outdoor photography

Cattle Egret with Frog "A picture is worth a thousand words." We've heard the proverb many times.  Newspapers are filled with journalistic photos that capture the essence of a news story.  We look at those piercing eyes of the woman from that amazing photo from the cover of National Geographic--you know the photo, I know you do--and just her eyes tell the story of her struggle.  Street photographers capture moments that tell the stories of a culture--the mood, hopes and fears of a people at a time and place. But with nature photography, things often change in our minds.  We commonly we think of nature photographs as static snapshots of a beautiful sunset or a rare bird.  But nature photographers can tell stories too. Photographs capture a moment in time, but they capture a moment often with a record of the past and with an anticipation of the future.  Life and nature is always dynamic and changing, so capturing a moment can give you evidence ...

Reddish Egret Feeding One of the qualities of an image that can set it apart from others is its ability to interpret a subject.  It's always great to view a properly exposed and well-composed photograph.  But some photographs also reveal something about their subject matter that causes the viewer to think differently as a result of interacting with the photograph.  And that a very good thing. Of course, photographs can't generally explain their subject matter in words--even if there are words in the photo, the photograph depends on more than those words to communicate.  You must use your exposure and composition to portray what you wan to communicate.  There are three essential aspects to turning beautiful pictures into interpretive images: Knowledge of Your Subject:  You must understand your subject to interpret it.  What ever you're shooting, the more you know about the subject the more expressive you can be as you portray ideas in your ima...