One thing that many viewers point out about my pictures is that generally the photographs are free of pedestrians. It's true that I will go through great pains to photograph landscapes and architectural scenes that don't include people, particularly tourists, in the scene. This is usually quite a challenge, but I use some different techniques to try to accomplish this.

I visited the Ava Maria Oratory in Florida on a Sunday afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised that there was so little auto and pedestrian traffic around the church. So, I simply waited until the scene was clear before pressing the shutter!

Ave Maria panoramic I used the same approach while shooting the Our Lady of La Leche Chapel in St. Augustine, Florida. There was nearly an endless stream of people streaming in and out of this chapel. Finally, just one woman remained as she sat praying in one of the pews for several minutes. I started shooting (this is a multiple exposure HDR) the second she left the chapel as another large group was approaching the chapel from the walkway.

Our Lady of La Leche Chapel

Sometimes, it isn't practical to wait until everyone leaves a scene before releasing the shutter. While visiting Fort Jefferson at the Dry Tortugas National Park off the coast of Florida, I wanted to capture a photograph of the repeating arches within the fort. However, two people continued to linger in the back of the scene. Later, I simply removed them by using the cloning tool within Photoshop. This is my most common method of dealing with stray pedestrians in a scene.

Arches to the ocean Another method that can be effective in removing people who are moving through a scene is to use a long shutter speed. The longer the shutter speed, the more the people will blur. If there is enough blur, the people will begin to ghost out of the scene entirely. I used this technique (with a three second exposure) to remove most pedestrians from the Venice Fishing Pier in Florida. A few stationary people remained in the frame, so I took care of them with the cloning tool.

Venice Fishing Pier

I visit the Brookfield Zoo quite often to practice my photography. While capturing photographs of the animals, I've noticed that animals tend to repeat behaviors in cycles. If a bear jumps into the water and swims from one end of the pool to the other, the chances are very high that he will do it again in the next ten or fifteen minutes. The following image required good timing as the claws only appeared above the water for a couple of seconds and the subject was tightly framed with a 500mm lens. The key to getting this picture was knowing in advance what the bear was going to do. He lifted his claws in the same manner during three previous passes through the water. So, I pre-focused on that area and waited for the repeat behavior to happen.

Claws!

One way to create more interesting images of animals is to get really close--so close that the subject becomes the pattern:

Peacock feathers Zebra stripes Tiger skin Macaw feathers Wrinkles Giraffe skin Python scales Turtle shell

When taking photographs of waterfalls, I generally like to use long exposures. Longer exposures provide time for the water to flow enough to introduce some blur. The amount of blur will directly correspond to the length of the exposure. Some blur helps make the water appear softer and smoother.

The amount of blur is a matter of personal preference. And, the appropriate shutter speed will depend upon the focal length of the lens and how fast the water is moving. Things are so much easier with digital cameras as it is now just a matter of experimenting with a variety of shutter speeds and reviewing the images on the camera's LCD panel to determine which effects are preferable.

One challenge is achieving long enough shutter speeds. Sometimes, there is simply too much light to allow for shutter speeds of several seconds--even with the ISO set to the base level and with the narrowest of f/stops. The use of a neutral density and/or polarizing filter will reduce the amount of light entering the lens. Of course, it also helps to shoot waterfalls on a cloudy day as there is less light to begin with.

For this image, I used a Singh Ray Vari ND filter. The Vari ND allows the photographer to dial in the strength of the ND filter. To achieve a shutter speed of 8 seconds, I dialed the ND filter to near its maximum power (using about 7 stops of effect). I also went with a narrow aperture of f/13 and the base ISO of 100 for the Nikon D800.

This image of a man-made waterfall was captured at Lake Katherine in the Chicago suburb of Palos Heights:

Lake Katherine waterfalls

One of my favorite composition techniques is to include one element in the frame that simply doesn't appear to belong:

Such as the one fan with the big green hair in a crowd of Rays' fans at Tropicana Field...

One in every crowd Or, this one red impatien in a full frame of green leaves...

Lone red impatien Or, this single red pepper on a pile of sweet yellow peppers...

Red on yellow peppers

One of the things that I enjoy about photography is how it enables me to see things in new ways. Using long exposures presents the world in a way that we don't ordinarily experience. For this image of a pianist practicing at the Smith Memorial Music Building on the campus of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, I selected a 1.3 second exposure. This long exposure combined with the musician's movements blurred the pianist in the frame. Since the camera was secured on a tripod, everything else in the frame remained sharp. I think that the selective blurring makes this photograph more interesting and more dynamic. It's a technique that I plan to utilize more in my photography moving forward.

Pianist

Many times, I will look up and down in search of interesting subjects for a photograph. Sometimes, the most interesting subjects are right next to my feet!

While visiting Traverse City, Michigan, I drove to the Old Mission Lighthouse on a cold and rainy morning. When I arrived at the lighthouse, I was disappointed to see that the structure was under construction. Before getting back in the car, I noticed these leaves on the pavement:

Parking lot leaves

During one of my visits to the Brookfield Zoo, I captured very few images that were worth keeping. Then, I noticed these autumn leaves on the blacktop next to my car as I was getting ready to leave. The thing that attracted me to this scene was how the color of the parking lot stripe precisely matched the color of the leaves!

Parking space leaves

This technique also provided an interesting perspective for volleyball! I captured this image of a volleyball serve from the track that circles the gym from above.

Volleyball serve

I used the same technique to capture a different perspective of two fans before a game at Chase Field in Phoenix.

Two fans

Earlier this week, I captured some photos of this bed of flowers (zennias). This image consisted of five exposures blended together using Nik's HDR Efex Pro 2 to create a high dynamic range (HDR) photograph. HDR Efex Pro 2 was just released yesterday!

Zennias I used a variety of techniques to render more abstract versions of this scene. First, I simply panned using a slow shutter speed. The use of a neutral density filter helped to slow the shutter speed down enough (1/4th second, f/10, ISO 100):

Zennias abstract Then, I rotated the lens around the tripod collar while shooting three frames as part of a multiple exposure image (same exposure as in the panned photograph above):

Spinning zennias Next, I zoomed the lens in and out during the exposure while also shooting three frames as part of a multiple exposure image (once again keeping the exposure constant):

Zennias abstract I ended up with three different abstract takes on the flower bed of zinnias!