Do Pros Shoot Better?

A friend recently asked me why I only feature professional photographers on the blog and not more amateurs. I have said in previous posts that my goal with the blog is to compile information that will be useful for amateurs such as myself, so why not feature good amateur work to show what is possible?

I agree that that is a good idea and I would like to start doing it. There are several reasons, however, that I have only been featuring pros and will continue to feature them.

First, their photos are much easier to find. Few amateurs have websites dedicated solely to their work and even fewer of those sites are easy to find. Pros’ work is highly visible and easily accessed on the web.

Second, when I look for great photos, I am usually looking for an entire body of quality work, not just a good shot or two. I only want to feature photographers who produce images that can inspire the rest of us, and many amateurs have only a few good shots among many mediocre ones (myself included).

Third, on the whole professional photographers are markedly better than amateurs. This isn’t always the case; there are many pros whose work is only so-so. There are also some amateurs that consistently capture incredible shots. On balance, though, a pro shoots better than an amateur. This has to be the case, as pros make their living taking photos and need to be able to produce work that is better than average in order to sell it. Many, if not most, of them have studied photography at an academy or university and spend all of their time on their craft. In contrast, amateurs such as myself spend their time working at other things and find free time to take photos where they can.

Ultimately, I feature pros' work because it shows me what is possible. It gives me ideas. It inspires me and motivates me to keep shooting and working with the hope that one day the quality of my work will be commensurate with theirs. Hopefully it is doing the same for others as well.

I am an amateur and happy to be so. At one time I had aspirations of becoming pro, but I have personal and professional goals that aren’t compatible with being a full time professional photographer, so I am happily pursuing it as a hobby. My only complaint is that I don’t have enough time to pursue it as I would like; maybe that will change some day.

In truth, the only thing that separates a pro from an amateur is whether or not you are paid to do it. The title doesn’t dictate the quality of the work. Any amateur can, with time and hard work, be as good as any pro out there.

Featured Professional: David Pettit

The Watchman

David Petit is a Springdale, Utah (just outside Zion National Park) based photographer who specializes in photos of that area. I enjoy his work, as it captures much of the character of the desert southwest. He is obviously intimately familiar with the area, which is reflected in the photos he shoots.

He also has an impressive black and white portfolio that highlights the diverse visual textures and contrasts of the desert landscape. Check him out at his website here.

Boulder Mountain Autumn















On Sheeps Bridge Road
















Canyon Sculpture



















Sacred Datura

Website: www.davidpettitphotography.com

All images © David Pettit; used with permission.

HDR, Part Two

In keeping with the last post, I wanted to mention a feature in PS that I recently discovered and have been trying to use. One of the automated functions available, that was introduced in CS3 I believe, is an HDR feature that merges at least two images into a new, high dynamic range image. I have had limited success with this, as they images don't often always merge perfectly. My colors are not always correct and shadows are often much too light given the overall exposure of the image.

As mentioned in my previous post, I do have misgivings about the process in some sense. I guess that my worry is that there is much potential for abuse with a feature of this kind. Just like with the saturation tool, it is easy to take things too far and create an image that doesn’t reflect reality. The hope, I guess, is that viewers of such photos will recognize that what is before them isn’t in fact real, and shun those images in favor of more accurate ones.

That being said, if I'm going to do it, I want to do it right. I haven't had any experience with any HDR tools other than doing it manually in PS or using the HDR function, but have read in several places about Photomatix and Picturenaut and am curious how well they work. Anybody with experience in this area care to comment?

In Camera HDR

Check out here and here the latest cameras from Sony and Pentax, the A550 and K-7 respectively. I am excited about these cameras for one reason: their in camera HDR processing (Follow this link, and this, for images taken using the new HDR feature). Years ago I read an article by Galen Rowell where he theorized that something like this might be possible in the future: "When nature photography goes wholly digital, I’ve got a dream camera in mind that I’d use without ethical constraints. It will make three auto exposures in a split second for highlights, mid-tones and shadows, then render them into a single output."* The future is here, and I have to say that I think this might be one of the most useful camera features ever. Now hopefully Canon will add it to its cameras.

