Getting the perfect shot, from the perfect angle, with the perfect perspective, is an obsession of great photographers and videographers. This is because, although there may not be any one perfect angle from which to capture a moment, a few of them are leaps and bounds more impressive than the others.
In this video from NatGeo’s “The Man Who Can Fly” — a short piece on daredevil adventurer Dean Potter — filmmaker Bryan Smith and shooter Michael Schaefer found one of those angles, and it only took them a mile away from their subject. Read more…
Here’s a little bit of weekend inspiration for you. When photographer Shawn Reeder was 18-years-old, he won a trip to Yosemite and fell in love with the national park and what he describes as its “changing beauty.” This time-lapse, which took almost two years of shooting to make, is a manifestation of Reeder’s love of the area and his desire to share it with others.
Nothing brings me more joy than to share this life changing beauty with others. Ever since I became fascinated with timelapse photography almost two years ago, after seeing the work of Tom Lowe, I’ve wanted to do a piece on Yosemite and the Sierra. Now after almost two years of shooting, I’m thrilled to share. I hope you enjoy my vision of my home, the majestic Yosemite and Sierra.
Full-screen and high definition are highly-recommended.
Did you know that in addition to making his famous landscape images, Ansel Adams made ends meet by shooting commercial work? Although he made photos for clients as large as IBM, AT&T, and LIFE, Adams didn’t like his job. In a 1938 letter to a friend, he wrote,
I have to do something in the relatively near future to regain the right track in photography. I am literally swamped with “commercial” work — necessary for practical reasons, but very restraining to my creative work. [#]
It was around this time that one of his photos was chosen for the cover of LIFE magazine — a cover that’s now considered one of the publications 20 worst covers. LIFE notes, that shortly after the issue was published, “the photographer stopped taking pictures of lutists and began photographing Yosemite.”
National Geographic recently gave expedition photographer Jimmy Chin the assignment of shooting a feature story on the Yosemite climbing culture. This jaw-dropping behind-the-scenes video shows the lengths to which Chin goes to capture shots that few photographers would dare attempt. It’s both beautiful and inspiring.
San Francisco resident Travis Curtis spent 15 minutes shooting this unique photograph of Yosemite Falls, receiving a lot of strange looks from the other tourists around him.
Image credit: Photograph by Travis Curtis and used with permission
“Moonbows” are rainbows that appear at night under moonlight, and are difficult to see with human eyes but beautiful when captured in long exposure photographs. There aren’t many places on Earth where this phenomenon can be regularly witnessed, but a few of them are found at the waterfalls in Yosemite.
Steven Bumgardner, the video producer for the national park, spent two years moonbow hunting and shot over 20,000 still photos with a Canon 5D Mark II to create the time-lapse sequences seen in the video above. After watching, you might want to add “moonbows” your list of things to see and photograph (along with the northern lights, perhaps).
