outdoor photography

Eastern Phoebe A few days ago I dropped by Marl Bed Flats before work.  As I walked out onto the flats, I saw a flycatcher in the distance--too far away for my binoculars.  Just in case it decided to fly away before I could identify it, I snapped a couple pictures.  Sure enough, it's an Eastern Phoebe.  After I loaded the photos into my computer, I thought these might work as silhouettes.  So, these photos were totally unplanned.  If you like them, nature was the artist, not me. I even decided to break one of my own rules for composition--I normally have the bird facing into the frame, but when I cropped these, I thought the composition was stronger with the bird facing away. Maybe it heightens the solitary mood of the photo; I'm not sure why. Eastern Phoebe

Great Blue Heron Silhouette In most of my posts about getting proper exposure of subjects outdoors I've suggested that there are a significant number of practices that will help you get your subject properly exposed. However, if you want your subject to be silhouetted against a colorful or dramatic background, you need to toss all that advice out the window.  In fact, when lighting conditions become "poor," I often start thinking about about photographing silhouettes, and then all of the sudden my lighting conditions may become good again. Sunrise and Trees To photograph a silhouette, you need a relatively high contrast situation, which means that you will be better off if your subject is back-lit--that is, with the sun in front of you.  This will make the background very bright.  Then you want to base your exposure on the bright background.  Since your subject is not lit from the front, it will become very dark compared to the background in your...