Websites Revised

Just a short note. I have put all of my images on a fewer number of websites. The old http://www.caquinophotos.com/ site will direct to the Photoshelter site below.

The new primary website is at Photoshelter: www.photoshelter.com/c/caquino. On this website you can find updated image galleries organized geographically. Photoshelter also allows for licensing of image, products, and more.

I also have galleries for image licensing at http://www.photographersdirect.com/. Once at the homepage, click on the "Stock Source" link at the top and then enter "Aquino" in the Stock Library Name search box on the next page that comes up. You should be directed to my listing. There are a limited number of images there, many of them are also at the Photoshelter site above.

Cheers!

C

Getting the Quality Shot

When the question came, I did not realize how tricky it was at the time. I and another photographer were leading a workshop in Illinois’ Starved Rock State Park. The sandstone walls of Illinois Canyon enveloped us, and the forest floor was carpeted with Virginia bluebells. One of the participants had set up a great shot—a low-angle view of a cluster of bluebells in front of a tightly bunched stand of trees and mossy boulders with the muted tapestry of the sandstone cliff in the background.

“So, what sort of mental checklist do you go through before you take a shot?” she asked me.

It was a good question. We have all been so enamored by a shot that we invariably overlooked something minor. The result is a picture that is improperly exposed, the focus is off, or the depth of field brings in too much background and distracts the viewer from the main subject. I understood the reason for her question—she had a shot she really liked and she did not want to mess it up.

The simple ABC’s of any shot came immediately to mind: A) get the proper exposure, B) compose the shot, C) find the focus point and fire away. In all honesty, though, it is never that simple. Correct lens choice, depth of field, and compromising between what the equipment can do and what we want it to do all have their places in this mental checklist as well.

That simple question, however, really got me thinking. Long after we worked through her shot, it still nagged at the back of my mind. I continued going over the process of making any photograph, trying to boil it down to the essentials in a foolproof-step-by-step approach given the endless list of variables that introduced themselves into any photographic opportunity. I wracked my brain (and almost my head when I wandered into a low-hanging branch) for a logical sequence that anyone could use under any circumstance.

The answer was elusive. I kept coming back to a belief that photography is an expression of oneself, something very difficult to quantify in a logical flow-chart of steps. Perhaps even more dynamically, this personal expression is a collision of two very different ways of looking at the world.

In his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig talks about two different kinds of understanding. Romantic understanding is intuition and emotions. It is the ideal image as we see it—the sudden gasp at a magnificent sunset or the tranquility evoked by a meandering mountain stream. On the contrary, classical understanding rests in logic and analysis. It is the understanding of f-stops, shutter speeds, and focal points. The trick for any artistic endeavor is to get the two different views to work together. That innocent question, “what mental checklist do you use,” really lives in the territory between these two ways of looking at the world. That was the entire point of Pirsig’s book: we need to learn to live in this intersection that he called Quality. At the heart of Quality was caring; and when you truly care about what you do, the end result is more sincere and genuine. Once I thought this through, I realized my checklist started long before I ever set up a shot.

In this union of emotion and logic, different people will have different tendencies and emphasize different steps, but a good checklist should encompass both realms. For the sake of illustration, here is mine.

1) I need to know my equipment. I must know how it works, its capabilities and its limitations. This undoubtedly influences what type of shots I will go after, how I will approach a scene, and what I can set up.

2) I need to put myself in the right frame of mind. I must be patient and observant. Rushing to find a shot or to make the shot will lead to mistakes more times that not. I constantly remind myself to take my time. Impetuousness is one of my greatest hurdles.

3) When I come upon a scene, I like to wander. I want to consider a scene from different perspectives before I ever set up the camera. When something catches my attention, I try to figure out why and work to capture that inspiration in the shot. Additionally, I may have a goal to photograph something specific, but I should always be ready for the unexpected opportunity.

4) When I have my shot set up, I check exposure, composition, and focus. I am aware of changing light, depth of field, and unwanted movement. I make compromises where needed, but I always remember what drew me to the shot in the first place.

5) I take notes, either during the hike or after. These help me remember a location, a future scene, nuances of the subject, and a myriad of technical specifications not captured in the file data.

6) After I have made my first shot, I rework the scene from another perspective. I exhaust the photographic possibilities, the capabilities of my equipment, or my inclination to take it further. This can become emotionally exhausting, so patience (as I said above) becomes even more important.

7) After I have worked a scene, I pause a moment before I move on to the next in order to push my reset button and be ready for the next opportunity with a clear mind.

When you go through your own checklist, tandem with every step, never forget to take the time simply to look. It sounds like a very Zen thing to do (and it is), but often we are so focused on getting “the shot” that we fail to notice new wonders right under our noses. Sometimes these may lead us to new photographic subjects, and sometimes they just remind us about the wonderful complexities of nature that we are trying to celebrate in the frame.

Seeing the Forest Through the Trees

Compositionally, the above image has a lot going for it. The strong vertical lines of the spruce trees create an interesting repetitive pattern with varying degrees of weight. The ground cover creates the perception of a smooth plane up from which the trees rise. It all seems very geometrical. The lighting is soft without being too flat, and the texture and colors are interesting to look at and see how they play off of each other.

