Waterfall | Russ Bishop Photography | Nature Photo Blog

August 3, 2021August 19, 2022

The Trouble with Bad Light

How many times have you arrived at a scene, anxious and ready for the show to begin only to find that Mother Nature had other plans. The light is far from spectacular, and your perfect image just faded before your eyes (or sensor) ever had a chance to capture it. Typical? Yes, but there’s just one problem. There is no such thing as bad light!

The issue is more with perception than the reality before you. Sure it requires a change of plan, but photography in its simplest form is painting with light (any light) and in that context, it’s all good. Learning to work with a variety of light will expand your visual toolkit and result in more satisfying and dynamic landscape images.

Big puffy clouds will always add drama to a landscape. But what if the sky is a sea of blue with nothing to balance the frame except an intense sun in the wrong location? Use a small aperture with that wide-angle lens and create a dynamic sunstar. This is a great opportunity for visual storytelling. Include a silhouette of a person involved in an activity or a defining landform and you’ve just turned that bad light into a compelling image.

But now you say the sky is completely overcast with no direct light anywhere? This is the perfect time to point your lens to the finer details below the horizon or at your feet. In this case, the sky is simulating a giant studio softbox with broad even lighting and no shadows – perfect for macro shots and isolating elements of the scene with a telephoto. That drab looking light will actually enhance the colors of flowers and trees, and combined with a slow shutter speed it will turn water into silk.

So the next time you’re met with less than ideal conditions, think twice before packing it in. Taking a different approach to the weather and thinking outside the box could be the only difference between creating some powerful imagery or nothing at all.

March 26, 2021March 26, 2021

Worlds Away on Hawaii’s Big Island

Umauma Falls along the lush Hamakua Coast, Hawaii

The Big Island of Hawaii is well-known for its active volcano, black sand beaches, and magical Kona sunsets, and that’s more than enough reason to visit this island paradise. But what many may not realize is that the eastern side of the island is a lush tropical landscape of cascading waterfalls and jungle-lined valleys in a primordial setting.

Traveling north from Hilo on the old Mamalahoa Highway is a journey back in time. Passing countless sugar cane fields, the primary industry here during the last century, the landscape soon enters the dense jungle as the road winds along the rugged Hamakua Coast. With constant views of the Pacific on the right, the highway passes countless verdant chasms lined with an amazing variety of plants and trees that fill every available space with green. Needless to say, you soon find yourself looking for every available pull-out.

Akaka Falls State Park is one of the highlights of the coast. A short nature trail leads through giant bamboo forests and tropical cascades before arriving at its namesake waterfall. Further north, just before the highway turns west towards the town of Waimea, a spur road leads through the sleepy hamlet of Honoka’a to the spectacular Waipio Valley. The overlook at the end of the main road provides stunning views of this valley of the kings and the dramatic cliffs of the north coast, but traveling into the valley down the 25% grade (reported to be the steepest in the US) requires several hours and a guide or 4-wheel drive vehicle.

Boasting 4 out of the 5 major climate zones in the world, and 8 out of 13 of the sub-zones, the Big Isle really does have it all! Unlike the other Islands, which require less travel time, it takes a bit of planning to fully experience the largest of the Hawaiian Islands – but this is one part you don’t want to miss.

November 30, 2020November 30, 2020

Glacial Waters

St. Mary Falls, Glacier National Park, Montana

Glacier National Park in northern Montana is a world carved by ice. Known to Native Americans as the “Shining Mountains”, canyons flow down from this alpine environment along the Continental Divide that were formed a millennia ago when mastodons roamed the earth.

Moving just inches a year, the glaciers fill the rivers and streams below with silt giving them their unique turquoise hue. And set against the red and green sedimentary rock (the oldest in the entire Rocky Mountain chain), the colors provide a visual feast while the chill in the air is a constant reminder that the ice is not far above.

Glacier is recognised as an International Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site, and preserves more than a million acres of forests, alpine meadows, lakes, rugged peaks and glacial-carved valleys. Though evidence shows that within thirty years all of the ice may be gone, rangers are quick to point out that the park was named as much for the forces that formed it as the glaciers themselves.

A trip to this magnificent park should be on anyone’s bucket list to North America, but it’s frozen remains are just one facet of the many awe-inspiring sights waiting to explored.