Many of the photos I take involve sunsets or sunrises in rugged areas and require the use of a graduated ND filter, or hours of post processing, to expand the dynamic range of the photo. This new feature—which captures images in rapid succession at different exposures and then merges them using an in-camera processor—makes much of this work unnecessary. Undoubtedly there will still be situations where the dynamic range is too much for this feature to handle, but this goes a long way to solving the problem.

While I am very excited about this, I am also hesitant. Maybe advances like this make me nervous, the same way that old schoolers were hesitant to adopt auto focus or move from film to digital.

But, if the feature works well, it removes one of the key steps problems that many of us face in making great images. Now, the focus is on the photographer even more as the artist and less the technician. The quality of the photo now relies less on our ability to manage the camera and settings, and more on our composition skill.

The way that technology is moving, it seems that pretty soon, the camera will be doing everything for us; algorithms will determine the most pleasing compositions, and the camera will determine the best exposure. All we’ll be needed for is to lug the equipment to the out of doors. Hopefully not :)

*From "Digital Film Images", Outdoor Photographer, December 2000

Ansel Adams Interviews

I just came across these videos on YouTube and wanted to post them on the blog. Adams has been a huge influence on me and I enjoy his work immensely. I visited his gallery in Yosemite a few years back and was amazed to see some of his original prints hanging on the wall.

If you are interested in learning more about Adams, there is a great documentary DVD about his life and work.





Ansel Adams Gallery website: www.anseladams.com

PS Shortcuts

I just ran across some good to know PS shortcuts and tips at this site. These aren't groundbreaking, but they do save some clicking and speed things up a bit when editing. Also, you'll look a little bit more like a PS pro when you use them. Enjoy!

Featured Professional: Tad Bowman

Spring, Sneffels Range

The newest featured photographer is Tad Bowman. Tad is a Colorado based photographer who shoots primarily in that area, but also does some work in the southeast. You can check out his bio here.

Fall Leaves Its Mark

Mr. Bowman’s images are of the kind I like very much: highly saturated with color, sharp, and well composed. His story is also much like I imagine many of ours: an outdoor lover who took photos for fun, and then discovered the power of photography in capturing the beauty of nature.

You can check his photos out here, and also his blog here.

Rural Dreams














Left Fork Cascades


Website: www.tadbowman.com

All images © Tad Bowman; used with permission.

Interesting photos

Because my friends and family know that I am interested in photography, I get a lot of emails with slideshows and links to photos. I received one such email the other day and have included a link here. I don't typically like to promote these sites, as they are not always clear about who is taking the photos and how much they are being manipulated, but these are some pretty impressive shots. Some of them go a little overboard with PS, but otherwise they are very good. Definitely stuff to get the creative juices flowing!

Featured Professional: John Cox

John Cox is the first featured professional of the new year. I just came across his photos a short while and know little about him, but I enjoy his work. You can check him out at his website. My apologies for the watermarks on the photos.

















































Website: www.johncoxphoto.com

All images © John Cox; used with permission.

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year gentle readers! 2009 was a great year for me and I hope for you as well.

Like everybody else, I have been thinking about resolutions I want to make for the new year. I have made several relating to my photography in general, and to this blog in particular.

I started this blog as a way for me to aggregate all of the useful and interesting photo stuff I found on the internet. As an amateur photographer trying to improve my shooting, I spend probably too much time scouring the web for anything that will help me get better. In particular I like to look at the work of other photographers to get ideas and be inspired. The blog gave me a way to put it all in one place and share it with anybody who was interested. My interests clearly have a bias towards landscape and nature photography, and a focus on the western US in particular, but I love all kinds of photography and hope that what I share is useful in some small way.

My blog goal for this year is simply to blog more. School has kept me busy for the last few months, but that will be ending shortly and I will have plenty of time to waste on the internet finding interesting stuff to share.

Since starting the blog in June 2009, I have had a little over five people view it (really, I have no idea how many have seen it; hopefully more than five). It has been fun and I hope to continue it for a while to come.

Thanks for visiting.