Check it out here: https://fstopandlisten.podbean.com/e/009-chris-williams/

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Can you believe that 2016 has already come and gone? As the New Year approaches I decided to take some time to reflect on what 2016 has meant to me and just where I see myself heading in 2017. To say that 2016 was a big year for me would be an understatement. I got married, photographed a fairly large chunk of southern Utah, experienced shooting lava on the Big Island, spent a fair amount of time shooting locations around my home in Washington state and started working full-time for DPReview. I definitely have a lot to be grateful for this year and it’s going to be hard to top 2016, although I’m definitely going to give it a run for its money!

Photographically speaking this year was full of ups and downs. Between my career change and the wedding, I had a lot on my plate, which meant that I definitely had to make the most out of every photographic opportunity that presented itself this past year. This meant that I had to buckle down, focus and get creative. Additionally, if that wasn’t enough, I decided to try to reshape my personal image of what ‘popular’ photography is and what it means to me. 

I spent a lot of time this year reflecting on just why we create photos, why we go through the hours of driving, shooting and processing the images that we share. This year, more than ever, I realized just how important it is to shoot for yourself and to really create images that offer not only personal satisfaction, but also a sense of place, a sense of being and a story. Photography shouldn’t be about epic light and who got the best conditions in any given year, it should be about personal progression and overcoming adversity.

As photographers, we often dwell so much on what’s popular on social media or if a photo will sell that we often lose track of why we got started in the first place. I spent a lot of time soul searching this year and really asking myself why I create the images that I do and just what I hope to accomplish with them. My images may not always be ‘what’s popular’ or ‘what’s main stream’, but that’s not my end goal; my goal is to create work that inspires myself and others to try something new and to look beyond the lens.

Looking Beyond the Lens

Looking beyond the lens is something that I think that we all need to do from time to time. Put down the camera and just take it all in. This became even more apparent when I was out on the lava field shooting the ocean entry where new land was being created right before my eyes. My family has a long history in Hawai’i; we immigrated to the islands in mid to late 1800’s. To say that seeing the lava entering the sea was a spiritual experience would be an understatement. My connection with Aina, the land, my ohana and the culture made me realize just how small we are in this world and to really respect the time that we have to take it all in. Photography has opened my eyes to a lot of things this year, but that was one particular thing that has persisted and will for the remainder of my life.  

In order to develop my photographic vision this year and to look beyond the lens, I spent a lot of time behind my Canon 70-3oomm F4-5.6L IS telephoto lens. Minimizing scenes with long focal lengths really forces you to think outside of the box and to look beyond the lens in order to really break a grand scene down into its parts. Many of the grand scenes that we take in are only so because of the sum of their parts. Each portion of the scene can tell a story; it’s up to the photographer to decide how to decipher the story and how to present a portion of the scene that can stand on its own.

This can be extremely challenging and it definitely takes some time and a great deal of trial and error to come up with a methodology that works. This is something that I’m planning to do a lot more in 2017 as I’m looking to expand my reach to around 600mm to really capture some unique compositions.

Setting Goals

As this year comes to a close I find that it’s a great time to not only reflect personally, but to also take in all of the work that your favorite photographers have published as well. Education in photography is a never-ending process. I find myself constantly yearning to learn new things all of the time. In the end your personal progress is only hindered by the creative walls that you put up. You have the ability to do whatever you set your mind to and in 2017 I plan to to push myself even harder in that respect. Have a very happy New Year, everyone! Best of luck to you in 2017!

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Star trails photography can be fairly overwhelming to beginning photographers and veterans alike.  Here I will be outlining some of the key elements needed to produce exciting star trail images.  Feel free to follow me on Facebook as well for more updates.

So you ask how is it done?

To produce a star trails image you need to take several 30 second exposures in a row (no breaks in between as they leave gaps in your trails), on the order of 50+ images to really start to see the desired results.  You can read my Landscape Photography 101 posts for more detailed information on long exposure photography.

What you will need:

• A DSLR Camera
• Remote shutter release (a must for star trails)
• Tripod (a very sturdy one with no shake or movement)
• Clear skies with limited light pollution
• Post editing software (Adobe LR4 and Photoshop CS6 are my tools of choice but there are a number of third party apps)
• Time (lots and lots of time)

How to Prepare

The most important step in this whole process is finding a great location with limited light pollution and clear skies.  I often use the National Weather Service to check regional forecasts.  Finding dark skies can be very challenging (especially in Washington) but they are a must for star trails.  The go-to website that I use to locate dark night skies with limited light pollution is called the Dark Sky Finder.  This website is extremely useful and very easy to navigate. The brighter the color is on the map, the worse the conditions are for shooting the stars.  Look for locations that have no color or are blue/green in color.  These areas will provide the best viewing of the Milky Way and the stars in the sky to make for an optimal star trails photograph.

Getting the Shots

1. Set your camera up on your tripod and then set your lens to the widest possible zoom and the focusing ring to infinity.  Doing this will allow for your widest field of view (more stars) and also it will ensure that your photo is in focus.
2. Connect your remote and take some 10-15 second test shots to determine how high your ISO needs to be and where you would like your camera to be positioned.  Remember to set your aperture to the lowest possible number to let the largest amount of light in (f/2.8, f/1.4 etc.), you really need to have a very fast lens to do this type of photography.
3. Use a Star Finder app or map to look for the Milky Way or your object of interest.  If you are able to see the North Star point your camera toward it if composition allows as you will obtain complete star circles in the compiled star trails photo (think of it as a central point of rotation).
4. After making your adjustments make sure to adjust your exposure time by using the rule of 600.  I typically shoot my photos using these settings: 16mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600-2500 (depends how much light pollution is present) and 30 seconds.
5. Now comes the fun part; waiting.  You need to take a minimum of 50 photos to gain the desired effect, so patience is a must!

Editing

LR4

Editing can be a very grueling process, you need to make absolutely sure that every photo is edited in an almost identical manner (compensating for light on the earlier images at the beginning of your shoot).  You can do this using batch editing techniques in Adobe LR4 by simply selecting a number of photos by holding down the shift key and then using the Paste feature.  After you are done editing you can export the photos (jpgs) to your favorite stacking app or program (I use Photoshop CS6).  You can literally do all of this in CS6 but I like the ease and simplicity of Lightroom 4 for post processing.

CS6

To bring your photos into CS6 choose ‘File’ then ‘Scripts’ and then select ‘load files into stack’ and browse for your files then click ‘open’.  Don’t bother aligning them as they should be perfect.  The images will load in the bottom right column of the screen.  Select the top photo, scroll down and click the last photo to highlight all of the desired layers.  Now select ‘lighten’ and let CS6 do its magic.  After the photo is produced you can select which layers you would like to eliminate and polish the final product.  To finish flatten the image and save and export it as a jpeg.  Check out Youtube for some awesome tutorials.

Feel free to follow me on Facebook as well for more updates, email me at cwexplorationphotography@gmail.com for questions and print inquiries.

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