Picture This!

Mistakes. We all make them. Most of the time when we make a mistake, it doesn't work out to good. Sometimes you get a pleasant surprise. Such as the case in the photo below of Expedition EVEREST taken from the bridge between Africa and Discovery Island. I had just finished walking the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail and had my camera in Aperture Priority mode and set to it's largest f-stop of f/2.8. That is best for taking animal portraits with and not landscapes. Well, I forgot and took this photo. I didn't realize what I had done until later when I was on the other side of the park. What do you think? Ideally, I would have used f/11 to f/16.

Expedition Everest Telephoto Landscape.
Nikon D70/70-200VR, 1/3200s, f/2.8, ISO 200, EV -0.3, 70mm Focal Length

Using a telephoto lens, even a short one, compresses the image captured by the camera's sensor. The compression worked here to keep the depth of field small enough to keep the image in focus almost from front to back. Remember, with my camera crop of 1.5x, this is the equivalent to a 105mm telephoto lens (70mm x 1.5). There is softness in the extreme areas and I wouldn't want to print this any bigger than an 8" x 12".

One of the first things you learn in any basic book or course on photography is to keep the Sun at your back when taking an outdoor photo. Yet, there at times when having the Sun in your photo creates interesting light patterns, flare and, when stopping down the lens, star effect. Remember NOT to look directly at the Sun as that will cause damage to your eyes. Very carefully put the sun in a corner, lower or upper half of the frame. Use a small aperture in the f/16, f/22 or f/32 range to cut down the amount of light entering the camera when the shutter is pressed.

This is what I did when heading towards the summit of Expedition EVEREST in Disney's Animal Kingdom. The Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 ultra wide angle lens has a 9-bladed diaphragm and creates lovely stars of bright light sources at f/22 and you can't get much brighter than the Sun.

Sun near the summit of Everest.
Nikon D70/Tokina 11-16, 1/400s, f/22, ISO 200, +0.3 EV, 11mm Focal length

I found this link to 25 Excellent Sun Flare Photography Examples showing some outstanding photos featuring the Sun. Here's more tips for achieving artistic lens flare. Have fun and be careful!

I do and I'm sure many of you do it. Using our cameras while on a Disney ride or attraction. In the past I've shared one on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Test Track. Please, if you attempt ride photography do not endanger yourself or anyone riding with you. I make sure I am securely in my ride vehicle and my camera is not going to leave my hands. I wrap my strap about my arms and neck to make sure.

It is a challenge. Rides are fast and bumpy or slow and dark or a combination of the two. People who enjoy Disney themepark photography try to outdo each other on flickr and many Disney boards as to who can get the best ride shots. Many openly admit that it takes some luck to get a good ride photo. Just as the one I took on Expedition EVEREST. This is a fast ride which is half done inside a dark mountain with a Yeti chasing you. I thought it would be fun to see what a wide angle lens could do on this ride. The result you see below.

A Yeti mural found in one of the caves of Expedition EVEREST.
Nikon D70/Tokina 11-16, 1/15s, f/9, ISO 400, EV -0.3, 11mm focal length

If you look at the shutter speed, you can see why I was lucky. There is a lot of motion blur in this photo but the mural of the Yeti is fairly steady even with the large contrast of the bright light coming from the cave opening. By the way, anyone know where on Expediton EVEREST this was taken? Leave a comment.