While this picture has a lot of compositional strengths, I did not take it just to take a picture of a stately spruce forest and flowering ground cover. The green plants with the little white flowers that dominate the forest floor are called garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). It is an invasive species that was likely brought to the New World during its colonization. In just 140 years, it has managed to spread aggressively through most of the east and midwestern states. Garlic mustard dominates native species that reach their maturity in the spring seasons. The result is that plants, animals, and insects that rely on the native species for chemicals, pollination, and food are deprived of these necessary elements. Seeds from garlic mustard plants can remain viable in soil for up to five years. Managing such a resiliant plant is difficult at best, and failure to do so can forever change the ecology of a system.

The image here shows a soft and subtle sunrise over a scattering of rounded rocks on the shore of Lake Michigan in Door County, Wisconsin. The jumble of rocks makes a nice textural and elemental contrast to the water, clouds, and sky. The overall purple cast imparts a feeling of tranquility and peace.

This picture would be impossible if the water level in Lake Michigan had not dropped to a near record low in 2008. Less precipitation and decreasing polar ice cover are two of the main causes for such a drop. The effects of this range far and wide from fishing and maritime naivgation to damage to the ecosystem. Without significant increasing in precipitation in the coming years coupled with a lesser rate of evaporation, the water levels for Lake Michigan will not be rising anytime soon.

So what does all this mean? If I were to take away the explanations behind these pictures, I would be left with two artistic nature photos. Some people, when they look at a picture only see the light, shapes, lines, composition, and colors. Sometimes that's the reason we take the picture in the first place. But then there are times when the real picture is the story behind all of that. It is a story about the ecosystem, or the animal or plant or enviromental condition that we place in our viewfinders.

When one photographs nature, one has a responsibility to understand it.

COMING SOON: What makes a Quality image?

What is Our Work Worth?

It seems like it is becoming more difficult every year to make a living as a nature photographer. There are many reasons for this. The market for such images is oversaturated. The industry has shifted its demand to images that are called "lifestyle": these show people engaged in different activities. No longer is the forest path carpeted in autumn leaves enough; now there needs to be a mountain-biker riding through the scene. Lastly, the closing gap between professional level equipment and consumer-level equipment has narrowed so much that just about anyone who has a digital camera can produce images for sale.

This last point is the most concerning to me...not the technology aspect, rather the damage being done to the photography profession.

I know a few professional photographers that have spent years making a decent living off of stock sales, books and calendars, and some teaching. With the downturn in stock sales in the past three years, they have to pick up more work teaching photography workshops and tours than they ever did in the past. Now, there is nothing wrong with teaching photography classes and workshops--I do a little of that myself and it is extremely enjoyable and rewarding. My problem lies in one of the reasons they have had to do this.

It's my percpetion that an increasing number of amateurs is flooding the market with images on royalty free sites like iStock or ShutterStock. These "micro-stocks" sell an image for 25-cents per use. There has been debate among the photography world that this is the new standard, that professionals need to get on board or get out. Having experimented with microstock agencies for 1 year to put these assertions to the test, I feel that for nature photographers (at least) the microstock world is the bane of our existence.

To make any money with a microstock, one needs to sell images in large quantities. That might work for commercial subjects, or life-style, or still-lifes and product shots. The idea is that with lower prices, it is more likely for images to be bought, and so the photo buyer wins and the photographer wins. The only person winning is actually the photo buyer. That person can buy an image, put it on the front cover of a travel brochure, print up 1 million copies and the photographer only gets 25-cents for the use of the image. In typical photography markets, the same usage would run over $1000.

Not only is the royalty-free structure of the microstocks damaging to the profession, but the quality level of the work that is represented is also in danger of pandering to the mediocre. Sure, these microstock agencies can represent images that a traditional agency might not. Afterall, the photobuyer will decide what image and at what aesthetic quality to purchase. However, the professional photographer is now being squeezed out by amateurs who are happy to just get their work published, nevermind the paltry amount of money that they are paid.

It might sound like a have a chip on my shoulder against the microstock agencies. I do. I have seen this change in the industry bring a lot of stress and concern to professional photographer friends of mine. That experiment I did with microstock agencies...it took me over 1 year to accumlate approximately $110 of income. Thank goodness I wasn't counting on that for a mortgage payment.

However, at the end of all this, when the industry structure itself is tossed aside, what it really comes down to is integrity for the work that one does. One must ask: What am I(my expertise, my time, my skill, my experience, my work ethic) worth? Whether royalty free or rights managed imagery is the mode a photographer chooses to sell his/her work, we must all be sure that we are not undervaluing what we have to sell. It may be a picture of the Grand Tetons to the photobuyer, but think about what you (the photographer) have invested in it. Travel. Equipment. Knowledge. Time.

I don't know about you, but my time is worth more than $110/year in 25-cent increments occasionally dribbled out to me.

COMING SOON: What our pictures are really saying.

Kicking and Screaming into the World

In the coming weeks, months, and hopefully years, this blog will be a place that I will post current thoughts about my photography and give people a place to share there own. Hopefully, it will provide far more than just a social site and be a place for serious professionals to create a list of contacts.

Until later, I hope everyone out there has a great Thanksgiving holiday!