Show and Tell
Every picture has a story. But two pictures can shed some light on a photographer’s style. Here's how outdoor and nature photographer Daniel J. Cox caught a couple of winners.
In the Mist
"It was a typical late-August morning in Yellowstone National Park. It was cold and the thermal activity in the water was causing steam and fog. I was using the 300mm telephoto on the F5. The key here is what area I decided to meter: I set the camera for center-weighted metering to accurately catch the middle tones of the grassy area. I didn't want the bright stream or the elk's dark silhouette throwing off the exposure. Sometimes the technically correct exposure won't give you the feeling you want in the photo."
Pals
It looks like a simple snapshot, but there was a lot to consider for this photograph of two orangutans at a reserve in Malaysia. Dan took the shot with an N90s, an 80-200mm Zoom-Nikkor and an SB-24 Speedlight. He set the Speedlight for minus-one compensation for just enough fill-flash to fill in the shadows without calling attention to the fact that flash was even used. The lens was set at f/5.6 to render the pals sharp while throwing the background out of focus so it wouldn't detract from the picture's subjects."Because of advancements in camera technology," Dan says, "it's getting easier to get good pictures. But the challenge now is to use the technology to get the pictures you imagine."
