures. As I was passing by a pond in Tukwila, I couldn't help but admire the scenery. The vertical format of the pond gives a more mysterious feel to the image while if you get verything in the horizontal format, it feels calmer.



Which type of format do you prefer to use?

Horizontal View of the same Tukwila Pond

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen: Lighting

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

Lighting

"Our favorite time to explore and photograph small subjects is a day with flat, even lighting. Because this is often the wrong time for shooting dramatic landscapes, a cloudy day can offer a wealth of photographic material you might not have thought to shoot otherwise (L.L.Bean 85)

What is lighting in Photography?

Lighting is the illumination of an image. In other words, lighting records patterns of light, color, and shade. It can have a great impact on the tone and mood of a photo. An example of this is with sunny weather. A bright and sunny day can create a harsh lighting and prevent your subject from taking center stage, such as a branch in an open plain (L.L.Bean 86). There are two main types of lighting, natural and artificial lighting. Natural lighting occurs on deep forest floors or under branches where there is a low amount of light. Artificial lighting occurs when you add extra equipment to add or reduce lighting to an object such as a camera flash or a piece of cardboard blocking the sunlight.

A tree at Alki Beach with light lighting

After learning about the affects of photograph lighting, I decided to take advantage of the cloudy weather we had today and find the perfect example for this blog. While driving around the Alki Beach Waterfront I felt repelled not to take a photo with the gray but also unique sky. The bright gray tone of the top photo gives a happier mood while the bottom dark gray tone gives a grimmer and more concealing mood.

A panoramic picture at Alki Beach with Darker Lighting

What is your favorite lighting to take a picture in?

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen:Composition and Perspective

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

Composition and Perspective

"Good photographs don't come from fancy camera equipment, dramatic lighting equipment, or special effects. Photographs that stand out in terms of their ability to engage an audience's interest and imagination have one source: the vision of you, the photographer" (L.L.Bean 35).

If you were able to see my last blog post, I talked about aperture and its impact on photography. Today on the other hand, I will be talking about something even more important than aperture, composition and perspective. We all see images every day that attract our attention, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself why a particular scene causes you to pause? What is it about the scene that makes it so special? I chose the topic composition and perspective because it is one of the biggest factors of photography but might be the least noticed one.

So what does Composition and Perspective really mean?

Composition in photography is simply arranging elements within an image in a way that suits the core idea or goal of your work best. Sure you can change your composition by zooming in or out with your lens, but if you want to change your perspective, you are going to need to move around. "Don't let your feet, or tripod, root you to one spot, get ready for some bending, turning, walking, or climbing to get the perfect photo" (L.L.Bean 36).

A Bridge at Coulon Park

Taking these tips into mind, I decided to change things up a little. Instead of taking a photo of a tree, plant, or flower, I decided to lean towards taking a photo at a lake, specifically at Coulon Park. These are two of my results using composition and perspective. Using what I learned, instead of taking these photos at an eye level, I either leaned back or crouched down to get a different perspective.

A low level photo of Lake Washington

Have you guys ever wondered why an area, object, or image attracts your attention?

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

These past few years, photography has called out to me, even if I may not be that talented. Everyone has that slightest photogenic side of themselves that may find its way out at any moment. Like many others, I only know the basics of taking a photo, whether it's tapping a button on your phone to snap a quick picture or smashing the circular button on your camera to capture something quickly passing by. For this project, I chose the book "Outdoor Photography Handbook," by L.L.Bean to help me dive more in depth with photography.

"Another aspect of photography that has always motivated us is that it can take you to some of the most interesting and beautiful places on earth. It also can introduce you to fascinating people, customs, and ideas that you might not have known without the magic of a camera and film" (L.L.Bean xii). Photography has many outputs and can introduce you to new things you never knew about.

These are the most common types of aperture sizes.

Aperture

Aperture is the measurement that indicates the size of the lens opening (L.L.Bean 6).  The size of the aperture determines how much light will reach the film, a small transparent plastic sheet that determines the sensitivity, contrast, and resolution of the photo. To the right I made a quick visual of different size f-stops. The size of the f-stop determines the aperture diameter in millimeters.

The photo above was not focused.
The one below was focused.

Aperture Example

"Aperture controls depth of field, the amount of the image frame that will be in sharp focus" (L.L.Bean 8). For my sample picture, I decided to use a maple leaf I found while walking around my neighborhood. On the original photo on the left, you could see everything in the photo clearly, my hand, the leaf, and the cement. For the second photo below, I used the same exact location and leaf but I changed the size of the aperture to F/2.8, which decreased the diameter of the lens, focusing onto the leaf and my hand. Focusing onto these two objects represented their importance and showed they were the spotlight of the photo instead of the background cement.

So far, this book has taught me very valuable techniques and skills needed to take a photo, especially the importance of the lens aperture. I look forwards to reading more and discover new tips and tricks. Do you guys like taking pictures too?