© Paul Mozell
The fifth installment in a series. Your feedback is welcome! All photographs in the series are available as fine art prints and licensed stock images.

20) Don’t use auto White Balance for Landscapes

The Mad River, Waterville Valley, New Hampshire

The human eye is an amazing thing. It surpasses most, if not all cameras in its ability to see a range of brightness from dark to white and it instantly adjusts to different focal lengths faster than the finest Nikon, Canon lens. In collaboration with the brain, it makes remarkable adjustments for color temperature — a value on the Kelvin Scale that describes how cool blue, or warm red-yellow a light source may be. continue reading…

© Paul Mozell
The fourth installment in a new series. Your feedback is welcome! All photographs in the series are available as fine art prints and licensed stock images.

16) Silky smooth waterfalls and surf

Sideside homes on Bass Rocks, Gloucester, MA, Cape Ann.

Most of us are drawn to silky smooth water photographs. Is it the other-worldliness that is appealing? Achieving the effect is very simple. It’s all about selecting a shutter speed of at least 1 second — avoid using Auto or Program modes. Sunny days are not ideal because there’s just too much contrasty light. So work early or late in the day, under a thick forest canopy or an overcast sky. You’ll need a sturdy tripod or even a beanbag, and ideally, a cable release. Set your camera on its lowest ISO setting to minimize the amount of light continue reading…

© Paul Mozell
The third installment in a new series. Your feedback is welcome! All photographs in the series are available as fine art prints and licensed stock images.

11) Use long lenses to capture wide landscapes and wide angle lenses in small spaces —sometimes. I’ve stood on countless mountaintops with grand vistas trying to convey the depth and dimension of the scene with a 24 or 28mm lens. So often it just doesn’t work. Its like trying to wrap your arms around a gigantic beach ball. Unless the sky is full of dramatic clouds you’ll end up with a frame full of featureless sky and a shrunken landscape. Instead, look for the details in the scene. Use your long lens to flatten out a portion of the landscape and do the opposite of what the binocular vision shaped by your two eyes is urging you to do with the wide lens. Conversely, when you’re in a small space like a dark forest or a narrow gorge, pull out the widest lens you have to enlarge the space. continue reading…

© Paul Mozell
The second installment in a new series. Many of the tips are not specific to nature photography. Your feedback is welcome!

6)  Shoot every day. So many aspects of photography improve with practice; some subtle, some obvious. Just as a musician needs to play or sing every day, and an athlete has work out each day to maintain his or her edge, your nature photography will benefit from daily exercise. This includes your facility with camera settings and lighting, and the clarity of your vision and creative viewpoint.

Sunset glow on Bass Rocks, Gloucester, MA. Toyo Field, 4x5.

7)  Ask for feedback. “What do you think of my photographs?” can be a tough question to ask; especially if you are afraid the answer won’t be what you want to hear. But getting feedback from a variety of sources will improve your photography. Flickr users will give you plenty of feedback as will the users of the new photo-sharing site 500px. Local photography clubs, workshops, and classes can be a good source of knowledgeable, compassionate opinions.

Exhibit your work. Get out of the closet and show your work. Chances are you can show several pieces each year at a local art association. Visit the private art galleries in your area and inquire if they are selling photography. Many galleries don’t. If they show some interest, present a portfolio of local subjects. People vacationing in Down East Maine want to return home with photographs of the seashore, not images of Yosemite. Some restaurants can be decent venues — but price your work lower than you would at a gallery. continue reading…

© Paul Mozell

Today I’m launching a series of short tips about how to improve your nature photography. Each post will have about 5 pointers and my working list currently runs to fifty points. At some time in the near future all the points will be published as an e-book or perhaps, something more ambitious. Your comments are welcome!

A pond in Harold Parker State Forest, Andover, Massachusetts. Nikon d300, 18-70, Manfrotto tripod and ball head.

 1)    Landscape photography – it’s the journey that counts. In all the years I have been making landscape and outdoor photographs, my quest for beautiful and compelling images has taken me on some wonderful adventures — even if the final photographs were not rewarding. Try thinking of your camera as something that helps you to see the world, rather than just a tool for making images.

continue reading…