Drive the Blue Highways

Whether you're on a family vacation or just driving back and forth to work each day, if you're a photographer it's fun to find new and interesting things to photograph. One way to do that is to get off of the interstates and drive the "Blue Highways" or back roads. Let's face it, you're never going to find much (other than car bumpers) to photograph on the interstate.

The Blue Highways got their name from old road maps in which all the traditional routes (the pre-highway roads) were colored blue on the map. This is where America used to live and even though many of these roads are lost to history because of the scourge of ugly (and meaningless) strip malls, there are still some roads that remain as they have since the beginning of driving. These roads are treasure troves for a curious photographer and they're disappearing so fast that photographing them is like photographing a vanishing species.

Last year we took a drive from Corpus Christi to Kingsville in south Texas and rather than hop on the interstate and be there in a 40 minutes, we decided to explore a bit and take the local roads down. In south Texas the local roads are flat, wide and empty, so speed limits mean nothing anyway--but they are fascinating. I found myself pulling over every few miles just to photograph the road because it was so flat and empty! Along the way we also found great little shots like this tiny post office in Chapman Ranch, Texas (the woman behind the counter told us to be careful where we stepped--rattlesnakes sometimes came in to get out of the sun). Even in Texas you will never see stuff like this from the highways.

So next time you're heading somewhere and you've got an extra hour on your hands, see if you can't find a Blue Highway route instead of the interstate. You never know what cool subjects you'll come across. Oh, and if you're looking for a great read this winter, go to the library and check out William Least Heat-Moon's fantastic book Blue Highways. If that book doesn't give you driving fever, nothing will--a great read.

Isolate Natural Patterns

Anyone who has sat and studied a spider's web for a moment or two knows that nature has some admirable skill when it comes to creating interesting patterns. In fact, a lot of manmade structures and artistic designs are based on natural patterns. Finding patterns is easy--they seem to be everywhere--and shooting and collecting photos of them is a fun pastime.

Patterns range from very formal, like the spirals in a chambered nautilus shell (a pattern design that has fascinated artists and scientists for centuries), to very random, like the patterns of frost on a cold windshield. Some patterns are even predictable--like the concentric circles you get when you toss a pebble into a pond. A lot of natural patterns, of course, have important purposes and are used by as identification tools: to help us (and other bugs) to identify one bug from another. In fact, nature relies heavily on patterns to help categorize and organize the plant and animal worlds.

The trick to making strong photos of natural patterns is to isolate them--to fill the frame with just the pattern. That's a relatively easy task with shots like the mud cracks (shot at a botanical garden in Corpus Christi, Texas), but it's a tougher one when you're trying to photograph smaller patterns like those on a bug's back. To capture smaller patterns effectively you'll need to switch to a close-up mode (with a point-and-shoot camera) or, with a DSLR, to use a macro lens (and possibly even extension tubes or a bellows attachment). Some patterns too are very ephemeral in nature--like the bands of color in a rainbow--and capturing them is largely a matter of luck and timing.

Think about natural patterns the next time you're out hiking or even just gardening in the back yard. And remember that the best way to reveal the pattern is to exclude everything else.

Shoot the Moon

Photographing the moon always seems somewhat exotic to me because not only are you making a night (or at least a twilight) photograph, but you're also photographing a landscape that only a dozen or so people have actually walked on. Taking pictures of the moon is also fun because you get another chance--weather permitting--almost every night. Although I prefer to shoot the moon when it's full, it's also great to capture one of those thin silver crescents in the twilight sky.

Photographing the moon is very simple and you can even do it in your "automatic" exposure mode. Interestingly enough, the correct exposure for a bright full moon (excluding whatever landscape you have in the foreground) is the same as for a sunny day: about 1/250 at f/16 at ISO 200. And why not, after all, it's being illuminated by the sun! You may have to adjust your exposure a bit if you want some foreground detail, but as a starting point, I would just put the camera in auto (or try night mode) and check your first shots on the LCD. If it looks too dark, add some exposure using the exposure compensation dial.

There is one trick to shooting the moon though and that's being sure to include a good ground reference. When you look at a huge full moon (especially when it's first rising in the twilight sky) it looks huge and the reason is because you have the horizon or some other ground reference. As the moon rises in the sky it becomes smaller and smaller. That's why it's also good to consult a tide/moon chart and see when there is going to be a good full moon and get to your location before it starts to rise. That way you can get a number of exposures before the moon gets too high in the sky and the size diminishes.

Sometimes a great moon will surprise you, too. I shot the full moon and power lines here in Port Aransas, Texas after photographing a sunset (and the afterglow) intently for about an hour. I turned around to pack up my gear and saw this huge full moon, so I slapped my 300mm lens back on the Nikon D70s body and started shooting. Remember, the sun sets in the west and the moon rises in the east, so next time you're photographing a sunset, turn around and look for the rising moon! And check out my site for more tutorials on night photography.

Focus Selectively

While there are many photo situations, such as a landscape, where you goal is to make the entire frame sharp, there are other times when you might want to limit focus to a very shallow area of the frame. This technique is called selective focus and it requires restricting what is called the depth of field, or the near-to-far area in a frame that is in acceptably-sharp focus. Selective focus is particularly useful in outdoor portraits (human or animal) because it enables you to subdue distracting backgrounds and focus attention on just your subject. In this shot of a wild horse that I photographed on the King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas, I used the technique to "pull" the horse out of somewhat distracting surroundings.

There are three primary things that affect how much will be sharp: aperture, focal length and your distance to the subject. All other things being equal, using a wider aperture (f/5.6 instead of f/11, for example) will create a much more shallow depth of field. Longer focal length lenses also limit sharp focus. In order to separate this horse from the dense underbrush, for example, I combined using a long (300mm) lens and a wide (f/5.6) lens aperture to limit sharp focus to just the horse. Also, because I was relatively close to the horse, the depth of field was even more shallow.

Depth of field is not as complex or scary as most books make it sound. Just remember that to limit depth to a narrow zone, use a wider aperture, a lens with a relatively long focal length (longer than normal, at least) and get as close to your subject as you can. For a very thorough look at depth of field, check out my book Exposure Photo Workshop.